how hard is to get a 70 average in a sci degree? (1 Viewer)

[hello:)]

hi,

i am considering getting into med/dent via grad entry, or transfering in either a sci degree in Aust or doing 1st year health sci in NZ. in order to get into 2nd year med/dent, you need an average of 70%, how hard is this?? for instance if im getting a 90+ uai, what do u think someone with this uai would be getting in uni?

thanks

 

[Templar]

Depends on subjects and other factors. UAI isn't a good prediction.

Should be pretty easy though.

 

[Hurri]

Not very.

 

[jemsta]

nothing is hard if you put your mindset into it

 

[vodkacrumble]

depending on the subjects you take, how interested you are in them and the assessments that are in place will determine your uni marks. but in general is not hard. at all.

 

[Serius]

first year is a joke, its basically going over what you allready learnt in school and expanding on it alittle in a few easy to follow directions

 

[Spon888]

hi,

i am considering getting into med/dent via grad entry, or transfering in either a sci degree in Aust or doing 1st year health sci in NZ. in order to get into 2nd year med/dent, you need an average of 70%, how hard is this?? for instance if im getting a 90+ uai, what do u think someone with this uai would be getting in uni?

thanks

Hey, I'm basically following your posts around, (check your pm!). Otherwise, out of interest, how do you go about applying for NZ (I'm assuming you're going for Otago)? i.e Whats the name of the UAC equivalent/website and do you have to submit anything directly to the Uni?

Also from what I've read up, they do say its very competitive to get into 2nd year med/dent blahblahblah but I think they just want to say that so they don't have to guarantee anything. It might help if you can find out
i) Number of places in first year health sciences
ii) Number of places in Med, Dent and Health Science for second year
iii) How many offers are made for second year

I'm assuming that the uni will say offer...100+? or so places into first year, and then for 2nd year split the group into 30? for dent, at least double for med, and the rest to stay in healthsciences. So you could probably work chance you would have of getting into 2nd year med/dent by simply finding out number of places to number of applicants. Also 70% is a credit average. Most people should be able to do this, if they put their minds to it.

And what you get for UAI's can sort of be used as a prediction. You can sort of tell how academic someone is from their UAI, assuming that they did put work in. But if the dent/med coursed in NZ are scenario based, I would say credit averages are OK, but if they are very science based in the first year, then you would need to put some level of academic work in to achieve credits, but otherwise I think a credit average is very achievable. Its just a question of competing with other people in first year, because there are limited number of places.

 

[vodkacrumble]

check the umat info (acer.edu.au/umat) it has most of the above info.

 

[kcchippy]

I'm doing comm/sci (adv) at USYD and at first I thought the hours were a bit full on and I have to say, if you're not interested in the subjects then it is a bit overwhelming because you can soo get behind really quickly. But I'd say the objective difficulty is not beyond anyone who can work hard and managed to get 80+ in their science subjects at high school, because as someone else said even in ADv chem a lot of the work in first semester was revision and if you put in the study you would do really well (also uni lecturers can be lazy, for adv chem - exact same questions as past papers in the same order! so do past papers if they exist!).

I have to say one thing, success at uni is not dependent on UAI, it has more to do with organisation, commitment and using the support system to your advantage if you are feeling overwhelmed. I'd say getting a 70+ average in science subjects depends on which ones, some of the maths subjects will be easy for people who's forte is maths and extremely challenging if you were an average 3 unit student. Bottom line is that university has little to do with UAI once you're in the course...it's all about committment (a little bit of natural ability re: science subjects), being organised and knowing how to use the support network given if you get stuck.

 

[lala2]

^^definitely kchippy--if your post had come earlier before semester 1 this year, I might have gotten a better average. But what's done is done, and I'm hoping to raise my average this semester.

 

[hello:)]

thanks kcchippy, that seems fair enough, i guess i'll have to put my head to it and see how i go. The only prob is that i stupidly didn't do chem...and pretty much all sci degrees have a component of that, esp 1st yr heath sci which I am considering; would you recomend a chem bridging course before I start?

quote:
Hey, I'm basically following your posts around, (check your pm!). Otherwise, out of interest, how do you go about applying for NZ (I'm assuming you're going for Otago)? i.e Whats the name of the UAC equivalent/website and do you have to submit anything directly to the Uni?

Also from what I've read up, they do say its very competitive to get into 2nd year med/dent blahblahblah but I think they just want to say that so they don't have to guarantee anything. It might help if you can find out
i) Number of places in first year health sciences
ii) Number of places in Med, Dent and Health Science for second year
iii) How many offers are made for second year

I'm assuming that the uni will say offer...100+? or so places into first year, and then for 2nd year split the group into 30? for dent, at least double for med, and the rest to stay in healthsciences. So you could probably work chance you would have of getting into 2nd year med/dent by simply finding out number of places to number of applicants. Also 70% is a credit average. Most people should be able to do this, if they put their minds to it.

