UCAT Results Discussion 2019

[Ucataus]

Is a 93% UCAT percentile enough for a UQ bonded place?

 

[A1]

Is a 93% UCAT percentile enough for a UQ bonded place?

It has never gone over 92%ile UMAT for bonded, your 2%iles higher should be more than enough particularly with a smaller Qld cohort this year.

 

[tigre]

Mod Note: Answered.

Applying for: Medicine
Application Type: School leaver
Predicted ATAR/GPA: 99.90 or 99.95
UCAT Percentile Rank: 98
VR: 710
DM: 740
QR: 850
AR: 760
Total: 3060
SJ: 653
Current State: VIC
Applying to: Monash
Rural Applicant: No
GWS Applicant: No
Indigenous Applicant: No
Other: No
Specific Question:
1) How much of a difference would achieving a 99.95 make in comparison to 99.90 (with regards to Monash)?
2) How well would I have to perform in the MMI?
3) How badly can I screw up this interview and still get a place (bonded)?

 

[TKAO]

I guess you have not seen this (under Final ranking) > Direct Pathway entry to Medicine and Dentistry for domestic applicants

When AgentWin pointed that out two weeks ago I called UWA, they confirmed it'll be equally weighted
> Quick Questions Thread 2019/2020

My bad. I did see the direct pathway entry thing that said equally weighted but the other website didn't.

 

[Deleted member 37402]

Exactly what LMG said - EAS just boosts ATAR & not UCAT marks. JMP would probably need at least 85%ile for an interview (maybe more) & WSU would need much more than a 55%ile mark for an interview. If you’re indigenous then I guess you might have a chance but if not then I think your ATAR is on the low side for admission this year.

If you’re planning to apply next year then work hard for a 6.1+ GPA & for the ucat, understand what your weak points are & how to improve them for next year’s ucat to get to a score around 90%ile. That should give you a chance at JMP & maybe WSU. If you can push your GPA even higher, then JCU would also be on the cards & they don’t look at UCAT scores at all.

Doing this will also would put you a year closer to graduate entry medicine too. Maybe the GAMSAT might be your thing?

Good luck

If JMP needs at least 85%ile for an interview (maybe more); from your experience, what percentile does JMP needs if the applicant is rural? Also, just confirming that UNSW needs at least a 50%ile for the UCAT for rural applicants too? Thank you.

 

[DrDrLMG!]

If JMP needs at least 85%ile for an interview (maybe more); from your experience, what percentile does JMP needs if the applicant is rural? Also, just confirming that UNSW needs at least a 50%ile for the UCAT for rural applicants too? Thank you.

For UMAT the minimum was 50/50/50, which is 50th percentile, but note, 49/50/51, also 50th percentile, would have missed out. Given that’s no longer the case, and JMP are unlikely to be interviewing more total applicants, I suspect the minimum UCAT requirement will be somewhat higher (but not sure how much higher).

 

[A1]

Applying for: Medicine
Application Type: School leaver
Predicted ATAR/GPA: 99.90 or 99.95
UCAT Percentile Rank: 98
VR: 710
DM: 740
QR: 850
AR: 760
Total: 3060
SJ: 653
Current State: VIC
Applying to: Monash
Rural Applicant: No
GWS Applicant: No
Indigenous Applicant: No
Other: No
Specific Question:
1) How much of a difference would achieving a 99.95 make in comparison to 99.90 (with regards to Monash)?
2) How well would I have to perform in the MMI?
3) How badly can I screw up this interview and still get a place (bonded)?

99.95 over 99.90 does make a small difference but we can't quantify it. It'd be similar to a 99.90 over a 99.85 and so on, not a distinct step up.

Provided Monash has not introduced a disqualify mark for interviews you are practically guaranteed of an offer, even with a sub-par interview. Play safe, don't be arrogant with your scores, don't get nervous and totally mess it up. Monash will offer you not only med but also a scholarship, call ask them to double the scholarship or you go UoM, they might consider it

 

[BFUCAT]

It has never gone over 92%ile UMAT for bonded, your 2%iles higher should be more than enough particularly with a smaller Qld cohort this year.

Even if you are metro? Do you have a prediction of what a bonded spot will drop to for a metro student this year?

 

[Crow]

Even if you are metro? Do you have a prediction of what a bonded spot will drop to for a metro student this year?

The rural cutoffs are much lower. We had a 28%ile applicant get a place offer a year or two ago (albeit unusual) - I think the rural cutoff is usually in the 60s.

 

[BFUCAT]

The rural cutoffs are much lower. We had a 28%ile applicant get a place offer a year or two ago (albeit unusual) - I think the rural cutoff is usually in the 60s.

So do you think 88% percentile would have a shot for a bonded spot at UQ this year (metro student)

 

[Crow]

So do you think 88% percentile would have a shot for a bonded spot at UQ this year (metro student)

I’m not aware of the bonded cutoff dropping below 91st %ile (so 90th %ile UCAT) in the last few years, so I’d say 88th would be a stretch, but may be possible with the smaller QLD cohort. Definitely worth applying, but I wouldn’t bank on it with any certainty at this stage.

for a low cutoff for you!

 

[CHALLENGER]

Even if you are metro? Do you have a prediction of what a bonded spot will drop to for a metro student this year?

i am also interested to know this. praying it for it to drop this yr.

