JPM WSU/CSU JPM: UCAT Section Weighting Discussion and Questions

[Dr Sah]

Hi there! Can some one help me understand this. My son got a 3010 overall score. Vr 710, DM 750, QR 860, AR 690. SJT was 872!. His formula score was 729. He is a GWS and his first preference was Western Sydney Uni. He hasn’t recieved an offfer interview invite yet…

 

[maybeobsessed]

Hi there! Can some one help me understand this. My son got a 3010 overall score. Vr 710, DM 750, QR 860, AR 690. SJT was 872!. His formula score was 729. He is a GWS and his first preference was Western Sydney Uni. He hasn’t recieved an offfer interview invite yet…

So i think this makes his JPM/WSU formula (58%VR + 12%DM + 12%QR + 18%AR): 729.2?
From looking at MSO this would have been enough for an offer interview invite last year. Maybe he will get a top up invite this year? I am a parent too Dr Sah. I hope your son is doing well and gets where he wants to go!

 

[Dr Sah]

So i think this makes his JPM/WSU formula (58%VR + 12%DM + 12%QR + 18%AR): 729.2?
From looking at MSO this would have been enough for an offer last year. Maybe he will get a top up invite this year? I am a parent too Dr Sah. I hope your son is doing well and gets where he wants to go!

Thanks for the reply.. it’s heart breaking but he’ll just take a leap of faith and move on I guess... I just wanted to make sure we didn’t leave any stones unturned like confirming if there has been any mistake. In the interview invite data it’s mind boggling hiw there are a few GWS interview invites for scores lesser and with early 720 wsu formula score.

 

[maybeobsessed]

Thanks for the reply.. it’s heart breaking but he’ll just take a leap of faith and move on I guess... I just wanted to make sure we didn’t leave any stones unturned like confirming if there has been any mistake. In the interview invite data it’s mind boggling hiw there are a few GWS interview invites for scores lesser and with early 720 wsu formula score.

I am certainly no expert. I am just commenting based on what I have seen online here. If you feel that there has been a mistake I would check with the uni!

I had a look and you are right there are GWS students who were offered interviews with WSU scores lower than your sons.

 

[Dr Sah]

I am certainly no expert. I am just commenting based on what I have seen online here. If you feel that there has been a mistake I would check with the uni!

I appreciate your comments..

 

[Purplefolly]

All the best to your son. It is heart-breaking. I hope there has been an error by the uni on his behalf.

If it helps to have a time frame for when 'top-ups' may be given, this was on the WSU invite:

The online booking system will be available from:

• open at 10am, Monday 8 November 2021
• close at 4pm, Wednesday 10 November 2021 (Sydney AEDT)

Candidates who do not book an interview by 4pm, Wednesday 10 November 2021 will be regarded as having withdrawn their application.

 

[A1]

In the interview invite data it’s mind boggling hiw there are a few GWS interview invites for scores lesser and with early 720 wsu formula score.

Below are the GWS invites with formula scores around 720-730s
640 840 880 870 - 3230
640 710 900 870 - 3120
670 730 830 870 - 3100
680 730 830 800 - 3040
680 680 870 800 - 3030
700 680 880 720 - 2980
720 660 800 800 - 2980
740 730 730 690 - 2890

We can see the general trend the higher VR the less Overall is needed. This verifies WSU is still weighting VR heavily, but maybe a little less heavily than last year (due to high VRs reaching mid 800s vs mid 700s last year), thus making last year's formula less accurate.

Of particular interest are these sets of scores
640 710 900 870 - 3120 (721.0)
700 680 880 720 - 2980 (722.8)
740 730 730 690 - 2890 (728.6)
versus DrSah's son
710 750 860 690 - 3010 (729.2) - No invite

Hypothetically if I changed the weightings to 55%VR + 5%DM + 10%QR + 30%AR their formula scores would become
640 710 900 870 - 3120 (738.5)
700 680 880 720 - 2980 (723.0)
740 730 730 690 - 2890 (723.5)
versus DrSah's son
710 750 860 690 - 3010 (721.0) - No invite

We don't know exactly what WSU's weightings have been changed to, I just want to show here mathematically there exist possible weightings that make DrSah's son lower than the current GWS invites.

(Btw it's why I was keen to find a lawyer who, with $40 fee, can quiz WSU on the weightings for us. The other schools are quite transparent on how they use the section scores, don't know why WSU has to hide it).

 

[Dr Sah]

All the best to your son. It is heart-breaking. I hope there has been an error by the uni on his behalf.

