[update] back to uni tomorrow, final 4 weeks (sem 2, 2011).

Tomorrow, I'm back at uni for what will be the final four weeks of undergrad coursework if all goes to plan. I just finished one of my assignments worth 5% too, and made an online submission. Now there's only one assignment left, which is worth 15%.

Meanwhile, I'll have to do quite a bit of catching up with course content before the end of semester exams. Thankfully, I only have three subjects.

BMP: Bad Movie Physics

Tonight during dinner, some random TV program was playing. Through watching it, I noticed quite a few physically impossible events. It reminded me of some advice that my year 12 physics teacher told our class during orientation, before the end of year break of year 11. I don't remember the exact words, so I'll paraphrase:

"When you watch movies [during the break], watch out for bad movie physics."

It's probably a good exercise to do. My year 11 physics teacher and year 12 specialist math teacher also mentioned some movies having instances of bad physics as well, although they didn't tell my classes to look out for them as an exercise. There's quite a few instances of them, and just now I searched Google and came across a site called Intuitor Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics, which has a list. Sometimes it's deliberate like Harry Potter, although some other times it seems like they are oversights. To list a few:

Outerspace Explosions: Since there's no atmosphere in outer space, unless there is any conducting piece of solid or liquid connecting the exploding object to your spacecraft, there's no way you'll hear the explosion.

Superman: Even if he could fly, by catching the people being saved in the air, there is hardly any time for the speed of the person to slow down, so there will be a very big force. Funny he hasn't injured anyone.

Shuttle in space slowing down without brakes (and not against gravity either): There's no air resistance if there's no atmosphere, so the shuttle should just keep going.


Anyway, have fun spotting them out yourselves in whatever movies you watch.


(Note: In the medicine admissions context, BMP means Bonded Medical Place)

[update] About six weeks to GEMSAS offers...

The offers from the GEMSAS consortium are expected to be released 9-16 November. In six weeks, it will be 12 November, so there will be about six weeks until the offers are released.

This is a long wait. Last year, applicants only needed to wait about two or three weeks for a Melbourne offer after their interview. It seems like they delayed the Melbourne DDS offers too for some reason, although I didn't apply. I wonder why they predict that GEMSAS will take that long to process interview scores though.

Anyway. It seems like I've fallen behind in terms of studying, due to practicing for interviews instead. After the assignment is done, it's going to be catch up time. Uni starts again in two days, and it seems like today is the last day of "standard time" too... daylight saving starts tomorrow in Victoria and New South Wales.

[update] UniMelb interview complete!

The interviews for UniMelb and a few other unis are now complete. I wonder why GEMSAS require us to wait until 9-16 November for offers though. Ah well, that's how the system is. Now we just wait.

I thought that I went reasonably well; a lot better than USyd. Of course though, I can't be 100% sure. 100% of the questions I was asked were repeated from previous years at UniMelb though, and I was more prepared, confident and taking this interview more seriously than USyd's one in general, as I really do want to go to UniMelb. It was also good that the interviews were less long than USyd because I don't talk much, and there was no scenario overload unlike USyd.

Since all the questions were repeats though, I wonder how many people have practiced the exact same questions before just like I did. Ah well. I feel I did reasonably well, but I wonder if the interviewers felt I was too rehearsed and deducted marks because of that. I felt that five minutes was a good time though; I finished quite a few just before or on the mark. Not much surplus time waiting unlike USyd.

Anyway. Now it's up to catching up with assignments again, and catching back up with course work. Thankfully I only have three subjects. It's back to uni for a final four weeks on Monday.

[update] Midsemester break! (2011 semester 2)

Today is the start of the midsemester break for semester 2, 2011. In UniMelb, this break is two weeks long.

Anyway, this means that there are no more university classes until the interviews. The interviews are on the second week of the break. I've prepared some more during the semester, but I can always do more. My skills still are not the best, although I think they have improved a bit. Also, Unimelb's interviews are a bit different to USyd's ones. They have more variety, instead of just scenarios.

I'm not sure which situation was better though. With USyd, my GAMSAT score was 83 and they apparently made GAMSAT 50% and interview 50% (although they used raw percentages to rank instead of some z-score calc, so in fact the interview explained more variance of the rank list score than GAMSAT scores under the USyd method, unlike if they used z-scores). With Unimelb, I'm not sure what they use to rank in terms of z-scores, percentages or adding up ranks on rank lists, but broadly it's 1/3 GPA, 1/3 GAMSAT (but equal weighted) and 1/3 interview.

Anyway, on face value, I have an above average GPA and GAMSAT, but my GPA isn't 7 (it is about 6.8) and my GAMSAT mark is brought down significantly due to the Melbourne's GAMSAT equal weighting instead of weighting S3 doubly (down to 77 from 83). It would seem that it's common for scores to go down after using Melbourne's GAMSAT weighting, because most people applying to med school (and especially Melbourne because of the prerequisites) have a science background. However, they probably won't go down as much as mine usually. In any case, I feel my rank before the interview is lower with Melb's entry criteria compared to USyd, although it is still very good for Melb, and the interview isn't weighted as much for Melb. So I'm not that sure which one I'd need a lower interview score to get into an unbonded place.

