UCAT Score Use by Med and Dent Schools

[A1]

But why would Monash decide to make this change

I don't think it's a major change, I have speculated earlier Monash has been using this method all along. Only change is this year Monash say it publicly in the webpage.

This is why those with 99.80+ 98+%ile combo seldom fail to get a Monash offer, since thanks to the amplified advantages these two scores alone are sufficient to get above the offer cutoff regardless of their interview performance. If you say that's strange the answer is that's just how Monash like to select.

If you score something like 3400 in the UCAT there'll be a seat in Monash with your name on it

Not if the 3400 goes with a sub-92 ATAR

 

[ucatboy]

I don't think it's a major change, I have speculated earlier Monash has been using this method all along. Only change is this year Monash say it publicly in the webpage.

This is why those with 99.80+ 98+%ile combo seldom fail to get a Monash offer, since thanks to the amplified advantages these two scores alone are sufficient to get above the offer cutoff regardless of their interview performance. If you say that's strange the answer is that's just how Monash like to select.



Not if the 3400 goes with a sub-92 ATAR

Yeah I've always felt that Monash used z-scores in some form or another. Contrast with something like Adelaide, which routinely rejects 99.90+ (just take a look at last year's Adelaide forum) and 99%ile students. They probably use a combination of rankings and some sort of flat rejection hurdle such as UNSW e.g. do this poorly in your interview, and you'll be rejected entirely regardless of how good your other scores are.

 

[TKAO]

Yeah I've always felt that Monash used z-scores in some form or another. Contrast with something like Adelaide, which routinely rejects 99.90+ (just take a look at last year's Adelaide forum) and 99%ile students. They probably use a combination of rankings and some sort of flat rejection hurdle such as UNSW e.g. do this poorly in your interview, and you'll be rejected entirely regardless of how good your other scores are.

If it interests anyone I'm pretty sure when I asked UWA how they did it they also used a z-score method. Whether they had hard cutoffs like UNSW was not said.

 

[whys]

Asked Monash if SJT will be used this year, and got this:

So, still vague

 

[Ted Hill]

I emailed Monash as well and received a word for word identical reply.

 

[ucatboy]

Honestly I wouldn't stress about it too much, of all the people I know who applied last year (as well as members of this forum), SJT scores seemed to play no discernible part in the admissions process. What seemed to be more important was the /3600 score (obviously). Last year, Monash's website also said that SJT scores would be taken into consideration. My guess is either as a tiebreaker or a hurdle i.e. 500 SJT. SJT scores have a very narrow range anyway, so you won't be disadvantaged that much if you perform slightly worse than expected/others.

 

[Ted Hill]

Thanks. That is very helpful.

 

[Katakuri22]

If you have a link to this, that would be fab! Thank you for sharing.

Hi,

If you guys are interested in applying for medicine in Adelaide, I recommend you watch this video: Medicine | Health HQ 2020. This video outlines the medical course in Adelaide as well as application processes (interview, UCAT, and ATAR requirements).

Hope this helps

 

[dande]

not sure if this is the right place to ask but do unis take your overall score /3600 or do they just take your percentile. so would someone who just made the 99%ile range be in no way disadvantaged compared to someone who got like a 3400? not sure if im making much sense with the question.

 

[nb]

not sure if this is the right place to ask but do unis take your overall score /3600 or do they just take your percentile. so would someone who just made the 99%ile range be in no way disadvantaged compared to someone who got like a 3400? not sure if im making much sense with the question.

No, they take your score out of 3600 to rank applicants. Your percentile is just for your own sake so you know whereabouts you stand. Someone with a 3400 will be ranked higher than someone with a 3300, despite both being 99th percentile (if ranking is solely based off UCAT for example like UAdel Interviews).

 

[dande]

No, they take your score out of 3600 to rank applicants. Your percentile is just for your own sake so you know whereabouts you stand. Someone with a 3400 will be ranked higher than someone with a 3300, despite both being 99th percentile (if ranking is solely based off UCAT for example like UAdel Interviews).

ok cheers just watching so many 3200+ scorers was making me nervous hahahaha. Does anyone know if we can actually calculate percentiles (making our own calculator) once the first set of summary statistics come out. if it gives us the mean and standard deviation (and we assume it forms a normal distrubution) can't we just calculate it ourselves. did anyone try this last year?

