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'What papers should I do at UoO for graduate entry' Chat, Enquiries and Help

straysheep said:
I have no idea if this is the right place to put this. Im not sure about trying for post grad entry into med but i need advice on adding papers to ss, s1 and s2 to boost my gpa for 2nd year Neuro.

right now i have
FORB201 SS

MICR221 S1
PHAL211 S1
PHSL231 S1

PSYC203 S2
ANAT242 S2
PSYC211 S2

Any recommendations for papers in s1 and s2?
Im thinking of adding Bioa201 or HUNT233 to ss but im not sure if its a good idea to have 2 papers in ss and 4 papers in s1 and s2.
Click to expand...

I did BIOA201 and FORB201 SS at the same time and got 89 and 86. Easily doable. Wasn't much time to study for the final exam so just got to stay on top of it. People who just did FORB201 had a lot of spare time on their hands.

Feel free to also consider 100-level papers as your 4th papers good ones I can think of are: BSNS, Maori, statistics
 
Hi, does anyone have any detailed information on any 300 level Anatomy papers? Looking at papers for next year.

Thank you muchly
 
Hey everyone, just thought I'd update you all on what I ended up doing this year (2nd year BBiomedSc)
S1:
PHSL221 A+
PSYC111 A+
MICR221 A
GENE221 A

S2
STAT115 A+
MICR222 A+
MICR223 A
GENE222 A+

ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT THESE PAPERS, PLEASE SEND ME A MESSAGE! I'd love to help :)


I'm a bit confused at the moment as to how many papers I should be taking in 3rd year.
Not doing summer school, so definitely doing 4 papers in first semester, and will see how they go before deciding on 3 or 4 papers for second semester.

Currently have 2 compulsory MICR papers (MICR332 and MICR334 - really looking forward to both of them!), and want to do the medical genetics paper (GENE313), and am thinking about doing a PHSL 300 level paper as well.

Then think I may do GENE223 and a 200 level PSYC paper. No idea what else though...
Maybe ANAT241? - bit worried about work load though :/
 
asdfdsa said:
Hey everyone, just thought I'd update you all on what I ended up doing this year (2nd year BBiomedSc)
S1:
PHSL221 A+
PSYC111 A+
MICR221 A
GENE221 A

S2
STAT115 A+
MICR222 A+
MICR223 A
GENE222 A+

ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT THESE PAPERS, PLEASE SEND ME A MESSAGE! I'd love to help :)


I'm a bit confused at the moment as to how many papers I should be taking in 3rd year.
Not doing summer school, so definitely doing 4 papers in first semester, and will see how they go before deciding on 3 or 4 papers for second semester.

Currently have 2 compulsory MICR papers (MICR332 and MICR334 - really looking forward to both of them!), and want to do the medical genetics paper (GENE313), and am thinking about doing a PHSL 300 level paper as well.

Then think I may do GENE223 and a 200 level PSYC paper. No idea what else though...
Maybe ANAT241? - bit worried about work load though :/
Click to expand...

I see you decided to go with BBiomedSc! How was this year? It looks like you did very well for sure.
 
asdfdsa said:
Hey everyone, just thought I'd update you all on what I ended up doing this year (2nd year BBiomedSc)
S1:
PHSL221 A+
PSYC111 A+
MICR221 A
GENE221 A

S2
STAT115 A+
MICR222 A+
MICR223 A
GENE222 A+

ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT THESE PAPERS, PLEASE SEND ME A MESSAGE! I'd love to help :)


I'm a bit confused at the moment as to how many papers I should be taking in 3rd year.
Not doing summer school, so definitely doing 4 papers in first semester, and will see how they go before deciding on 3 or 4 papers for second semester.

Currently have 2 compulsory MICR papers (MICR332 and MICR334 - really looking forward to both of them!), and want to do the medical genetics paper (GENE313), and am thinking about doing a PHSL 300 level paper as well.