Ah well. The best option is just to keep working on interview skills and do as well as I can on the day. And the aim shouldn't just to scrape in an unbonded place either, it should be to get a place in my preferred clinical zone. Anyway, it seems like my interview is in about one and a half to two weeks. Closing in...

Definitions and Context page added

Today I decided to add a huge list of definitions of abbreviations I may use in my blog, both on the side of the blog, and on an additional page (which may be easier to read). Within the definitions, I've also aimed to provide context for a lot of what I'm talking about, which can be a bit confusing without knowing background material; especially if you don't read my blog start to finish.

Now maybe I should get ready for a surge of hits through search engines...


In other news, it seems like my 5% prac writeup submission date is extended until after the midsem break, so I won't have to worry too much if I don't want to until after the interview.

EDIT: Now I've also created a few other pages too. The "about me and this blog" has a bit more detail than my standard introduction at the top of the homepage. The other pages are mainly for convenience if you don't like scrolling down on my homepage and reading a small section to the side.

소녀시대 (Girls' Generation) in K-Pop festival in Sydney; 12 November

I've known for a while that there will be a K-Pop festival in Australia on 12 November this year. Nice to see the website with SNSD's "Run Devil Run" as the promotional song in the video. Apart from Girls' Generation, there's also a lot of other groups there performing.

Unfortunately, this is right during the exam period, and it's not in Melbourne (it's in Sydney), so I've decided not to attend. If one of those factors was different, especially if it was during the holidays, I would have liked to have gone.

Ah well. I hope one day Girls' Generation visits Melbourne. And hopefully not during the exam period too. I've also got quite a bit of stuff for them to sign if they ever have a signing event nearby.

That's what you get for not living in the biggest city in Australia I suppose... the largest "market share" for a one-off event in Australia would usually be in Sydney... Ah well, overall I feel that Melbourne is a good place.

[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...

Braindead

Lately my brain seems "dead" perhaps more regularly than usual towards the end of the day. Or maybe I'm just noticing it more lately. In any case, it's not something that is very desirable. Maybe because I like being able to think.

I've also noticed recently that whenever I had to do a math computation with numbers, I've been quite slow. It's not often that I need to, but I feel like I'm not as fast as I used to be anymore.

Looking deeper, I realize that right now all my subjects are biology-related, where I just try to memorize everything important on the slides. Yes, I know that you're not supposed to "just memorize" stuff even for biology, but I've felt that memorization was probably the "rate-limiting" step in learning most biosciences. But for the past semesters before this one, I've always either had a math subject or an economics subject to do, which has worked my analytical abilities somewhat. Some semesters had physics subjects too, and one semester (first year, semester 2) had a physics, stats and an economics subject in it; it was my best semester (apart from summer semester with only "linear algebra") as far as grades went (although of course it should be mentioned that first year level subjects are usually easier than second or third year level ones).

Anyway, I've decided it is probably a good time to play around with the DS "training" games again (I haven't touched them for quite a while), like "math training" or "brain training". I'm not 100% sure that they work to significantly improve function outside the games (I feel that they probably do but some news articles criticize them although I haven't read the actual journal articles), but training definitely won't do harm.

[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.

Seize the opportunity

Today I just missed my train to the city in the morning. I started later today, and this was not in the peak hours, so the trains ran at every 15 minutes instead of more regularly.

I was a bit upset because it meant I had to wait quite a while for the next train (although I wasn't late for class, I could have spent that time reading the newspaper at uni when I got there). I sat down on a metal chair and put on the music. I was wondering what I should do for the next 15 minutes as it didn't seem productive; I didn't feel that I needed a rest in that time.

Then the thought crossed my mind. I should exercise. I'm not really into exercising a lot, although often I do Taekwondo patterns in the morning if I wake up early enough and uni doesn't start until much later, and I ride my bike on weekends. I also often walk to the train station after uni instead of catching a tram, since I'm not in a rush for time. It's not much though, so doing more is better.

The first thought would be to just walk up and down the platform, although I didn't feel that it would be very good exercise. But then I realized that I could do stepups on the chair that I was sitting on (not many people were around). I haven't done them for a long time, and it uses considerable energy and force, so I decided it would be a good way to use up my time until the train came.

So I did my stepups. After a while I got a bit tired, and did some stretching. Then the train came. I felt that this waiting time was not wasted at all; this time it was used well. Maybe next time I have to wait >10 minutes for a train, and if I don't feel tired, I should do some stepups again, and not be upset of having to wait. That was an opportunity found out of what would usually be considered wasted time.


As for med school admission, some schools including Monash and UWA sent their interview offers today. Melbourne hasn't as yet. However, my scores were greater than some who got offers for Monash interview, so it seems like barring any administrative errors, I probably got an interview offer from Melbourne or a place at UQ.

[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.

Reunification (統一)

As a result of conflicts between communist and capitalist forces in the late 1940s and early 1950s, both China and Korea are divided into two parts. Both have been divided for about 60 years now. It's been a long time.

One day I hope there will be reunification of China. However, there are a lot of challenges. There are political challenges, due to the different types of government. And there are economic challenges, since the mainland communist China has a much lower GDP per capita than Taiwan. However, the mainland is catching up very rapidly, with an average of about 9% growth in real GDP per year ever since Deng Xiaoping took over as the de facto leader.

Historically though, this was not the first time that China has been divided. But I hope this situation will be resolved well during my lifetime.