 

[Deleted member 37402]

I have a question which isn’t related to this forum, but I believe there are more experienced people here to be able to offer opinions. If a student ranked second in all of his subjects in the internal assessments by a small difference to the first ranked student but unfortunately the cohort is very weak. Weak meaning there are students who have chosen to ‘throw in the towel’ for the HSC (NSW). Does this means it is ‘game-over’ for the second ranked student? Thank you for any consideration you may give my question.

 

[lottodo]

It has never gone over 92%ile UMAT for bonded, your 2%iles higher should be more than enough particularly with a smaller Qld cohort this year.

UQ don't care whether you are Queenslander or not. No preference to their own state students. Usually 75% of their cohort comes from other states. As a Queenslander I don't appreciate this, knowing that my chances to get an offer at Monash is minimal even I have 98 percentile UCAT and predicted ATAR of 99. But if you live anywhere other than QLD and got my results, you will get guaranteed entry to UQ. So this year's cohort size does not matter.

Also, I am not sure how they look at small cohort from funding perspective. Most of the funding for our school was halved due to half cohort. Example, places in school orchestra was halved for our cohort.
Hopefully they dont do it for number of places at UQ in 2020 (?)

 

[TKAO]

I have a question which isn’t related to this forum, but I believe there are more experienced people here to be able to offer opinions. If a student ranked second in all of his subjects in the internal assessments by a small difference to the first ranked student but unfortunately the cohort is very weak. Weak meaning there are students who have chosen to ‘throw in the towel’ for the HSC (NSW). Does this means it is ‘game-over’ for the second ranked student? Thank you for any consideration you may give my question.

I don't think so. Most of your scaling and whatnot is based on how well you do in your HSC compared to your school assessments. All because you are good in your school when compared to all your peers does not guarantee you anything for your HSC. On the whole, an 'easier' school is more likely to get poorer in HSC, and therefore get scaled down. However, this is only on the whole. You are at the top of your school's bell curve and, if you don't mess up HSC, you should be ok with scaling. Nothing means game-over at this point. Not until you do your HSC.

 

[A1]

Hopefully they dont do it for number of places at UQ in 2020 (?)

The smaller Qld cohort this year doesn't affect UQ's number of med places or its funding.

I mentioned it in the context with somewhat fewer Qld applicants maybe the cutoff might drop a little. However on second thought I think that fact itself should have no impact on the cutoff. The number of Qld students sitting the UCAT would have been smaller, so overall the number of students in each percentile is smaller too.

 

[TKAO]

The smaller Qld cohort this year doesn't affect UQ's number of med places or its funding.

I mentioned it in the context with somewhat fewer Qld applicants maybe the cutoff might drop a little. However on second thought I think that fact itself should have no impact on the cutoff. The number of Qld students sitting the UCAT would have been smaller, so overall the number of students in each percentile is smaller too.

But the percentiles are based on the entire Australian UCAT cohort. Therefore, a decrease in the QLD cohort that sits the UCAT isn't really going to make that much of a difference in terms of the percentile in the grand scheme of it, noting that the smaller cohort size is also distributed across all 100 percentiles. However, I'd imagine that most of the UQ provisional med cohort comes from Queensland, so a smaller cohort there would make for a larger impact in UQ.

 

[Chef.9]

Applying for: Medicine and Dentistry
Application Type: non-standard)
Predicted ATAR/GPA: 5 (atar was 94)
UCAT Percentile Rank: 85
VR: 640
DM: 700
QR: 800
AR: 630
Total: 2770
SJ: 529 lol
Current State: QLD
Applying to: every non-standard accepting unis for dent and med
Rural Applicant: no
GWS Applicant: no
Indigenous Applicant: (no
Other:
Specific Question: does Adelaide dent combine atar with GPA or is just GPA?

EDIT: Yam answered for dent

 

[Cal]

But the percentiles are based on the entire Australian UCAT cohort. Therefore, a decrease in the QLD cohort that sits the UCAT isn't really going to make that much of a difference in terms of the percentile in the grand scheme of it, noting that the smaller cohort size is also distributed across all 100 percentiles. However, I'd imagine that most of the UQ provisional med cohort comes from Queensland, so a smaller cohort there would make for a larger impact in UQ.

Nah the fact is most of the students come from interstate; so Queenslanders have a hard time finding a med spot in their own state regardless.

 

[A1]

I have a question which isn’t related to this forum, but I believe there are more experienced people here to be able to offer opinions. If a student ranked second in all of his subjects in the internal assessments by a small difference to the first ranked student but unfortunately the cohort is very weak. Weak meaning there are students who have chosen to ‘throw in the towel’ for the HSC (NSW). Does this means it is ‘game-over’ for the second ranked student? Thank you for any consideration you may give my question.

If the weak students throw in the towel, the 2nd ranked student is worse off than the 1st ranked but only a little, no way it means game over.

We need a lot of maths to understand how this works. The three basic rules are (1) the 1st ranked gets their internal mark adjusted to match the cohort's highest HSC exam mark, (2) from 2nd ranked down get adjusted such that the cohort's total internal marks equals their total exam marks, (3) they are also adjusted proportionally (quadratically not linearly) to the spacings between their internal marks.

An example: internal marks 1st ranked 90, 2nd ranked 88; exam marks highest 91, total pool only 3/4 (exaggerated) of total internal.
Rule (1) 1st ranked internal mark is adjusted from 90 to 91
Rule (2) on its own would adjust 2nd ranked internal mark from 88 to 66 (being 3/4 given above)
Rule (3) says 2nd ranked was only 2 internal marks below 1st it can't now be given 66 vs 91. The quadratic formula they use will probably come out to about 85.