Then think I may do GENE223 and a 200 level PSYC paper. No idea what else though...
Maybe ANAT241? - bit worried about work load though :/
Click to expand...


I'd highly recommend checking out MICR337 if you haven't considered it already. Was my favorite 3rd year paper
 
UMAT didn’t go well for HSFY so I am considering graduate entry for medicine or dentistry. Here is my paper selection for second year. My aim is to keep my options as widely open as possible.

SS: BIOA201; MAOR110
S1: ANAT241; PHSL231; MICR221; PHAL211; PSYC111

In Semester One I want to take four paper of diverse field from the listed five above. I really can’t decide.

And it seems that GENE221, BIOC221and HUNT221 are also quite popular for graduate entry. How are these paper in terms of difficulties to get high grades?I am not too interested but I am open to these options as well.

It will be great if someone who has recently taken these paper can give me some advice.

Sorry for the tedious message. Any forms of advice or assistance is greatly appreciatied(From a frustrated HSFY loser)

Also I wonder are grades from HSFY a good indication of your capability to do well in 200 level paper? Is it risky to do paper selection based on 100 level grades if I have similar interests in different fields of Biomedical Science?
 
Ok let's see what papers I have done here...

BIOA201 (The skeleton, evolution and identifying bones paper) -
PHAL211 (Introductory Pharmacology) -
  • Topics covered:
  1. Pharmacodynamics (the drugs effect on body) = Receptor types (ion channels, GPCR etc.), drug-receptor interactions and their cell mechanism of action (signalling cascade) which causes a biological effect.
  2. Pharmacokinetics (the body's effect on drug) = How we absorb drugs, distribute them around the body, metabolise them into metabolites, excreting them from the body.
  3. Acetylcholine receptors
  4. Adrenaline and noradrenaline receptors
  5. Glutamate, monoamines, GABA (all the good nervous system stuff about nervous system drug targets)
  6. Endocrine pharmacology
  7. Drug dependence and drugs in sport
  8. Alcohol
  9. Antihistamines
  • A lot of people didn't like this paper and only a third of the class remained when it came to the sequel paper PHAL212 in semester 2 (so one may assume that a lot of people that were originally intending to do the 2nd semester paper opted out of it after doing PHAL211).
  • I think a major reason why people didn't enjoy PHAL211 was because it was the first of the various 200-level papers to teach statistics, which you need to know in almost every science paper you do anyway. Some departments don't even thoroughly teach using statistics in science until 300-level e.g physiology (and so I recommend doing PHAL211 and PHSL231 together, which is what I did). In 300-level, you basically have to do experiments and perform statistics on them, and so doing PHAL211 gives you a head-start in that field.
  • Despite this, from my point of view, I got 90% (A+) and I found the paper overall very interesting because it covered my favourite topic - the nervous system.
PHSL231 (Neurophysiology)
  • Topics covered:
  1. How action potentials work - involvement of neurotransmitters, ions in forming electrical/chemical gradients.
  2. What those action potentials are used for --> excitatory and inhibitory receptors --> excitatory and inhibitory signal transductions in the cell
  3. Just like in PHAL211, you learn about ion channels, GPCRs, enzyme-linked receptors
  4. How skeletal muscles work with the nervous system to cause movement.
  5. Systems neurophysiology - Somatosensory system (how you feel pain, temperature, texture etc.), autonomic nervous systems (parasympathetic vs sympathetic = rest and digest vs fight or flight responses), control of movement (including spinal reflexes, motor cortex and corticospinal tract involvements), central nervous system (regulation of behaviour by prefrontal cortex, language, learning and memory and how this can relate to consciousness and disorders).
  6. Special senses (how we smell, hear, see, taste and balance ourselves)
  7. Neuroendocrinology (how nervous system regulates hormones) e.g one lecture is on learning about how leptin and ghrelin work for making you hungry/full.
  • I got 92% (A+); This paper hugely overlapped in content with PHAL211, which makes your revision so much easier.
MICR221 (Introduction to microbiology)
  • Topics covered:
  1. Lecture 1-5: How to grow specific bacteria or inhibit bacterial growth
  2. Lecture 6-10: transport systems of bacterial to help them survive/grow, glycolysis, citric acid cycle, electron transport chain, ATP synthase
  3. Lecture 11-17: Symbiotic relationships with humans, water-borne and food pathogens, respiratory infections, STDs, botox and tetanus
  4. Lecture 18-25: How the immune system works with T and B cells
  5. Lecture 26-31: How viruses work
  • I got 97.5% for both terms tests and basically how I studied for those was literally learning everything within the lectures and labs (every tiny detail) - but I didn't do any of the recommended textbook readings at all.
Obviously difficulty in these papers is subjective to the person depending on their passion/study techniques used. MICR221, PHAL211 and PHSL231 are all follow-ons from HSFY in terms of content. I'm giving a cliche and boring answer here, but honestly do what you are passionate in because I believe all of those above papers that you mentioned are possible to get A+ in, you just have to do the hard work.

