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

Emerald01

Member
Hi there,
I have applied for nutrition in the case that I do not get into medicine (currently waitlisted) at Auckland uni next year but have to do a summer school because I am switching from a BHSc to a BSc. What grades does Auckland uni take for post-graduate entrance? Is it over your 2nd and 3rd year, or do they count your 1st year? and do they count summer school grades?

Also, if anyone has done nutrition, could they advise me on the ease of some of the papers and maybe which ones are more difficult than others?
Thanks :)
 

Nara

UoA BSci Y3
Hi there,
I have applied for nutrition in the case that I do not get into medicine (currently waitlisted) at Auckland uni next year but have to do a summer school because I am switching from a BHSc to a BSc. What grades does Auckland uni take for post-graduate entrance? Is it over your 2nd and 3rd year, or do they count your 1st year? and do they count summer school grades?

Also, if anyone has done nutrition, could they advise me on the ease of some of the papers and maybe which ones are more difficult than others?
Thanks :)

Auckland uni still requires you to have a 6.0 GPA average over all 3 years of your bachelors degree. The final ranking for medicine uses your last 2 years of study and both are weighted equally. Summer school papers count towards the overall average GPA no matter what stage/level they are, however, only summer school papers stage 2 and above will count towards your final 2 year GPA.
For example I took Stats 10X during summer school 2018 and got an A+, however, it is only a stage 1 paper and only contributes to my overall GPA and not my final 2 year GPA. Also, you have to do at least 105 points or 7 papers to be eligible to apply post grad.

I took Foodsci 201 semester 2 and I found it both very easy and very difficult. The lecture content is not difficult at all and just requires you to memorise random facts and the most difficult parts are the few calculations you have to do. I got A+ in both tests and the exam without much stress. The very difficult part is the labs. The labs aren't run very well and I found the supervisors were not very helpful. In a few of my labs the supervisors misguided us and we ended up having 2 of the experiments fail and we were forced to use old data for the reports. I also found a few of the supervisors to be really rude and would dismiss us when were asking questions and continue to gossip between each-other.
The reports are also very tedious to write and require specific formatting and referencing. The calculations you do for them are simple but there are a lot of them and its very excel heavy, if you're not used to using excel. Almost everyone in my class agreed that the labs were marked way too harshly and even though I was doing well in the tests/quizzes I could never get above a low A for the lab reports.
On the bright side the lecturer is really nice and he's always keen to help you out with any problems you have regarding the coursework/labs. This paper is mandatory for the nutrition pathway but if I were given the choice I still would have taken this paper despite the labs.
 
Hi!

This is going to be quite a lengthy explanation so thank you so much if you have the time to lend a helping hand.

Just finished first year pre- med and didn’t get in so extremely lost regarding career/ degree.

Wanted to apply for postgrad med but they’ve recently changed it so it’s your whole undergrad GPA that counts (as opposed to your last two years), so the stakes are even higher than before (for me). I’ve chosen to change to a double major in physiology and exercise science with the mindset that if I don’t get into med, if I go into research, there will still be some people interaction (I could not work in a test tube research lab).

These are the papers that I’m planning to take in 2020:

Semester 1

EXERSCI101
EXERSCI103
EXERSCI201
MEDSCI205
MEDSCI203


Semester 2

EXERSCI204
MEDSCI206
STATS101
EXERSCI206


I was hoping to get quite general advice-
1. How do I find my plan B? I’ve gone to careers, science centre, seminars, talked to people etc. but still not finding anything else that really sparks my interest.
2. Does my 2020 classes seem okay in terms of workload- particularly concerned about semester one.

Thank you so much again!
 

Nara

UoA BSci Y3
Hi!

This is going to be quite a lengthy explanation so thank you so much if you have the time to lend a helping hand.

Just finished first year pre- med and didn’t get in so extremely lost regarding career/ degree.

Wanted to apply for postgrad med but they’ve recently changed it so it’s your whole undergrad GPA that counts (as opposed to your last two years), so the stakes are even higher than before (for me). I’ve chosen to change to a double major in physiology and exercise science with the mindset that if I don’t get into med, if I go into research, there will still be some people interaction (I could not work in a test tube research lab).

These are the papers that I’m planning to take in 2020:

Semester 1

EXERSCI101
EXERSCI103
EXERSCI201
MEDSCI205
MEDSCI203


Semester 2

EXERSCI204
MEDSCI206
STATS101
EXERSCI206


I was hoping to get quite general advice-
1. How do I find my plan B? I’ve gone to careers, science centre, seminars, talked to people etc. but still not finding anything else that really sparks my interest.
2. Does my 2020 classes seem okay in terms of workload- particularly concerned about semester one.