[update] Not the best week...

The past week hasn't been the best. At the start, I had the draft of an assignment due, and then there was an online test for another subject worth 7.5% of it (not big, but not a small amount). I didn't do as well as I'd have liked; 75%.

Then the offers for USyd dent came out. It wasn't that surprising, but I didn't get an offer. Who knows, I might still get one in later rounds though. Logically it shouldn't have affected me too much, but sometimes I do wonder if I should have applied to UniMelb DDS and spend the extra $100... Especially with this uncertainty surrounding UQ, whether or not people who didn't preference them first would get a place, despite the supposed streamlining with the GEMSAS implementation. On the other hand, maybe that's the motivation I need to do well on the Melbourne interview...

Then I hear that the interview ratio of the Melbourne Medical course has been increased from 1.25 (125%) to 1.5 (150%). This seems to be not proven incorrect due to the interview ratio of 125% been taken off the unimelb website. Now it's better to know than not to know, but this news isn't good. I assume they might have been trying to compensate for USyd pulling out of the consortium, but USyd med people already have their offers so I wonder if it was actually necessary. That makes the ratio without FFPs 1.5*320/280=1.71, which is not low at all! And if only unbonded CSPs are included (I only put down accepting unbonded CSPs; logically I'd rather apply the next year and put UQ first than accept a bonded CSP), then 1.5*320/202=2.38, before accounting for all the guaranteed entry people...

Ah well. I wouldn't be surprised if I look back on this week in the future and it is just a small bump after all. But I do have to put it behind me, practice more for the interview, and keep up more with the study... I wish I could just focus on studies, seriously.

[update] Almost missed the draft submission date for an assignment... oops

This weekend, like I said earlier, had some time spent catching up on past lectures. So I am a bit more up to date, but not completely. Ah well.

I was totally unaware that a draft copy of an assignment was going to be due on Tuesday (16 August). I only found out that there might be an assignment due soon from someone's facebook update saying they had to look up a lot of articles for some assignment. Then I checked the online blackboard/learning management system and saw that it was due on Tuesday!

It's not so bad though since the draft is only marked as pass/fail (20% of the assignment mark), but I might have started it earlier if I knew the draft was going to be due this soon. The reason I did not know though was that I can't be bothered reading the messages on the online blackboard/LMS and I think the assignment was not discussed in lectures. Looking back at my emails, it seems like I didn't receive a notice about the assignment either. I should have read the LMS properly though, but usually when I use it I just go straight to the lecture notes to print them off without reading any of the news.

Anyway, I'm about 3/4 complete as far as the minimum word count is concerned now, and I'll probably finish the rest tomorrow. Lucky I happened to read facebook though; otherwise 3% of my overall mark for that subject could be gone just like that. Usually I don't like assignments and I prefer exams as assessment, but this assignment seems to be about searching up articles in journals, so I guess it's a bit hard to make it into an exam.

[update] GEMSAS interview offers in about two weeks. UQ offers soon.

Trying to put the USyd interview experience behind me, but learn from it at the same time, I've done some practice with questions in a group for the past few weeks. I've done a little talking into the mirror too, although not very much yet. But that said, I've been neglecting the study a bit. I'll try to catch up on the weekend.

According to the GMAC guide, UQ offers are released this month. I expect that I would have received an unbonded CSP from UQ if I preferenced UQ first, since they just use GPA as a hurdle (which I pass quite easily) and rank only with GAMSAT, without having an interview. There seems to be some controversy with the number of provisionals, notably a lack of an upper bound on the number of provisionals displayed in the GMAC guide or online, but I doubt the cutoff would be >83 (my guess is around 74 or 75; I think my score from last year of 77 would be enough).

However, due to the UQ (lower preference) issue, I wonder if I will get a place there if I happen to get passed on from Melbourne, if I would have received a place there initially by preferencing it first. I would have liked to have been able to apply to UQ directly to sidestep this issue like we could with USyd; with UQ pulling out actually making more sense as a non-interview uni with a different admission calendar. Otherwise, and perhaps this other option would be better to save application fees, it would be nice if they could have guaranteed that there would be spots reserved for second round offers.


Anyway, the GEMSAS interview offers, also according to the GMAC guide, will be released from 25-31 August, which is in about two weeks. I think that I will get one from Melbourne, but I am quite interested in what the cutoffs will be. I'm quite sure they will rise from last year though, due mainly to the big increase in the biomed and science cohorts this year.

Happy fourth anniversary, Girls' Generation (소녀시대)!

Yesterday, August 5, was the anniversary of Girls' Generation's (소녀시대, SNSD) debut performance, 다시 만난 세계 (Into the new world), on August 5, 2007. At the same time though, I was a bit disheartened by the enormity of the task ahead of me to improve my interview performance because USyd decided to release the MMI scores; to be honest, my performance was very bad. But I guess I am better off with that information; it does tell me how much I need to improve.

I was sad that because of my poor interview result affecting me, I couldn't feel the excitement of the anniversary of SNSD's debut like I would have hoped at the same time. But today now that I think of Girls' Generation's debut, I remember all the hard work they needed to do; about six years of intense training before the debut, followed with a lot of ongoing work to perfect their skills. From starting at a humble beginning, to now being very dominant in K-pop, it is inspiring how they have come a long way.

