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UoA 'What papers should I do at UoA for graduate entry' Chat/enquiries

Thank you Smac :D

Yes, I've enrolled in bs356 for the first semester but I was just having this sudden mental breakdown... because I heard that ms 302 is a hard paper and I am quite tired of doing hard papers(sounds bad hehehe). That being said, no paper is easy at this stage...ah god help me. At least it's better than a 70% exam like medsci 316, now that's stressful :P

Lab reports... I must say, they are <_<

Incoherency at 12am, go go go!
 
inches said:
Thank you Smac :D

Yes, I've enrolled in bs356 for the first semester but I was just having this sudden mental breakdown... because I heard that ms 302 is a hard paper and I am quite tired of doing hard papers(sounds bad hehehe). That being said, no paper is easy at this stage...ah god help me. At least it's better than a 70% exam like medsci 316, now that's stressful :P

Lab reports... I must say, they are <_<

Incoherency at 12am, go go go!
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Haha.. that's all part of it. Trust me, you'll get used to it (= get numb). I think, based on observation, Medsci 302 is one of the easiest paper in terms of workload 'coz it's mostly studying unlike others that require essay or reviews. Lab reports will just be fine as long as you understand the concepts.
 
Hey Smac are both BIOSCI 356 and MEDSCI 302 similar papers? Oh yeah and with regards to the textbooks is it even necessary to buy or short loan them if all the necessary examinable detail should be in the course guide and lecture slides on CECIL? For BIOSCI 356 there's about 4 textbooks for 2 topics Developmental Biology and Oncology which ones do you think were the most helpful for assingments or understanding the material i.e enhancing background knowledge?


Smac said:
Hi inches,

I did MEDSCI 302. It's really a good cancer paper if you plan majoring on it. Firstly, I suggest taking BIOSCI 356 to somehow train you the basics about handling cancer-related papers, such as memorising great details of information (i mean in great detail). Okay, this cancer paper has a lot of detail in it and that is what I think is the only hard thing in this paper. As for assignments, it's pretty much straightforward and by the time you are to take this paper, i think you've already mastered making lab reports. The assessments are pretty simple: 15% mid-sem test, 25% lab assignments, and 60% exam (you can lookup the past exam paper). All lectures will be cecil and all the things you need to know are in the course guide, so, yeah.

Well, good luck in choosing papers!^^
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Postgrad medicine. Are you thinking about Australia?! I'm planning to head over to Melbourne and if you do have this university in sight make sure you do BIOSCI 201/203, MEDSCI 201 and MEDSCI 205 which are the pre-requisites to get into Medicine over there without having to complete Biochemistry, Anatomy and Physiology courses. What field of biomedicine are your interests specifically [MENTION=13963]TwentyNine[/MENTION].


TwentyNine said:
Hi, i currently just finished year one biomed, but didn't get into med. I am just wondering what papers i shuld take as i want to enter postgrad medicne. I am having a hard time deciding as there is little time left to enrol in papers, so can anyone give some advice on specifically the medsci papers, as i heard some are more difficult than others and i wuld like to have a good chance of making it into med. Thanks :)
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STATS 101 degree requirement for UoA BSc/BHSc

I'm so glad I finished STATS 101 in Summer School and finally don't have to look back at any Mathematics albeit Calculus or Statistics/Modelling again. Results came out yesterday and I ended up with an A+ which I know will count well towards my final GPA for Australian Graduate Medical School entry or Otago Medical School entry but not Auckland.

However, in saying that I must say STATS 101/108 is really a demanding paper requiring so much attention during the semester especially with those CECIL tests 4 each worth 1% and 3 Assignments 2 worth 4% and 1 worth 8% which I found really tricky in completing to secure a high mark. I found that you really needed to have a clear train of thought without getting caught up with the wording. In the incourse test and exam [80% together] I found this was what really screwed me over. I don't know how hard doing STATS 101/108 in the first or second semesters is like. Some people who repeated the course said it's harder doing it during the first and second semesters, but I must say if you're not planning to have a paper count towards Auckland Medical School entry it might be worthwhile doing it in Summer School in my opinion if you've got no plans to go anywhere between early January and Mid February.
 
Tupac4life said:
Hey Smac are both BIOSCI 356 and MEDSCI 302 similar papers? Oh yeah and with regards to the textbooks is it even necessary to buy or short loan them if all the necessary examinable detail should be in the course guide and lecture slides on CECIL? For BIOSCI 356 there's about 4 textbooks for 2 topics Developmental Biology and Oncology which ones do you think were the most helpful for assingments or understanding the material i.e enhancing background knowledge?
Click to expand...

