On the paging dr forum, a member (naskies) posted that UQ has updated the cut off scores for domestic students for 2012 entry. Whereas it was previously 73 for CSP and 66* for BMP, it now displays as 72 for CSP and 64* for BMP.
From that, I think two things can explain this:
The first (less likely) reason is that maybe UQ reserved some places for offers in the offer round after the GEMSAS offers in case people were not successful in higher preferenced universities and got passed onto UQ by the computer.
The second (I think more likely) reason is that enough people who received places from both USyd (who pulled out of the GEMSAS consortium) and UQ declined their UQ offer for USyd, so this was more than enough to compensate for the number of people who got passed onto UQ from higher preferenced unis and above UQ's initial cutoff score.
Either way, the issue of not getting a place from UQ as a lower preference, even if your GAMSAT would have met the cutoff if you preferenced them first, now seems to have disappeared. This is a good outcome.
I feel that the GEMSAS system is a definite improvement over the old system. There are two possible improvements though, which I see some others have noted too.
One of them is if you can fine tune the preference list so you can put a CSP from a lower preferenced uni higher than a BMP for a higher preferenced university, for example; especially a CSP or BMP from one lower preferenced uni above a FFP from a higher up one on the preference list. I know someone who had the scores for a UQ CSP but got a FFP at Melbourne.
The second one is that if someone (person A) pulls out of their offer at a given university, someone else (person B) should be able to take it, regardless of whether or not they already have a place at a lower preferenced university. Although it would be more hassle for the unis, it's not really fair for an applicant who had a lower combined score (person C) to get a place at that particular university just because he didn't already have a place, ahead of someone (person B) who happened to be offered a place at another university lower on their preference list. People should be able to receive second round offers higher up than their initial one if they are eligible and competitive, like they do in VTAC, UAC, TISC etc.
There's also another argument about how interviews are not entirely the same everywhere, so perhaps the whole thing about standardizing interview scores might be frowned upon, although if we want to get around this, then we have to let everyone go and sit interviews at all unis they preference and have competitive scores before interviews for. So it depends on what people think the balance between inconvenience and cost, compared to having the "right interview format", should be.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Thursday, November 24, 2011
GPA... GAMSAT... Interview...: One year on
It's been one year since I made my first post on my blog, back in 24 November 2010. And it has really been quite an interesting year since then.
At the end of last year, I visited Malaysia and Singapore, as noted a few blog posts back. This was my first visit ever to Asia, and Malaysia was the first developing country that I have ever visited. It was an interesting experience to have.
After that holiday and about half a month break, I started uni again for my final year of biomed; earlier than most other people because I enrolled in a summer semester of linear algebra. I decided to do this because I felt it might be beneficial to have a lighter workload in semester two so I could prepare for the Melbourne interview if necessary. The subject wasn't that intense, and it still felt like a break (technically it was a half workload too anyway; you can usually take up to two subjects in summer).
After that came the start of the standard Semester 1. A full load this semester, like most other uni semesters. Within the semester, there was the GAMSAT. I already sat it last year and did reasonably well, but I wanted to improve my score if possible still. After sitting it and waiting almost eight weeks for results, I was pleased that I improved on my old results, from 77 overall (70 Melbourne) to 83 overall (77 Melbourne); while maintaining a 100 in the science section. Waiting for those results took most of the semester.
Meanwhile, it was known that USyd was conducting interviews during the midyear break. Because it was before the Melbourne interview, I felt it would be good to have a go and have a practice. It would also have been a good backup if I didn't get into Melbourne. It was also my first time visiting Sydney in over ten years. However, I didn't prepare enough before the interview, and I didn't get a CSP offer at USyd.
Anyway, so there was Semester 2, with a lighter workload due to taking Linear Algebra in summer. I got a Melbourne interview, as I thought I would, and this time I did a lot more preparation. I felt more confident out of the interview, and after six to seven weeks of waiting for GEMSAS, I received my MD CSP provisional offer from Melbourne. Then I finished all my exams for biomed, and this is where things stand today; waiting for exam results for semester two.
During this one year since I started this blog, I've noticed that the number of blog views have increased over time. In November and December 2010, there were hardly any hits. In January 2011, the number of hits went up noticeably to 150, and stayed around there for a while. There was a noticeable spike at May when the GAMSAT results were released, and it's stayed around that mark until this month where views rose dramatically due to the GEMSAS offers being released and the suspense leading up to it, with @deakinblog publishing a few links to some of my posts. I expect the view count to ease off next month though, since there is not going to be anything as big as the GEMSAS offers then, or any time soon.
I'd like to thank all the readers of my blog for their interest in what I have to say, especially those who have posted constructive comments which have led to good discussions about any issues I have raised. I hope you all continue to enjoy reading my blog into the future.
At the end of last year, I visited Malaysia and Singapore, as noted a few blog posts back. This was my first visit ever to Asia, and Malaysia was the first developing country that I have ever visited. It was an interesting experience to have.