I can understand the frustrations you have had with HSFY grades, I didn't do that great myself and for me that was mainly to do with I didn't know how to study at all. After 3 years of cramming every single exam I have, the best study technique I can offer which has given me up to As or A+s is:
  1. Watch podcast while writing down everything the lecturer says and combine it with lecture slides + pictures to form your initial study notes that should flow nicely to make a story -->
  2. read over those study notes while highlighting points that seem hard to remember -->
  3. try to say a speech about that lecture without reading your notes -->
  4. anything that you could not remember when you were talking, write it down -->
  5. try to say the whole lecture again (not word for word but saying the concept taught) -->
  6. for anymore things that you have still forgotten, write those concepts on a 'hard things to learn' note page.
This process basically allows multiple parts of your brain (hearing memory, writing memory, visual memory) to store information, thus your more likely to remember it in the longterm. From point 2. to 6., this should take approximately 2 hours for each lecture.
 
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Hi everyone,

Thank you for all the contributions. I would like to just inform you that all the posts will be relocated to different threads in the near future. This is to make it easier to access information later in the future.




xxxz98 said:
UMAT didn’t go well for HSFY so I am considering graduate entry for medicine or dentistry. Here is my paper selection for second year. My aim is to keep my options as widely open as possible.

SS: BIOA201; MAOR110
S1: ANAT241; PHSL231; MICR221; PHAL211; PSYC111

In Semester One I want to take four paper of diverse field from the listed five above. I really can’t decide.

And it seems that GENE221, BIOC221and HUNT221 are also quite popular for graduate entry. How are these paper in terms of difficulties to get high grades?I am not too interested but I am open to these options as well.

It will be great if someone who has recently taken these paper can give me some advice.

Sorry for the tedious message. Any forms of advice or assistance is greatly appreciatied(From a frustrated HSFY loser)

Also I wonder are grades from HSFY a good indication of your capability to do well in 200 level paper? Is it risky to do paper selection based on 100 level grades if I have similar interests in different fields of Biomedical Science?
Click to expand...

Hi xxxz98,

First of all, you are not a "loser" because you did not make the cut. It's all part of the competition. There is no need for this kind of mindset.

Second of all, HSFY grades are a good indication of your success. People who did very well in HSFY often does well overall.

Third of all, it is risky to select papers only on your grades. You should consider different aspects. This includes considering how it will affect your degree overall and how it accommodates your strength/interest. HSFY papers are nothing like higher level papers, most of the time.
 
xxxz98

I totally agree with Stuart 's comments above!
I'm actually super grateful that I'm getting the chance to do an undergrad degree first! Doing an undergrad degree is your chance to discover what you are actually interested in! - and you get to learn that stuff in so much more depth than those that go straight into med!

