GPA... GAMSAT... Interview...: October 2013

Thursday, October 31, 2013

2014 entry UniMelb and Monash local medical school places released

Today the University of Melbourne and Monash medical school places for local students were released. Congratulations if you have received an offer!

If I have tutored you for the GAMSAT, I would like to know how you went in this cycle of the admission process. You may post a comment, or if not, send me an email to my email address. If you forgot the email address, you may see it when clicking on "comments".

To prospective students, I will likely resume tutoring after my exams finish (after 22 November).

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

2014 entry: most GEMSAS offers released. Melbourne still to go.

So today, most of the GEMSAS medicine offers had been released, along with the emails of unsuccessful application (for now). Commiserations if you have received an email of unsuccessful application, although there is a chance of being offered a place still as people decline a place for one in USyd or dentistry etc.

Melbourne and Monash still have to release their offers though. Well, the other universities have been remarkably efficient this time! Monash used to be one of the earliest releasers in the past two years, but not this year.

Anyway, good luck if you're still waiting for an offer, particularly from Melbourne!

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

2014 GEMSAS medicine offer list completed. Offers out next few days.

Today the 2014 GEMSAS medicine offer list was completed. Offers for all the different GEMSAS universities will be out in the next few days. In particular, the University of Melbourne MDHS facebook page indicates a 1 November 2013 release.

Good luck for everyone waiting for an offer!

Saturday, October 26, 2013

2013 Unimelb end of undergraduate classes

Yesterday was the last day for undergraduate classes for undergraduate students for the University of Melbourne. Good luck for all your exams if you have them soon! We still have two more weeks left of MD2 to go, due to longer semesters for medicine. Meanwhile, in MD2 our multiple choice exam is only worth 17.5%, compared to 40% of semester 8/9 back in the MBBS course. They have also added in a SAQ component. Boo! What do they expect to do? To see if we have doctor's handwriting yet?

I guess all the first round of GEMSAS med offers should be coming out within the next few weeks then. Ah sorry... I just reminded you again. In any case, good luck for any offers!

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

NAE's medical jokes

Since Drug Lion has commented that he wants to hear my med jokes, I'll post my original compilation of variable quality here. I assure you that all of these are my own, but there may be a possibility of others having come up with them before.

As with many jokes, if you abhor anything not 100% politically correct or are easily offended, then read no further.

Many of these jokes are puns, so you have to imagine them being read out.

On a more serious note, it was with some sadness that I have learned by checking the medical records that one of the patients I saw in the hospital has died. This a patient that I put a cannula into too. There are other patients which I see who also have terminal diagnoses in oncology with poor prognosis. It is sad, but these are some of the things we need to learn to cope with in medicine.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

What do you call the worm that ate Mozart?

original link: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=630221933664634

Credit: Beatrice the Biologist on Facebook (photo seen through I fucking love science on Facebook)

This was so gold that I needed to share it with you. It's a lot better than most of my jokes that my fellow med students have to listen to. Although if you want to hear any of them, leave a comment and let me know.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

[update] MD2 GP placements

Yesterday, I undertook my first GP day out of four that I have in the GP placement (weekly) this year. It was a refreshing change being assigned to a GP clinic which was a lot closer to my home than the clinical school was, in contrast to the case for many of the other people I have spoken to. They were also kind in letting me share the lunch that was bought for those in the clinic!

The first session was very interesting, and I was encouraged by the GP I was with to participate and attempt to take the history and examinations first for some patients myself. In that way, I consider myself lucky, comparing against some of the other stories I hear around.

In general, it was interesting to note the contrast between "undifferentiated" patients visiting GP and those visiting the ED; those going to ED were sicker. That said, it also hit home that we didn't have much practice interviewing in some of the more common (compared to hospital) GP presentations like URTIs and neuro/muscular type pain, so I was a bit unsure of what to do at times. I also had the practical experience of seeing a final year medical student pick up on systems review something important which was not the presenting complaint of the patient, which I did not ask about myself, reinforcing the usefulness of the systems review as part of the medical interview. So it was all a useful experience. Looking forward to the placement next week!

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Unimelb 2014 entry medicine interviews finished

Yesterday was the last day of the interviews for 2014 medicine entry at the University of Melbourne. I have heard that they have had a shake up on the topics being assessed in the interview!