If it helps to have a time frame for when 'top-ups' may be given, this was on the WSU invite:

The online booking system will be available from:

• open at 10am, Monday 8 November 2021
• close at 4pm, Wednesday 10 November 2021 (Sydney AEDT)

Candidates who do not book an interview by 4pm, Wednesday 10 November 2021 will be regarded as having withdrawn their application.

Thanks for your kind words..you’ll make a great doctor. All the best

 

[Scrivo_72]

Thanks for your kind words..you’ll make a great doctor. All the best

Also, to get in contact and verify if an error was made, there are a couple of things you can do.
1. Contact Penny Lee who is the student experience admin officer (my friend told me to do this, and Penny was super helpful in contacting the admissions team to see if an error was made). Then after telling me no system error was made she said I can still follow this up by contacting WSU admissions directly.
2. Contact WSU admissions, [email protected]. When contacting WSU admissions, Penny said to include full name, DOB and UAC number. Due to the high frequency of contacts to WSU admissions it might take a while for them to respond.
3. Contact Doctor of Medicine enquiries at WSU (wouldn't advise this option as the people there aren't aware of all the information, but if you don't want to do option 1 or 2, this could work). 1300 897 669.

Wish you the best, and hope everything works out for your son.
Cheers,
Flynn

 

[A1]

Penny said ... Due to the high frequency of contacts to WSU admissions it might take a while for them to respond.

Can you suggest to Penny to release the weightings to us, we'll volunteer to do all verifications and save WSU staff heaps of time

 

[Dr Sah]

Below are the GWS invites with formula scores around 720-730s
640 840 880 870 - 3230
640 710 900 870 - 3120
670 730 830 870 - 3100
680 730 830 800 - 3040
680 680 870 800 - 3030
700 680 880 720 - 2980
720 660 800 800 - 2980
740 730 730 690 - 2890

We can see the general trend the higher VR the less Overall is needed. This verifies WSU is still weighting VR heavily, but maybe a little less heavily than last year (due to high VRs reaching mid 800s vs mid 700s last year), thus making last year's formula less accurate.

Of particular interest are these sets of scores
640 710 900 870 - 3120 (721.0)
700 680 880 720 - 2980 (722.8)
740 730 730 690 - 2890 (728.6)
versus DrSah's son
710 750 860 690 - 3010 (729.2) - No invite

Hypothetically if I changed the weightings to 55%VR + 5%DM + 10%QR + 30%AR their formula scores would become
640 710 900 870 - 3120 (738.5)
700 680 880 720 - 2980 (723.0)
740 730 730 690 - 2890 (723.5)
versus DrSah's son
710 750 860 690 - 3010 (721.0) - No invite

We don't know exactly what WSU's weightings have been changed to, I just want to show here mathematically there exist possible weightings that make DrSah's son lower than the current GWS invites.

(Btw it's why I was keen to find a lawyer who, with $40 fee, can quiz WSU on the weightings for us. The other schools are quite transparent on how they use the section scores, don't know why WSU has to hide it).

This sounds plausible…

Also, to get in contact and verify if an error was made, there are a couple of things you can do.
1. Contact Penny Lee who is the student experience admin officer (my friend told me to do this, and Penny was super helpful in contacting the admissions team to see if an error was made). Then after telling me no system error was made she said I can still follow this up by contacting WSU admissions directly.
2. Contact WSU admissions, [email protected]. When contacting WSU admissions, Penny said to include full name, DOB and UAC number. Due to the high frequency of contacts to WSU admissions it might take a while for them to respond.
3. Contact Doctor of Medicine enquiries at WSU (wouldn't advise this option as the people there aren't aware of all the information, but if you don't want to do option 1 or 2, this could work). 1300 897 669.

Wish you the best, and hope everything works out for your son.
Cheers,
Flynn

This is very helpful…thanks heaps

 

[DT30]

More bad news. A member (unnamed for now, who is ACT with WSU-pref) is quizzing WSU why three others have got invites with apparently lower UCAT scores. I've helped check that these three have higher and/or lower scores in various sections i.e. there isn't one common set of weightings that can mathematically make all three higher than him.

WSU replied they double checked, no errors.

I now realise these three are all NSW whereas this member is ACT. So there must be a higher cutoff for non-NSW at WSU too.

Just received email confirmation from WSU Admissions, that for the MD program they now have an 80% NSW quota, resulting in higher interstate cutoffs. Could help explain a lot of those oddball cases.

 

[emperortamarin]

imo pretty harsh that ACT isnt included in NSW quota
makes people in the ACT the only people in Australia who don't have a university that has a quota/lower cutoffs for them (i think?)

