ATAR Notes: Forum
Uni Stuff => Faculties => Health sciences => Topic started by: eddie10 on November 08, 2010, 10:35:08 pm
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Despite submitting my preferences an hour after the deadline, I received my time and date for an MBBS 2011 interview.
I've one on the 7th of December. I wanted to ask if anyone else has an interview this year, how they're feeling about it.. So little information is out yet and i'm nervous about going in cold.
Once I've done the interview I'll share as best I can to help for the MMIs to come!
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There is another thread on this topic.
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'grats on getting an interview. Would've been such a waste with a UMAT like that. And yeh, there's really not much info out there. All I can offer is what's here, but more information about other MMIs in general can be found on Med forums such as www.medstudentsonline.com.au and http://pagingdr.net/forum/.
There is another thread on this topic.
I'll leave it unmerged. He's more specifically trying to find others who are doing it rather than finding out general information like the other thread. I'd recommend findings others whether through here or finding friends etc. who are doing it to practice with since not many others would be willing to sit through this kind of thing.
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Thanks, and thanks for your reply shinny :D I hadn't seen pagingdr before, and I'll take a better look at med students online.
Congrats on being in the course :D I hope I can achieve a result as great as yours, as it's something that really means a lot to me ^^
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Looking at how ur umat is a little better than mine and your ATAR will be orders of magnitude better than mine, you have a much better chance than me :P. I'm on the 6th, I'm not getting my hopes up for monash (gogo uncle/uws) but it doesn't hurt to try. You're going into the interview at an advantage over a lot of applicants, so draw confidence from that.
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Looking at how ur umat is a little better than mine and your ATAR will be orders of magnitude better than mine, you have a much better chance than me :P. I'm on the 6th, I'm not getting my hopes up for monash (gogo uncle/uws) but it doesn't hurt to try. You're going into the interview at an advantage over a lot of applicants, so draw confidence from that.
Somewhere around a third of those who are offered an interview shall be offered a place, and I think a lot of places shall be won in that interview (given, but I think the interviews would separate quite significantly, based on a lot of important aspects, moreso than the UMAT).
As for the MMIs.. Bouncing back up from a bad station and keeping up the intensity is what I'll be focusing on I think.
Thanks, all the best for the 6th :D
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Looking at how ur umat is a little better than mine and your ATAR will be orders of magnitude better than mine, you have a much better chance than me :P. I'm on the 6th, I'm not getting my hopes up for monash (gogo uncle/uws) but it doesn't hurt to try. You're going into the interview at an advantage over a lot of applicants, so draw confidence from that.
Somewhere around a third of those who are offered an interview shall be offered a place, and I think a lot of places shall be won in that interview (given, but I think the interviews would separate quite significantly, based on a lot of important aspects, moreso than the UMAT).
As for the MMIs.. Bouncing back up from a bad station and keeping up the intensity is what I'll be focusing on I think.
Thanks, all the best for the 6th :D
VERY important in these kind of assessments. Just had my clinical exams where one day was just full of overly long stations (we only have 8 minutes and they expected us to complete 4 tasks) and vague stems which didn't clearly specify what to do, so by the end of the day everyone was pretty pissed off and demotivated. While it's pretty difficult not to be affected after bad performance, I guess you'll need to practice keeping up that smile and happy happy attitude throughout each station really... Very difficult to practice though because the only time you will actually be pressured this much and actually care about your performance in previous stations is in the real thing.
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Just a step sideways somewhat; what do people think about deferring MBBS? Is it allowed, or discouraged, not a good idea? The idea is becoming more and more attractive to me and I wanted to know what others thought.
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I know UWS lets you if you present a valid reason, NFI about monash.
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got my interview :)
6th of dec at 1:00 pm...
after that only the gods can decide.;.
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Just a step sideways somewhat; what do people think about deferring MBBS? Is it allowed, or discouraged, not a good idea? The idea is becoming more and more attractive to me and I wanted to know what others thought.
