[update] MD1 MST#4 results out. Written exams next week

I just got my MST#4 results, including the prac test for the semester.

Overall I got 39/47 for the theory portion (83%; class mean and median were 32.04 and 32). They took out some stats questions which weren't taught this semester but were taught last semester, which I wish they didn't have. Ah well.

I wish we could know the right answers, but ah well.

Anatomy 8/8

yay...

MIIM 8/10

I guess I probably got that developing country vaccine question wrong. Maybe also the returned traveller one too? Hmm... not sure

Pathology/histology 5/7

I don't remember the questions for this section that I thought I might have gotten wrong anymore.

Pharmacology: 3/5

Oops! I shouldn't have chosen Calcium supplementation as the primary treatment of osteoporosis. I'm not sure about the other one though...

Physiology 8/8

It seems like I got all the physiology right this semester (but not last semester).

Other 7/9

I don't remember which ones I got wrong here. I wish they still had the stats questions. Ah well.


I got 37/50 for the prac portion (74%; class mean and median not displayed at the moment).

Anatomy 8/9

I don't remember what I got wrong here...

Biochemistry 5/5

I was unsure about one of the answers (to do with someone's diet), but it seems like I got it right. Some of the other questions were almost giveaways. So it seems like I got all the biochem questions right in all midsems this year.

MIIM 10/12

I don't remember what happened here.

Neuroscience 3/7

Oops... I know I got the MRI T2 question wrong. I don't recall the others.

Pathology 6/11

Not that good either, although I guess I did technically "pass" all pathology subsections in all midsems. It seems to be many people's weakest subject...

Other prac 5/6

What does "other" mean? Ah whatever... I don't know.


Anyway, the exam is next week, so I will resume studying.

[update] MD1 last midsem complete

Today I completed the last midsemester test for first year MD. This test consisted of half "lecture" questions and half "practical based" MCQ questions.

Like the other tests, I felt reasonably comfortable with the majority of the questions, but there were still quite a number which I was unsure of.

Anyway, the next big assessment will be the exams. The first end of year exam is in a bit less than two weeks time, assessing 36 weeks worth of content. The hectic preparation effort will probably begin tomorrow...

Good luck everyone who has exams still!

[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.

[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.

[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.

[update] Midsemester 2 + population health assignment + CSL marks released

Today the marks for the second "midsemester test" (actually at the end of the semester) were released. I did better than I thought that I might, but I did do a bit worse than last time, at least in part due to the proportion of the test being pharmacology (my major) being less. However, it was still at H1 standard, so I'm reasonably happy with how it went. I do wish we knew what we got wrong though.

Anyway, for further breakdown:

MST 2 (non-prac section) total: 42 out of 50 (class mean 34.98, median 36)

Anatomy: 11/14
This is worse than last time when I got 10/10 for anatomy. I guess I didn't read the textbook as much for these two blocks.

Pathology/Histology: 8/10
That is not too bad I guess, although it could be improved. My Pathology score for the prac/image based section was not that great though!

Biochemistry: 5/5
I think the biochem questions were reasonably easy.

Microbiology/Immunology: 9/10
I guess I got that parasite question wrong. Apart from that, it seems like MIIM is one of my better topics.

Physiology: 6/8
I thought it would be higher. I wonder what I got wrong.

Pharmacology: 3/3
There really wasn't much pharmacology in that test!


Then for the prac section: 41 out of 50 (class mean 34.11, median 35)

Anatomy: 14/14
I wasn't that sure with a few of the picture questions, but I guess my knowledge was correct. I wish we could actually touch the specimens rather than look at pictures though haha.

MIIM: 13/15
Not too bad, but I wish I knew what I got wrong.

Physiology/Pharmacology: 3/4
I wish I knew what I got wrong here too.

Pathology/Histology: 11/17
Now this is where I lost most of my marks for the prac section! 6 marks out of the 9 I lost in the prac section. It was still an overall "pass" for this subsection though. I actually opened my copy of Robbins and read about 1.5 chapters in the holidays though, so perhaps I should continue doing that to rectify this.