Yup, they are highly similar papers. The common lecturer is Graeme Finlay (if the syllabus is still the same). You do not need any textbooks for both these papers. The course guide and slides are enough - every examinable material and everything you need to know will be there. I did not use any textbooks for both. But it's still up to you to use any cancer-related txtbook they have recommended if you think the given material is lacking.
 
Sweet as. How are the incourse tests though for both papers. Are they of reasonable difficulty or do they sometimes set papers which can be very difficult i.e set material in the test that hasn't even been covered in the lectures yet. I know for some Pharmacology papers at 3rd year from a friend who finished that degree he said the lecturers set an entire test based on stuff that they were going to learn after the incourse test.

Smac said:
Yup, they are highly similar papers. The common lecturer is Graeme Finlay (if the syllabus is still the same). You do not need any textbooks for both these papers. The course guide and slides are enough - every examinable material and everything you need to know will be there. I did not use any textbooks for both. But it's still up to you to use any cancer-related txtbook they have recommended if you think the given material is lacking.
Click to expand...
 
Tupac4life said:
Sweet as. How are the incourse tests though for both papers. Are they of reasonable difficulty or do they sometimes set papers which can be very difficult i.e set material in the test that hasn't even been covered in the lectures yet. I know for some Pharmacology papers at 3rd year from a friend who finished that degree he said the lecturers set an entire test based on stuff that they were going to learn after the incourse test.
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In-course test for medsci 302 is just MCQ's of the first 17-18 lectures (i think), and for biosci 356 is MCQ's for the first 14-15 lectures (dev'tal bio part) plus 2 short answer questions. They say exactly what lectures will be covered, so, don't worry. Ok, when I mean "cancer papers require detail", I mean "you need to know the exact detail of the lecture guide notes and the principles they explain". 'Coz as I remember, there are questions in the test that changed a little bit of what is exactly in the course guide, and the like in both papers. These papers require attention to detail and remembering them (memorise? yup, that's the one! ^_^). But don't worry, as soon as you get pumped up with the studying, you can handle it properly. Hope this helps! ^^
 
Tupac4life said:
Postgrad medicine. Are you thinking about Australia?! I'm planning to head over to Melbourne and if you do have this university in sight make sure you do BIOSCI 201/203, MEDSCI 201 and MEDSCI 205 which are the pre-requisites to get into Medicine over there without having to complete Biochemistry, Anatomy and Physiology courses. What field of biomedicine are your interests specifically @TwentyNine .
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[MENTION=11571]Tupac4life[/MENTION] From what you wrote above, if I wanted to keep my options open for Australia, would MEDSCI201 be compulsory? Or would this just mean that an extra paper would need to be taken if you get into an Australian Uni?
And thanks for the heads up on the 203 textbooks, I think I might short loan them and see whether I need them quite often =D
 
Cheers man this is some really helpful feedback. For the BIOSCI papers is it like 1st year where they only require you to remember the first 12 to 18 lectures for the mid semester test and then the last remaining lectures for the exam?


Smac said:
In-course test for medsci 302 is just MCQ's of the first 17-18 lectures (i think), and for biosci 356 is MCQ's for the first 14-15 lectures (dev'tal bio part) plus 2 short answer questions. They say exactly what lectures will be covered, so, don't worry. Ok, when I mean "cancer papers require detail", I mean "you need to know the exact detail of the lecture guide notes and the principles they explain". 'Coz as I remember, there are questions in the test that changed a little bit of what is exactly in the course guide, and the like in both papers. These papers require attention to detail and remembering them (memorise? yup, that's the one! ^_^). But don't worry, as soon as you get pumped up with the studying, you can handle it properly. Hope this helps! ^^
Click to expand...
 
I have to agree, this paper actually required a bit more work than I expected...only got an A- :mellow:however it was because I didn't study enough, I am ashamed.

Hmm didn't go to lectures after the first week since they were recorded-this was probably the highlight of my uni life so far-recorded lectures, my god they are awesome.

But if you take it during semester then you get to have the midsem break to study for the test, also there are tutorials available,plus you actually have a three month break...

So there are pro's and cons.

Hey [MENTION=11571]Tupac4life[/MENTION] how will they calculate the GPA at Aucks? If you get all A+'s in the rest of your 7 papers will it be calculated like this (9x7)/7 or will it be divided by 8?
 
Tupac4life said:
Cheers man this is some really helpful feedback. For the BIOSCI papers is it like 1st year where they only require you to remember the first 12 to 18 lectures for the mid semester test and then the last remaining lectures for the exam?
Click to expand...