It's allowed. Know a few people from MHS now in first year who did that. One because he's from Singapore and had to do military service (lawl) but another just because he took a gap year so you don't need a massive reason. You can defer after any year within the course as well.
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Just a step sideways somewhat; what do people think about deferring MBBS? Is it allowed, or discouraged, not a good idea? The idea is becoming more and more attractive to me and I wanted to know what others thought.
It's allowed. Know a few people from MHS now in first year who did that. One because he's from Singapore and had to do military service (lawl) but another just because he took a gap year so you don't need a massive reason. You can defer after any year within the course as well.
Ah excellent thanks :) not wholly decided yet.. I shall see. And congrats 10weid :D
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Wow you guys here all have EPIC UMAT scores... did you guys do any prep courses or buy any certain books to improve how your performance? Any recommendations would be nice. :)
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Wow you guys here all have EPIC UMAT scores... did yout guys do any prep courses or buy any certain books to improve how your performance? Any recommendations would be nice. :)
My girlfriend invested in the medentry LMS.. She let me use it and I used it to go through a few 20 minute drills which helped me know what sorts of questions I would be facing. I can't personally say how the lecture prep was, but I think this is a good summation of how to approach the UMAT:
1. Skip the questions about which you have no idea.
Reasoning: the time you might waste on long questions rewriting a lot of thinking is better spent on other questions. If you skip all the crazy sounding or looking ones, you should end up with time at the end of the section to go back and try them, while ensuring you get the more straight forward questions.
2. Don't ever lose heart. If they seem hard to you, they most likely seem hard to everyone. Try your best, narrow the options down to as few a possible (usually two or three). This is so important for section 2. You can almost always narrow questions in section two down to 2 or 3 options. Don't let any section bring you down for the next; attempt every section with the ambition of achieving the best you can, regardless of how you think you went on the previous one.
3. On the day of the UMAT, only think of the positive. This is hard, but a positive mindset shall result in your best thinking during the exam. Don't alter your routine; if you have a bowl of cereal every morning, don't skip it on UMAT morning. If you need a coffee to wake up properly, have one. You won't crash in those three action filled hours if you do what you normally do. Work towards your peak because you know you can achieve it when you're feeling how you normally feel. It's this 'normal' feeling that you want to strive for. Only then can you reach your greatest potential.
4. The UMAT presents only one option into a health science career. Your ambition will carry you toward the career you want, be it finding a place in the first year you try, transferring a year later, or a post-grad placement. Your post high school options are almost endless, and hopefully this knowledge should help you relax as in point 3.
A few quick tips:
Know what you're up against. Try a practice UMAT to see how it is structured. Ask others about how they approached it.
Section 1 shall require working out. If writing things out helps you, go nuts and do all the working out you need in the space there is. If a question is looking like it shall take too long to get right, quickly move on.
Section 2 shall require you, most often, to empathise, not sympathise. Learn the difference; sympathy is FEELING how the other person feels, whereas empathy has more to do with recognising how the person feels, and reacting accordingly. Look up the dictionary definitions of emotions; some have very subtle definitions which are often ignored in common usage.
Section 3 can be studied for to the greatest extent; IQ tests and other tests involving patterns shall help enormously for this section. Try a lot of different ones and it shall help a lot in recognising these sequences and patterns.
Don't ever panic! Ensure you remain level headed and you'll do your best.
If you'd like any more help feel free to message me and I'd be happy to talk or meet up with you to talk about the topic; it's a difficult thing and I'd be happy to help where I can :)
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Wow you guys here all have EPIC UMAT scores... did you guys do any prep courses or buy any certain books to improve how your performance? Any recommendations would be nice. :)
I essentially winged it. Did the free acer exam and some online IQ tests. The most important part of the umat is not to stress out/panic. If you do either of these you will fail to get an adequate score.
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Looking at how ur umat is a little better than mine and your ATAR will be orders of magnitude better than mine, you have a much better chance than me :P. I'm on the 6th, I'm not getting my hopes up for monash (gogo uncle/uws) but it doesn't hurt to try. You're going into the interview at an advantage over a lot of applicants, so draw confidence from that.