Thank you so much again!

1. I recently got an offer into medicine postgrad, I did a bachelor of science in chemistry/math as I enjoyed labwork and Chem 110. I certainly didn't have the same passion for pursuing a career in chemistry compared to medicine, but I knew I had to do something if I didn't receive an offer on my 2nd try. I was in the same boat as you, where nothing really drew my interest career wise aside from medicine, but that helped me work really hard to ensure I got high grades and get a spot. Can't really tell you what to pick, but if you can't think of anything that sparks your interest for a future career, you could try find something that you're interested in just studying so that the next 2 years aren't absolutely dreadful. I know people who tried to get into med by switching into random supposedly 'easy' science majors like psychology , which they have no interest in and they end up doing badly on these supposedly 'easy' papers. In the end its all just hard work, but its made easier if you like the subjects you're learning.

2. I don't know much about exersci papers, but I know a lot about medsci and stats. 205 and 203 are relatively hard papers with heavy workloads and I wouldn't suggest doing them in a 5 paper semester. I have a lot of friends who did biomed and they found 205/203 hard to keep up with, in just a 4 paper semester.
Semester 2 looks good, Stats101 isn't very difficult but I don't know much about your math/stats background. You could take it in summer school if you want to ease the workload a bit more but I don't think its necessary.
 
Hi! I'm currently a first year.. but feeling super defeated ever since CST which I'm 99.99% sure has ruined my chances of getting into med this year. I'm trying to plan ahead and was wondering if anyone can give me their opinion on deciding between pharmacology or physiology? I heard that the stage 3 pharmacology papers are super hard, but the physiology ones seem to have terrible reviews also... is anyone doing pharmacology this year that can please comment on medsci 318 & 319 since they are new and have no reviews.

Really appreciate any help! :)
 

Bootleg

Regular Member
Hi! I'm currently a first year.. but feeling super defeated ever since CST which I'm 99.99% sure has ruined my chances of getting into med this year. I'm trying to plan ahead and was wondering if anyone can give me their opinion on deciding between pharmacology or physiology? I heard that the stage 3 pharmacology papers are super hard, but the physiology ones seem to have terrible reviews also... is anyone doing pharmacology this year that can please comment on medsci 318 & 319 since they are new and have no reviews.

Really appreciate any help! :)
Just a side note; the reviews on studentcoursereviews are not accurate. Every year you are going to get random people complaining about a particular course/paper; for example for one of my stage 2 papers the rating was one star every single review hated the course, but turned out to my best paper. So take all reviews with a pinch of salt.
 

Hollyw28

BSc Biomed, PGDip Biomed, PGDip HSc, MBiomedSc
Hi! I'm currently a first year.. but feeling super defeated ever since CST which I'm 99.99% sure has ruined my chances of getting into med this year. I'm trying to plan ahead and was wondering if anyone can give me their opinion on deciding between pharmacology or physiology? I heard that the stage 3 pharmacology papers are super hard, but the physiology ones seem to have terrible reviews also... is anyone doing pharmacology this year that can please comment on medsci 318 & 319 since they are new and have no reviews.

Really appreciate any help! :)
I graduated with Biomed but I did enough to also graduate with physiology so I ultimately got to choose what I graduated with and chose Biomed. The third year physiology papers are pretty hard but also its not unreasonable that you can do well in them. 311 is the most challenging in my opinion. I also did 312, 317, and 316, all of which were high workload but reasonable to do well in! If you can get away with NOT doing 311 then I would do so as it is pretty hard especially if you're not into cardio stuff. I personally really liked it but still had an A- overall. The labs are pretty tough. I can't speak much for pharmacology though since I've never done any apart from 307, which is basically just pure memorisation! Which if you're good at that then great!
 
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Just a side note; the reviews on studentcoursereviews are not accurate. Every year you are going to get random people complaining about a particular course/paper; for example for one of my stage 2 papers the rating was one star every single review hated the course, but turned out to my best paper. So take all reviews with a pinch of salt.

That's a fair point, I'll keep that in mind! Probably also very dependent on personal interests! Thanks for your reply!

I graduated with Biomed but I did enough to also graduate with physiology so I ultimately got to choose what I graduated with and chose Biomed. The third year physiology papers are pretty hard but also its not unreasonable that you can do well in them. 311 is the most challenging in my opinion. I also did 312, 317, and 316, all of which were high workload but reasonable to do well in! If you can get away with NOT doing 311 then I would do so as it is pretty hard especially if you're not into cardio stuff. I personally really liked it but still had an A- overall. The labs are pretty tough. I can't speak much for pharmacology though since I've never done any apart from 307, which is basically just pure memorisation! Which if you're good at that then great!