After that holiday and about half a month break, I started uni again for my final year of biomed; earlier than most other people because I enrolled in a summer semester of linear algebra. I decided to do this because I felt it might be beneficial to have a lighter workload in semester two so I could prepare for the Melbourne interview if necessary. The subject wasn't that intense, and it still felt like a break (technically it was a half workload too anyway; you can usually take up to two subjects in summer).
After that came the start of the standard Semester 1. A full load this semester, like most other uni semesters. Within the semester, there was the GAMSAT. I already sat it last year and did reasonably well, but I wanted to improve my score if possible still. After sitting it and waiting almost eight weeks for results, I was pleased that I improved on my old results, from 77 overall (70 Melbourne) to 83 overall (77 Melbourne); while maintaining a 100 in the science section. Waiting for those results took most of the semester.
Meanwhile, it was known that USyd was conducting interviews during the midyear break. Because it was before the Melbourne interview, I felt it would be good to have a go and have a practice. It would also have been a good backup if I didn't get into Melbourne. It was also my first time visiting Sydney in over ten years. However, I didn't prepare enough before the interview, and I didn't get a CSP offer at USyd.
Anyway, so there was Semester 2, with a lighter workload due to taking Linear Algebra in summer. I got a Melbourne interview, as I thought I would, and this time I did a lot more preparation. I felt more confident out of the interview, and after six to seven weeks of waiting for GEMSAS, I received my MD CSP provisional offer from Melbourne. Then I finished all my exams for biomed, and this is where things stand today; waiting for exam results for semester two.
During this one year since I started this blog, I've noticed that the number of blog views have increased over time. In November and December 2010, there were hardly any hits. In January 2011, the number of hits went up noticeably to 150, and stayed around there for a while. There was a noticeable spike at May when the GAMSAT results were released, and it's stayed around that mark until this month where views rose dramatically due to the GEMSAS offers being released and the suspense leading up to it, with @deakinblog publishing a few links to some of my posts. I expect the view count to ease off next month though, since there is not going to be anything as big as the GEMSAS offers then, or any time soon.
I'd like to thank all the readers of my blog for their interest in what I have to say, especially those who have posted constructive comments which have led to good discussions about any issues I have raised. I hope you all continue to enjoy reading my blog into the future.
[update] Biomed exams over!
Today I finished my final exam for biomed. As noted before, this was a 100% essay exam. Well not completely, because I did draw quite a few diagrams, but it was an extended response exam. I felt I did reasonably well, but spent quite significant time drawing up some of my diagrams (and sometimes perhaps going into more detail than necessary when explaining drug mechanisms), and had to rush at the end. No paracetamol question there though, if you were wondering.
So for Melbourne, results should come out by 9 December this year; about two weeks. Meanwhile, it's break time, and complete some immunizations and do paperwork for medicine.
So for Melbourne, results should come out by 9 December this year; about two weeks. Meanwhile, it's break time, and complete some immunizations and do paperwork for medicine.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Acetaminophen/paracetamol mechanism discovered!
The science journal Nature has just published a study demonstrating the mechanism of action of paracetamol. This is of interest to people of a pharmacology background, like myself, since we are always told in lectures that the mechanism has not been described.
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v2/n11/full/ncomms1559.html
It seems like there is activation of TRPA1 channels by some of the metabolites of paracetamol, which causes a reduction of voltage-gated calcium and sodium currents in primary sensory neurons.
I wonder if I can incorporate it into an essay question in tomorrow's exam; a pharmacology exam. It's unlikely that they'll ask a question specifically about paracetamol though.
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v2/n11/full/ncomms1559.html
It seems like there is activation of TRPA1 channels by some of the metabolites of paracetamol, which causes a reduction of voltage-gated calcium and sodium currents in primary sensory neurons.
I wonder if I can incorporate it into an essay question in tomorrow's exam; a pharmacology exam. It's unlikely that they'll ask a question specifically about paracetamol though.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
[update] One more exam for biomed
In the past week, I completed two of my three exams this semester. The coming Thursday, I have my final exam for biomed.
The past two exams I think went reasonably well, despite being 100% essay type questions (the biomed compulsory subject this semester had about 50% of the questions being knowledge of pharmacology, so that was good for grades for me due to my major, but not really good for learning new things). The next exam will be 100% essay questions too. I wonder why the pharmacology department likes essay type questions for third year subjects, while the second year pharmacology subject had 50% essays, 50% multiple choice.
Anyway, I'm about half way going through the lecture notes now for this last subject, and when I'm finished with that, I'll start doing some past exams. This subject, along with the other subjects this semester, thankfully has full past exams released.
But my hand gets sore around exam time when I have to write all these essays. Typing, or coloring in MC bubbles, is a lot easier.