Also agree with not choosing papers just based on what you did well on in health sci! - choose papers on areas you were interested in / even things that weren't really covered in health sci but sound interesting!

You do so much better when you're interested in papers! I found my best paper in my first semester was Neurophysiology (PHSL231) because I enjoyed it so much and actually wanted to put the time into learning about it (definitely not the 'easiest' of the papers I did!).

I really enjoyed CELLS in HSFY and we had briefly touched on genetics in that, so I decided to take a genetics paper in my first semester (GENE221 was a tough one, but I ended up loving it and would still recommend it if anything in the genetics/ biochemistry areas are of interest to you). - also looking back on GENE221, I could've done a lot better in it if I'd known how to study for genetics papers at the time! - exam style is very different to HSFY papers and much more like 3rd year papers (great preparation!).

Also loved the immunology we briefly did in health sci (I later learnt that what we did in health sci was really barely scratching the surface of all of that lol... ) - so thats why I chose my Biomed major (Infection and immunity).

Anyway lol the point of my message was that its a great chance to just give things a go!
I found that there were a couple of 'safe' papers I took just because they seemed like a continuation of HUBS (which I'd done well in) or whatever (e.g. ANAT241), which I actually ended up dropping after 2 or 3 weeks - I realised that I'd do a hell of a lot of anatomy if I got into post grad med anyway, so thought I'd get more out of my degree by doing different papers that I was actually interested in!

sorry I wrote this message in multiple stages so it is probably irrelevant/ doesn't make much sense - but if you want to know anything specific about any 2nd year paper options, send me a message and I'd be happy to help!
 
Hi all,

I've been lurking around this page for the last few months (had no idea this website existed when in HSFY - oh well!) and I was wondering if anyone viewing this forum has taken MAOR204 or MAOR202 in the past? I'm going into my third year of Biomed and I kind of exhausted all of the science papers I was interested in by taking 8 200-level science papers in second year (whoops), so I am looking at other papers. I've only had a skim over some of the more recent posts in this forum, so if this has already been answered then it would be awesome if someone could redirect me! Any other recommendations would be welcomed with open arms.

Also, if anyone has taken 300-level physiology papers at the same time as 300-level microbiology (specifically PHSL 343, 344 and MICR332), how is the timetable clash managed? I noticed there is an allowable clash for 332, and the FUHB major also states that 332 is an allowable choice, however I have no idea how this could be possible (I'm not liking the thought of spending 8-9 hours in a lab environment on Wednesdays, but still want to take these papers)
 
unspecified I'm kinda in the same position - was really struggling to find first sem 200 level papers for next year because I've already taken all the science ones I wanted to this year haha - but after a lot of research I found this BIOC paper called BIOC230 - only thing with it is that you can't take any other BIOC papers / have done any second year bioc papers already. And I also found a stats paper STAT251 which looked kinda useful and hopefully also isn't too much work :/ (just some other suggestions)!
TBH I haven't heard anything about either of these papers so don't know what I'm getting myself into with these ones... But I guess I'll let everyone know in a years time ..? haha

I'm also taking MICR and PHSL 300 level papers - but taking PHSL331 (or332 idk yet) and MICR334 in first sem... and doing MICR332 but not doing any PHSL in sem 2 (haven't actually put my papers in yet or looked to see if there are any timetable clashes oops)
 
Hi everyone,

New MSO member here, but long time lurker. I did HSFY this year aiming for med; I did fairly well in the course getting a 92% average but umat unfortunately let me down leading to me being declined. I've signed up for BioMedSci majoring in functional human biology and would be grateful if someone could look over my paper choices and offer any advice for steering clear of papers and/or adding other papers.

Semester 1: PHSL231
ANAT241
MICR221
BIOC221
Semester 2: PHSL232
PHSL233
MICR223

I've tried to keep my options open so that after semester one I have the option of changing to another major (e.g. Infection and Immunity) or to another degree (e.g. physiology or biochemistry).
My major concerns are workload which may impair my chance of getting grades high enough to be accepted into med through graduate entry. In terms of interest, I really enjoyed hubs, cels and bioc, so I think I've got my heart set in the right area for 2nd year.