I might just reflect on that for a while, and try to draw inspiration from them. I've come so far down the path of medical school admission due to the GAMSAT score, but for me there is still quite some distance to go (unless I put UQ first). The road is not always easy, but if I keep making improvements, I can keep going further. One step at a time.


To SNSD, happy anniversary. I hope that it will be Girls' Generation for a long time.

Right now it's Girls' Generation! From now on it's Girls' Generation! Forever, Girls' Generation!

지금은 소녀시대! 앞으로도 소녀시대! 영원히 소녀시대!

소녀시대 짱! 소녀시대 파이팅!

[update] USyd releases interview scores.

Today, unexpectedly, USyd released the interview scores of medical school applicants. My score was very low, 84/180 (46.7%). That means that I have a lot of improvement to do with my interviewing ability.

It's interesting to note that the email suggests that the rank list is generated by adding up the interview percentage (out of 100%) with the GAMSAT overall score (out of 100). This is instead of adding up "standard scores" (aka z-scores), and since the interview scores have a higher standard deviation than GAMSAT overall scores, means that the rank list weights the interview more highly than a standard score approach.

Anyway, it seems like I have to improve my interview ability quite significantly (it was about 15% more for me to get an unbonded CSP this year in USyd). Thankfully, I only have three subjects this semester to worry about.

Review of decisions of the past year

Today I've been thinking of the various decisions that I have made with respect to medical school admission in the past year. While ultimately I will get a clearer picture at the end of the year, here are my thoughts right now:

Firstly, it was the correct decision to repeat the GAMSAT, despite my score last year being "high". My mark improved by 6 on the "normal" weighted scale, and 7 on the weird "equal weighting" used by UniMelb. I do predict that the Melbourne cutoff will rise this year because of the increase in biomed graduates, and any higher score is useful. Furthermore, the USyd experience has shown that my interview ability is rather weak like I thought it was, so a higher GAMSAT would be a very useful buffer in the selection overall score, especially for UniMelb where they don't have a minimum interview score required unlike USyd.

Secondly, it was the correct decision to apply to USyd. Although it hasn't offered me a safety net like I hoped it might, applying there required me to think about some MMI questions. I also got some real MMI experience too and have identified some things to work on for next time. This can only help for a possible Melbourne interview.

As for the other decisions, it is impossible to tell if I made the right decision right now. If the UQ issue has been resolved, then the GEMSAS preference list that I drew up is the correct one. However, if it has not been resolved, and if I also happen to not get into UniMelb, then it may not have been the right one (although it also means that I should have tried harder for practicing for the interview for Melbourne).

Apart from that, if both the UQ issue is not resolved, and I did not get into Melbourne, then it may mean that I should have applied to dentistry in Melbourne (no interview). To be honest, it was only during this year when I seriously considered dentistry, sparked by the lecture that the dentistry guy gave during the DPhysio/MD/DDS info session (he was pretty funny and perhaps his speech was rather unconventional). I have become more and more interested about the OMS (oral/maxillofacial surgery) specialization which requires both medicine and dentistry this year, partially because I like being at uni (and without wasting time either), and partially because both medicine and dentistry seem interesting. But if I do get into medicine, then not applying would have been the right decision, since then I wouldn't need to pay $100 in application fees this year.

I guess I'll just have to wait and see. Or rather not. I guess I'll have to practice for the interview. That is best thing that I can do now.

USyd interviews: what went wrong. Points to improve for Melbourne.

I am not talkative in real life. Also, I am younger than most other people applying for graduate entry med (and male, so perhaps less mature than females the same age), and have not been in a job with lots of teamwork involved, so have not had many experiences with difficult interpersonal situations. So I haven't had much experience for those scenarios similar to some interview questions. Also, I score significantly above the average on the autism spectrum test, although not enough for a diagnosis. I also scored less than 50 in section two of the UMAT back in year 12; the "Understanding People" section. All these factors, and maybe more which I can't think of right now, make interviews difficult for me.

However, that does not mean that I cannot perform well in interviews given enough practice. Maybe I need a lot more practice than usual people though. There is also a list of things which I could have done differently for USyd if I was more serious (instead of it being a backup for Melbourne). I could have refused to turn it into a holiday with more than one other family member, and just focused on the interview and come back. I could have taken a plane instead of go by car, so I had more time to learn the answers that the interview practice group I was in came up with, and had more of a rest. Also, I could have told family members not to book cheap accommodation, where the place incidentally stuffed up our booking and made things stressful in the night before the interview. I could also have booked the interview on any day other than the first day of interviews to give myself a bit more time to learn the answers. And of course, as stated in an earlier post, I could act more confident.

Of these things, a lot of them (to do with traveling) are not applicable to the Melbourne interview, since I live in Melbourne. However, I do need to practice speaking confidently and looking in peoples' eyes (and not looking at the "silent observer" either but only the interviewer in front of me, although I do pay attention to the need to do that already), especially since apparently there is more nonverbal than verbal communication, although personally I find text communication or voice communication perfectly OK apart from when I have to draw diagrams or use math formulas which are hard to type or say, and I need to spend time to memorize answers. Also, maybe I shouldn't book for the first day of interviews if I have a choice.

