ATAR Notes: Forum

Uni Stuff => Faculties => Health sciences => Topic started by: jammin on January 10, 2016, 10:21:51 pm

Title: 99.95s who didn't get into Monash Med?
Post by: jammin on January 10, 2016, 10:21:51 pm
Hey guys,

Just wondering whether there have been any 99.95s in the past who didn't get into Monash Med with a nice UMAT (95+ percentile)

So basically they bombed the interview so hard they missed out on a spot?

Thanks!
Title: Re: 99.95s who didn't get into Monash Med?
Post by: pi on January 10, 2016, 10:25:28 pm
I have never heard of one. I know one that was offered a Bonded spot, but their UMAT was lower than what you suggested (in the 80s IIRC).

Granted, I also don't ask around about these sorts of things, so perhaps there has been one or two over he years :P

As someone who has interviewed and marked candidates in the MMI (this year), it's honestly quite hard to "bomb".
Title: Re: 99.95s who didn't get into Monash Med?
Post by: MelonBar on January 10, 2016, 11:27:05 pm
I have never heard of one. I know one that was offered a Bonded spot, but their UMAT was lower than what you suggested (in the 80s IIRC).

Granted, I also don't ask around about these sorts of things, so perhaps there has been one or two over he years :P

As someone who has interviewed and marked candidates in the MMI (this year), it's honestly quite hard to "bomb".

Neat, do you get picked or do you have to apply for it?
Title: Re: 99.95s who didn't get into Monash Med?
Post by: pi on January 11, 2016, 12:18:21 am
Neat, do you get picked or do you have to apply for it?

Both, they sent some of us emails to apply :) Not sure how they chose people to send emails to though!
Title: Re: 99.95s who didn't get into Monash Med?
Post by: drake on January 11, 2016, 10:17:55 am
i've heard of someone who got 99.90 and 99 percentile UMAT and did not get a place.
Title: Re: 99.95s who didn't get into Monash Med?
Post by: Swagadaktal on January 11, 2016, 10:24:16 am
i've heard of someone who got 99.90 and 99 percentile UMAT and did not get a place.
Wait...  how about us peasants who only want a low 99 atar... surely there is a high chance we get in (given I have a good-great interview?)
Title: Re: 99.95s who didn't get into Monash Med?
Post by: The Usual Student on January 11, 2016, 10:29:21 am
Wait...  how about us peasants who only want a low 99 atar... surely there is a high chance we get in (given I have a good-great interview?)

Kinda depends upon each application but a friend of mine who is (horrible at interviews) got an 99.3 and a 90 umat and got in. He is super quiet so I don't think his interview was stellar but his UMAT kinda picked up for it.
Title: Re: 99.95s who didn't get into Monash Med?
Post by: pi on January 11, 2016, 11:30:23 am
For the record, being quiet doesn't translate to poor interviews in this case. The MMI have fairly direct questions in a pretty tight time limit, as long as you answer the question you can do fine. Conversely, being loud and verbose can sometimes mean you try to add too much to your responses and interviewers cut you off before you make your point clear. It's a balance from my experience of bring on both sides of the table.

edit: my default position on people in med is to not believe anything they say about their own skills. If they say they're horrible at interviews, they're probably not. If they said they haven't studied much, they probably have. If they say that exam was the worst, it probably wasn't. And so on :P
Title: Re: 99.95s who didn't get into Monash Med?
Post by: Shenz0r on January 11, 2016, 11:34:32 am
^Agreed, I am pretty quiet and I still did fine on my MMI. I think interviewers look more at the insight and quality of your answers more than how charismatic you are.
Title: Re: 99.95s who didn't get into Monash Med?
Post by: Maz on January 11, 2016, 01:24:39 pm
out of curiosity...what kinda questions do they ask..i have 0 idea?  :)
Title: Re: 99.95s who didn't get into Monash Med?
Post by: Shenz0r on January 11, 2016, 02:19:30 pm
Most of the time they give you a scenario (eg your elderly grandma having visual problems but wanting to drive) and ask questions based on that. You can find heaps of them on medstudentsonline or pagingdr.

At Melbourne we got asked a few personal questions (tell me about a time you had to address a difficulty in a team, why you want to study medicine) but I'm not sure if Monash asks those.
Title: Re: 99.95s who didn't get into Monash Med?
Post by: HughMungus on January 11, 2016, 03:40:38 pm
I have heard of a 99.95 with 91 umat not get a spot in South Australia. But with that atar, one must really screw up the interview to not get a spot.
Title: Re: 99.95s who didn't get into Monash Med?
Post by: heart on January 12, 2016, 12:24:19 am
Interview performance is very hard to predict. Did three interviews this year two MMIs (Deakin and Sydney) and panel (Flinders) and despite practicing and feeling confident for all of them got no offers for each just get very lucky with a 2nd round offer from Monash. It is also hard to predict ones interview performance based on their personality, have heard very social people not getting offers and more quiet people getting spots. Overall all you can do is prepare the best you care or just get a high gamsat and go to the University of Queensland- only uni that offers med spots with no interview. 
Title: Re: 99.95s who didn't get into Monash Med?
Post by: jammin on January 12, 2016, 01:12:34 am
Interview performance is very hard to predict. Did three interviews this year two MMIs (Deakin and Sydney) and panel (Flinders) and despite practicing and feeling confident for all of them got no offers for each just get very lucky with a 2nd round offer from Monash. It is also hard to predict ones interview performance based on their personality, have heard very social people not getting offers and more quiet people getting spots. Overall all you can do is prepare the best you care or just get a high gamsat and go to the University of Queensland- only uni that offers med spots with no interview.

Since you did biomed and now you're doing MBBS does this mean you're basically starting at the same time as students 3 years younger than you? :o
Isn't Melbourne Graduate med a better option?
Title: Re: 99.95s who didn't get into Monash Med?
Post by: pi on January 12, 2016, 01:17:15 am
Since you did biomed and now you're doing MBBS does this mean you're basically starting at the same time as students 3 years younger than you? :o
Isn't Melbourne Graduate med a better option?

All medical degrees are similar (pros and cons of each degree are beyond the scope of this thread and have been discussed to great lengths elsewhere - search for it!). MD1 and Year A MBBS are essentially the same, they'll still be 2 years 'behind' those who got in via the undergrad pathway who graduated school with them. I also think it's a good thing to mix grad students and undergrad students, good variety.
Title: Re: 99.95s who didn't get into Monash Med?
Post by: Shenz0r on January 12, 2016, 08:58:05 am
It is also hard to predict ones interview performance based on their personality, have heard very social people not getting offers and more quiet people getting spots.

Agreed. It is very hard to tell how you went in an MMI. I remember some of my friends said their MMI felt awkward and they still got in, others said they felt quite confident after their interview but they got rejected. There are many small things that come into play as well - such as body language and directness (ie actually answering the question asked, not the one you wanted to be asked, and not beating about the bush).

Although everyone should practise for their MMI, it is also very important to not come off as robotic or "rehearsed" (AND DO NOT LIE), just pretend the whole thing is a natural conversation rather than a high stakes exam.