Somewhere around a third of those who are offered an interview shall be offered a place, and I think a lot of places shall be won in that interview (given, but I think the interviews would separate quite significantly, based on a lot of important aspects, moreso than the UMAT).
As for the MMIs.. Bouncing back up from a bad station and keeping up the intensity is what I'll be focusing on I think.
Thanks, all the best for the 6th :D
VERY important in these kind of assessments. Just had my clinical exams where one day was just full of overly long stations (we only have 8 minutes and they expected us to complete 4 tasks) and vague stems which didn't clearly specify what to do, so by the end of the day everyone was pretty pissed off and demotivated. While it's pretty difficult not to be affected after bad performance, I guess you'll need to practice keeping up that smile and happy happy attitude throughout each station really... Very difficult to practice though because the only time you will actually be pressured this much and actually care about your performance in previous stations is in the real thing.
Pagingdr forums may be insightful, but I think undergrads will get more freaked out than anything. IT IS A GRADUATE FORUM, THE SYSTEM IS THE SAME - QUESTIONS DIFFER! They don't expect you to know as much.
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Obviously? Nevertheless there are a lot more practicing doctors who frequent PagingDr relative to MSO.
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I think I might literally be in the last of the monash interviews... I'm on the 13th ( :tickedoff: ) at 1pm. I've decided I'm not going to look at my enter, answer the phone, I'm going to keep away from facebook, emails and my mobile, because if my enter is good, my interview will go badly and vice versa... or so I have convinced myself..
But yeah, I got in on the Deans Rural list, so does that mean I might be able to make it in on a 57 for my umat ( =s ) and a low 97 as my enter? I think my interview should go ok, if I bring life experiences into all of the scenario questions' explanations.
@ shinny : are they really not going to ask any generic questions? =/ FML, I was counting on the whole 'why do you want to do med' thing.... How are they going to sustain 1 and a half hours of scenarios? or rather, how am I going to LIVE through that?!?
T.T
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I've got a friend in on the deans rural list (normal CSP; no bonded or ERC) with a sub-90 ENTER and around 80 percentile UMAT. I've got no doubt that she did extremely well on the interview though knowing her personality. Monash has moved to an MMI system this year so they're not going to be asking you questions like they did in past years. I don't know that much about it either so its best if you check the other forums mentioned previously.
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They might have a detechnicalise station but since it's undergraduate maybe not :S
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No, they removed that. Was going to practice but a contact who is one of the interviewers this year assured me that there would be no detech.
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Yeah having year 12 kids doing it might be a bit unrealistic
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Wouldn't say it's unrealistic since we used to have to do it. Personally had to do electrolysis in my interview. Why'd I have to get the hardest one >_> Others got like pH and the periodic table...
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Yeah maybe chemistry only ones then, because MBBS only has one prereq, so they couldn't give broader concepts like DNA etc
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May sound like a stupid question, will they have stations where people ask you questions like, "This person has Cancer, the mother hasn't found out, she has just walked in and the son starts to break down and cry. What would you do?"
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Yeh, it's traditionally only been VCE chemistry terms in the Monash interviews, but other unis in Australia have some general knowledge kinda words as well; perhaps something like 'internet' and stuff like that.
May sound like a stupid question, will they have stations where people ask you questions like, "This person has Cancer, the mother hasn't found out, she has just walked in and the son starts to break down and cry. What would you do?"
Well it's an MMI now so a stem like that could be given. However, instead of asking 'what would you do?', it'd ask you to actually do it. There'll be actors in there and you'll have to talk to them appropriately with respect to the stem.
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I doubt it would be that overt. There's also no guarantee that the questions/prompts will be medical in nature
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I see, that suits me very very very very very very much so. I'm a good problem solver and a fantastic actor so I can show emotions etc well.
I didn't mean exactly that question, just scenario questions etc...
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Even if they are, you're not marked on medical knowledge. Like in that case, it'd all be about responding to their emotions and comforting them; not responding as if you were an oncologist or a counsellor. Other sorts of prompts I've heard of are like people being in car crashes and then talking to them afterwards etc.