Ah well. The main thing for Melbourne is more practice I guess. Notwithstanding the starting disadvantage that I may have, enough practice should be able to make up for it. If my improvement in section two of the GAMSAT (written communication) by 18 points was anything to go by (although a lot of it was luck), there is definitely hope for improvement of the interview...

[update] No USyd offer. Have to practice more for Melbourne.

The USyd medicine offers were released a lot earlier than expected today. Unfortunately, I didn't get one. I didn't apply for BMP though, only unbonded CSP. That said, there has been no mention of anyone who was on a "waitlist" on the forums, so it is possible that people will get offers after rejection in the future as people decline USyd offers for some on the GEMSAS consortium.

Anyway, I wasn't that confident out of the interview, so that wasn't too unexpected. I guess I'll have to work more on skills before Melbourne though. That interview offer may come out in a few weeks. It's good that I have had practice, although the bad thing is that I have not much of a safety net anymore, if the UQ issue is not resolved. Ah well, I did not really expect to have this experience anyway in the first place, and Melbourne has always been the aim. So I'll just let this experience guide me hopefully to a stronger performance in a Melbourne interview.

[update] Semester two has begun. Getting back into the uni routine.

As you would know from reading, this is my first week back at uni for semester two. The first one or two weeks in a semester involve getting back into a routine, and knowing roughly where and when each class is. The train was late on my first day back though (Monday), as is often the case in Melbourne, so I was late for my first class.

It is now three weeks to mid-August, when the USyd offers come out. Unlike what I said before though, the other unis' interview offers seem to be from 25-31 August according to the GMAC admission guide instead of mid-August. So they are one to two weeks after USyd offers.

Historically, UQ offers have been released before other unis' interview offers in the consortium. If I don't get an offer when UQ releases their main round offers, and if my GAMSAT score was higher than cutoff, then that would be an early indication that it is likely that Melbourne has given me an interview offer, since UQ is my second preference.

I guess that's about all I have to say for now.

[update] Semester two in three days

Semester two starts in three days. I only have three subjects this semester since I did a subject in summer semester. This was a deliberate plan on my part, because I wanted extra time for interview preparation just before a hypothetical Melbourne or other consortium uni interview. There would be extra time for practice with fewer subjects to worry about.

I also hope to actually get time to read my textbook. In the past for subjects in uni, I did read the textbook a bit for some of the biological type subjects, but often for less than half the covered material in class. The notes in uni usually cover most of the things to learn, and unlike VCE, the uni textbooks have a lot of unexaminable content there since they are not specifically designed for the subject (I hear of a major subject in some other people doing my course where the material taught in lectures is just all of a textbook, but that is unfortunately the exception rather than the rule). I also couldn't be bothered finding up the page reference numbers for what to read, unlike in VCE where I simply read the physics and chem books from start to finish; all of the chem book and the physics book for the distinct chapters which covered the core content and the detailed study we were taught to do.

That said, I think reading the textbook is good at third year level. It seems that often the same textbooks were prescribed for second and third year level, and only a bit of it was used in second year and a lot more was used in third year. So I'll try to do that this semester. Hopefully that will integrate knowledge better.

Apart from that... interviews... one month to find out the result from USyd and see if I get a Melbourne interview. It would have been more comforting if I knew for sure that the UQ issue is resolved, but I don't know that. That said, the plan A has always been to get into the Melbourne Medicine course.

Anyway, so semester two. It's the final semester of biomed if all things go to plan. It is likely to be the semester where I go to an interview for UniMelb medicine. It is also during then that I'll know whether or not I have received medical school offers for USyd and UniMelb medicine, setting the path for the next four years ahead. And it will begin in three days. I hope for a good outcome.

Let the games begin!

Support concession public transport travel for postgraduate and international students

Some of you who read this blog may have noticed that I have recently put links on the right hand side of my blog. Today, I added two extra links about concession travel on public transport.

How does it relate to my blog? Well, since the University of Melbourne gives an MD for medicine, which is classified as a masters level degree, instead of a MBBS like other unis in Australia, medicine students (and students of other professional degrees) at the University of Melbourne under the Melbourne Model are not eligible for concession travel, even though those at Monash and Deakin (for example) are eligible. Even before the worthy arguments about how "traditional" postgraduate degree students should have concession travel have taken place (which they do in most non-Victorian states), the current discrepancy between professional degrees of the same function in UniMelb and Monash for example, simply because Melbourne calls them "master level degrees", should rightly be addressed. (see http://www.capa.edu.au/transportconcessions)

Now... what can you do about it? I'm not sure how much this will help, but you can help by signing the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations Incorporated petition. You can also contact the transport minister in Victoria, Terry Mulder, through a contact form here. Or you can contact your local MP. That said, the issue has been around for quite some time now, but has not yet been resolved. We can always hope that this worthwhile issue gets attention in the future though.

Thank you for your support.

[update] One month until mid-August: USyd offers and GEMSAS interview offers

In about one month, it will be mid-August. That is when the USyd the main round of domestic medicine and dentistry offers are released, and when the GEMSAS/ACER interview offers will be released. Of course, I am hoping to get an offer at USyd, and I would be a bit disappointed if I didn't, but after all my first preference was always Melbourne. Either way, it will give me an indication of how much I must practice before the Melbourne interview which may turn up.

Anyway, semester two is just around the corner in a week an a half. Mid-August therefore lies in the fourth week of the semester, although if things are a bit early we may get the USyd offers and GEMSAS interview offers late in the third week.

