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UoA GPA Calculations for Graduate Entry

Hi there,
I have a question that how does uoA calculates the GPA of the three years B.Sc degree of otago.
I noticed that there are two calculating tools at the University of Otago.
One is a general GPA calculation tool and
the second one is actually proposed by the division of health sciences for the Graduate Entry Applicants of Professional Health Programs which implies the the multiplication factors of 0.5, 1 & 1.5 for First, Second & Third year respectively.
The general calculating tools put my overall GPA to 5.7 (which makes me ineligible for interview at uoA)
Whereas, the Professional Health Programs one drives my overall GPA upto 7.4.
I'm concerned that how does the uoA medical administration process the GPA?
Any help would be very appreciated.
Regards
 

Rob

House Officer
Emeritus Staff
At Auckland uni, you need a 6.0 GPA over your whole degree, and after this your best 120 points over your last 2 years of study (including summer papers) are counted for entry. If your overall GPA is 5.7, then you will indeed be ineligible for grad entry at Auckland uni.

One point though is that Auckland uni are happy to let people with past study to try for entry through first year. There are two pathways - BHSc or BSc in biomedical science. Depending on what past study you have done you may be unable to attempt entry through one pathway, but it is very likely that you would be able to try through at least one of them. It is an extra year which can be a bit of a hassle (and quite expensive), but if med is something that you really want it is totally worth it. With your high grades in your last two years of study it seems that you would be in with an excellent chance to get the marks. If grad entry does not work out then this would be something to consider.
 

DrFlower

Trainee Intern
Hi Hamza,
I Agree with robbieg93. I would also like to add that since your last 2 years of GPA is competitive and you will have good chance. Are you yet to sit your semester 2 exams or have you already finished your degree? Are yo expecting to do better this semester?

Regardless of that, I think there was someone last year whose GPA of the 3 years was 5.9 and they are doing med this year (they also had a very good last 2 years of GPA) so I think it is worth applying this year if you want to. Or better call UoA/ health scinecs office and just confirm it with them if they would consider you under the category. If not try Otago as well, with 7.4 you have pretty decent chance to get in straight off, but most likely waitlisted and then offered.
 

Nkatt

Lurker
Hi all, I'm in my final year of studying biomed at University of Auckland - applying for medicine graduate entry here. I was just wondering what the "standard" GPA was out of the people who got accepted through grad entry (for their last two years).
Realistically speaking, I think 7.5 will be my GPA for the last two years of my degree but I'm starting to get extremely worried that this might not be a "competitive" score from looking at other threads with people's GPAs well over 8.

Thank you, all replies would be greatly appreciated :)
 
I think a GPA that is as competitive as first year entry (which is usually higher) for UoA would be my definition of "safe".
 

Stuart

Administrator
Emeritus Staff
Hi all, I'm in my final year of studying biomed at University of Auckland - applying for medicine graduate entry here. I was just wondering what the "standard" GPA was out of the people who got accepted through grad entry (for their last two years).
Realistically speaking, I think 7.5 will be my GPA for the last two years of my degree but I'm starting to get extremely worried that this might not be a "competitive" score from looking at other threads with people's GPAs well over 8.

Thank you, all replies would be greatly appreciated :)

Hi @Nkatt ,

Last year, the interview cut-off was 6.5, and entry GPA was around 7.75. Unfortunately, I am not sure what it was like the year before but you should be able to get an insight from the thread from that year. By comparing your expected GPA to last years, I wouldn't say it's "safe".

Good luck with your application!
 

Rob

House Officer
Emeritus Staff
For both grad and first year entry, whether you get a place will be highly dependent on your interview performance. As far as I am aware, grads and FY Biomed/BHSc students are ranked together at Auckland - which tends to result in around 1/3 of the places going to grad students. A 7.5-7.75 is not 'safe' but you will pretty much definitely get an interview, and you will be in with a decent shot of getting an offer as quite a few people with sub-8.0 GPAs get in every year.
 

Stuart

Administrator
Emeritus Staff
Hi @Stuart , is that 7.75 entry GPA for initial offers, or for people off the waitlist?

Hi @plastic_forkage ,

I believe it's the the cuf-off for the initial offers.

Good luck with your application (if you are apply for next year's cohort)!