I hope you have all done well in your interviews. Now it is the long wait until offers.

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Definitions and context

Here are some definitions of terms, both official and unofficial, which I may use in my blog. Within the definitions, I've also provided some context which may be confusing if you first encounter my blog without reading right from the start.

You may also notice that I use some American spelling, even though I am based in Australia. This is quite deliberate, because American spelling is often shorter and more intuitive in terms of pronunciation. As an aside, I think that English spelling reform should be given good consideration by the authorities of the English speaking countries to facilitate learning, just like a lot of other languages have had reforms.

ACER: Australian Council for Educational Research. Runs the UMAT and GAMSAT among other things that the name suggests.

ATAR: Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank. Formerly called TER (Tertiary Entrance Rank), ENTER (Equivalent National TER) or UAI (Undergraduate Admissions Index). Roughly corresponds to a percentile rank (between 0 and 99.95, in increments of 0.05), but it takes into account dropouts, so an ATAR score is slightly higher than the percentile during year 12.

biomed: Biomedicine/Biomedical science

BMed: Bachelor of Medicine. Given by some universities as the first professional degree of medicine. Nowadays virtually identical to MBBS.

BMP: Bonded Medical Place. A type of CSP, but requires working in areas of workforce shortage equal to the length of the degree, although there is a "scaling bonus" for more isolated rural areas. There is no scholarship involved. BMPs can be "paid off" in that the breach of contract "only" requires paying a fine equal to the government contribution of your school fees while you were a medical student (adjusted for inflation) and no other registration issues unlike breaching an MRBS contract. BMPs are only for Australian Citizens and permanent residents.

CSP: Commonwealth Supported Place. An "unbonded" CSP place in Medicine is sometimes implied. For local students.

CSL: Case Supported Learning. The University of Melbourne uses it to refer to Problem Based Learning (PBL), as it involves cases, and they use it to complement lectures instead of completely replace them like some overseas universities.

dent: Dentistry/Dental Science/Dental Surgery/Dental Medicine

DDS/DMD: Doctor of Dental Surgery/Doctor of Dental Medicine. The names of the dental courses in UniMelb (starting 2011) and USyd (starting 2012) respectively. Classified as “masters degrees by coursework”. Originally the degrees were “Bachelor of Dental Science” or “Bachelor of Dentistry”.

EBM: Evidence Based Medicine.

ENTER: Equivalent National Tertiary Entrance Rank. The old name for ATAR used in Victoria.

ERC: Extended Rural Cohort. A group of 60 students (30 each) from UniMelb and undergraduate Monash who do their clinical years in northwest Victoria.

FBS: Foundations in Biomedical Science. The main subject in first year MD for UniMelb, containing mostly biomedical science as the name suggests, together with some social sciences and EBM.

FFP: Full Fee Place. Can be split into "Australian (local) Full Fee" or "International Full Fee"

international: international student. Not a local student.

GAMSAT: Graduate Australian Medical School Admission Test. It contains 3 sections scored out of 100: reasoning in humanities and social sciences (S1/humanities), written communication (S2/writing), and reasoning in physical and biological sciences (S3/science). Most universities use an "overall score" which gives double weighting to the science section, apart from Melbourne, which give each section equal weighting.

GEMSAS: Graduate Entry Medical Schools Application System. Only started in 2011 for 2012 entry, for local students applying to medicine. Designed to make the system fairer while keeping a preference list and avoid multiple interviews, but the UQ (lower preference) issue does not appear to be resolved.

GMAC: Graduate Medical Admission Centre. In the process of being phased out and replaced by GEMSAS.

GMP/GEMP: Graduate-entry Medical Program. GMP may also mean guanosine monophosphate depending on context.

GPA: Grade Point Average. In the context of medicine admission, this is different to a percentage average (WAM). GPA can be either weighted progressively (most unis) in later years or not (some unis like USyd, UQ).

LMS: Learning Management System. Known as "blackboard" in some other unis, this is the online resource for UniMelb students for online tests and lecture notes etc for the subjects they do.

local: local student. Australian citizen, permanent resident, NZ citizen, or someone on a permanent humanitarian visa.

MBBS/BMBS/MBChB: Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery. The first professional degree of medicine in a lot of Commonwealth nations.