The past two exams I think went reasonably well, despite being 100% essay type questions (the biomed compulsory subject this semester had about 50% of the questions being knowledge of pharmacology, so that was good for grades for me due to my major, but not really good for learning new things). The next exam will be 100% essay questions too. I wonder why the pharmacology department likes essay type questions for third year subjects, while the second year pharmacology subject had 50% essays, 50% multiple choice.
Anyway, I'm about half way going through the lecture notes now for this last subject, and when I'm finished with that, I'll start doing some past exams. This subject, along with the other subjects this semester, thankfully has full past exams released.
But my hand gets sore around exam time when I have to write all these essays. Typing, or coloring in MC bubbles, is a lot easier.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
A tale of two interviews
If you read my older posts, you would know that I failed the USyd interview quite badly. Even with my GAMSAT score of 83, my interview score was 84/180, so even if I applied to BMP I wouldn't get in. However, I did get into Melbourne, even though I was disadvantaged due to the Melbourne weighting of GAMSAT sections (down to 77) and my GPA was not perfect (about 6.8; unlike USyd, GPA is not just a hurdle at Melbourne). I got a CSP non-bonded place, and in the clinical allocation I wanted.
There were quite a few different reasons for the different outcome:
1. Because the Melbourne interview is weighted less, so maybe I needed less score in Melbourne to get a CSP, but my ranking before interview would have been better in USyd due to the normal GAMSAT weighting and not using GPA to rank.
2. For the USyd one, my preparation effort mainly was one week of going in an interview practice group and working out answers to all questions. However, I had no practice in actually answering them face to face, and because I booked an interview on the first Monday, I had no time to memorize the answers. For Melbourne, I started in a group (often with just one other person, but sometimes a few people) and worked out answers throughout most of the semester before the interview. I had time to memorize all the answers we came up with, and 100% of the questions for Melbourne this year in the interview were repeats. I recited some of my answers in front of the mirror to try to make it more fluent. I had real talking practice during the week just before the interviews. I also had practice with Des O'Neill (I decided that $150 wasn't too much compared to missing out on Melbourne, although I don't know whether it added that much really compared to memorizing answers for Melbourne and practicing with friends, because Melbourne didn't change questions).
3. I'm not sure how much this helped, but before the Melbourne interview in the semester, I made special effort to give people eye contact when I was talking to them, even if normally I wouldn't bother. I also decided to try to increase my attention span by staying awake more than normal during lectures, and looking at lecturer's eyes during lectures just for practice to get used to it (I don't try to fall asleep during lectures, but sometimes I'm a bit tired).
4. I was more serious in general for Melbourne. I went on a road trip with 2 other family members to USyd and booked on the first day when I had a choice, even though I knew it probably wouldn't help my performance, since it was a practice round (although I would take a USyd CSP if I got that and didn't get any other offers). We booked some cheap hotel in Sydney, which actually stuffed up our accommodation and it was very stressful, especially because we didn't really arrive early in Sydney in the first place.
5. As with all interviews, there was luck involved. In USyd, the first few interviewers didn't shake my hand, and while I didn't really know why, I was nervous for the first few stations. Then one shook my hand, and I was much more at ease at that station, and then I thought the others not shaking my hand contributed to my nervousness. A few interviewers were antagonistic. There was also a "personal station" in USyd which not everyone got but I got, and I didn't prepare for it for USyd. In contrast, in Melbourne, all my interviewers I had were very friendly and the one who I had twice seemed to agree with everything I said.
So that's a list of reasons why I got into Melbourne in an unbonded CSP but not USyd first round.
There were quite a few different reasons for the different outcome:
1. Because the Melbourne interview is weighted less, so maybe I needed less score in Melbourne to get a CSP, but my ranking before interview would have been better in USyd due to the normal GAMSAT weighting and not using GPA to rank.
2. For the USyd one, my preparation effort mainly was one week of going in an interview practice group and working out answers to all questions. However, I had no practice in actually answering them face to face, and because I booked an interview on the first Monday, I had no time to memorize the answers. For Melbourne, I started in a group (often with just one other person, but sometimes a few people) and worked out answers throughout most of the semester before the interview. I had time to memorize all the answers we came up with, and 100% of the questions for Melbourne this year in the interview were repeats. I recited some of my answers in front of the mirror to try to make it more fluent. I had real talking practice during the week just before the interviews. I also had practice with Des O'Neill (I decided that $150 wasn't too much compared to missing out on Melbourne, although I don't know whether it added that much really compared to memorizing answers for Melbourne and practicing with friends, because Melbourne didn't change questions).
3. I'm not sure how much this helped, but before the Melbourne interview in the semester, I made special effort to give people eye contact when I was talking to them, even if normally I wouldn't bother. I also decided to try to increase my attention span by staying awake more than normal during lectures, and looking at lecturer's eyes during lectures just for practice to get used to it (I don't try to fall asleep during lectures, but sometimes I'm a bit tired).