Hi all, I'm in my final year of studying biomed at University of Auckland - applying for medicine graduate entry here. I was just wondering what the "standard" GPA was out of the people who got accepted through grad entry (for their last two years).
Realistically speaking, I think 7.5 will be my GPA for the last two years of my degree but I'm starting to get extremely worried that this might not be a "competitive" score from looking at other threads with people's GPAs well over 8.

Thank you, all replies would be greatly appreciated :)

@Nkatt ,

As @robbieg93 mentioned it's hard to judge by looking at GPA's only. As you would know, Auckland uses the 60 25 15 system (60% GPA (best 120 points), 25% interview and 15% UMAT) It would be a different story for Otago but that's not what we are concerned with here so I will neglect that.

In my opinion, 7.5 is pretty low. Yes, you are very likely to get an offer for the interview with your expected GPA (which is good) but unless you get some respectable scores in interview + reasonable UMAT, you are unlikely to get a spot straight away. You would have to hope you get off the waitlist.

However, I hope you are not too discouraged by my comment. You still have a good shot at getting an offer at the end of the day. What I am trying to convey here is that you are not in any way "safe". You would need to keep working your butt off and prepare well for your interview.

I hope everything goes well for you.



For both grad and first year entry, whether you get a place will be highly dependent on your interview performance. As far as I am aware, grads and FY Biomed/BHSc students are ranked together at Auckland - which tends to result in around 1/3 of the places going to grad students. A 7.5-7.75 is not 'safe' but you will pretty much definitely get an interview, and you will be in with a decent shot of getting an offer as quite a few people with sub-8.0 GPAs get in every year.

@robbieg93 ,

I have heard that about 1/3 of the cohort is graduate students but I am not sure about the first years and graduates being ranked together? I am pretty sure they have a designated number of seats allocated to graduates which differ from the first years? Do you have any evidence? I will see if I can back up my statement also :)

p.s. I hope your semester is going well! Almost there haha.
 

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Rob

House Officer
Emeritus Staff
Hi @plastic_forkage ,

I believe it's the the cuf-off for the initial offers.

Good luck with your application (if you are apply for next year's cohort)!





@Nkatt ,

As @robbieg93 mentioned it's hard to judge by looking at GPA's only. As you would know, Auckland uses the 60 25 15 system (60% GPA (best 120 points), 25% interview and 15% UMAT) It would be a different story for Otago but that's not what we are concerned with here so I will neglect that.

In my opinion, 7.5 is pretty low. Yes, you are very likely to get an offer for the interview with your expected GPA (which is good) but unless you get some respectable scores in interview + reasonable UMAT, you are unlikely to get a spot straight away. You would have to hope you get off the waitlist.

However, I hope you are not too discouraged by my comment. You still have a good shot at getting an offer at the end of the day. What I am trying to convey here is that you are not in any way "safe". You would need to keep working your butt off and prepare well for your interview.

I hope everything goes well for you.





@robbieg93 ,

I have heard that about 1/3 of the cohort is graduate students but I am not sure about the first years and graduates being ranked together? I am pretty sure they have a designated number of seats allocated to graduates which differ from the first years? Do you have any evidence? I will see if I can back up my statement also :)

p.s. I hope your semester is going well! Almost there haha.


No, don't really have any evidence haha. I have seen people mention that it is the case on here in the older OLY1 forums, and it does make sense since grads and undergrads seem to have the same cutoff for interviews, and get in with similar GPAs. But it really wouldn't seem too fair since it is far easier to get a high GPA for only 4/8 1st year papers than it would be to maintain a high GPA over 8 2nd/3rd year papers for two years. Hopefully I am wrong!

Yeah! 3/4 of the way through now! Have the first important test of the semester coming up next Monday :eek:. Hope your semester is going well :).
 

Stuart

Administrator
Emeritus Staff
No, don't really have any evidence haha. I have seen people mention that it is the case on here in the older OLY1 forums, and it does make sense since grads and undergrads seem to have the same cutoff for interviews, and get in with similar GPAs. But it really wouldn't seem too fair since it is far easier to get a high GPA for only 4/8 1st year papers than it would be to maintain a high GPA over 8 2nd/3rd year papers for two years. Hopefully I am wrong!

Yeah! 3/4 of the way through now! Have the first important test of the semester coming up next Monday :eek:. Hope your semester is going well :).

