UQ UQ Medicine: Provisional Entry Questions and Discussion

[Rhythm]

A 5.0 isnt difficult at all as long as you dont fail too many courses, on UQ's scale it is defined as a 65% in a course. UQ are also very accommodating, and so if after the first semester or two if you feel you cant maintain the grades, they will refer you to academic advisors, which can help you organise summer classes, work on study skills based on where youre going wrong in your assignments, or maybe help you find subjects that are more suited towards your skill set.

The societies at UQ aswell are also a very helpful resource if you need it. The UQ Association of Biomedical Students run peer coordinated study sessions, and the UQ premed society runs many study sessions and creates super detailed study guides to help you find courses you would be best at. Just about every faculty based society runs similar options to help out students.

There are also various Science Learning Centres for the different focuses (e.g. maths, chem, physics, bio, etc) which can help you through specific parts of contents (outside the PASS or Podium times where you asks the specific tutors/lecturers of your course)

In summary: a 5.0 isn't difficult at all, as long as you stay somewhat reasonably on top of your studies, and if you cant keep up there are plenty of avenues to help you, and avoid the situation where you dont get the GPA you need to matriculate into the MD

Thanks. I just wanted to know because I don't have much tertiary knowledge and didn't want to get in the situation where I got into UQ Med and had to work super hard just to get into the MD course with the risk of having to battle it out for graduate med if I didn't get the GPA. I'm generally a good student and if UQ offers that much support I'm sure that kind of a GPA won't be that difficult to achieve if I'm lucky enough to get in. Thanks again for all your help.

 

[sophkat]

Does anyone know what the UCAT cut-offs will be for getting an interview at UQ Med this year?

 

[A1]

I just wanted to know because I don't have much tertiary knowledge and didn't want to get in the situation where I got into UQ Med and had to work super hard just to get into the MD course with the risk of having to battle it out for graduate med if I didn't get the GPA.

Spare a thought for all the students who don't get a provisional offer and need to study for GPA 6.2+ for a chance at grad-entry MD. Relatively 5.0 is having it super easy.

Btw on UQ's conversion GPA 5.0 is equivalent to ATAR 96.0, way lower than most school leavers need to get into medicine.

 

[dotwingz]

Thanks. I just wanted to know because I don't have much tertiary knowledge and didn't want to get in the situation where I got into UQ Med and had to work super hard just to get into the MD course with the risk of having to battle it out for graduate med if I didn't get the GPA. I'm generally a good student and if UQ offers that much support I'm sure that kind of a GPA won't be that difficult to achieve if I'm lucky enough to get in. Thanks again for all your help.

No problem. If ill be honest with you mate, the very fact that you are aware of the GPA requirements, and are concerned of its consequences at this early of a stage means that you are likely more of a cautious person which would keep an eye on their GPA and not let it slip in the first place.

Im not saying that you shouldnt be worried about it, because some find university way harder than others, but typically those who get high enough grades to be accepted into the provisional medical program are good enough students to maintain a half decent academic record to satisfy the minimum requirements.

A better way of thinking about it, is the GEMSAS GPA needed for UQ grad entry is like 6.5+ (although im not sure how the interview has changed this), and a 5.0 at UQ aligns to a 5.5 GEMSAS GPA. Makes the program all up look pretty favorable

I swear i remember seeing somewhere that the average GPA was something slightly above 5 but i might be mistaken, Ill look for the source soon

EDIT: So i found the source but it was actually the average GPA of one of the colleges was 5.2 (also found a few other colleges have average GPAs around ~5.5 ish) However I did find this report from 2015 Here, and whilst it doesnt give out grade distributions, it does give this nice little diagram on page 10 (with my annotations in paint)



Now if you assume that equal people get 6's and 7's , 4's and 5's , and 2's and 3's

Now green = 6.5, orange = 4.5, and blue = 2.5

If 50% of people get 6.5, 45% get 4.5 and 5% get 2.5, then you get an average GPA of 5.4. which is above what you need to maintain.

Now this is obv not very accurate at all, using alot of assumptions and data from a 5 year old report, but its somewhat helpful in putting to context where a 5 GPA kinda stands. This average of a mid 5 GPA also aligns well with other institutions like UNSW where their average is a mid credit (from the gumleaf diagram)

 

[dotwingz]

Does anyone know what the UCAT cut-offs will be for getting an interview at UQ Med this year?

I suspect because they are selecting based purely of UCAT it will be similar ish to Adelaide and JMP at around 90th percentile.

 

[YeahTrueHey]

I suspect because they are selecting based purely of UCAT it will be similar ish to Adelaide and JMP at around 90th percentile.

Do you think there's a possibility of UQ preferencing QLD students over interstates?

 

[dotwingz]

Not on purpose I don’t (e.g. a subquota) considering they haven’t said anything about it thus far.

It depends if they decide to do online, if they don’t then given palaszczuk’s tight grip on the borders you will see a lot of interstate students not being able to attend and giving up their interviews to the advantage of Queenslanders

In my cohort there were about 60-70 NSW students, so it would considerably drop competition.

 

[YeahTrueHey]

Not on purpose I don’t (e.g. a subquota) considering they haven’t said anything about it thus far.

It depends if they decide to do online, if they don’t then given palaszczuk’s tight grip on the borders you will see a lot of interstate students not being able to attend and giving up their interviews to the advantage of Queenslanders

In my cohort there were about 60-70 NSW students, so it would considerably drop competition.

Well let's hope for my sake then that QLD closes the border to all other states aha

 

[dotwingz]

Well let's hope for my sake then that QLD closes the border to all other states aha

*and UQ doesnt do online interviews

Although I’ve still got things I left in my apartment that I can’t get out

 

[A1]

In my cohort there were about 60-70 NSW students

Population-wise NSW is about 30% of Aus, Vic 25%, Qld 20%, the rest (SA+WA+Tas+ACT+NT) 25%.