4. I was more serious in general for Melbourne. I went on a road trip with 2 other family members to USyd and booked on the first day when I had a choice, even though I knew it probably wouldn't help my performance, since it was a practice round (although I would take a USyd CSP if I got that and didn't get any other offers). We booked some cheap hotel in Sydney, which actually stuffed up our accommodation and it was very stressful, especially because we didn't really arrive early in Sydney in the first place.
5. As with all interviews, there was luck involved. In USyd, the first few interviewers didn't shake my hand, and while I didn't really know why, I was nervous for the first few stations. Then one shook my hand, and I was much more at ease at that station, and then I thought the others not shaking my hand contributed to my nervousness. A few interviewers were antagonistic. There was also a "personal station" in USyd which not everyone got but I got, and I didn't prepare for it for USyd. In contrast, in Melbourne, all my interviewers I had were very friendly and the one who I had twice seemed to agree with everything I said.
So that's a list of reasons why I got into Melbourne in an unbonded CSP but not USyd first round.
[update] Melbourne offer! CSP Metro 1!
This evening, I received my provisional offer from the University of Melbourne! It was a CSP Metro 1 too; the best possible outcome for me.
Monash, Deakin, UWA and Griffith have also sent out offers today, as well as GEMSAS sending out an "e-mail of death" (or coma as the new vocabulary is).
Anyway, this is good for me. I'm happy with the outcome. I will write another post this evening detailing more about my experience with the interviews and the admissions process.
I hope those who applied and are reading this got offers. If not, I wish you all the best for the next round of offers, or in trying again next year if you're still determined to get into medicine.
Monash, Deakin, UWA and Griffith have also sent out offers today, as well as GEMSAS sending out an "e-mail of death" (or coma as the new vocabulary is).
Anyway, this is good for me. I'm happy with the outcome. I will write another post this evening detailing more about my experience with the interviews and the admissions process.
I hope those who applied and are reading this got offers. If not, I wish you all the best for the next round of offers, or in trying again next year if you're still determined to get into medicine.
Monday, November 14, 2011
[update] GEMSAS simulation round 19 becomes main round offer list!
Just tonight, all the unis from GEMSAS agreed with the results of the 19th simulation round of the GEMSAS. The University of Wollongong has released all their offers tonight, and successful applicants from some other unis can expect to receive them tomorrow.
It's nice to see that they can stick to their deadline. Hopefully the process can be sped up next year with a code already in place.
I'll be waiting for tomorrow in anticipation. I wonder if I got into Melbourne. We shall see soon enough!
On another note, for the first half of this month, I've received page views greater than the total for any other month in my blog's history. After some investigation looking at my blog stats, it seems like @deakinblog on twitter posted a link to my previous post about the 17th GEMSAS simulation, and as a result I've been receiving a lot of hits through that. Apart from that, I've received the usual results through Paging Dr which have increased recently due to the imminent release of GEMSAS offers.
Anyway, to all the people who are seeing this blog for the first time, welcome. I hope to provide good reading for you into the future.
It's nice to see that they can stick to their deadline. Hopefully the process can be sped up next year with a code already in place.
I'll be waiting for tomorrow in anticipation. I wonder if I got into Melbourne. We shall see soon enough!
On another note, for the first half of this month, I've received page views greater than the total for any other month in my blog's history. After some investigation looking at my blog stats, it seems like @deakinblog on twitter posted a link to my previous post about the 17th GEMSAS simulation, and as a result I've been receiving a lot of hits through that. Apart from that, I've received the usual results through Paging Dr which have increased recently due to the imminent release of GEMSAS offers.
Anyway, to all the people who are seeing this blog for the first time, welcome. I hope to provide good reading for you into the future.
Friday, November 11, 2011
[update] 17 GEMSAS simulations later...
... and it seems like most schools are happy with the offer list, but one school is still not 100% satisfied with the list of people they were suggested to offer to by GEMSAS. Ah well, now we should hope for a release of offers soon after the weekend.
Technically, they are still not "late", since they specified that offers will be released 9-16 November. However, this is quite late compared to last year's offers for a few unis including Melbourne. That said, this year is the first year with the new computer matching system of GEMSAS, so they are starting almost from scratch. I hoped they would get offers out earlier though.
Anyway. It seems like tomorrow will be that K-Pop festival in Sydney, which I said I wouldn't attend because of my exams (and to answer a question in the comments, it seems like SNSD will arrive in Sydney before the GEMSAS offers comes out). Interestingly, it seems like tickets are still available for VIP standing, silver seating and bronze seating options, while allocation is exhausted for VIP seating and gold seating. It's interesting because in Korea, the seat allocation of SNSD's first concert in the first Asia tour sold in 3 minutes. More recently, for SNSD's second Asia tour, in Singapore the tickets for their scheduled concert sold out within four hours so they decided to hold a second concert the next day. As it happens, I was in Singapore last year (during the Australian summer holidays), exactly one year before the schedule date of this concert there this year.
