USyd USyd Medicine: Provisional Entry Questions and General Discussion

[Tomato]

Double-degree Medicine students are given CSPs automatically

What is the ratio of the offers and interview invites?

By the way, your new title "Postmodern Neomarxist" is a bit Deutsch?

 

[DrDrLMG!]

What is the ratio of the offers and interview invites?

By the way, your new title "Postmodern Neomarxist" is a bit Deutsch?

I think it’s the ‘best’ of all unis at around 2:1 (though obviously the cut-off to be one of the interviewees to start with rules the vast majority out, so it’s a somewhat misleading ratio, if that makes sense).

 

[Noodlemeister]

Is the written assessment similar in scope to the kinds of questions asked to applicants of the Sydney Scholars program?

I.e.
Why are you applying for your chosen course?
How do extracurricular activities contribute to your current and future aspirations?

 

[garmonbozia]

Is the written assessment similar in scope to the kinds of questions asked to applicants of the Sydney Scholars program?

I.e.
Why are you applying for your chosen course?
How do extracurricular activities contribute to your current and future aspirations?

In recent years applicants have needed to sign NDAs, so nobody can really answer this question for you. However, I would recommend you read through the posts in this thread already linked several times above: USyd - Usyd Provisional Entry MD Interview Information

 

[Noodlemeister]

In recent years applicants have needed to sign NDAs, so nobody can really answer this question for you. However, I would recommend you read through the posts in this thread already linked several times above: USyd - Usyd Provisional Entry MD Interview Information

Gotcha. I do have another question though; since the interview is rather discussion/conversational in nature, realistically how long is each person expected to speak?

 

[Fannnnnnn666]

Hello, on the Sydney Uni website, it is stated that "Sat 19 December 2020: Online assessment day - assessment dates are not negotiable and eligible candidates must attend the first assessment day after the release of their ATAR (or other secondary education qualification) results", which I suppose is the first round of interviews, do we know for sure if this is only for students from NSW? As I'm from SA and just want to make sure I have some time to prepare for the interview? Thanks a lot!

 

[ucatboy]

Hello, on the Sydney Uni website, it is stated that "Sat 19 December 2020: Online assessment day - assessment dates are not negotiable and eligible candidates must attend the first assessment day after the release of their ATAR (or other secondary education qualification) results", which I suppose is the first round of interviews, do we know for sure if this is only for students from NSW? As I'm from SA and just want to make sure I have some time to prepare for the interview? Thanks a lot!

SA kids (and all interstate/IB students, for that matter) have their interview in late January, at least that was when I was offered one earlier this year (also from SA).

 

[Fannnnnnn666]

SA kids (and all interstate/IB students, for that matter) have their interview in late January, at least that was when I was offered one earlier this year (also from SA).

Thanks for the reply, just another question, do we still get the interview invitation at the same time as students from NSW? Which is in a couple of days?

 

[ucatboy]

Thanks for the reply, just another question, do we still get the interview invitation at the same time as students from NSW? Which is in a couple of days?

I'm not sure about that, I did the IB so my results came out on January 3rd - me getting notified after that date (January 5th if I recall correctly) could just be because my results came out late, rather than being an interstate student. I only know of one person who attended the USyd interview and did SACE but I don't think they'll get back to me sorry It might be worth asking around for anyone who was in your position last year (although 99.95s are few and far between hahah). One thing's for sure though, if you get a raw ATAR of 99.95 AND put USyd in your preferences, you'll be guaranteed an interview no matter what. If you don't get a notification within the next couple of days I assume you'll receive it in early January. Hope this helps!

 

[A1]

SA kids (and all interstate/IB students, for that matter) have their interview in late January

I'm pretty sure MD (SA "kid" but not IB) did her USyd interview in the first round. The January round is for those who haven't got an ATAR by mid December, like IB or NZ students.

eligible candidates must attend the first assessment day after the release of their ATAR

This is just USyd's way of saying you must attend the interview for the intake immediately following your Y12 results i.e. you cannot hold back or gap year to apply the next year.

 

[ucatboy]

I'm pretty sure @MD (SA "kid" but not IB) did her USyd interview in the first round. The January round is for those who haven't got an ATAR by mid December, like IB or NZ students.

Dunno what the deal is, but one of my friends did her interview on January 20 despite having her SACE results released in early December.

 

[A1]

Dunno what the deal is, but one of my friends did her interview on January 20 despite having her SACE results released in early December.

> Year 12 results and ATAR release dates - Better Education Forum

2019 ATAR release : NSW 17th Dec, SA 19th Dec. This 2-day difference could be enough to make SA students miss the first round date.

 

[ucatboy]

> Year 12 results and ATAR release dates - Better Education Forum

2019 ATAR release : NSW 17th Dec, SA 19th Dec. This 2-day difference could be enough to make SA students miss the first round date.

That might be an error, SACE results came out on the same day as NSW last year, 17th December. Scrolling through any South Australian high school's SACE results report has 17th December as the timestamp.

