Satisfying maths method prerequisite for university...

[BakaRikki]

Hi,

I'm currently a Latrobe uni student who have finished their first year of their course. I'm planning to transfer to Melbourne university by the end of next year (2020) and hopefully get into their "bachelor of agriculture" course BUT here's where in confused...

After doing two years of higher educations, this is what they say when it comes to considering applicants for transferring:

"WAMs will be calculated across all the higher education study and across the last year (1 EFTSL) and the higher of the two will be considered in assessment. If the points equating to the last EFTSL fall within a study period (eg, semester) then all subjects within that study period will be included in the calculation"

Which is fine, but then they say:
"All applicants must satisfy the course prerequisites. For most applicants this will be done by with the relevant Australian Year 12 subject. However, there are other ways to satisfy a course prerequisite."

Does this mean I have to satisfy the prerequisites for the course I want to get into? Here's the link if you want to have a look at it:
https://study.unimelb.edu.au/how-to-apply/undergraduate-admissions-information

If that's the case, bachelor of agriculture requires English, which I have but one of either maths methods, specialist or furthers, WHICH I DO NOT HAVE... the most I've done is foundation maths in year 10 or something... and even then I didn't get very high scores in it...

So here's where I'm lost and need guidance... Melbourne uni offer a certain summer online course called "Calculus and Probability Online", here's a link for that subject if you want to take a look:
https://unimelb.edu.au/professional-development/courses/short-courses/calculus-and-probability-online

Should I do this course even though my maths levels is worse than a trash can? I mean, I could do well in foundations if I used all of my focus and brain power but it's FOUNDATION MATHS vs MATHS METHODS here.... is this suicidal and a waste of money? As I've heard from many friends and online people that maths methods is so hard they wish they didn't have to do it.. some did well others not so well but all have the same view on it...

A little more context to why I'm doing this is because I want to get into veterinary school at Melbourne uni asap. If I were to be told by you guys NOT to do this suicidal plan, I could at least go on with my current course "bachelor of animal and veterinary bioscience" and hope I do well in that and get transferred straight to veterinary school... though I heard straight from my course coordinator that not even 10 people in that course succeed to do so...which is not reassuring at all. I heard that if I do this plan, Melbourne uni considers my 2nd and 3rd year scores/WAM and not my first year score/WAM, is this true? What about credit points? Does that come into play? I already accidentally did not enroll in a core subject (statistic subject) that has credit points of 15. I could do it next year but I can't fit it in my semester without making it have 5 subjects wherever I put it, so doing it next year is out of the question. Should I do it in my third year instead? What if the same problem I have with next year applies to the third year? Should I do a summer subject (summer subject for this year starts Jan 6 so I need answers asap) and make up the points to it? But it's a core subject, does that matter? And it's in the first year, which won't be assessed anyways, unless they consider a certain amount of credit points as well where losing 15 credit points is not an option...

Here is more info on my Course so that you have a better understanding on what my semesters for each year are like:
https://www.latrobe.edu.au/courses/bachelor-of-animal-and-veterinary-biosciences

And the study guide PDF:
https://www.latrobe.edu.au/course-maps/SBAVB-Bachelor-of-Animal-and-Veterinary-Biosciences-Melbourne-2017.pdf

So what should I do? I'm at a total loss and need guidance asap to make sure o either successfully get into bachelor of agriculture OR successfully finish my current course and get straight in veterinary school at Melbourne uni...

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my horrible situation and I hope to hear some, hopefully, positive news about my situation as I am very, very, VERY stressed out right now to the point where I can't sleep properly, evident by the time I post this haha...

[colline]

Hey! I’ve only recently finished high school so I am not too familiar with everything university-wise but I’ve done a heck ton of research regarding Melbourne Veterinary school entrance as I’m also aiming for DVM myself. I’m pretty sure that, even if you did not do further/methods/spesh in VCE, if you did an equivalent of the subject in uni they will consider it as having fulfilled the prerequisite. You can email UniMelb FVAS with a list of your uni studies, your results, and what you’re planning to study in 2020 (doesn’t have to be an academic transcript) and ask whether this would fulfil the requirements. You should definitely have that clarified before enrolling in any maths courses!

(Ok but honestly methods isn’t that bad - when I first did subject selections in year 10 methods wasn’t even on the list and I was semi-forced into it, but it ended up being one of my favourites)

I considered animal and vet bioscience at La Trobe as well - and yes I’ve also heard that only around 5-10 people make it into DVM each year from La Trobe so I do think you’ll have a much greater chance if you transferred to UoM.

Regarding selection, they only look at your 2nd and 3rd year science results, with more weighting placed on third year. According to UoM’s website:

GRADUATE ENTRY INTO THE DVM PROGRAM
Completion of a science degree or an agriculture degree with a semester of biology and biochemistry. Selection is based on results in science subjects from the last two years of tertiary study (weighted 75:25 towards the final and penultimate year) as well as assessment of an applicant's 500 word personal statement.

Regarding credit points, I think you should email FVAS. With the statistics subject, is that a core unit for your course at La Trobe? Because you don’t actually need uni maths to get into veterinary school.

So I think your best course of action is to email FVAS with a list of the subjects you’ve done and plan to do next year and ask whether they satisfy the prerequisite. Good luck!!

[BakaRikki]

Hey!

Thank you for the very informative reply! I have emailed Melbourne uni about my subjects and HOPEFULLY when they get back to me (which is hopefully tomorrow as they come back from their shutdown) they'll say that one of the statistics subjects I did that I didn't miss is enough to satisfy further maths prerequisites. If not, I plan on doing their course called "introductory mathematics" which hopefully is a course that satisfy further math and not methods as I'm so not confident in methods haha...

It's also beneficial as it is a online summer course I believe.

I'm also curious about something else. Do credit points contribute to transferring universities? Like do I need a certain amount of credits before I can transfer successfully? If so does this mean I have to do a summer/winter school to make up for the credits I missed? (Also, the sats subject I missed is a CORE subject, will that affect my transfer?)

Thanks and I hope to hear from you soon!

[AngelWings]

I'm also curious about something else. Do credit points contribute to transferring universities? Like do I need a certain amount of credits before I can transfer successfully? If so does this mean I have to do a summer/winter school to make up for the credits I missed?

I can’t answer the rest of your post, but I will answer these questions, as this I know about.

Credit transfers basically mean that you don’t have to repeat as many units compared to if you started the degree you’re hoping to transfer into again. Basically it counts as units you’ve already done in your new degree (once you transfer) and you can just start from that point onwards e.g. if you’ve passed all units and you’re able to successfully transfer all 8 of your completed units at LaTrobe Uni to Melbourne’s Bachelor of Agriculture, then you can just begin from second year at Melbourne after the transfer is successful and you won’t need to repeat first year uni (if that makes sense).

There’s no limit to how many credits can be transferred, apart from however many units you’ve already done at LaTrobe, and it’s not necessary to have it (but then you’d start the Bachelor of Agriculture at UoM from first year). It’d really just affect how much longer you’d be in the Bachelor do Agriculture for, as well as money.

Re: summer/winter school
No, unless you need to do the core stats unit or choose to do so if your own accord, AFAIK, but I’d probably check with UoM to see whether that’s necessary or not.