CSL tutorial: 15 out of 20 (class average 16.54, median 17)
It seems like I'm a bit below the average for this (about 5-10%).

Collaborative Learning: 7/10
Knowledge and reasoning: 8/10


Population health assignment: 81/100 (average 79.25, median 80)
It seems like I got just a bit above the average here. Anyway, I'm happy that this is our only assignment this year for FBS, and that I have gotten my other "assignment" (for the student conference) out of the way now too.


Anyway, overall, it seems like my FBS is going OK but I should be practicing more for PCP. I had my first PCP session for the semester today, but I don't know when the remedial tutorials will be held yet.

[update] Half the midyear holiday is over already. End of exam period for UniMelb Undergrad.

Tomorrow marks the half-way point of my winter recess for Medicine. Unlike undergraduate courses at Melbourne, we only get two weeks of holidays between semesters. Ah well. If it was too long, maybe I'd get too bored. Last year it didn't feel that the holidays were long because of the time preparing for the USyd interviews, but before that I probably felt that the uni holidays were a bit long.

Today is the last day of the exam period for UniMelb. If you have recently sat an exam, I hope you have done well. For UniMelb, the undergraduate results for the semester are scheduled to be released by Friday 6 July in two weeks time, although many will come out before that date. Results generally come out on the Study Plan on the day before they are out on the Results Service page, and the results going onto the Study Plan coincides with the subject coming off the enrolled subject list on the portal homepage.

[update] Midyear exam and OSCE done.

Yesterday and today, I completed my midyear OSCE and written exam. It was a struggle to prepare without having a swotvac/cram week. That said, the exams were not worth a large proportion of our final mark, so the timing isn't too unforgivable on the university's part.

For the OSCE yesterday, it was my first ever OSCE. I did a lot of things properly, but there were some things which I forgot to do. For instance, I forgot to wash my hands until almost the end of my clinical examination (oops) and didn't remember to make the actor lie down before palpating the carotids (to avoid the tensing up of the sternocleidomastoid muscle).

For history taking, I was reasonably comfortable talking to the actor about her abdominal pain, but forgot to ask about smoking and alcohol history, and I didn't list the symptoms of common bile duct obstruction apart from jaundice and pain properly (pale stools, dark urine, itch).

Ah well. As long as I don't make the same mistakes again, it's OK. After all, this was my first OSCE, and it wasn't worth too much.

With the written exam for FBS, it was quite difficult. I was reasonably confident with more than half of the questions, but there was a significant number of questions which I was unsure about or almost clueless about.

That said, others in the course that I have spoken to have also found the test to be difficult. Maybe the end of year exams won't be hard in comparison then, given that the class average for the subject was above 70% last year. I guess that way is good. I think it's better to have harder tests before the final so that we don't get false confidence before the final exams.

Anyway. That concludes all my exams this semester. There's two more days left for med this semester, which will include some revision lectures scheduled after the midyear exam. Such a strange thing to do.

For those reading still with exams to do, study well and I wish you all the best for them.

[update] Unimelb MD1 midyear exam and OSCE week + Unimelb undergrad second week of exams.

On the coming week on Tuesday and Wednesday, I have my OSCE and midyear exam. They are not worth a high proportion of their respective subjects of PCP1 and FBS, since they are year long subjects.

However, this will be the first time I will be assessed in an OSCE. This will be something new to me, unlike the many multiple choice tests which I have completed throughout my life. I'm wondering how well I'll do, and how hard they're going to mark for that. The main subject this year in terms of credit points is the FBS subject though, so I haven't been putting as much effort into PCP in comparison.

For FBS, there has been some level of bafflement among students because they put some revision lectures for the semester after the test instead of before it. Now that is a strange thing to do. Ah well. It's not something which can be changed this year, so we'll just have to deal with it.