And what you get for UAI's can sort of be used as a prediction. You can sort of tell how academic someone is from their UAI, assuming that they did put work in. But if the dent/med coursed in NZ are scenario based, I would say credit averages are OK, but if they are very science based in the first year, then you would need to put some level of academic work in to achieve credits, but otherwise I think a credit average is very achievable. Its just a question of competing with other people in first year, because there are limited number of places

interms of applying to otago, you'll have to get incontact with the uni directly, as there is apparently no uni admission centre for NZ. so all i've done is emailed a member of the admissons staff from the health sci faculty and asked them to tell me how to apply, and they are very slowly letting me know the procedure.

yes..1st year health sci is very comp for 2nd year med/dent. according to the stats they sent me: 900 ppl from 1st year health sci(that is an enormous cohort, hopefully just a tyop on their part) apply for 55 spots. thats only 6% who will get in from 1st yr HS (assuming they all apply for dent), not including ppl from elsewhere! but yeah...im still considering it
..ok i'll check pm.

 

[kcchippy]

I'd say it'd be pretty tough coming into first year chem with no chem knowledge at all. Again, it does come down to working hard and catchin up quickly. Basically, they'll cover most of the relevant HSC + prelim (mostly prelim stuff was needed for semester 1) in around 2 weeks, so it's like pretty full on. I'd say if you can get the bridging course, do it, it's definately worthwhile if you have no chem knowledge at all, even if it's just to make you more comfortable with the concepts. However, I don't think at least for the first few weeks of chem most of the HSC knowledge helped much, so I wouldn't say it's absolutely necessary....especially if you just grab the textbook and read + practise the first few chapters (which are usually just HSC revision)...

 

[firstjuly]

what luck.

did my HSC last year and got a UAI of 98.60. however, i didn't quite make it past the med interviews. am now studying at otago.

HSFY (health sci first year) enrolment at the start of the year was something like 1600. i've been told it's around that figure every year. but as with this year, it's dropped considerabally after our mid year exams. people fail, decide to take other papers, etc. 900 sounds about right. thing is only about 500people still qualify for med coz of the cutoff.

in terms of work load, it's hard to say. they're gonna change the whole HSFY course next year, so you won't be doing the same papers i'm currently doing. we've been told it's gonna be similar, yet different. think they're gonna move a paper which the second year med students are doing down. this is to accomodate the switch between the old school style of clinical and pre-clinical learning which otago is still based on, and the more intergrated system currently used by aussie unis. you'll be the first batch of this more intergrated system, though i have my doubts about how much more integrated it will be. i've heard it takes a couple of years to fine tune these kinda changes.

anyway, to give you a picture of what it's like.... you need to come in the top 110 or so in the cohort, taking your academic results and umat into consideration. you're given a score out of 100 based as follows:
66% academics - HSFY average (none below 70); and
34% umat (scaled: 45%,45%,10% for the 3sections respectively. use umat scores, not percentiles)
i've been told you need a score of around 75 to get into med, but it varies with the ability of your chorot.

what are your current umat scores? i only achieved 18+ out of the 34% allocated for that. so, the higher your umat scores, the less you have to get for your academics. you're off with a head start coz you've already taken your umat once. most people here don't take it until HSFY itself. gives you a gauge of how hard you need to work, and another opportunity to retake the umat. having said that, i did worse this year than last.

academically, most people aim for 90, not 70. there's a girl i know who's mid year average was 97. but don't let that scare you. i did the HSC. compartively, the work's not really that hard. i know people who've spent the whole year, literally at the library from 9am-11pm everyday. but i those people are just sad. i think, if you're willing to put in time to complete your internal assessments, and study hard out for a few weeks before every test/exam, you should be sweet. (or so i'd like to think, coz that's what i've been doing and exams are in 6days. as you can see, i'm not that worried, to be sitting here, composing such a long response in hope that it will help you)

auckland's supposed to be very much more competitive, but you've gotta ask someone from there to be really sure. they've got an interview as part of their selection criteria for med too.

dunedin's special coz it's a student town. practically everything happening in the city revolves round students. nothing like it back in aussie. even if you decided for HSFY to be your semi-gap year kinda thing, the experience will be more than worth it in my opinion.

anyhow, just my two cents: if you're dead set on med, apply to otago anyway. if you qualify for an aussie med school, good on ya. but if you don't, you'll have it as an option. and you can always change your mind anyway. you don't have to pay anything to apply and tuition fees aren't due until late jan... so yeah.

lesson learnt: apply for accommodation early. round now would be a good time. i think you've gotta pay a bit for that, but it's worth it if you want to stay in a university college (there are 11 to choose from). i only applied when i got rejected by aussie unis in jan, and by that time, i was at the bottom of a waiting list with about 100+ people in queue. only by God's grace did i manage to get a place, spending my first two weeks enquiring at almost every college.

i don't come on BOS very often. if you wish to find out more, email chade000@student.otago.ac.nz . may take a wee while to reply coz i'll be having exams though. anyhow, all the best with your HSC.