Strange viewing activity

Recently I noticed some strange viewing activity on this blog, as shown in the annotated graph above. While the fourth spike could be easily explained by a forum post in the immediate time period preceding it, I have no idea about the other three spikes, especially the peaks of 14, 11 or even 25 within the space of one hour, and with very little activity (almost none in the 25 peak) immediately prior to or after it. Also interesting that they don't seem to be the same time each day either. 

OMG self directed learning...

One thing I'm not really looking forward to if I get into medical school is the whole self directed learning paradigm. I mean, if they want us to learn things, isn't it better for them to teach us than tell us to look it up for ourselves? Asking us to discuss things ourselves without teaching us properly is quite an inefficient way of doing things. Some have commented that PBL (problem based learning) sessions are a way of teaching something in 2 hours what could have been taught in 30 minutes! (or words to that effect)

To me, it sounds similar to the "reform math" movement in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s, but not as extreme.

[update] Midsemester break! GAMSAT results wait 50% complete!

Today is the first day of the midsemester break, which lasts for one week. It is nice to have a break once in a while, due to the fast paced nature of university, although I'd be too bored if a break was too long. I don't think I'd ever be able to take a gap year!

I just received all my midsemester test results. I'm relatively happy with how they went; all 80%+ by varying degrees, but less than 90%. I just hope I can repeat that in the exam. One of the tests had a class average of 75% though (the multiple choice one) and that was the one I did best in, so I don't think the exam would be that easy. However, the other two had class averages of 50% and 56%, so maybe they were better indicators. If the exam was hard though and no scaling, it would affect the academic record. Of course, that is just speculation, but differences in grading standards and subject difficulty is one reason why GPA is not entirely fair when comparing different courses, although it is the best predictor of medical school performance in the Australian environment, due to the GAMSAT being suboptimal (slight digression there I guess from my original topic).

After the break though, I'll have another midsemester test (again worth 20%). Then there will be exams.

Anyway, so about half the wait for GAMSAT results is over. 50%! So it's all downhill from here. To wait the same amount of time from the GAMSAT until now again, and the results will be out. Of course though, I'd like my results as soon as possible.

So that's about it for the update for now. Happy Easter!

[update] Going to apply to USyd!

So today I just found out that the University of Sydney is conducting its medical school interviews on 4-8 July this year (intersemester/midyear break) instead of in the midsemester break of semester 2 like most unis (USyd pulled out of the ACER system this year and now require direct application). After my parents said they don't mind paying the extra cost, I decided it would be good interview practice to have before a Melbourne interview. Also, it opens up another option to study if I do get in.

Now I'm a bit nervous having an interview for medical school so early though! I only expected to have one interview this year, in the midsemester break of semester 2. Add to that, this interview is worth 50% instead of 33% for Melbourne! USyd seems to ask pretty tricky scenarios sometimes too, so I'll have to somehow work out good responses to them. But more practice can only be a good thing. If I get into USyd it will be quite a confidence boost, but if not, I know I'll have to work harder on interview skills before Melbourne's interview. Well, that was assuming offers come out before other unis' interviews, although the medicine offer date for USyd is yet to be decided.

It's been more than 10 years since I've been to Sydney. When I'm there I'll have to visit the Reserve Bank of Australia like my introductory macroeconomics lecturer told everyone to do, since he used to work there. That's the place which controls our interest rates in Australia, in order to control inflation (and to reduce output gaps in economic downturns).

[update] 2 weeks of waiting down! And 2 midsems down.

It's been two weeks since the GAMSAT, so now about 25% of the wait for results is over! One quarter of the way there!

Meanwhile, I've just completed two midsemester tests in the past week. One of them I thought went relatively well (all multiple choice) although I did get a few wrong I figured after discussing questions. Another one had me writing non-stop throughout the entire tests, having no multiple choice, and having five essay-type response questions in 45 minutes! No time to recheck that one, although I did "finish" writing down something for each question by the end. However, I was planning to refine explanations and add diagrams at the end if I had time, which I did not get to do.

Personally, I think multiple choice exams are more valid than essays to some extent, since they are able to assess a higher range of the subject material in the same amount of time, thus reducing the effect of chance/question variability. This is despite the effect of being able to get questions right with a probability of 1/4 or 1/5 and some variance by guessing. However, the questions should be asked properly, and especially the answer choices should not be too ambiguous.

Anyway, one more midsem next week, and then one after the midsemester break. Then the GAMSAT results come out and it will be time to apply for medical school...

[update] One week of waiting is over!

So now one week of the GAMSAT results waiting has passed! Assuming that results come out in 8 weeks (which has been the case in the past), there are 7 weeks remaining. So the wait is approximately 12% complete. Well, we're pretty far from 100%, but at least it was 12% more than a week ago. So there is progress.

I wish the GAMSAT was a little earlier though, like in past years, since I'm still a little behind with respect to university work and there are mid-semester tests worth 20% of the final assessment for three of my subjects coming up next week and the week after. Ah well, can't change anything not in my control I guess.