The coming week is also the second week of exams for undergraduate students at UniMelb, and is part of the exam period of some other unis too. If you have an exam this week, I wish you well in your preparation and exam.

[update] MD1 Midsemester test 1 results released.

Today the results for the first midsemester test was released. I am reasonably happy with how it went, although as always, if you don't get 100% you can always do better.

My overall mark was 53/60, or 88%. The class mean posted was 42.17 and median was 42 (70%).

That's within the range that I was expecting I guess, since there was about 75% of the exam that I was reasonably sure of and most of the other 25% I had narrowed the answers down to two options.

They don't give the answers anywhere though, because they want to reuse questions between years.

Anyway, now for the breakdown of my marks:

Anatomy: 10/10

The anatomy questions they asked were generally straightforward. Furthermore, I was reading my anatomy textbook in the leadup to the test, but that's the only textbook which I've kept up with so far.

Biochemistry: 3/3

Well, this isn't a big sample size, but it seems like my biochem is probably OK. I'm somewhat surprised with not many biochem lectures so far, but we'll probably get a lot more in metabolism block.

Microbiology and Immunology: 11/12

So it seems like I'm OK with that too. I wonder which question I got wrong though.

Pathology: 6/9

This was my weakest section, and I made 3/7 of my mistakes here. I didn't do that well in the online practice tests on this section. I think I might have gotten less than half of the pathology questions right on the online tests. I bought the Pathologic Basis of Disease book recently, but I haven't opened it yet. Perhaps I should read it one day.

Pharmacology: 10/12

I was a bit surprised about this. I thought that I got them all right! In fact, this section score is lower than my overall average. Now I really want to know what I got wrong. That said, I skipped over most of the pharmacology lectures when I was revising. I can't really regret it though. The time was probably better spent learning things that I didn't know as well, anyway. I do plan to revise all the pharmacology lectures again before the end of year exam though.

Physiology: 7/8

I wonder what I got wrong here too. Nevertheless, physiology seems to be a reasonable standard for me.

Population health: 6/6

Sort of expected though, because I find the EBM theory relatively easy to grasp without a heap of memory load like biosciences. The social determinants question(s) didn't seem to trick me up this time either, although you did have to know that a particular study (Whitehall) assessed the correlation of disease/mortality with job control (not with smoking). I felt that that was a weird technicality to expect us to know, but it seems like I got it right anyway.

[update] MD year 1 midyear exam times released

Over the past week or so, the midyear exam times have been released for Melbourne's first year MD students. Since the structure of the MD first year uses year long subjects rather than semester long subjects for FBS and PCP1, the midyear exams are not worth very much, but are still worth something.

There is a two hour test/exam for FBS, worth 10% of FBS (FBS is worth 81.25% of this year's credit points; or 86.67% of this year disregarding the pass/fail student conference). Half of it will be assessing pracs and half will be assessing the lecture content of the blocks since the last test in FBS. There will be 15 minutes of reading time beforehand.

There is an OSCE for PCP1, worth 20% of PCP1 (PCP1 is worth 12.5% of first year; or 13.33% of this year disregarding the pass/fail student conference). There will be two stations: one history taking session, and one clinical examination session. Both stations are 7 minutes in length and have 1 minute of reading time.

For the OSCE, I was allocated to the morning 8.00 am group. This means that I'll have to get up earlier than usual. We do have some 8.00 am starts for medicine though, so I am somewhat used to it. I'll have to get used to it sooner or later before starting internship of course.

[update] First test done for medicine.

Today I completed the first test for the MD. It was a multiple choice test with 60 questions in total. I think that I went reasonably well, although there were 1/4 of the questions that I wasn't that sure of the answer to. Nevertheless, it should be a comfortable pass. I'm not that sure if it will be an H1 though; I guess it depends on how many of those I was unsure of that I got right. We'll see.