Yet NSW students take almost half of UQ's 140 provisional places. Why is it Monash favours Vic students but UQ favours NSW?

 

[dotwingz]

Population-wise NSW is about 30% of Aus, Vic 25%, Qld 20%, the rest (SA+WA+Tas+ACT+NT) 25%.

Yet NSW students take almost half of UQ's 140 provisional places. Why is it Monash favours Vic students but UQ favours NSW?

Just counted, 59 in the group chat. In my experience the majority of them came from Sydney Selective Schools (JRAHS, NSB/NSG, SB/SG, etc) Maybe its something about Sydney selective school culture. Although it would be nice to finally see some help from universities for NSW students

 

[ucatboy]

Population-wise NSW is about 30% of Aus, Vic 25%, Qld 20%, the rest (SA+WA+Tas+ACT+NT) 25%.

Yet NSW students take almost half of UQ's 140 provisional places. Why is it Monash favours Vic students but UQ favours NSW?

Don't wanna come across as disparaging the UQ course (no offence intended), but this may have something to do with UQ previously being a "safe bet" for med applicants due to their quirky admissions criteria (not anymore with the introduction of interviews this year). I for one knew that I could be pretty confident to get a UQ spot the moment I got my UCAT score back, as I did LOTE so I only needed a 97 ATAR. Because the number of NSW med hopefuls far exceeds the number of spots available within the state, that forces those who missed out to look elsewhere i.e. interstate for an offer. The first one that comes to mind would be UQ.

A small jab at said selective school students, maybe they came across as too full-on in their interviews (UNSW, JMP, WSU and USyd all require one).

 

[A1]

Don't wanna come across as disparaging the UQ course (no offence intended), but this may have something to do with UQ previously being a "safe bet" for med applicants due to their quirky admissions criteria (not anymore with the introduction of interviews this year). I for one knew that I could be pretty confident to get a UQ spot the moment I got my UCAT score back, as I did LOTE so I only needed a 97 ATAR. Because the number of NSW med hopefuls far exceeds the number of spots available within the state, that forces those who missed out to look elsewhere i.e. interstate for an offer. The first one that comes to mind would be UQ.

The reasons you presented (number of NSW med hopefuls far exceeds ... , forces those who missed out to look elsewhere) apply equally to all states. They don't help explain why NSW in particular almost 50%.

But I think I have worked out the reason. Most Vic students with ATAR 99+ and UQ-sufficient %ile would get a Monash offer, so we can drop Vic's 25% population out. Then last year Qld cohort was half-sized so drop 10% out. Which gives NSW 30% population divides by 0.65 times 140 places = 65 places. Right in the middle of Dotwingz's estimate 60-70. Amazing haha!

 

[Crow]

In my experience the majority of them came from Sydney Selective Schools (JRAHS, NSB/NSG, SB/SG, etc) Maybe its something about Sydney selective school culture.

This is completely anecdotal, but the Griffith provisional entry cohorts are generally also made up by a LOT of people from Sydney, also from selective/private schools mostly.

 

[dotwingz]

A small jab at said selective school students, maybe they came across as too full-on in their interviews (UNSW, JMP, WSU and USyd all require one).

I've heard from someone anecdotally at WSU that students from selective schools like James Ruse also dominate their cohorts, despite WSU pretty much pretty much designing their critera against them ahha /s.

I think it comes down to the concentration of higher marks at these schools in NSW (e.g. 11/46 99.95s came from this one school, doubling the amount in the top performing school in VIC), despite having a majority of undergrad med school places as ATAR hurdles, which causes these high atar students to bleed over to high atar programs in other states.

EDIT: Also A1's reason

 

[SmallBrain]

Ive noticed there are other online applications required for other unis (newcastle, unsw ect.). Is there a similar process im not aware of for uq or is it only the qtac application that is required?
thanks!

 

[Crow]

Ive noticed there are other online applications required for other unis (newcastle, unsw ect.). Is there a similar process im not aware of for uq or is it only the qtac application that is required?
thanks!

Nope, unless they've added a new one this year that I haven't heard about. I'd say you're safe.

 

[ABCD66666]

Does anyone know when UQ will release information regarding interview eligibility outcome?

 

[DrDrLMG!]

If this statement is correct to the exact wording it means the ATAR UQ use for 25% of the final ranking will be in Selection rank steps of 1.0.

Otherwise a 97.5 plus 2 adjustment points would be 99.5 vs a 99.1 plus 2 adjustment points remains 99.1.

Yeah, that definitely suggests 99.00 is the highest meaningful ATAR or selection rank (terminology seems interchangeable?) you can achieve, even with the new system, and that 99.95 holds zero benefit over 99.00, but 99.00 holds a very slight benefit over 98.95 (but the 98.95 student is now possibly eligible for an offer - UCAT and interview performance dependent - when in previous years, they'd not have been -- is that right?).

 

[A1]

and that 99.95 holds zero benefit over 99.00, but 99.00 holds a very slight benefit over 98.95

You are right about the 98.95 previously would not even be in the running, but I'm not sure about 99.00 holds a very slight benefit over 98.95.

If 99.95 & 99.00 are both equated to Rank 99.0, wouldn't 98.95 be equated to Rank 98.0 thus a full 1.0 rank below a 99.0?

Otoh UQ could be tricky in that everyone will retain their ATAR decimals for competitiveness, except 99.0 is the ceiling for boosted ATARs. For example 96.6+2= 98.6, 97.6+2= 99.0, 99.6 remains 99.6 whether +2 or not (so retains their edge over low 99s)?