That wasn't much of a break really. It was filled with interruptions due to interview practice and having to go to Sydney to interview. That said, it was an experience that I think was invaluable. On the other hand, if the break was too long, I might have become bored with not much to do, which has happened in the past.

Ah well. One and a half weeks to semester two, and about a month until USyd offers and GEMSAS interview offers, which hopefully will be a University of Melbourne one. After one and a half weeks, there's going to be study and interview practice ahead!

The difference between the GAMSAT and the interview (not so serious)

Sometimes people draw similarities between the GAMSAT and interview. After all, they are both high stakes hurdles where performance is measured in order to get into medical school. They both involve thinking very quickly to come up with the right answer (or a right answer in the interview or GAMSAT section 2 where there is more than one possible acceptable response).

However, there are a few serious differences. For instance, the GAMSAT is highly standardized while the interview is not so repeatable even under an MMI format of eight stations (although it is a great improvement over a panel interview where most of the variation of scores is due to the bias of interviewers to interviewees rather than actual ability). And of course, they test very different types of thinking, and there is little correlation between GAMSAT and MMI performance, although USyd found a positive correlation between the interview and GAMSAT sections one (humanities) or two (writing), and a slightly negative correlation between MMI and GAMSAT section three (science) performance.

As for another difference, despite both requiring quick thinking, there is another crucial difference in preparation. For the GAMSAT, I tried to come in as comfortable clothes as possible, so that I would not be hindered by my clothes while trying to write or think. I wore a polo shirt and tracksuit pants inside some windcheaters and sports jackets. I wore runners for footwear.

On the other hand, for the interview, in order to create a good impression, I wore a white shirt and a tie, trousers, leather shoes and a suit. Very different indeed. That said, I don't really hate wearing those interview type of clothes, although they are not the most comfortable things to wear. I don't wear them very often though. I actually don't think that GAMSAT scores would be affected that much by having more comfortable clothes though, although any suspected difference is useful. It would seem more likely that the GAMSAT performance would be better with more comfortable clothes than with less comfortable ones though, although I do not know of any such study demonstrating anything.

I wouldn't be surprised if a really big sample size was required to see any effect, and then it would also could not be a double-blind study either, as it's pretty obvious to yourself what clothes you are wearing. At best, the only thing that could happen was that the participants not know the actual objective of the study (that is, comparing comfortable with not so comfortable clothes, even if the clothes are supplied by the study designers for randomization etc purposes) and that they just took intelligence tests without knowing the actual study purpose. Anyway, I guess that's overthinking it a bit.

[update] Back home after the trip.

Today I have arrived back home after the USyd interview trip. Now the wait for the outcome really starts. The outcome is expected to be known in mid-August. About five weeks.

Given my position coming into the interview due to GAMSAT (83 overall), I would be a bit disappointed if I failed the interview. However, I think my score may be borderline, although I find it hard to judge how I went. Some stations went well, others not so. Just have to wait and see I guess. If it happened though, I guess it doesn't really matter, but it means I have not much of a safety net left, unless the UQ issue is really resolved (which may or may not be the case).

If I really wanted to go to USyd though, the prudent thing to do would be to neglect studying for my exams during the exam period (since I would have passed the 5.5 hurdle this year with passes in both semesters anyway) and just study up on the interview. However, that was not the plan. Since I do want to go to unimelb, GPA is good to focus on, given unimelb weights GPA in ranking and third year has the highest weighting in their GPA (unlike USyd, UQ which weight all years equally).

Anyway, the next main test on the horizon will be a likely Melbourne interview. Unlike USyd, unimelb's interview has no minimum pass mark, so that is good for me. I'll have to prepare for that before the midsem break of semester 2. Seems like quite a bit of time. In any case, I guess I have gained more interview experience from USyd which will hopefully help a bit.

That's about it for now. There seems to be about two weeks and two days left to the break. Then it'd be back to uni for semester two, with all the studying again, and with interview practice for unimelb (or some other uni in the unlikely case that the cutoffs rise that dramatically for unimelb) in between. Then I hope I can get an offer or two in that time before the end of the year.

[update] USyd interview complete...

I just completed my USyd interview recently. I could have done better. I wouldn't be surprised if I pass or failed. I hope I passed though, but if I failed, then I would be a bit disappointed, but I guess it is not too bad. At least I did get some practice before Melbourne's one.

I should have been more confident when they asked me whether I had more things to mention, and said no, instead of spending time being unsure about what to say. Ah well. Obviously I will not say what questions were asked here, as that is unethical and breaches the confidentiality agreement.

Anyway, I have visited the Reserve Bank of Australia like planned. I will be back home in a few days.

I hope everyone who has done interviews has gone well. Anyway, the computer here is running out of time now, so I'll talk later.

[update] Semester one results released.

Yesterday my results were released for semester one. I got 3 subjects 80+ which all have a GAMSA grade of 7.0 (two barely) and one 75-79 with a GAMSA grade of 6.5. While I would have liked all H1, I am OK with this. This makes my weighted GPA about 6.8 after semester one. I guess all I would need was a pass for semester 1 and sem 2 for USyd or UQ as GPA is only a hurdle there (5.5 or 5.0 unweighted), although Melbourne is my first preference so I am still trying to get 80+ marks for everything.