 

[A1]

Just received email confirmation from WSU Admissions, that for the MD program they now have an 80% NSW quota

It's bad, but not really really that bad.
WSU has a 50% quota for GWS anyway, so in previous years 50% GWS, maybe 20% NSW, 30% interstate. Now 50% GWS, 30% NSW, 20% interstate.

 

[megacomaster]

Does anyone know is WSU has multiple interview offer batches or if all interview offers were already sent out?

 

[DrDrLMG!]

Does anyone know is WSU has multiple interview offer batches or if all interview offers were already sent out?

There may be some top up interview invites to come once WSU can see if there are any gaps in their interview schedule. These are usually pretty minimal but they do happen quite regularly. We get maybe half a dozen reported here each year. Maybe slightly less.

 

[rmnkthnd]

I'm lowkey confused about the weightings for WSU. I got 720 630 800 750 and my weighted score with the current formula is 724.2. I'm also GWS. Obviously my DM took a big hit but it still seems like it counts for little. If the "new" formula prioritised AR & QR then I'd assume my weighted score would be a fair bit higher since those were my strong suits. Obviously this is all speculative as idk what their true formula is but it seems odd because I can't see any consistent weightings

 

[A1]

I'm lowkey confused about the weightings for WSU. I got 720 630 800 750 and my weighted score with the current formula is 724.2. I'm also GWS. Obviously my DM took a big hit but it still seems like it counts for little. If the "new" formula prioritised AR & QR then I'd assume my weighted score would be a fair bit higher since those were my strong suits. Obviously this is all speculative as idk what their true formula is but it seems odd because I can't see any consistent weightings

Based on the current/old formula these are the known lowest GSW with invites
1) 700 680 880 720 - 2980 (722.8)
2) 640 710 900 870 - 3120 (721.0)

versus No invites
3) 710 750 860 690 - 3010 (729.2)
4) 720 630 800 750 - 2900 (724.2)
5) 670 710 710 870 - 2960 (715.6)

At first I thought for (3) to not get an invite versus (2), WSU must have reduced VR weighting while increased AR weighting substantially. But now with rmnkthnd's scores I detect a new pattern. It could be the old formula is still more/less valid but an applicant gets rejected if they have a section score below a certain threshold (say 20-30%ile of that section).

If that's true then (3) no invite due to 690 AR, (4) no invite due to 630 DM, (5) no invite due to weighted average.

 

[rmnkthnd]

Based on the current/old formula these are the known lowest GSW with invites
1) 700 680 880 720 - 2980 (722.8)
2) 640 710 900 870 - 3120 (721.0)

versus No invites
3) 710 750 860 690 - 3010 (729.2)
4) 720 630 800 750 - 2900 (724.2)
5) 670 710 710 870 - 2960 (715.6)

At first I thought for (3) to not get an invite versus (2), WSU must have reduced VR weighting while increased AR weighting substantially. But now with rmnkthnd's scores I detect a new pattern. It could be the old formula is still more/less valid but an applicant gets rejected if they have a section score below a certain threshold (say 20-30%ile of that section).

If that's true then (3) no invite due to 690 AR, (4) no invite due to 630 DM, (5) no invite due to weighted average.

this makes a lot of sense tbh. jeez if WSU were just transparent with their admissions process I wouldn't have wasted $100 applying on uac if I wasn't going to meet some arbitrary cut off anyway

edit: Actually, I saw a GWS, non-rural candidate with a total of 2890 & a 690AR get a WSU invite so now I'm not too sure

 

[Beepbop]

Based on the current/old formula these are the known lowest GSW with invites
1) 700 680 880 720 - 2980 (722.8)
2) 640 710 900 870 - 3120 (721.0)

versus No invites
3) 710 750 860 690 - 3010 (729.2)
4) 720 630 800 750 - 2900 (724.2)
5) 670 710 710 870 - 2960 (715.6)

At first I thought for (3) to not get an invite versus (2), WSU must have reduced VR weighting while increased AR weighting substantially. But now with rmnkthnd's scores I detect a new pattern. It could be the old formula is still more/less valid but an applicant gets rejected if they have a section score below a certain threshold (say 20-30%ile of that section).

If that's true then (3) no invite due to 690 AR, (4) no invite due to 630 DM, (5) no invite due to weighted average.

Honestly, this tracks with my non-GWS score. I did decently in all sections except for my QR which was pretty shitty (790, 740, 670, 770 - 2970 (766)), hovering between the 50th and 60th percentile. But someone else who's non-GWS got an invite with a lower WSU formula, but their scores were all decently high percentiles and their overall UCAT score was much higher (700, 790, 870, 870 - 3230 (761)).