Monash Med: some small advice from someone in your shoes last year

[samk77]

With this year wrapping up, I thought I’d try and give some hope as well as clarify some things for Monash Med hopefuls of this year.

You can check out my last posts from last year documenting the roller coaster of emotions I felt leading up to receiving my second round offer for a school leaver’s Monash med spot. My academic results were not great relative to the competition, an average atar (relatively) of 98.4 I think and a umat (a lot more memorable unfortunately) of 72. Very, very problematic umat score, however enough to sneak in an interview with Monash (thank God I passed the 50-50-50 rule although I don’t see its merits myself, not sure how this correlates for you guys with the UCAT). Even then I wasn’t convinced, but I can’t say this enough, even if you feel like you won’t get in just give it your best shot.

So firstly, the offer I got is bonded which means I’ll be required to do a year of internship in a rural area. It is of my belief this has changed to 3 years for you guys now, make of that what you will but I’d encourage a positive outlook regardless of your opinion on it.

Secondly, do some interview prep now, just look at my numbers, you’re (yes you) bound to get an interview although I am unsure on the new UCAT and the cut offs but yeah be optimistic, don’t need to go overboard with interview prep however do familiarise yourself with things such as the principles of ethics for healthcare (autonomy beneficence maleficence justice all that Jazz) and know stuff about rural and indigenous health and do make it sound like you have a genuine desire to do med for the right reasons (you can cite parents as an inspiration I’d argue but try not to say they’re the sole reason you’re doing med because they told you this since you were 3 .....)
Do acknowledge other health care professions and how equally vital they are, do know the differences, know how doctors are essentially more scientific than say nurses but if you think about it, Doctors do deal with patients less than nurses a lot of the time, so you can see they are pretty similar but if you’re scientifically inclined you can definitely say you want to be a doctor rather than maybe a nurse due to something along those lines, as well as the more kind of leadership role doctors have.
All that said, more than anything I’d recommend practicing responding to different MMI scenarios. Search them up on YouTube, for me watching YouTube videos seriously was the best thing I could’ve done, aside from actually timing myself and responding to questions.

Thirdly, easy for me to say I know but don’t stress if you find yourself not receiving a first round offer in January, I know it’s tough but have faith until the very end of the last round (5th I think right before uni starts), seriously I was close to tanking the interview myself clearly but in the end I did try my best, thanks to some encouraging words on here as well, and managed, aim for a consistent and well rounded MMI and you’ll be okay, and if it helps you can afford to completely botch one station (out of 9 from memory), they won’t count it, also each station is independent from each other obviously so it’s a fresh beginning so don’t get down on yourself if you thought the last station went horribly.

And lastly, have backups of course, I was going to do science at Melbourne Uni if things didn’t work out for med. This is a personal choice and up to you to decide, in my opinion going for post grad Monash seems quite difficult since it encourages biomed and it’s really competitive but then again it’s hard in general for anywhere
Don’t lose hope if you don’t get in undergrad medicine, apply everywhere of course, but if it doesn’t work out do be easy on yourself. There are so many pathways into medicine and I’d argue it’s potentially much more fulfilling to pursue the post grad route, definitely allows natural growth and maturation and building up of knowledge and developing study techniques that work for you at the uni level (I seriously had to change my whole approach rather quickly this year, uni is a different beast from vce regardless of the course you’re in I’d argue).

I’m happy to answer questions and stuff like that, I came into the year very aware of how lucky I am and how I’m in the bottom of the cohort. And whilst I’m definitely not the most talented I think I took the opportunity presented to me and overall I’m very satisfied with my year, a lot of challenges but uni is a clean slate, make of it what you will. I promise all of you will be alright, good luck with everything everyone!