I will see if I can get some answers from AU just to make sure we have the facts right. I mean, the GPA score is not calculate exactly the same way, right? I would think they wouldn't put us in the same category unless first years and graduates can be directly compared using a consistent measurement, in this case, not really.

I had a good start to the semester. Internal results are looking good so far but I think I slipped off a bit after getting an A+ in one of them... Bad Bad idea. I was supposed to do a lot of work over the holidays to make up for it but I really needed some break. Consequently, my upcoming internals are looking pretty dangerous. I am trying to to get back on it though. Hopefully it all works out. Good luck with the rest of your semester. :)
 

Rob

House Officer
Emeritus Staff
I will see if I can get some answers from AU just to make sure we have the facts right. I mean, the GPA score is not calculate exactly the same way, right? I would think they wouldn't put us in the same category unless first years and graduates can be directly compared using a consistent measurement, in this case, not really.

I had a good start to the semester. Internal results are looking good so far but I think I slipped off a bit after getting an A+ in one of them... Bad Bad idea. I was supposed to do a lot of work over the holidays to make up for it but I really needed some break. Consequently, my upcoming internals are looking pretty dangerous. I am trying to to get back on it though. Hopefully it all works out. Good luck with the rest of your semester. :)

Good plan! Hope I am wrong about that haha.

Sounds good! Yeah, it is pretty easy to let things slip, but I'm sure you will manage to get back on track! I have been a bit too relaxed this semester after getting good marks last semester, luckily I have been able to catch up these holidays to some extent.
 

Hanzo

PGY1
Currently for grad entry, I know a couple of people in my cohort who are above 8.0 but also the same amount who are below 8.0. Retrospectively, people with above 8.5 across 16 papers seems to be quite rare... compared to people scoring below 7.5 (correct me if im wrong). So the distribution would be estimated to lie around the 7.9 zone based on my sample size that is heavily confounded by sampling bias.

Of course this is only counting 12/16 papers and the last 4 papers are usually subject to the "last semester syndrome" for grads so the applicant GPA pool isn't set in stone yet haha.

Therefore, i would define the safe zone as being in the 7.853-8.125* area.
*This is assuming the GPA was the only thing that determined entry though or that the interview/umat was standardised for all applicants. Also this was based purely on arbitrary reasoning.

As always, its best to try and score as high as possible!
 
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Stuart

Administrator
Emeritus Staff
Currently for grad entry, I know a couple of people in my cohort who are above 8.0 but also the same amount who are below 8.0. Retrospectively, people with above 8.5 across 16 papers seems to be quite rare... (correct me if im wrong).

Of course this is only counting 12/16 papers and the last 4 papers are usually subject to the "last semester syndrome" for grads so the applicant GPA pool isn't set in stone yet haha

As always, its best to try and score as high as possible!

I wouldn't label 8.5 rare. Many people take 10 papers a year and since the best 120 points (last two years) count towards the calculation, quite a lot of people get high grades. Although, most people don't get >=8.5 and it should be consider an huge achievement. Still, I wouldn't call it rare. There are handful of people who achieve 9 as well. Perhaps it's just my brain trying to trick myself thinking GPA 9 is not rare and therefore I can achieve it also. Either way, you are right, it's best to try and score as high as you can :)

Good luck!
 

Hanzo

PGY1
I wouldn't label 8.5 rare. Many people take 10 papers a year and since the best 120 points (last two years) count towards the calculation, quite a lot of people get high grades. Although, most people don't get >=8.5 and it should be consider an huge achievement. Still, I wouldn't call it rare. There are handful of people who achieve 9 as well. Perhaps it's just my brain trying to trick myself thinking GPA 9 is not rare and therefore I can achieve it also. Either way, you are right, it's best to try and score as high as you can :)

Good luck!
@Stuart

I see, I was just wondering what you were studying because, different degrees have different restrictions in terms of the papers they can take

Indeed it is true that it is now more common as well that people are taking more than 8 papers to compensate. But generally this is under the assumption that they feel below par to the average applicant GPA pool. People who feel that they are safe usually just go with the original 7 or 8, but of course there are extra ordinary people haha.
 