Thanks for your response! I am keen to take 317 and 316, which means I will have to take 205 next year... and I wanted to take 312 as well but I can't decide, because that would mean I have to take medsci201 which seems to be really boring (I can't take biosci203 instead as I didn't do the biomed paper required for that). So when taking the physiology route, I'm kinda stuck on whether I should take medsci 204, 205 and 206 and then 311, 316 and 317... orrr medsci 201, 205, 206 and then 312, 316 and 317. Confusing stuff.. sorry for going on for so long I guess I'm just stuck wondering which is the lesser of two evils? Taking 201 and 205 together first sem of stage two, or taking 311 (with 316) in stage 3?

Thank you :))
 

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Hollyw28

BSc Biomed, PGDip Biomed, PGDip HSc, MBiomedSc
That's a fair point, I'll keep that in mind! Probably also very dependent on personal interests! Thanks for your reply!



Thanks for your response! I am keen to take 317 and 316, which means I will have to take 205 next year... and I wanted to take 312 as well but I can't decide, because that would mean I have to take medsci201 which seems to be really boring (I can't take biosci203 instead as I didn't do the biomed paper required for that). So when taking the physiology route, I'm kinda stuck on whether I should take medsci 204, 205 and 206 and then 311, 316 and 317... orrr medsci 201, 205, 206 and then 312, 316 and 317. Confusing stuff.. sorry for going on for so long I guess I'm just stuck wondering which is the lesser of two evils? Taking 201 and 205 together first sem of stage two, or taking 311 (with 316) in stage 3?

Thank you :))
It honestly depends on your strong points! Regarding third year papers, the easier papers would be 312, 316 and 317, compared to doing 311. I did MEDSCI 201, 203, 204, 205 and 206. 205 is rough but its unfortunately a necessary evil. 206 was what actually made me decide I wanted to do medicine so I definitely have a bias in recommending this course! Its really good in my opinion and the best 200 level course the faculty offers. As for 201, its pretty much a step up from BIOSCI 107/MEDSCI 142, except its a focus on anatomy. Really similar structure to 142. So theres a bit of histology, there's some cool dissection labs. You get to go to the human anatomy lab and see a cadaver in the first lab session (optional) which usually only the med students can do so that was a really valuable experience. However something that of course comes with anatomy is memorisation and a lot of content in terms of volume. The upper arm anatomy was tough! But if you're applying for med school then its great experience. I personally would go the 312, 316 and 317 route but that's just my opinion. If there is anyway you could do 203 though I would recommend it, I found the workload much easier to deal with and the labs were great. Also, Graeme Finlay is a brilliant lecturer. I didn't like 204 but again I don't come from a pharmacology background :)

Also important to note though is I didn't do 201 and 205 in the same year so I didn't have to deal with those two crazy papers at the same time! Doing them at the same time would've been crazy hahaha but lots of people do it and plenty of people do well!
 
It honestly depends on your strong points! Regarding third year papers, the easier papers would be 312, 316 and 317, compared to doing 311. I did MEDSCI 201, 203, 204, 205 and 206. 205 is rough but its unfortunately a necessary evil. 206 was what actually made me decide I wanted to do medicine so I definitely have a bias in recommending this course! Its really good in my opinion and the best 200 level course the faculty offers. As for 201, its pretty much a step up from BIOSCI 107/MEDSCI 142, except its a focus on anatomy. Really similar structure to 142. So theres a bit of histology, there's some cool dissection labs. You get to go to the human anatomy lab and see a cadaver in the first lab session (optional) which usually only the med students can do so that was a really valuable experience. However something that of course comes with anatomy is memorisation and a lot of content in terms of volume. The upper arm anatomy was tough! But if you're applying for med school then its great experience. I personally would go the 312, 316 and 317 route but that's just my opinion. If there is anyway you could do 203 though I would recommend it, I found the workload much easier to deal with and the labs were great. Also, Graeme Finlay is a brilliant lecturer. I didn't like 204 but again I don't come from a pharmacology background :)

Also important to note though is I didn't do 201 and 205 in the same year so I didn't have to deal with those two crazy papers at the same time! Doing them at the same time would've been crazy hahaha but lots of people do it and plenty of people do well!

Thank you so much for your reply! This was so helpful, it's always nice to hear other people's perspectives and experiences. 206 definitely stands out to me, I've really enjoyed all the neuroscience content I've come across so far, and I definitely am gonna take that paper!
How did you find the lab tests in 201, if you don't mind me asking?