Ironically, the subject which I did worst in had the most multiple choice and the one I did best in had no multiple choice in midsems and exams, and they were essay type questions. However I guess I was the most confident in that subject's subject material.

Anyway... so I passed everything by quite a margin like I expected myself to do, and things seem to be going quite smoothly so far. It's good that I have received my semester results before my interview. Next week I will be having a USyd medical interview. I'm not 100% confident, much less so than for the GAMSAT. I hope I can pass this thing too. Hopefully all the preparation that I have done will become useful in the end.

[update] USyd interview offers are out!

This afternoon, USyd interview offers were released. I got one, which was pretty much expected I guess. The GAMSAT cutoff rose a lot though, due to USyd pulling out of the consortium, from 62 to 67 (about 79th percentile to 93rd percentile). I wonder how many of those will decline an offer for a GEMSAS place in the end. I would if I get a place in unimelb MD.

I'm excited to have an opportunity, although I'm not exactly that confident for the interview. Especially since they assign a minimum interview pass mark unlike Melbourne. That said, at the moment I have watched a few videos on ethics, and will watch more in the coming days.

I'll be going up to Sydney by car with some others in the family then. First time in just over ten years. This should be interesting.


In other news, there's 1-2 weeks left until uni results come out. I hope they come out before I go up to Sydney, but if not, then no big deal I guess.

Speed limits for provisional and learner drivers

In Victoria, learner and provisional licence drivers both have the same maximum speed limits as full licence drivers. However, in some other Australian states, such as New South Wales and Tasmania, learner drivers are limited to 80 km/h whenever the posted speed limit is higher and provisional licence (P-plate) drivers also are limited to speeds lower than the posted maximum.

While the rationale for any difference in maximum speeds is because less experienced drivers would find the car easier to control at lower speeds, the difference in speeds in practice causes a situation where full licence drivers repeatedly are required to overtake learner drivers, which increases the risk of crashing. It is usually safest for cars to drive at the same speed as other cars in traffic. As such, it is questionable that different speed limits would actually make the road more safe.

Furthermore, when the provisional licence driver turns into a full licence driver, they would then have a higher maximum speed limit. If they don't have experience driving at those speeds under supervision or while on a provisional licence, it potentially makes it less safe when they first drive at those speeds as a full driver.

The other thing is that it wastes time, not only for the driver, but also for those around the driver who may be required to slow down behind them. 80 km/h is 28% slower than 110 km/h, so driving 330 km would take just over four hours at 80 km/h instead of three hours at 110 km/h. While this effect may be relatively small for short distances, it is considerable at large distances. Given that the safety of such a policy is questionable already, this should also be taken into consideration.

The different speed limits for provisional licence and learner drivers in some non-Victorian states, while designed to make driving safer, may actually make it less safe. The different speeds may lead to more crashes in itself, and the lack of experience from driving at higher speeds as learner or provisional drivers may lead to more dangerous driving at the higher speeds as a new full licence driver. And as 80 km/h is 28% slower than 110 km/h, it also wastes valuable time.




(note: this assumes that people stick to speed limits, which may be more relevant in the Australian context than an American one. I do think that a lot of speed limits in Australia are too low, especially if compared to European ones, but that's another issue. The reason why I thought of this issue now is because of the USyd interviews.)

[update] All exams complete! (first semester 2011)

Today I have finished my last exam for the semester! It was not particularly easy or difficult for a university exam for a bioscience subject I thought, although as for most uni exams, I'd rather have done a GAMSAT section 3 again in place of it.

So now I have a break. Apart from that though, I might start reading up ethics and interview skills soon. Results should be out by 8 July for uni (they are shown through the internet once they are released though for each subject, rather than all on a certain day), although the USyd interviews are from 4-8 July.

Hopefully I'll get the uni results for this semester before the interviews start though, so I don't have to check them over in Sydney. Well, that's assuming that the GAMSAT cutoff for an interview in USyd doesn't rise to 84 or more or that I fail a crucial subject this semester that I can't repeat next semester.

[update] Three exams down, one to go.

Yesterday and today I had three of my exams for this semester. The one yesterday went reasonably well I thought, although there were six essay type questions which required answers out of seven, and I was writing almost non-stop from start to finish.

As for today's ones, one of them (a math subject) I felt went reasonably well too, although I couldn't answer a few parts of the questions. Also, that subject has a lot of rigorous analysis involved and you get marks deducted just for not explaining one of your steps as well as you could, even if you get the right answer. So I hope I put down enough.

As for the other one today, it was quite weird. Not totally unexpected given the type of the subject though; it was a written exam for a prac subject, and it involved coming up with hypotheses to support the data for some questions. So I'm not sure if I got what they were looking for there.


Anyway, today was also the last day for applications to medical and dental school for locals though ACER. It seems like I haven't applied to Melbourne dentistry, since it would cost an extra $100. If it didn't have the extra cost, then I would have applied as an extra option for if I didn't get into medicine this year (or if I decided to change my mind and do dent as a last minute decision). Melbourne DDS applicants are a bit lucky compared to med... no interview...


So that's all for now. Last exam this semester on Friday next week, then I might read up and watch videos on some ethics.

UQ (lower preference) issue: possible resolution?