It was only worth 5% so that isn't very much. Majoring in pharmacology helped, as 10 questions were directly assessing it, and a few more questions were from other subjects but were also covered in the pharmacology major. There were other things that I had learned from my biomed core subjects which helped reduce the workload for the MD.

In any case, it's good to get the first test out of the way. And it's also good that I seem to be learning the material well without struggling that much.

[update] First dissection session, first test for MD

The past Thursday, I had my first ever dissection session for human anatomy. It was nice to have the privilege of being able to dissect cadavers, where people have agreed to donate their bodies to allow medical students to understand anatomy well. I handled it OK psychologically, as did others in my group that I could see.

That said, everyone in the Melbourne MD program had to have done anatomy before anyway as a prerequisite, and so almost everyone would have had experience with prosections anyway (and so they should feel pretty comfortable with dead human specimens by now); with dissecting being the next step.

Next week, there is the first test for the Foundations in Biomedical Science subject. It's worth 5% of the year long subject, so it's not that much. But I should still prepare for it. Right now, I am most confident in pharmacology (my major subject in biomedicine) and biostatistics (which I think is very logical, and doesn't require as much time to remember everything unlike most other subjects).

[update] Midsemester break, sem 1 2012

Right now, we have the midsemester break of semester 1, 2012. This means that about a quarter of first year has been completed.

This break is an opportunity to catch up on rest, and also to revise any material from class.

The first test for first year medicine at Melbourne will be in the second week after the break, worth 5% of Foundations of Biomedical Science, covering the foundation, cardiovascular, and respiratory blocks.

[update] midsem result relased (sem 2, 2011)

I got my midsem result for that multiple choice test. The result was around what I expected. In some coincidence, it was one mark more than 80% on the test, just like my result for the two pharmacology subject midsems last semester.

While it was pretty solid, I would have liked to have done better. In any case, it seems like I'm keeping up OK. I wonder how the class did though; if the class did well, they might have an hard exam to compensate. It did feel easier than the pharmacology theory sub last semester where the class average was just 50% to me, because the time constraints were not as much, but I can't always trust my intuition. If I had to judge things myself, I would think that specialist maths in VCE was much easier than English, and that the GAMSAT section 3 was much easier than first year biology exams...

Anyway. I'm relieved to have done reasonably well. Meanwhile, the interviews are creeping closer and closer...

[update] Midsemester test done (semester 2, 2011)

I've completed my midsemester test today. I already know I got some wrong. I think I did reasonably OK, but it was not a very comfortable test, although it doesn't feel too dissimilar to a lot of bioscience tests I've done in the past in terms of how hard it felt during the test. I hope the results come soon, especially because it was all multiple choice so it shouldn't take too long to mark.

Anyway, it looks like for that subject with the test, there is no more assessment before the midsemester break (when interviews are held). For one other subject, there seems to be a "workshop question" assessment of 2.5% (almost nothing) and for the other one (biomed core) there are 2 assignments worth 5% each; a group assignment and a prac report.


I mention before that I handed in my clinical school preferences already. Initially I put down a GAMSAT ID number on the form where it said "GMAC ID" but I wondered if I put down last year's one instead of this year's, so then I emailed them once to confirm this year's one in case I wrote it down wrong. But then it seems like the GMAC ID is separate, and refers to the so called "transaction ID" in the GMAC application confirmation email... so... I emailed them again. I haven't received a reply yet, but I guess they're probably sifting through a lot of email with the interview offer release.

EDIT: it seems like some people have been told that GAMSAT ID was supposed to be put in the place where it said GMAC ID... so maybe I did the right thing after all...

[update] Clinical school preference list submitted. Midsemester test tomorrow.

Today I submitted the clinical school preference list for the MD program. In order, I put: Metro 1, Metro 2, Rural. This was primarily due to the distance away from home. Metro 1 also has the research precinct around it, and it's the closest to the university. For the other options, I said I was willing to take up an ERC place if I didn't get a normal unbonded CSP, but not a BMP or MRBS place.

