Medical Interviews (2 Viewers)

[~Fire Jade~]

Hello.
I'm a new member and doing the HSC this year and I really wanna do medicine. I've heard that students must undergo the UMAT and interviews by the unis. I'm really worried about the interview bit. :worried: Is it grilling? What sort of questions do they ask? Can anybody here who is doing medicine tell me about the interviews?
If you do bad in the interviews, does that mean there is zero chance in getting to medicine?

Thanks!

 

[Wooz]

Check out http://www.medstudentsonline.com/forums aswell

Interviews make up a large proportion of the entrance weighting at most universities, it's a both psycholocial hurdle and examinaiton but it's mainly to see if your suitable for medicine and to find your intentions of studying medicine.

Yeah if you bomb the interviews you pretty much have a very bad chance unless you aced your uai and umat. Don't worry about the interview just yet, focus on umat and the hsc.

 

[bubbly89]

Different universities have slightly different interview approaches. Some have mini tests within them testing your communication skills while others don't.

I went to quite a few and pretty much all of them were interviews to see if you had a life/understanding of the world around you unrelated to studying. That you had friends and a bit of social understanding.

They also asked about your expectations about studying medicine, your aims, and about the course you were applying for.

I have two pieces of advice, firstly get a life, I think this is good advice anyway but yeah, if you don't have one, you should get one.

Secondly write a CV about all the things you've done, co-curriculars, leadership, med related activities and the like.

Seriously though, after every interview they sit down and say "do you think so and so should be a doctor", so think about the qualities of a good doctor- what are they, why are you so special? etc.

Course there is always Tassie and UQ if you suck at interviewing

 

[~Fire Jade~]

Hey, thanks for replying (you guys are so nice! )
The idea of the interviews have been in my mind for a while. I'm good at communicating- I think but I'm nervous that the interviewers would think otherwise of me...
Umm, bubbly89, this sounds embarrassing but what is a CV? I'm doing my HSC this year and if you don't do chemistry is that alright?
Also, can you apply to several universities for medicine...then would it be possible that the university interviews will all be on the same time on the same day for you? Has that ever happened or do the universities contact each other and know a student is going to a certain university for an interview? Just wondering...
Sorry btw for my unbelievably large amount of questions...

 

[bubbly89]

don't worry about it, questions are good

A CV short for curriculum vitae, basically its a resume, its what you use to apply for jobs. So you write down all your qualifications ie year 10 certificate, your grades, your achievements and so forth. Basically its a piece of paper saying how great you are.

Different universities have different requirements to study medicine, I know that Monash does have a Chem prereq, while UNSW doesn't. I'd recommend it if you can do it. If not then just check which unis need it and which don't. Its useful as it makes the first few weeks a lot easier.

In most cases, with most unis you will be able to rescedule your appointment, but be warned you work around the uni not the other way around. Plus some universities flat out refuse to change it ie JCU. Others will change it but will want some documentation as to why they should change it. Yeah but if you apply to all the unis then you will have some hectic weeks after the exams.

 

[~Fire Jade~]

Yay. Thanks for explaining what a CV means, bubbly89 ! Just for your information's sake, I'm going starry eyed with joy because I'm grateful to have my questions answered (maybe, there's a little exaggeration here...^x^).
I'll make sure to be mentally prepared about trying out the different universities for medicine. The medicine course seems like a really hard course to get into (which makes me want to get into it more!)

 

[~Fire Jade~]

Another question (no, other questions I want to ask) is can there be any UMAT preparation done?
Also, is the Medicine Course really hard to learn? Is there a lot to memorise about the human body? And is it true that students practice on real bodies?
Sorry to all about my morbid curiosity...
Curiosity killed the cat =.= but satisfaction brought it back! ^-^

Also on uni life, is it wise to move out of the family home? I'm really fascinated on becoming more independant (did I spell that right?)...:rofl:

 

[Wooz]

Another question (no, other questions I want to ask) is can there be any UMAT preparation done?
Also, is the Medicine Course really hard to learn? Is there a lot to memorise about the human body? And is it true that students practice on real bodies?
Sorry to all about my morbid curiosity...
Curiosity killed the cat =.= but satisfaction brought it back! ^-^

Also on uni life, is it wise to move out of the family home? I'm really fascinated on becoming more independant (did I spell that right?)...:rofl:

Yeah theres alot of prep courses:

www.icarus.edu.au
www.medentry.com.au
www.f2fumat.com.au

But their way overpriced and often not worth doing.

Also you must buy the umat materials published by acer. http://www.acer.edu.au/umat

If you get into med school, your deemed good enough by the uni to do it, you should succeed.

Yeah you'll have to deal with disecting dead bodies(cadavers) and seeing alot of anatomical pictures.

 

[bubbly89]

Umat preparation... yes I truly believe you can prepare for it

you have section one: advanced comphrehension
section two: soapy harder to prepare for
section three: puzzles, same as in any IQ book

I think the fact that UNSW says quite clearly on their website that students from Singapore don't have to do the UMAT is a pretty clear indication that students with different educational backgrounds have an advantage. Which means that you too can have an advantage.

Whether you'd get good preparation from a prep course is still up for debate.

I'm only 2 weeks into med... I'm probably not the best person to ask, but I've talked a lot and most people agree that its not so much hard- but just the sheer amount of information you need to know is mind boggling. So quantitative learning not qualitative.