Stuart

Administrator
Emeritus Staff
@Stuart

I see, I was just wondering what you were studying because, different degrees have different restrictions in terms of the papers they can take

Indeed it is true that it is now more common as well that people are taking more than 8 papers to compensate. But generally this is under the assumption that they feel below par to the average applicant GPA pool. People who feel that they are safe usually just go with the original 7 or 8, but of course there are extra ordinary people haha.

I study BSc. I am aware there are some restrictions to which papers to take but that doesn't mean one can't take upto 10 papers, if that's what you are trying to imply?

Perhaps you are right but anecdotally speaking, from my experience, it seems there is some correlation of the number of papers taken and the grades. I would expect because you never know how well you are going to do and by taking extra papers, any 'bad' grades can be replaced. Plus, when you get good grades in summer school, it often acts to put some pressure off for the rest of the year which could also have some positive effect. I also think that taking extra paper when possible could imply that the person is more determined/gets extra push from feeling that they are not meeting the cut etc which can reinforce the positive effect. In all honesty, I don't know for sure but I know a lot of my friends would not be happy with being "safe" with 7/8 because you never know what's going to happen.

All in all... >=8.0 in two years is amazing. People who get 9: You da real MVP :'(
 
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Hanzo

PGY1
@Stuart
Fair enough, that is true. Although, I think that a positive mindset has to be used correctly i.e. will have to interact with the other variables like, work ethic, support from others, taking the correct papers etc in the best possible way to achieve the highest marks possible.

I know this is a bit offtrack from the topic, but its a difficult road when you factor in everything including personal life, commitments, family, relationships, health, finance etc. on top of consistent work ethic. So indeed, it is only reasonable that an A average across 2 years is well respected by the medical programme.
 
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Stuart

Administrator
Emeritus Staff
@Stuart
Fair enough, that is true. Although, I think that a positive mindset has to be used correctly i.e. will have to interact with the other variables like, work ethic, support from others, taking the correct papers etc in the best possible way to achieve the highest marks possible.

I know this is a bit offtrack from the topic, but its a difficult road when you factor in everything including personal life, commitments, family, relationships, health, finance etc. on top of consistent work ethic. So indeed, it is only reasonable that an A average across 2 years is well respected by the medical programme.

Yes, I agree. The graduate category is a rather complicated, grinding road. No doubt about that. It's rather simple when one breaks it down to paper by paper or assessment by assessment but collectively, there is a huge amount of things going on at the same time. I know getting A+ in a paper is not particularly challenging when your life is going well and only have to worry about just that (e.g. summer school) but when you look at it over one year or even two years period. It's a huge task. It would be amazing if life gives you the perfect, smooth road for just two more years but 9/10 times, it won't. It's different from person to person but I bet life will and always will bring you more, new challenges. And it's up to the person how they handle it/overcome it. It's a complicated road because it's not as black and white as you would hope. The "working hard" component is a big one but it's not all. There is a lot of mental/psychological battle taking place and it's really hard to put the pressure off of your back. It's like running a 100m with your eyes closed: you run as fast as you can and hope you are on the right tract.

I am sure some people will say, oh it's not that bad, just need to work through it. Well, good for them. I hope they get in at the end of the day. However, I bet at least 8/10 people will find it not as easy as "just need to work through it" and go through all sorts of problems challenges and up's and down.

For those who are going through the same agony of being the graduate, I hope you persevere and see the light at the end of the road. It's a tough road, indeed. Whatever happens during your two (or +) years, try your best and hope for the best. I feel your pain and I am sure many others do also.
 

Oxycodone

Surgical registrar
I wouldn't label 8.5 rare.
lol please excuse my very late reply, but I'd just like to add that I think a 8.5 GPA is certainly rare, at least amongst the graduates I know in my cohort (2015 entry, auckland). Most graduates i know got in with 7.7-8.1 GPAs, I know less than a handful >8.1, and I know quite a few with <7.7. And there are so many rural/MAPAS grads who got in with <7.5.
 
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viviers8

Lurker
As @robbieg93 mentioned it's hard to judge by looking at GPA's only. As you would know, Auckland uses the 60 25 15 system (60% GPA (best 120 points), 25% interview and 15% UMAT) It would be a different story for Otago but that's not what we are concerned with here so I will neglect that.

UoA takes your best 120 points? I thought they just took your GPA from the final 2 years of your degree. Could someone please clarify?
 

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