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There won't be any actors.
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There won't be any actors.
Oh really? How does it work then? Or did you mean as in you just talk directly to the examiner and that they're not actual actors?
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Whilst I don't know what Monash does, I know other universities MMI interviews are just single panel ones and you just respond to a prompt. No reason why there couldn't be someone to interact with though
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Ah really. Maybe I've had the wrong idea what they're about then. I'd only seen a few stems and they were more along the lines of interaction like you'd see in my clinical exams than the hypothetical scenarios that were given in the Med interviews I attended where you discussed what you'd do rather than actually doing it.
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There will be a piece of paper relating to a hypothetical situation on the door and they just ask you questions relating to that.
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I think the Bond University interview involves actors, but I'm not sure for what reason they are used.
Hard to predict. You sign a contract saying that you will not disclose any information in regards to the interview system, or you will be inclined to face penalties.
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it's not like getting into bond medicine is a challenge anyway..
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Did my interview today, was really fun and stress free. Be intelligent and don't say anything dumb and you'll be fine.
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Did my interview today, was really fun and stress free. Be intelligent and don't say anything dumb and you'll be fine.
I love you. My heart was calmed upon my reading that :P
Mine is in just under 12 hours.. time for sleep I think.
Good luck to those coming!
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Did my interview today, was really fun and stress free. Be intelligent and don't say anything dumb and you'll be fine.
Out of interest how long did it go for and what were a few of the Q's they asked you?
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Signed a confidentiality agreement, and my name leaves me little anonymity heh. It was a series of 8 8 minute interviews, and at each interview I was asked questions based on a stub. I think this stuff was all availiable on the website. There were no suprises or questions which I felt to be unfair, and was a good experience.
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Did mine :D was good, good luck to anyone else who has one :)
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Did mine as well =D no idea how i went
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Did mine as well =D no idea how i went
Since when are you going for med :O !!!
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Did mine as well =D no idea how i went
Today? Which session? :P
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Did mine as well =D no idea how i went
Since when are you going for med :O !!!
lol...since like when you wanted to do med...
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Did mine as well =D no idea how i went
Since when are you going for med :O !!!
lol...since like when you wanted to do med...
I didn't even know he did the UMAT haha :P
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Did mine as well =D no idea how i went
didn't you SC buddy... he posted his results here...
Since when are you going for med :O !!!
lol...since like when you wanted to do med...
I didn't even know he did the UMAT haha :P
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Did mine as well =D no idea how i went
Today? Which session? :P
1pm
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Did mine as well =D no idea how i went
Today? Which session? :P
1pm
Ah okay, I must have walked past you while you were in the waiting room ^^
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Do you guys have any tips for the interviews that you are legally able to give :)?
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Do you guys have any tips for the interviews that you are legally able to give :)?
legally able to give? I am not aware of any barriers (certainly not legal ones) with me just sending you the list of questions asked at UNSW. I hear that with some universities there are confidentiality issues but as far as for monash, i am not aware of anything. If u can find a good friend or someone who has done the interviews, then he/she should be able to jsut tell you all the questions. I dont see why that would be illegal.
But for monash, it would be best to know that there are 7 active stations which are all based on scenarios and one post which requires you to chose a certain area to communicate about (this replaced de-tech and may require you to explain a procedure).
My advice is probably just to relax, unlike for UNSW or UADEL, u can't really prepare anecdotes, research uni information, rehearse your response to "why medcine?", or something like that. In the Monash MMI you do not have to talk about your extracurricular activities, your work experience.
You do not even have to talk about the uni course or give a speech on why you are motivated to study medicine.
That is not necessary.
The important thing to do is to spend your reading time very carefully, read the placard/scenario multiple times, and then try your best to answer their questions.
Note - for the 8 minutes, they have around 5 questions to ask you, Hence, give them good long responses and spend about 90 seconds for each answer. Finishing early is common but you do not want to spend too much time sitting alone in a chair when you could be talking to the interviewee.
good luck :)
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THANKYOU!