2019 SACE Results

usc.adelaide.edu.au

2019 SACE Results - Blackfriars Priory School, Prospect, South Australia

I am very pleased to share our 2019 South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE)...

blackfriars.sa.edu.au

 

[novobo]

tl;dr don’t ever be underprepared for the written assessment as the responses could be the only thing marked

Speaking from personal experience this year (altho I somewhat think that this only applies to the current year due to COVID), the ‘interview’ section, which was actually called a ‘faculty discussion’, is nowhere near an actual interview.

(Disclaimer: There could be changes in upcoming years, I cannot guarantee :3)

Our interviewer explicitly told us that this discussion would “not be marked or anything like that” and was just a “chat”. Although can’t deny that she seemed to be constantly writing things down, I highly suspect on the importance / necessity of the interview. The admission staff actually only had one afternoon to assess roughly 50 written responses (as they had to call for offers / rejections on the day), there should not be any time to go back to the interview recordings and check on each candidate’s performance.

So it was most likely that everything was based on the written assesssment!! My Google doc was very unresponsive when I was typing so I panicked for quite a bit, and didn’t even get to finish a question as it was quite time pressured :/

 

[mafkyhm]

Hi Novobo,

Thanks for your sharing your experience this year!

In your experience whilst preparing for the written assessment, what sort of things did you do to prepare that you would recommend?

Thank you very much!

 

[novobo]

In your experience whilst preparing for the written assessment, what sort of things did you do to prepare that you would recommend?

Thank you very much!

No worries!

In short, prepare for the more ‘general’ questions just as how you would’ve prepared for other interviews. It’s just that simple.

My own tip would be that when you’re answering the questions, have a rough idea of what you will say and signpost it in an introduction. I believe this is what most people do as well. But just to make it more straightforward for newbies, an example response that I woudve written for the question “What are your personal qualities?” will be:

1) Intro: quality 1, quality 2, quality 3
2) quality 1 is crucial in the medical field bc.... I have demonstrated this quality via ... (give an example)
3) 4) repeat step 2)
5) Conclusion

 

[mafkyhm]

No worries!

In short, prepare for the more ‘general’ questions just as how you would’ve prepared for other interviews. It’s just that simple.

My own tip would be that when you’re answering the questions, have a rough idea of what you will say and signpost it in an introduction. I believe this is what most people do as well. But just to make it more straightforward for newbies, an example response that I woudve written for the question “What are your personal qualities?” will be:

1) Intro: quality 1, quality 2, quality 3
2) quality 1 is crucial in the medical field bc.... I have demonstrated this quality via ... (give an example)
3) 4) repeat step 2)
5) Conclusion

Thank you so much Novobo for your advice!

 

[yolo_]

tl;dr don’t ever be underprepared for the written assessment as the responses could be the only thing marked

Speaking from personal experience this year (altho I somewhat think that this only applies to the current year due to COVID), the ‘interview’ section, which was actually called a ‘faculty discussion’, is nowhere near an actual interview.

(Disclaimer: There could be changes in upcoming years, I cannot guarantee :3)

Our interviewer explicitly told us that this discussion would “not be marked or anything like that” and was just a “chat”. Although can’t deny that she seemed to be constantly writing things down, I highly suspect on the importance / necessity of the interview. The admission staff actually only had one afternoon to assess roughly 50 written responses (as they had to call for offers / rejections on the day), there should not be any time to go back to the interview recordings and check on each candidate’s performance.

So it was most likely that everything was based on the written assesssment!! My Google doc was very unresponsive when I was typing so I panicked for quite a bit, and didn’t even get to finish a question as it was quite time pressured :/

Thank you so much for sharing the experience, I just have a few questions.

Is the panel discussion still in groups on zoom this year? If so does everyone gets asked the same questions and take a turn to speak?
Also, did you get asked any ethical scenarios, covid related questions, etc?

 

[LeSpicyGinger]

tl;dr don’t ever be underprepared for the written assessment as the responses could be the only thing marked


Thank you so much for sharing the experience, I just have a few questions.

Is the panel discussion still in groups on zoom this year? If so does everyone gets asked the same questions and take a turn to speak?
Also, did you get asked any ethical scenarios, covid related questions, etc?

Hi yolo,

I'm not Novobo but I also took the USYD interview this year. The panel discussion is indeed in smaller groups. We were assigned a specific number and I was placed in a group with 4 other people and asked questions. Whoever raised their hand first in our group got to answer first and the lady interviewing us picked who would answer next. If you missed a question, then generally you were given first priority for the subsequent one. I agree with Novobo that the discussion was rather casual and seemed more like advertising for the university than an assessment. I can't remember the exact terms of the NDA so I'm not going disclose the contents of the questions themselves.

 

[yolo_]

Hi yolo,

I'm not Novobo but I also took the USYD interview this year. The panel discussion is indeed in smaller groups. We were assigned a specific number and I was placed in a group with 4 other people and asked questions. Whoever raised their hand first in our group got to answer first and the lady interviewing us picked who would answer next. If you missed a question, then generally you were given first priority for the subsequent one. I agree with Novobo that the discussion was rather casual and seemed more like advertising for the university than an assessment. I can't remember the exact terms of the NDA so I'm not going disclose the contents of the questions themselves.

Hi LeSpicyGinger,
Thank you so much for your reply! Just one more question, how long did it take for the written component? and the panel discussion?