Someone has informed me that UQ has updated their page about what happens after application. http://www2.som.uq.edu.au/SOM/FUTURESTUDENTS/MBBS/ADMISSIONS/DOMESTICSTUDENTS/IVEAPPLIED/Pages/default.aspx

Notably, now there is direct reference to a second round of offers after the other universities have interviews. To quote:


"The University of Queensland's offers will be released in the week of 25-31 August, 2011.  QTAC will be contacting the...

At the end of the year (mid December) when the other graduate medical schools' interviews have taken place and their offers have been released, subsequent offers may be made for The University of Queensland."


Of course, whether the issue is really resolved would depend on if they still decide to try to fill their quota from the first round, or if they actually do try to leave places for the second round. In any case, I'm not relying on this, and I do want to get into Melbourne anyway. This "UQ issue" would have been resolved definitively if they pulled out of the consortium like USyd did though.


Anyway... back to study.

Today is the last day of May, 2011.

So, today is the last day of May this year. As expected, it has been quite an eventful month. I'm happy with the results, and I've applied to medical school.

The next month will also be quite critical, with uni exams. So I must study haha. After that, I'll try to prepare for interviews.

That's all for now. I may not have many interesting updates for a while, although perhaps none of my updates or issues raised were particularly interesting. I do contend that a medsci/biomed background person hoping to go into medicine is pretty ordinary.

[update] Cram period (aka swotvac) has begun!

With the last class at uni for the semester yesterday, today is now the start of the cram period. I've decided to take the first day as a resting day, but after this there will be quite a lot of revision done.

Right now though, apart from the exams I'm getting a bit worried about the USyd interviews. They are in just over a month, from 4-8 July. I'm going to "cram" in a bit of ethics after the exam period to prepare for it. But for now, I guess the uni exams are first...

[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.

[update] GAMSAT results are released!

Today the GAMSAT results, which we have been waiting so long for, have been released. I am quite pleased with them. I managed to get over 80 overall this time, and my science section score did not decrease! I did get a bit lucky in section 2 though with the topics (as discussed earlier on my blog), and my section 1 didn't increase by a lot but section 2 did.

Anyway, that means I'll be applying to unis tonight with this year's score.

I hope all of you have received scores which are competitive enough.


In other news, I am still waiting for midsemester test results from last week's test. The test was OK.

Note: Results statement picture was added in later.

[update] GMAC admission guide released!

Today the GMAC admission guide was released this afternoon. http://gamsat.acer.edu.au/images/documents/gmac_guide2012.pdf

As expected, domestic applicants are allowed to put six preferences on their list and do not need to supply transcripts if they completed everything in Australia. There are no major changes in GPA calculations, although a few universities have changed their methodology which may affect a minority of people.

However, the "issue" with UQ's offer timeline, in which the offers are much earlier than other unis so people have almost no chance of being passed down from other unis, is not addressed.

Anyway, that's all really I have to comment about the guide. Otherwise, you can probably read it yourself :). However, I guess the guide does mean that GAMSAT results are going to be released soon!

[update] Semester one exam timetable released

I just got my exam timetable, and it says I have two exams on one day! Ah well, I guess there's nothing I can do to change that, so I will just have to perform as best as I can under those conditions.
Three of my exams are at the end of the first week of the exam period, while one is at the end of the second week. Looking at the exams in isolation it would have been nice if they were more spread out and later (none are on the third week), but the good thing about no exam in the third week (first time that has happened to me) is that there is more time to prepare for the interviews.


Still waiting for GAMSAT results...

[update] One week left? Or two weeks?

It seems like there will be either one or two weeks left until the results release. One week would be quite an optimistic prediction, given that the test was six days later this year compared to last year. Furthermore, although I don't know if the GMAC admission guide release and result release are dependent somehow or not, historically the GMAC admission guide was released one week before the GAMSAT results.

Last year, the admission guide was released on Thursday May 6th I think, and this year they have not even been released on Friday May 6th. If they are not released on Monday, and if the two events are dependent somehow, then that would be likely for results to come after Friday 13 May. However, there is a new admission system brought in this year too, so that would complicate any "analysis" of release dates. Of course though, a few days here and there doesn't change anything in the long run anyway as long as final offers are out before class starts, although earlier releases mean less stress time. So arguably there is no real issue if ACER releases earlier or later, but I do prefer if they release the results earlier. I've got my preference list in my mind ready to go as soon as the admission system opens and results come out! For now though... still got one substantial (20%) midsemester test for one subject and a 10% prac assessment for another before results come out.

[update] The month of May has arrived!

The fifth month of the year has finally arrived. It will be a very busy and eventful month indeed. We will receive GAMSAT results in the middle of the month, and apply to medical school too.

With respect to the results release, by looking at historical release dates (and a standard definition of "mid-May"), it seems like Friday 13 May (ooh scary) is a good guess for an early release. However, given that this year's GAMSAT was late, Friday 20 May seems to be a good bet by looking at historical differences between results release and test dates. I do wish it comes sooner rather than later though.

As for university, there is also another midsemester test in one of my subjects after the break worth 20%. Furthermore, in another of my subjects, there are practicals totaling 20% of my overall mark to be completed! It will certainly be quite a busy and eventful month ahead.

Strange viewing activity

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

OMG self directed learning...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[update] Going to apply to USyd!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[update] One week of waiting is over!

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

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