The feasibility of getting into medicine?

[Ngage0]

I was just giving OP some friendly advice that is all and motivating him to give it a shot.   

[pi]

I was just giving OP some friendly advice that is all and motivating him to give it a shot.   

Yep I can see where you're going with it.

But again (being the "bad guy" etc etc), there is a height of optimism in my opinion. I don't think giving the message that "studying overseas is an option for those with 'low' ATARs" is necessarily the best message to encourage someone to develop a good mindset for VCE so that they do their best in their own country.

I think as a community, AN is really good at providing HEAPS of support and pulling out all sorts of amazing and inspirational stories. And I love that, I really do. But, I really think there's a limit until a point where it's just too far-fetched to be constructive/helpful. I think the down-votes on your post reflect crossing that line (plus it sounded pretty bad until you edited it).

[Ngage0]

Yea, i was typing that one fast on my phone and didn't really check for grammar and structure.

 I understand where you are coming from Pi and i respect it. My ATAR isn't as low as you might think it to be. It was in the mid 90's. When i say i didn't get a high ATAR i am comparing it to the standards of getting into med in Australia. I did give medicine a shot when i was in VCE, tried my best unfortunately didn't make the cut so i looked into other options. I am not promoting going overseas as an option to study medicine. I am just saying thats what i did.

[Russ]

I'm not quite sure why the original post was downvoted so heavily. You don't need to be particularly brilliant to study medicine, which is what he was saying. Dedication and hard work are infinitely more important attributes than being genuinely intelligent (which I think very few people are anyway), for both getting into medical school and for succeeding once you're there.

[shinny]

I'm not quite sure why the original post was downvoted so heavily. You don't need to be particularly brilliant to study medicine, which is what he was saying. Dedication and hard work are infinitely more important attributes than being genuinely intelligent (which I think very few people are anyway), for both getting into medical school and for succeeding once you're there.

Was really just the way that he put it. He has edited it several times since it was first put up, but the original post is still quoted in some posts. In terms of the course, yeh, studying it isn't as bad as most make it out to be. It's arguably easier than many other courses. Getting in's the tough part though, but if you stay dedicated to the path - even if this means having to take on medicine at a graduate level (where there's more spots available and hence less competition) - then you're quite likely to get in eventually. Victoria's just a bit difficult at the moment given that there's only one undergraduate course.

[Russ]

I am aware, I'm just emphasizing that people shouldn't really jump on the bandwagon because they dislike the way a post is phrased. What he said is still fundamentally correct.

[lala1911]

What I think makes a 99+ ATAR student: "hard working, intelligent, resilient and stoical".

You really just need that abnormally driven mindsets, where you only want to score 100% and you neglect any negative comments towards you.

[Ngage0]

That's exactly what I am trying to say Russ. There seems to be a  built up stereotype in AN and in general that studying med requires you to be a genius and extremely smart. This is not true. You just need some hard work and dedication which can go a long way.

[thushan]

Was really just the way that he put it. He has edited it several times since it was first put up, but the original post is still quoted in some posts. In terms of the course, yeh, studying it isn't as bad as most make it out to be. It's arguably easier than many other courses. Getting in's the tough part though, but if you stay dedicated to the path - even if this means having to take on medicine at a graduate level (where there's more spots available and hence less competition) - then you're quite likely to get in eventually. Victoria's just a bit difficult at the moment given that there's only one undergraduate course.

I disagree...but only to an extent. Medicine, hmm. Conceptually, it isn't that difficult. It isn't that difficult to get, say, a 70 average in Medicine. It's significantly harder, however, to get an 80 average. No one gets a 90 average. The difficulty is in the volume of content that you have to simply memorise, and the randomness of the exams.

[Jdog]

My experience!

I like to think that medicine is a course where intelligence is secondary to desire. I think my story sort of validates this notion. I like to think that I did reasonably well at school and academics in general. I fell into medicine, and in my first year realised I had quite little desire to actually go through with it. As a result my exam results were less than desireable, but something clicked over the holidays and made me re-evaluate and realise that medicine was something I actually did want to pursue. Im fighting an uphill battle at the moment, trying to get my habits in order, but am getting there. As thushan said, medicine is so much more about hard work, commitment etc than it is conceptually hard.

What really annoys me is the pedestal that other medicine kids seem to place themselves on in comparison to other degrees. They have some sort of superiority complex which I think is partly due to the isolation the med faculty has from the rest of the uni, and also the fact that a lot of the med cohort are quite naive, immature and sheltered. Med is their life. Medicine is not harder in any other degree to succeed in, yes, entrance might be slightly more difficult, but as has been previously said, its simply an indication of the passion required to enter the course.

 xoxo

[Russ]

Medicine is not harder in any other degree to succeed in, yes, entrance might be slightly more difficult, but as has been previously said, its simply an indication of the passion required to enter the course.

This seems demonstrably false?

[Jdog]

What do you mean?

Im ultimately saying that to do well in any field you need the same sorts of things, and medicine is no different. Theres nothing magical about med that makes it harder to succeed in than any other field. But thats my two cents. When I say it is no harder than any other degree, im saying once you're in. Ive already asserted that getting in is harder, im not talking about that.

[thushan]

What I think makes a 99+ ATAR student: "hard working, intelligent, resilient and stoical".

You really just need that abnormally driven mindsets, where you only want to score 100% and you neglect any negative comments towards you.

Haha, almost. I'm one of those people who gets easily down and discouraged by negative comments.

[pi]

You really just need that abnormally driven mindsets, where you only want to score 100% and you neglect any negative comments towards you.

I think it's important to take on board criticisms, especially if it's constructive.

[thushan]

I think it's important to take on board criticisms, especially if it's constructive.

He means degrading comments rather than constructive criticism.