MCAT: Medical College Admission Test. Predominantly a North American test, although a lot of graduate entry universities worldwide accept it for international students. However, University of Melbourne applicants need to sit GAMSAT if they are based in Australia during the time of the GAMSAT.

MD: Doctor of Medicine. In Australia, traditionally it is a research degree. However, in North America, and in the usage that some Australian universities are now adopting (controversial because of possible ambiguity), it is the first professional (practicing) degree of medicine; almost identical to the MBBS.

med: Medicine

medsci: Medical Science

Melbourne GAMSAT/Melbourne score (unofficial term): The University of Melbourne weights all GAMSAT sections equally, unlike all the other ones which weight science double. The Melbourne score is defined as (S1+S2+S3)/3.

midsem: mid-semester. May refer to a mid-semester test.

MMI: Multiple mini interview. Interview with a lot of stations with different questions and interviewers, designed to minimize the effects of interviewer bias. Roughly based on the OSCE

MRBS: Medical Rural Bonded Scholarship. A type of CSP requiring a six year commitment to rural medicine after attaining fellowship (before scaling for degree of isolation). There is significant money given while studying, although the penalties for breaching the contract are severe. Only for Australian citizens and permanent residents.

OMS: Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. A dental specialization requiring both dental and medical degrees.

OSCE: Objective Structured Clinical Examination. Exam designed to test a set of clinical skills with multiple stations.

PBL: Problem Based Learning. Involves group work discussing problems. Slight variations in structure exist between universities.

PCP: Principles of Clinical Practice. This subject is a small part of first year (preclinical), but worth a larger part of clinical years 2 and 3. The year number may be specified after PCP.

RMH: Royal Melbourne Hospital

sci: science. May or may not refer to GAMSAT section 3.

sem: semester. May also refer to "standard error of the mean"

sub: subject. May also refer to substituting.

S1/S2/S3: GAMSAT (or rarely in this blog, UMAT) section I, section II, or section III. See GAMSAT or UMAT for more information.

UMAT: Undergraduate Medical school and health sciences Admission Test. Aptitude test sat predominantly for undergraduate entry medicine in Australia (except James Cook University). Contains Logical Reasoning and Problem Solving, Understanding People, and Non-verbal Reasoning sections. Recently found by UQ to be a very poor predictor of medical school performance (section 1 was slightly predicitive, but sections 2 and 3 were not statistically significant in predictive ability).

unbonded CSP/unbonded place: a CSP place with no commitment attached upon graduation; not BMP or MRBS or some other state's own bonded scholarship.

UniMelb/UMelb/UoM/Melb/Melbourne (note: read the term “Melb/Melbourne” in context; it can also refer to city of Melbourne): University of Melbourne. As of now, the only university in Australia which has an “MD” masters-level medicine program instead of a bachelor degree level. However, the University of Western Australia is set to follow starting 2014 and UQ is expected to switch in 2014 too.

UQ: University of Queensland. In 2008, for 2009 entry, they discontinued the use of the interview. They are the only graduate entry medical school in Australia with no interview. They also expect to switch to an “MD” medical course in 2014.

UQ (lower preference) issue: Since UQ doesn’t interview, they give their place offers at the same time that other GEMSAS unis give out their interview offers (and 2-3 months before the other GEMSAS unis give out their final med school place offers). As a result, people putting UQ below their first preference may miss out on a place even if they would have gotten in if they put UQ first, if they happen to do badly in their interview for their higher preference university.

USyd: University of Sydney. In 2011, for 2012 entry, they pulled out of the GEMSAS consortium and local students are required to apply directly. They also had local student interviews during early July instead of late September like the GEMSAS universities.

VCE: Victorian Certificate of Education. Equivalent to HSC, WACE, SACE, TCE etc. Roughly equivalent to A-levels.

WAM: Weighted Average Mark (percentage average). “Weighted” refers to weighting subject marks according to credit points, so that for example subjects like Integrated Human Structure and Function (25 credit points) in University of Melbourne’s Biomedicine course would be weighted double compared to say Pharmacology: How Drugs Work (12.5 credit points).

UWA: University of Western Australia. UWA has the last intake for a 4 year, 8 month MBBS graduate entry course for 2012 entry (running alongside a 6 year undergraduate course), and is set to switch to a 4 year MD program for 2014 entry.

WEHI: Walter and Eliza Hall Institute.

wrt: with respect to

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