 

[ucatboy]

not sure if this is the right place to ask but do unis take your overall score /3600 or do they just take your percentile. so would someone who just made the 99%ile range be in no way disadvantaged compared to someone who got like a 3400? not sure if im making much sense with the question.

No uni to my knowledge actually cares about percentiles, that info is only useful in general conversation/broad comparisons between students. They only see scores. This means that a 3300 scorer will have the slightest edge over a 3290 scorer, however small. This may mean being placed one rank ahead in the UCAT department when calculating overall ranking for a uni like UAdel.

The obvious exception is for unis which use UCAT as a hurdle, such as WSU and JMP, where you will NOT be disadvantaged for having, say, a 2900 score versus someone with a 3400 score.

 

[Some guy]

No uni to my knowledge actually cares about percentiles, that info is only useful in general conversation/broad comparisons between students. They only see scores. This means that a 3300 scorer will have the slightest edge over a 3290 scorer, however small. This may mean being placed one rank ahead in the UCAT department when calculating overall ranking for a uni like UAdel.

The obvious exception is for unis which use UCAT as a hurdle, such as WSU and JMP, where you will NOT be disadvantaged for having, say, a 2900 score versus someone with a 3400 score.

Minor add - from their most recent accreditation report (p37) WSU does consider actual UMAT/UCAT scores (ie they're not just a threshold). According to the report they're worth 25% of entry ranking (interview is 75%). ATAR/GPA is just a threshold unless needed as a tiebreaker between equal-ranked candidates.

Report is here - https://www.amc.org.au/wp-content/u...ion/accreditation_reports/2017_WSU_report.pdf . Of course this report is 3 years old so things might have changed, however it does coincide with some (not all) of the verbal advice they gave last year's applicants.

Note also last year WSU weighted different sections of UCAT, with emphasis on VR. They never announced a formula for this, but there's a long thread on it somewhere here on MSO. Alas for high VR-scorers, there's no guarantee that last years weighting (or indeed any weighting) will be applied for 2021 entry.

 

[A1]

however it does coincide with some (not all) of the verbal advice they gave last year's applicants.

WSU verbal advice was different to their written advice last year too
> UCAT Score Use by Med and Dent Schools

 

[Some guy]

WSU verbal advice was different to their written advice last year too
> UCAT Score Use by Med and Dent Schools

Yep. I think it depended who got asked.

This report is the only written indicator I've found, so I give it some weight even though it's a bit elderly. And it's what they told me at least, when I rang them last year.

I'm aware some people did get other answers, by phone or the admissions online chat.

But In the end it's all a bit academic - aiming for a "best-effort" UCAT and interview performance is the best strategy, however any uni subsequently chooses to weigh each component.

 

[A1]

But In the end it's all a bit academic - aiming for a "best-effort" UCAT and interview performance is the best strategy, however any uni subsequently chooses to weigh each component.

Here's another thing to ponder. Of the 20 odd WSU non-rural offers (2019 + 2020 intakes) posted on MSO there was one ATAR 97.x, one 98.x, the rest were 99+. A factor of ten to one.

Why is it so when ATAR is supposed to be hurdle, are sub-99 students much less likely to get a WSU interview?

 

[Crow]

Here's another thing to ponder. Of the 20 odd WSU non-rural offers (2019 + 2020 intakes) posted on MSO there was one ATAR 97.x, one 98.x, the rest were 99+. A factor of ten to one.

Why is it so when ATAR is supposed to be hurdle, are sub-99 students much less likely to get a WSU interview?

I think the sample size is far too small to come to any conclusions, but most successful med applicants have ATARs of 98+, regardless of the selection criteria for each school, right?

 

[A1]

most successful med applicants have ATARs of 98+

Many schools weighted ATAR into offers ranking, which results in skewing toward higher ATARs. Shouldn't be the case for WSU though.

I think the sample size is far too small

WSU offers around 80 non-rural places, sample of 10 a year coupled with skew ratio of ten to one does say something IMO.

 

[Crow]

Many schools weighted ATAR into offers ranking, which results in skewing toward higher ATARs.

That’s why I said

regardless of the selection criteria for each school

 

[DrDrLMG!]

That’s why I said

This is their course admission transparency document for 2019 entry, but I can't, for the life of me, find their med degree in there!

https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/content/dam/digital/docs/Courses_Admission_Transparency_WSU.pdf

(if I've had a proper look - entirely possible I have not! - it won't surprise me that med is not included in a transparency document, because, lol...)