Maybe it's because there isn't as much Asian population percent here compared to Singapore. The other reason might be that the distances here are quite far, compared to Singapore or Korea. Australia is a big country and Melbourne and Sydney, the two biggest cities, are quite far apart (about 900 km), so it's not very convenient to travel from one city to another, especially without a high speed rail network. It's even further from Brisbane (the next biggest) to Sydney. It's also an inconvenient time for people going to school or university, since it is right during the exam period for a lot of unis and VCE exams, or during the school term of earlier years. So perhaps that contributes to lower demand too.
In any case, with respect to exam preparation, I did a past exam paper today for one of my subjects, then I cleared up a few gaps in my knowledge that were found. I'll probably do one or two tomorrow. Despite the GEMSAS uncertainty, life goes on...
Technically, they are still not "late", since they specified that offers will be released 9-16 November. However, this is quite late compared to last year's offers for a few unis including Melbourne. That said, this year is the first year with the new computer matching system of GEMSAS, so they are starting almost from scratch. I hoped they would get offers out earlier though.
Anyway. It seems like tomorrow will be that K-Pop festival in Sydney, which I said I wouldn't attend because of my exams (and to answer a question in the comments, it seems like SNSD will arrive in Sydney before the GEMSAS offers comes out). Interestingly, it seems like tickets are still available for VIP standing, silver seating and bronze seating options, while allocation is exhausted for VIP seating and gold seating. It's interesting because in Korea, the seat allocation of SNSD's first concert in the first Asia tour sold in 3 minutes. More recently, for SNSD's second Asia tour, in Singapore the tickets for their scheduled concert sold out within four hours so they decided to hold a second concert the next day. As it happens, I was in Singapore last year (during the Australian summer holidays), exactly one year before the schedule date of this concert there this year.
Maybe it's because there isn't as much Asian population percent here compared to Singapore. The other reason might be that the distances here are quite far, compared to Singapore or Korea. Australia is a big country and Melbourne and Sydney, the two biggest cities, are quite far apart (about 900 km), so it's not very convenient to travel from one city to another, especially without a high speed rail network. It's even further from Brisbane (the next biggest) to Sydney. It's also an inconvenient time for people going to school or university, since it is right during the exam period for a lot of unis and VCE exams, or during the school term of earlier years. So perhaps that contributes to lower demand too.
In any case, with respect to exam preparation, I did a past exam paper today for one of my subjects, then I cleared up a few gaps in my knowledge that were found. I'll probably do one or two tomorrow. Despite the GEMSAS uncertainty, life goes on...
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
[update] Melbourne offers in 2-8 days...
The University of Melbourne MDHS on their facebook page just released a notice:
So with that in mind, and MD offers not being tomorrow because of clinical allocations and the number of students, it means the Melbourne offer emails will probably be in 2-8 days.
If it's like the international students' situation though, those studying at UniMelb at the time seemed to get notification of being accepted into MD or DDS through the student portal before getting the email. So it might be good to check the portal too.
So with that in mind, and MD offers not being tomorrow because of clinical allocations and the number of students, it means the Melbourne offer emails will probably be in 2-8 days.
If it's like the international students' situation though, those studying at UniMelb at the time seemed to get notification of being accepted into MD or DDS through the student portal before getting the email. So it might be good to check the portal too.
Friday, November 4, 2011
No more calculators in GAMSAT...
It seems like there's no more calculators allowed in the GAMSAT anymore! That's quite a change. http://gamsat.acer.edu.au/sit/prohibited-items/
This brings the GAMSAT more in line with the MCAT; MCAT doesn't allow calculators. It also means that what I've said in my blog earlier about figuring out stuff on the calculator for logs can't be done; they either have to give you easy numbers, or they have to give you options in multiple choice which are spaced apart enough so that only one of them is plausible.
(ie, from my previous example, if you can use non-calculator methods to narrow down to a certain range, even though you can't figure out things to a few decimal points without tables or memorizing values. For instance, we can still say that 1/10 of a substance is left somewhere between 3 half lives (1/2^3=1/8) and before 4 half lives (1/2^4=1/16) because 1/8>1/10>1/16 and work from there, without knowing what the decimals are after the 3).
It also means that the whole e^loge type decay formula which I don't memorize is pretty useless now, without a calculator or log tables, because the only advantage it used to confer is not needing to memorize as many log laws (apart from the most fundamental one; a^x=y means logay=x. One of my friends said his tutor called this the "sock rule" because if you draw a bubble looking like a sock around a and x in the log form, the orientation is just like a^x with x as the power, and a as the base. Then y, which is outside of the sock, is on the other side of the = sign). And now you can't be expected to calculate things accurately in decay anyway, unless it's a "good number" (ie, whole number of half lives).
I think actually they already space the numbers far apart enough in multiple choice for these types of questions so you don't need to figure it out accurately, but I preferred to figure them out exactly anyway for these types of problems sometimes.