With the bodies, depends on the uni, we have pre disected bodies to discect here, but I believe places like Monash still do full body disections. I have my first anatomy lab soon, so I'll edit this later.

I'm living at college at the moment, and I'm am having an absolute blast, could not recommend it highly enough. Its so fun and its such a great supportive enviroment to be in. I love it, even really early. On top of it at the college I'm living at there are heaps of second year med and third year med students I can call on for info. Its fantastic.

I hope that answered it, ignore my pathetic grammar I'm a bit tired.

 

[partelephant]

Mmm first anatomy prac tomorrow with cadaver.... when it first gets revealed I swear I'm just going to watch people's faces turn white instead of concentrating on the actual thing =P

But it's not so much about "memorising" stuff about the human body per se, but knowing and understanding it esp. how everything fits into function, etc. But then again, I'm in the exact same position as bubbly89 so you prob shouldn't pay massive attention to what I say. However by all accounts, med is relatively easy to pass but hard to excel in.

 

[doink]

Do well in the UMAT and HSC before you start thinking about the interview. My friend got 99.80 and 98 percentile in UMAT (whatever that is) and still didn't get an offer after his interview. To be blunt unless your UAI and UMAT is spectacular you will probably not do undergraduate medicine.

 

[Bacilli]

Way to be negative, dud.

 

[bubbly89]

Do well in the UMAT and HSC before you start thinking about the interview. My friend got 99.80 and 98 percentile in UMAT (whatever that is) and still didn't get an offer after his interview. To be blunt unless your UAI and UMAT is spectacular you will probably not do undergraduate medicine.

I don't know how your example is supposed to work in your favour... how do you know that he didn't get in as a result of his spectaculary bad interview? I mean those scores are better then mine, and I got in...

 

[beentherdunthat]

Do well in the UMAT and HSC before you start thinking about the interview. My friend got 99.80 and 98 percentile in UMAT (whatever that is) and still didn't get an offer after his interview. To be blunt unless your UAI and UMAT is spectacular you will probably not do undergraduate medicine.

...
This coming from someone who doesn't even know what UMAT is....

My friend got 172 as his UMAT mark and was offered an interview at NSW... he got 98.95 but didn't get an offer.

My other friend got 98.55 and was offered medicine at NSW. And his UMAT wasn't even in the top 90%...

For ur info doink, early interview offers are sent out even before students get their UAI. SO for them the process is 1) Do good in Umat 2) Do good in the interview 3) Get a good UAI

 

[partelephant]

The UMAT is definitely a step that is underestimated by a lot of people esp. as in many schools it falls during or the week before trials.
Look at it this way - you only have one chance for the UMAT, if you screw it up royally you have ABSOLUTELY no hope. At least with the HSC, you can make up in later assessments or even in later HSC exams. Similarly, if you apply at a lot of places and get a lot of interviews, at least you have several chances.

 

[+Po1ntDeXt3r+]

the UNSW CV is not like a job one.. its different.. so dun jsut cut and paste.. its very.. well.. experience orientated.

and to the 99.80 one and UMAT 98....
- total of 98?... bit too low ..
- UAI 89.90? typo/misquote?
- forget to apply to UAC? VTAC? .. CVs etc.. and direct applications...

there are numerous reasons ppl dun get it.. so u have to be ready for any of them f**kin up..

 

[~Fire Jade~]

Hello, it's been a while but I'm back again. Technically, I shouldn't even be here (half yearlies... ) but I couldn't help myself. Thanx for the helpful tips. I guess you're all right...I'm more worried about my half yearlies more than anything. The medicine practicals sound really interesting (well, there is an yuck factor ^x^)!

Is Chemistry really needed for Med? Is is a prerequisite (Did I spell it right? Srry...sorta tired and spaced out =.=)? Cos, I heard one of my teachers saying unis cancelled all prerequisites...and I don't do Chemistry...

Also, I heard there's Chemistry tutoring classes before the Med Class to go to. Is it free/ expensive/ necessary?

Cya...will be back soon...
:rofl:

 

[bubbly89]

I'm not really sure as pretty much I figured out anything that could possibly be a prerequisate and did it... yeah keen a bit.

I think most places have "assumed" or "recommended" but not actually "prerequisate" in their wording. There is always bridging courses to be had, and many places like Monash offer the bridging courses for free if you get in

I think its a good idea to do Chem and Bio if you can; depending on what course you do, will tell you how much they will cover, but it'll be a real fast version of what would usually take 2 years to wrap your head around... Its always nice to learn something over two years rather then 4 weeks.

However in terms of actually getting into med, I'm pretty sure not doing Chem won't hurt you, as long as you get the required UAI.

 

[partelephant]

Chemistry WAS a prerequisite for Monash last year but I'm not sure whether this has changed. Monash offered a bridging course for Biology, not for Chemistry. I know several people who couldn't apply to Monash last year because they had not done it. But having said that, I don't think its a prerequisite for anywhere else; merely recommended.

 

[Wooz]

Umelb used to have Chem and Mathematical Methods as a prereq but now it only takes in grads.

Utas has English and Chemistry as a prerequisite.

Bond prereq 2u maths or greater, chemistry and english.

Monash still has chem and english listed as a prereq.