I also did an online test today, in the same subject where I got 75% for one of them before in another test. This time I looked up a lot of the things I wasn't 100% sure about on wikipedia and got 100%, although a lot (or all) I would have gotten right without looking up. That subject didn't have a midsemester test though, and because there are more important pressing issues (interview), I haven't been studying for it well.

However, another subject of mine has a midsemester test tomorrow. It's a relief that it's a multiple choice test though. My preferred exam format, although my preferred exam is of course GAMSAT section 3.

Speaking of the GAMSAT, in light of these interview cutoff rises, I wonder if I should have done more to prepare for the GAMSAT this year. I could have used the MCAT 101 passages in verbal reasoning for example (my section 1 hardly improved this year compared to last; 3 points), and I could have written more essays, rather than having a somewhat lazy preparation effort of <10 essays. I know it would not matter if my interview performance is good enough, but despite my GAMSAT being "high", I wonder if improving it more than I did would have been higher yield than improving the interview techniques. Ah well, that's nothing I can change now.

[update] UniMelb interview offers released! (Also UQ offers and other GEMSAS interview offers)

I just got a UniMelb interview offer, as would have been expected. It seems like the cutoff has jumped this year too, as expected, due to the increase in biomed students and science students from unimelb compared to last year.

Now I have to do well on this. I don't want a repeat from USyd, and I've been doing some preparation, but not as much as I could have. I have a midsem next week though, as I mentioned before, and assignment due soon, and a prac writeup due for a prac probably too.

UQ offers also were released today. It seems like the cutoff for an unbonded CSP is either 73 or 74 from reading forums (there hasn't been anyone with 73 who has posted yet, but someone with 74 got unbonded CSP and someone with 72 got BMP). If it's 74, then it's as I predicted; 74 to 75. As expected, I would have received a place with my score from last year. I hope the UQ (lower preference) issue is resolved so that I can get a place at UQ if I happen to get knocked back from unimelb after the interview (which isn't that far fetched due to USyd).

Anyway, that's how things are at the moment. I did an online test for one of my subjects today though, and it was very easy and I got full marks for it. Only worth 3.333% of that subject though. Or 2.5%? Not sure if there were 3 tests or 4 hmm... I thought it was 3 though.

[update] Midsemester test next week, and assignment due too.

There is a midsemester test next week for one of my major subjects. There is also an assignment due too for another subject (the same one where the draft was due last week), and there is a prac this week for that subject too (which is the only prac this semester), and I have to write up a prac report. So there are quite a few things which need to be done in the next two weeks.

Anyway, today I surveyed the level 7 medical building at unimelb, since apparently some interviews have been held there. I felt that maybe I should get a feel of how the place is like, so I could be less nervous on the day. I had been there in first year once when I had nothing to do and decided to explore all the levels of the medical building, but I didn't spend that much time analyzing any particular level.

I also finished my volunteering commitment for the Student Appeal today. The Student Appeal raises money for students who live on campus and are finding it difficult to pay their bills and living expenses, and donations of $5 or more are matched by the university. It felt nice to be part the team raising money for a good cause. I also have something to say now for volunteering questions during future interviews or if I have to submit a CV, apart from saying that I have helped people in person and online with their VCE studies and GAMSAT practice questions without asking for money.

It seems like GAMSAT interview offers and UQ offers are going to be out soon. 2-8 days. I'm interested in what the UQ cutoffs will be, and also the interview cutoffs of the other unis.

[update] Last week of semester one.

This week will be the last week of semester one. After that will be swotvac (I call it "cram week" sometimes) then I have exams on the next two weeks.

As for that midsemester test almost two weeks ago, I did get over 80% for that too. However, the class average was very high too. I have a feeling that the exam will probably be much harder.

By the way, I noticed quite a huge spike in the page views on the GAMSAT result release day (17 May) with 151 views. The following two days were also very high, with 104 and 92 views respectively. Not totally unexpected I guess, but interesting to see.

That's all for now.