I wonder how much the format of questions will change because of this ban on calculators. Maybe there doesn't actually need to be any change, but it will increase constraints on time. In any case, I do think it'd be good for med students to be able to do more basic sums and multiplication without calculators.
This brings the GAMSAT more in line with the MCAT; MCAT doesn't allow calculators. It also means that what I've said in my blog earlier about figuring out stuff on the calculator for logs can't be done; they either have to give you easy numbers, or they have to give you options in multiple choice which are spaced apart enough so that only one of them is plausible.
(ie, from my previous example, if you can use non-calculator methods to narrow down to a certain range, even though you can't figure out things to a few decimal points without tables or memorizing values. For instance, we can still say that 1/10 of a substance is left somewhere between 3 half lives (1/2^3=1/8) and before 4 half lives (1/2^4=1/16) because 1/8>1/10>1/16 and work from there, without knowing what the decimals are after the 3).
It also means that the whole e^loge type decay formula which I don't memorize is pretty useless now, without a calculator or log tables, because the only advantage it used to confer is not needing to memorize as many log laws (apart from the most fundamental one; a^x=y means logay=x. One of my friends said his tutor called this the "sock rule" because if you draw a bubble looking like a sock around a and x in the log form, the orientation is just like a^x with x as the power, and a as the base. Then y, which is outside of the sock, is on the other side of the = sign). And now you can't be expected to calculate things accurately in decay anyway, unless it's a "good number" (ie, whole number of half lives).
I think actually they already space the numbers far apart enough in multiple choice for these types of questions so you don't need to figure it out accurately, but I preferred to figure them out exactly anyway for these types of problems sometimes.
I wonder how much the format of questions will change because of this ban on calculators. Maybe there doesn't actually need to be any change, but it will increase constraints on time. In any case, I do think it'd be good for med students to be able to do more basic sums and multiplication without calculators.
Oh! - 소녀시대
It's five more days until the start of the expected period of GEMSAS offers! Because of that, I will share with you a song:
Why? In Sino-Korean numbers*, 오/五/o means five. So sometimes the number five reminds me of this song.
There is also sort of a cheer-leading concept in the song. SNSD will cheer for you until the results come out.
5-12 days now... Ah! Now 5-12 reminds me of the 5-12-13 Pythagorean triad too.
*In Korean, there's 2 main sets of numerals; native Korean and Sino-Korean.
Oh! - 소녀시대
Why? In Sino-Korean numbers*, 오/五/o means five. So sometimes the number five reminds me of this song.
There is also sort of a cheer-leading concept in the song. SNSD will cheer for you until the results come out.
5-12 days now... Ah! Now 5-12 reminds me of the 5-12-13 Pythagorean triad too.
*In Korean, there's 2 main sets of numerals; native Korean and Sino-Korean.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
[update] GEMSAS offers in one week? or two weeks?
After almost five weeks since Melbourne interviews, we're almost there now! GEMSAS offers are expected in 9-16 November, which is in 7-14 days; 1-2 weeks!
I hope that I will receive a CSP offer from Melbourne. This is what all the effort was put in for. Melbourne is my first preference and UQ is my second. If UQ was my first preference, then I should not have bothered to repeat the GAMSAT (although a few people in my biomed cohort sometimes enjoy talking about and comparing marks including GAMSAT and I don't mind joining in too). I also would not need to do all this interview preparation, or apply to USyd for any backup or interview preparation.
There would also be less pressure on grades, and although I now feel that I should study well in the core subjects regardless, because it will be beneficial for medicine in the future. However, if I applied to a GPA hurdle uni as first preference, maybe I could dedicate my breadth subjects to subjects I always thought were good to learn like Chinese rather than playing it safe with my strengths. It would probably not be possible to use a "science GPA" in Australia like they sometimes do in the US though, even if it's a better predictor of med school achievement than normal GPA or non-science GPA, because in Australia not everyone does science subjects in their degree.
Anyway. I've started revising some lecture notes now, in preparation for the exams. The exams, as I said before, will be after the first round offers for GEMSAS... hopefully I get the good news before them.
I hope that I will receive a CSP offer from Melbourne. This is what all the effort was put in for. Melbourne is my first preference and UQ is my second. If UQ was my first preference, then I should not have bothered to repeat the GAMSAT (although a few people in my biomed cohort sometimes enjoy talking about and comparing marks including GAMSAT and I don't mind joining in too). I also would not need to do all this interview preparation, or apply to USyd for any backup or interview preparation.
There would also be less pressure on grades, and although I now feel that I should study well in the core subjects regardless, because it will be beneficial for medicine in the future. However, if I applied to a GPA hurdle uni as first preference, maybe I could dedicate my breadth subjects to subjects I always thought were good to learn like Chinese rather than playing it safe with my strengths. It would probably not be possible to use a "science GPA" in Australia like they sometimes do in the US though, even if it's a better predictor of med school achievement than normal GPA or non-science GPA, because in Australia not everyone does science subjects in their degree.