That's very true, doing them at the same time is my main concern, but gotta do what you gotta do I suppose! Thanks for all your feedback, I will take it all into consideration :)
 

Hollyw28

BSc Biomed, PGDip Biomed, PGDip HSc, MBiomedSc
Thank you so much for your reply! This was so helpful, it's always nice to hear other people's perspectives and experiences. 206 definitely stands out to me, I've really enjoyed all the neuroscience content I've come across so far, and I definitely am gonna take that paper!
How did you find the lab tests in 201, if you don't mind me asking?

That's very true, doing them at the same time is my main concern, but gotta do what you gotta do I suppose! Thanks for all your feedback, I will take it all into consideration :)
Sorry for the late reply! From what I remember the lab tests for 201 were actually alright, but again if anatomy and histology isn't your strong point then they'll probably be difficult. Take lots of notes during the labs and ask lots of questions and you'll be sweet! 201 was a fun paper but like I said I didn't do it with 205 and I expect the workload will be a lot doing them at the same time. However like I said plenty of people do them at the same time so if you work hard and ask for help if/when needed you can do it!! :yay: Feel free to message me with any more Qs!
 
Sorry for the late reply! From what I remember the lab tests for 201 were actually alright, but again if anatomy and histology isn't your strong point then they'll probably be difficult. Take lots of notes during the labs and ask lots of questions and you'll be sweet! 201 was a fun paper but like I said I didn't do it with 205 and I expect the workload will be a lot doing them at the same time. However like I said plenty of people do them at the same time so if you work hard and ask for help if/when needed you can do it!! :yay: Feel free to message me with any more Qs!
Thanks so much!
 
Hi again!

Would love to hear anyones thoughts on MEDSCI201 and MEDSCI203, both seem interesting, I just can't decide and would love to hear experiences based off of workload, difficulty etc.

Thanks you :)
 

Maltesers

Member
Hi everybody, first time writing here but wanted to get some help in course selection - it took me 4 whole days to plan this out and I'm quite happy about it but if anybody could check it for me as I may have missed something out it would be soooo grateful!

Year 2 Sem 1: biosci201, medsci205, biosci220, psych108
Year 2 Sem 2: biosci202, medsci206, medsci314, maori130

Year 3 Sem 1: medsci201, biosci351, biosci356, stats101G
Year 3 Sem 2: medsci312, biomed399, stage 2 science, stage 2 science

I'll choose the stage 2 science later but do you guys think this is a good plan??

Thanks :))
 

Maltesers

Member
Hi everybody, first time writing here but wanted to get some help in course selection - it took me 4 whole days to plan this out and I'm quite happy about it but if anybody could check it for me as I may have missed something out it would be soooo grateful!

Year 2 Sem 1: biosci201, medsci205, biosci220, psych108
Year 2 Sem 2: biosci202, medsci206, medsci314, maori130

Year 3 Sem 1: medsci201, biosci351, biosci356, stats101G
Year 3 Sem 2: medsci312, biomed399, stage 2 science, stage 2 science

I'll choose the stage 2 science later but do you guys think this is a good plan??

Thanks :))
Oh wait, actually I can't take stats as a gen ed so it would be:
Year 2 sem 1: biosci201, medsci205, biosci220, psych108
Year 2 sem 2: biosci202, medsci206, medsci314, stats101

Year 3 sem 1: medsci201, biosci351, biosci356, stage 2 science
Year 3 sem 2: medsci312, biomed399, stage 2 science, maori130G
 

Bootleg

Regular Member
Oh wait, actually I can't take stats as a gen ed so it would be:
Year 2 sem 1: biosci201, medsci205, biosci220, psych108
Year 2 sem 2: biosci202, medsci206, medsci314, stats101

Year 3 sem 1: medsci201, biosci351, biosci356, stage 2 science
Year 3 sem 2: medsci312, biomed399, stage 2 science, maori130G
Looks like a very achievable workload. What is your major btw? because it looks it like you are just doing a general specialization in biomedical science.
 

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Maltesers

Member
Looks like a very achievable workload. What is your major btw? because it looks it like you are just doing a general specialization in biomedical science.
Thank you!! Yeah I was trying my best to spread everything out so I can do my 100% and have a decent chance to go for postgrad. And yeah I’m just doing biomed - didn’t want to specialise in anything as I’m still not sure what my interest is so I just chose the papers that sounds interesting to me right now haha
 

kiwi02

Lurker
Hi I was unsuccessful for med entry for 2021 so I chose to do optom this year. Have there ever been optom graduates who were successful in entry into med?
 

Bootleg

Regular Member
Has anyone done postgrad med by doing engineering?
How does it work?

They will look at your cumulative GPA for your entire engineering degree (so 4 years). If you do receive a offer, it will probably be conditional, and you will need to complete the 4 cores in the following year up to a certain standard before moving onto part 2.
 

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