End of UniMelb medicine interviews, 2013 entry.

Today was the last day for UniMelb medicine and physiotherapy interviews for prospective local students for 2013 entry. Some other universities, such as ANU, have also finished interviewing locals for their medicine admission processes, while other universities will be finishing their interviewing processes soon.

Anyway, since UniMelb have finished their interviews, that means that MD1 students will be back to uni next week (which is the same as undergraduate students at the university). I have been reading some of my pathology textbook, although I also decided to refresh my mind about history taking and examinations. Although PCP1 is only worth 12.5 credit points compared to FBS 81.25 credit points, I still shouldn't neglect it...

[update] End of year exam timetable released. No swotvac week!

Today our end of exam timetables were released. The last MST will be held in 9 November, which was not unexpected. However, it seems like we will have our end of year exams for FBS on 22 and 23 November. They did not give us a swotvac/cram week to prepare for them! It's going to be tough to study for all the lectures for the whole year with less than a week between our last class and our end of year exam...

[update] Semester 2 midsemester break (MD1 2012). Unimelb interview week. GAMSAT UK today.

I've finished class for today. Now there is a one week break before the rest of first year medicine at Melbourne. I'll be using the break to catch up on rest, revising lectures and hopefully reading more of the pathology textbook.

Meanwhile, the interviews for 2013 entry for Melbourne medicine onshore applicants are also coming up next week. Good luck if you're a prospective Melbourne medical student with an interview!

The GAMSAT UK is also today. Good luck for anyone taking it!

[update] MD1 MST #3 marks released

Today we got our MST #3 marks back for MD1. This was surprising, because they often took longer to give our marks.

Overall I got 50 out of 60 (about 83%), which I'm reasonably fine with, although there were some areas of weakness (the class mean was 45.16 and median was 46)

Anatomy 8/10

That seems to be about average for my subsections. It's somewhat relieving given that I felt like I knew hardly anything well during the anatomy prac the day just before the test.

Neuroscience 11/15

Neuroscience seems like one of my weaker areas. I wonder what options would have been right.

Physiology 5/5

This time it seems like I got all the physiology ones right, unlike the other tests I did in the past. It seems like they gave everyone that one mark for the Growth Hormone question without any right option.

Pathology 4/6

Again, pathology is one of my weaker sections. Unfortunately, I haven't been reading my pathology book that much during the semester; just keeping up with the lecture notes. I read a bit on the weekend though. I'll try to read the book more often.

Biochemistry 7/7

So I still have my perfect record for biochemistry so far. There were some questions where I was a bit unsure but it seems like I chose the correct option.

Pharmacology 6/6

This was one where I was quite confident, because of my major. I did expect that we'd cover more about drugs affecting the nervous system given that I did a whole subject on it in biomed, but it seems like they probably left us to learn more during our clinical years.

Psychological Sciences 4/6

This seems to be another of my areas of weakness in comparison, although this sample size is not very big, so it's hard to tell.

Other 5/5

Now I'm a bit confused as to which questions were "other". I think there was one ethics question, but I don't recall the other four. Ah well... it seems like my "other" knowledge was good for this test.

2013 entry GEMSAS interviews start

Today is the start of the midsemester break for the University of Melbourne undergraduate students. Over the next few weeks, the universities in GEMSAS other than UQ will interview prospective local medical students.

For UniMelb, interviews will start on 24 September, in just over a week's time. That is the same time that I have my midsemester break for Medicine, which is one week less than for undergraduate students at UniMelb. Last year they used the CSL rooms on level 7 and in the basement. However, at the moment the basement is undergoing renovations, so I guess they'd need to have slightly different arrangement. They expected the basement renovations to finish earlier, but now they expect it to be unavailable for the rest of the year. Meanwhile, my table tennis bat is stranded in the locker there...

Good luck if you have an interview coming up!

[update] MD1 MST #3 done!

Today I completed the third midsemester test for MD1, for neuroscience, endocrine and metabolism blocks!

I found the test was OK, and it should be a comfortable pass. Maybe H1, but that depends on how many of those I wasn't sure of that I got right. However, there was one question I discussed with some others regarding Growth Hormone, and we were quite sure that there was no correct option given.

I felt better than after the MST #2; probably not as well as after MST #1. However, I guess we have to wait for the results. As usual, I'd still prefer the GAMSAT section 3...

Anyway. Tonight there is the Med Ball for Unimelb too, so I'll go and get ready for that.

USyd 2013 entry: some CSP medicine offers released

This evening, it seems like some CSP offers were released for USyd medicine for 2013 entry. However, no BMP offers seem to have been noted on the Paging Dr Forum as yet, and no unsuccessful letters have been sent to local applicants either.

Congratulations if you received a CSP offer. Good luck if you are still waiting.

Meanwhile, I've got an 8 am lecture tomorrow... and a test in just under 3 days. Still more lectures to revise...

[update] MD1 MST #3 next week

Next week on Friday, we have our third midsemester test for the first year of MD. The topics covered will be neuroscience, metabolism and endocrine. Like the first test of the year, this one is also worth 5% of FBS.

They didn't give us much time to revise for this test. They are going to test most of the semester so far up to the day before the test. So it will be a challenge to get through all those past lectures and revise the lectures throughout the week before the test.

I did a subject called Drugs Affecting the Nervous System back in undergrad. I thought it would be more helpful for the neuroscience block, but we didn't get many lectures about drugs affecting the nervous system at all. I guess they are trying to integrate more things into clinical years when they were designing the course, in order to have a structure with just one preclinical year (also aided by having prerequisites), so we will probably learn more about them then.