Anyway. I've started revising some lecture notes now, in preparation for the exams. The exams, as I said before, will be after the first round offers for GEMSAS... hopefully I get the good news before them.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
sin(x+y) does not equal sin(x)+sin(y)
Following on from my physics talk about vector quantities, it reminded me of what my Real Analysis (second year math subject) lecturer told our class during a lecture. I already knew it, but it does seem to be a mistake some people make. I paraphrase slightly:
f(x+y) does not always equal f(x)+f(y). An example is, sin(x+y) does not equal sin(x)+sin(y). Some people sometimes write it on exams, and it's not correct. Actually, sin(x+y)=sin(x)cos(y)+sin(y)cos(x).
[note: the angle expansion formula is not required for the GAMSAT, so don't worry about memorizing it if you aren't doing math subjects or subjects which require significant math, but you should know that sin(x)+sin(y) doesn't equal sin(x+y), in case you have to solve some algebra and think you've found a neat shortcut which doesn't exist]
I think some people get confused because a(b+c)=ab+ac, so they think sin(x+y)=sin(x)+sin(y), but it's not like that. a(b+c) means a times (b+c), but sin(x+y) doesn't mean sin times (x+y).
How does this relate to the GAMSAT? I think sometimes you might have to manipulate logs in certain questions. No, I don't mean logs you find from trees, even if I say "natural log". I mean logarithms. In radioactive decay or other types of decay with half-lives, you might need logarithms to find out stuff. The "log" also pops up in the decibel formula. There's a whole set of log laws, which can be thought of as the reverse of exponent laws.
In particular, loga(x)+loga(y)=loga(x*y), provided that x and y are positive, and a is positive (which is required for the logarithm to exist). Don't think that loga(x)+loga(y)=loga(x+y), because it's not.
Also, loga(x^n)=n*loga(x) is a law you might need.
Anyway, perhaps I'll finish with an example. Simple one, but one with bad numbers, so you can't guess whole numbers easily.
"A radioactive compound initially is 1000 grams. After 60 hours, there is 100 g of the original compound remaining. What is the half life?"
Actually, before I'll begin, I'll mention that there is some weird formula for calculating this type of stuff with a e^(logex) type thing in it which I haven't bothered to memorize. The advantage is that you don't have to remember your log laws when using it, but the disadvantage is that it's not that easy to remember. Personally, I like to remember the formula more logically, even if it means I have to remember the log laws to solve something on the calculator.
Basically, after every half life, the amount of original compound remaining is halved. So after one half life there's half remaining, and after the second half life there's 1/2 * 1/2=(1/2)^2=1/4 remaining; after the next one it's 1/4*1/2=(1/2)^3 remaining. See the pattern? But in the question, we have 1/10 remaining, and 10 is not a multiple of 2, so we can't exactly just work it out the easy way.
Anyway, from the discussion above (there's more rigorous ways to prove it though, but for our purposes an illustration is OK), the proportion remaining of the original compound is (1/2)^n, where n=number of half lives.
Then to convert that into an actual amount, multiply by the original amount.
So, N=N0(1/2)^n, where N=amount remaining, N0=initial amount of compound. To me, knowing this formula is simpler than memorizing a whole formula with e^loge etc. However, to use it backwards you need to know your log laws, unlike the other way where you don't need to know so much.
Anyway, back to the question.
N=1000, N0=100.
100=1000(1/2)^n
1/10=(1/2)^n
now if you use this formula, this is where we get logs into play. Take the log of both sides (it doesn't matter which base, but your calculator has two logs; base 10 (the button "log") or base e (the button "ln"), so it has to be one of these. It would be simpler if there was a log base 2 for this particular question, but it doesn't exist on your calculator. So if we don't have a log base 2 on the calculator, we need a work-around.
log (1/10)=log (1/2)^n
Now use the log law: loga(x)^n=n*loga(x) on the RHS of the equation:
log (1/10)=n*log (1/2)
n=log(1/10)/log(1/2) (put this onto your calculator)
=3.3219
Now this is the number of half lives. We wanted to know the half life. Now, we know from the question that the time taken was 60 hours, so:
60 hours=3.3219 half lives
What's one half life? Divide 60 by 3.3219.
Answer is 18.06
So half life is 18 hours. That is the answer.
As I said before, there's another formula which is more complex to remember that some people use for it, but which means you don't need to know your log laws. Personally, because I do remember my log laws, I find this way simpler because I don't really have to remember a more complex formula for exponential decay involving half lives.
Hope this helps. I don't really plan to turn this blog into a GAMSAT blog, but I might still mention a few things here and there.
f(x+y) does not always equal f(x)+f(y). An example is, sin(x+y) does not equal sin(x)+sin(y). Some people sometimes write it on exams, and it's not correct. Actually, sin(x+y)=sin(x)cos(y)+sin(y)cos(x).