When I took biosci 356, the first half is only examinable in the mid-sem test (25%), which is the Dev'tal Bio part. The cancer biology part was only assessed in the final exam. It was somehow split but all the lab material was examined in the final exam (60%). btw, in this paper, lab is 15% (10% for the two assignments; 5% lab performance evaluation). In the 2nd and 3rd year bio papers, the allocation to what will be studied for the finals differed from paper to paper.
 
It's not going to be considered for Auckland graduate medicine entry so don't be ashamed. If you're planning to apply for Australian graduate medical schools it's going to equate to a 7.0/7.0 which is no different to an A+ which is also 7.0/7.0 for a large proportion of the medical schools there except for a couple where a NZ A- is 6.75. Still shouldn't make too much of a difference though. Haha to be honest I wasn't actually thinking of even getting an A+ because I was pretty much 60% of the time studying for GAMSAT!!!

Yeah I guess if you really wanted a holiday fair enough. Until I get to where I want to be in 2 years time I don't think my heart can sink into holiday mode yet. About the mid semester break yeah... I think the other MEDSCI and BIOSCI papers would take it up so.... I decided Summer school was good for me. I'll be probably doing 3 in semester 2 seeing that I won't be applying to Auckland or Otago most likely.

I've asked this question via email and they said a minimum of 105 points of study in a year and thus in this case they will divide by 7. Divide by 8 if 120 points were taken. Hope this helps.


inches said:
I have to agree, this paper actually required a bit more work than I expected...only got an A- :mellow:however it was because I didn't study enough, I am ashamed.

Hmm didn't go to lectures after the first week since they were recorded-this was probably the highlight of my uni life so far-recorded lectures, my god they are awesome.

But if you take it during semester then you get to have the midsem break to study for the test, also there are tutorials available,plus you actually have a three month break...

So there are pro's and cons.

Hey @Tupac4life how will they calculate the GPA at Aucks? If you get all A+'s in the rest of your 7 papers will it be calculated like this (9x7)/7 or will it be divided by 8?
Click to expand...
 
Ah I see, that's good to hear that they divide it by 7, thanks for clearing that up. Can't believe Oz treats our A- as 7's though, that's quite a loophole...

I should've studied for GAMSAT last year but I didn't even consider Australia back then(or med)...so it looks as though I'm going to take it next year.

Hope it goes well for you Tupac4life and to all those who are studying for it :D
 
It's not really a loophole for Universities like the University of Melbourne they count 80% or above as 7.0 which is equal to our A- which is also 80% so it all balances out.

Well I actually never thought of even going to Australia as well before the 23rd December last year. I had a solid chance at medicine here but obviously one of my "assesors" didn't think I was favorable despite the fact the other did after I saw my feedback for my interview. That's when I made up my mind and started studying for GAMSAT this year so I am going to take it next year as well. I really want to head across the ditch.

Yeah good to see your interest in it. Good luck for it!


inches said:
Ah I see, that's good to hear that they divide it by 7, thanks for clearing that up. Can't believe Oz treats our A- as 7's though, that's quite a loophole...

I should've studied for GAMSAT last year but I didn't even consider Australia back then(or med)...so it looks as though I'm going to take it next year.

Hope it goes well for you Tupac4life and to all those who are studying for it :D
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MEDSCI 201 Chat/Enquiries

Hey fellow Biomed students I decided to make a chat thread dedicated to MEDSCI 201 since I know many of us are going to be taking it in first semester. Feel free to discuss and share information about this course here so we can consolidate all our information here!
 
MEDSCI 203 Chat/Enquiries

Hey fellow Biomed students I decided to make a chat thread dedicated to MEDSCI 203 since I know many of us are going to be taking it in first semester. Feel free to discuss and share information about this course here so we can consolidate all our information here!
 
MEDSCI 205 Chat/Enquiries

Hey fellow Biomed students I decided to make a chat thread dedicated to MEDSCI 205 since I know many of us are going to be taking it in first semester. Feel free to discuss and share information about this course here so we can consolidate all our information here!
 
BIOSCI 201 Chat/Enquiries

Hey fellow Biomed students I decided to make a chat thread dedicated to BIOSCI 201 since I know many of us are going to be taking it in first semester. Feel free to discuss and share information about this course here so we can consolidate all our information here!
 
biomed pre-requisite papers for aus unis

Hey,

Just wondering do you know if Medsci 142 is sufficient as a pre-requisite for the anatomy paper at Melbourne? As it was on the approved list of courses on their website, but am unsure as to whether it counts due to being a first year paper, i.e. would I still have to do Medsci 201? Any help would be much appreciated :)

Does anyone know of any other non-compulsory papers one should be looking to take in either second or third year Biomed at Aukland Uni for any other Aussie Univerities?

Cheers guys ;)
 
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