Perhaps I should switch BIOC221 for something more manageable? What papers would be more manageable? Also, I've heard a lot about MAOR110, do you think this would be beneficial to add in somewhere? (I've always been keen on learning some Te Reo).

Any thoughts and suggestions would be welcome and very much appreciated :-)
 
Hey guys, does anyone have much experience with the pathology dept. in Otago? Just trying to decide whether or not to take PATH 201 next year, from what I can gather pathology at uni is generally not all that enjoyable. Any input would be appreciated!
 
Morty12 said:
Hey guys, does anyone have much experience with the pathology dept. in Otago? Just trying to decide whether or not to take PATH 201 next year, from what I can gather pathology at uni is generally not all that enjoyable. Any input would be appreciated!
Click to expand...

Hey! I did Path201 this year so I can probably help you there :)

I was in the exact same position as you this time in 2016, I know there isn't many good things on MSO about PATH but I decided to take it anyway because it sounded interesting and I never listen (haha) and ended up both enjoying it and I got an A.

PATH201 (Foundations in Human Pathology)
  • Internal Assessments:
  1. Lab exit tests 5% : Best 5/6 (open book and a breeze if you do the work)
  2. MCQ midsemester test 15%: there were 90MCQs on a slide show each shown for 1 minute. This was a bit of a pain to study for because there was lots of content, but it wasn't as hard as I expected ( I got 85% in this one) . The first half was super easy and the second half was a little more difficult,
  3. Lab Report 5%: It isn't an actually lab report just a sheet with a bunch of questions you have to answer
The labs can be super draining because they like to use up the entire allocated time ( 2:00-5:50) but most of the work doesn't require that much time, but aside from that, the labs are quite interesting themselves.

  • Final Exam
The final exam is worth 70% where you have to write 6 essay questions worth 20marks each with each question being a "choose either question A or B" to answer. The questions can either require you to write an full essay or be SAQs broken down to spread out the marks (you can have a look at past papers to see what I mean)
The final can be quite stressful to study for purely because theres so much content and even though you know you won't get asked about all of of, you can't selectively study since you don't know what they're going to ask however most of the lecturers, with the exception of maybe 2 make it pretty clear what they want you to know. Also many alternate of them alternate between the same few questions possible each year (again check out past papers)

So my advice to you is if it sounds interesting to you, just do it, you probably won't regret it!
Hope this helped :D
 
Morty12 said:
Hey guys, does anyone have much experience with the pathology dept. in Otago? Just trying to decide whether or not to take PATH 201 next year, from what I can gather pathology at uni is generally not all that enjoyable. Any input would be appreciated!
Click to expand...

Hi Morty12,

It might be getting a bit outdated now, but have you seen any of DrFlower's posts on PATH papers? The general review on PATH201 is that it is content-heavy and challenging, but if you are interested in it, it will be worth while.
 
Hi, I'm a new member, been looking at this forum for months and just decided to make an account

I did pretty well in hsfy earning A+ (93. 5%) average but as with many other people here my UMAT was pretty bad.

I'm looking to get into med through postgraduate pathway but I'm very confused on what paper should I take

I enjoyed bioc and hubs and for a while I'm thinking into doing biochemistry major with some anatomy, physiology and genetics papers

Ideally I wanted to do a major/degree that isn' taught in med school so that I can learn new things that can add to my knowledge later

But, I heard that we are going to learn heaps of biochemistry in med school so that kinda discourage me to do biochemistry atm.

So my question is, do you guys have any idea of majors/papers that isn't taught (at least) in a great depth in med school but also possible to get A+ grade?

I'm thinking maybe genetics is a good candidate?

Thanks!
 
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