[note: the angle expansion formula is not required for the GAMSAT, so don't worry about memorizing it if you aren't doing math subjects or subjects which require significant math, but you should know that sin(x)+sin(y) doesn't equal sin(x+y), in case you have to solve some algebra and think you've found a neat shortcut which doesn't exist]
I think some people get confused because a(b+c)=ab+ac, so they think sin(x+y)=sin(x)+sin(y), but it's not like that. a(b+c) means a times (b+c), but sin(x+y) doesn't mean sin times (x+y).
How does this relate to the GAMSAT? I think sometimes you might have to manipulate logs in certain questions. No, I don't mean logs you find from trees, even if I say "natural log". I mean logarithms. In radioactive decay or other types of decay with half-lives, you might need logarithms to find out stuff. The "log" also pops up in the decibel formula. There's a whole set of log laws, which can be thought of as the reverse of exponent laws.
In particular, loga(x)+loga(y)=loga(x*y), provided that x and y are positive, and a is positive (which is required for the logarithm to exist). Don't think that loga(x)+loga(y)=loga(x+y), because it's not.
Also, loga(x^n)=n*loga(x) is a law you might need.
Anyway, perhaps I'll finish with an example. Simple one, but one with bad numbers, so you can't guess whole numbers easily.
"A radioactive compound initially is 1000 grams. After 60 hours, there is 100 g of the original compound remaining. What is the half life?"
Actually, before I'll begin, I'll mention that there is some weird formula for calculating this type of stuff with a e^(logex) type thing in it which I haven't bothered to memorize. The advantage is that you don't have to remember your log laws when using it, but the disadvantage is that it's not that easy to remember. Personally, I like to remember the formula more logically, even if it means I have to remember the log laws to solve something on the calculator.
Basically, after every half life, the amount of original compound remaining is halved. So after one half life there's half remaining, and after the second half life there's 1/2 * 1/2=(1/2)^2=1/4 remaining; after the next one it's 1/4*1/2=(1/2)^3 remaining. See the pattern? But in the question, we have 1/10 remaining, and 10 is not a multiple of 2, so we can't exactly just work it out the easy way.
Anyway, from the discussion above (there's more rigorous ways to prove it though, but for our purposes an illustration is OK), the proportion remaining of the original compound is (1/2)^n, where n=number of half lives.
Then to convert that into an actual amount, multiply by the original amount.
So, N=N0(1/2)^n, where N=amount remaining, N0=initial amount of compound. To me, knowing this formula is simpler than memorizing a whole formula with e^loge etc. However, to use it backwards you need to know your log laws, unlike the other way where you don't need to know so much.
Anyway, back to the question.
N=1000, N0=100.
100=1000(1/2)^n
1/10=(1/2)^n
now if you use this formula, this is where we get logs into play. Take the log of both sides (it doesn't matter which base, but your calculator has two logs; base 10 (the button "log") or base e (the button "ln"), so it has to be one of these. It would be simpler if there was a log base 2 for this particular question, but it doesn't exist on your calculator. So if we don't have a log base 2 on the calculator, we need a work-around.
log (1/10)=log (1/2)^n
Now use the log law: loga(x)^n=n*loga(x) on the RHS of the equation:
log (1/10)=n*log (1/2)
n=log(1/10)/log(1/2) (put this onto your calculator)
=3.3219
Now this is the number of half lives. We wanted to know the half life. Now, we know from the question that the time taken was 60 hours, so:
60 hours=3.3219 half lives
What's one half life? Divide 60 by 3.3219.
Answer is 18.06
So half life is 18 hours. That is the answer.
As I said before, there's another formula which is more complex to remember that some people use for it, but which means you don't need to know your log laws. Personally, because I do remember my log laws, I find this way simpler because I don't really have to remember a more complex formula for exponential decay involving half lives.
Hope this helps. I don't really plan to turn this blog into a GAMSAT blog, but I might still mention a few things here and there.
November: The month of GEMSAS offers! (and exams)
It's November now. This is the month of the GEMSAS offers for the main round. So in 8-15 days (9-16 November), applicants to GEMSAS will know if they got a first round offer or not.
It also happens to be Melbourne Cup Day today; a public holiday in Melbourne. However, I don't really take too much interest in the Melbourne Cup.
Anyway, after the offers, my first exam is on the 17th. I've been reading some of my Pharmacology textbook, and might start revising lecture notes soon. My last exam is on the 24th.
Well, all in all, it seems like it will be an interesting month ahead.
It also happens to be Melbourne Cup Day today; a public holiday in Melbourne. However, I don't really take too much interest in the Melbourne Cup.
Anyway, after the offers, my first exam is on the 17th. I've been reading some of my Pharmacology textbook, and might start revising lecture notes soon. My last exam is on the 24th.
Well, all in all, it seems like it will be an interesting month ahead.
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