Subjects for Medicine (1 Viewer)

[Josh-Wah2010]

I realise this may not be the best place for this thread, but I am new and desire quick answers so I decided to post here. My problem is I wish to try to gain undergrad entrance into the joint medical program, and need some additional info.

Firstly; I currently have 14 units and Im looking to drop 4 of them, I'm ranked first in many of my classes but my weak spot is maths. My question is would I be considered for entry if I did not complete hsc maths
(I would complete english, physics, chemistry, biology and IPT with high scores and ranks).

Also I would really like to speak with some UNCLE med students so as to hear of their experiences.

 

[em_516]

I'm fairly certain this has been answered before elsewhere, if not multiple times, but I can't be bothered hunting.

B Med doesn't recommend having to do maths, only 'Any 2 Units of English' (which is interesting that it's not Advanced and upwards. Are we dropping prerequisites that much or was Med always like this?) but I don't think you should drop it.

Find a good Maths tutor, work your little ass off. If you're coming first in a lot of your subjects you can put some effort into maths surely. Maybe even if you just did general maths and aced it. I did general and got a 96 (god knows if that was raw or rank or whatever the fuck they are, I just remember I came first and did well) and I don't think my UAI suffered because of it. Alternatively, like I said, stay in maths and work your butt off, but get a tutor.

Also, I would consider dropping Biology to be honest, or IPT. Or do 12 units. They only count 10 units for your UAI, right? So if Maths really is your worst it won't count but you'll have the knowledge behind you to help out later.

I'm pretty sure there are no med students here, but the course outline says the joint program is with UNE. Perhaps ask in their forum? Not that many people post there either..

 

[jumb]

You meet the requirements to get in, so you should be thinking about what will get you the best UAI to make sure you can be accepted. If you're doing general maths and you're doing poorly, think about dropping it. If you're doing adv. 2u, you should keep it.

However, I wonder how you can be doing well in those other sciences if you're not great at maths?

 

[Josh-Wah2010]

I realise it's not a prequisite, I have heard that they for some reason 'descriminate' slightly against non-math sutdents.

my current subjects are;
Maths 2u
Maths Ext1
English (adv)
English Ext1
IPT
Physics
Chemistry
Biology

The plan for year 12 is to drop the two extensions and another class (either IPT which is boring but I score very well in OR maths which is challenging and I score very 'average' in)

And as for being good at science but bad at maths well its always been that way like my school certificate results were;
English 95
Science 92
History 90
Geography 90
Maths 78
I've always had a love for science since as long as I can remember, I think what brings me down in maths is my hate of the repetitive, mundayne work involved.

cheers for your input,
Josh

 

[The_highwayman]

seriously man, do what you enjoy.
the greatest hurdle into medicine is the UMAT test and interview.
the year i did it, only one of about 10 of us (from my school) who did the test actually got an interview at newcastle uni.
And the guy that did ended up not getting a high enough UAI. Others who didnt get interviews got 96/97+

Then there's people i know in biomed that i absolutely can see working as doctors, who i would have full confidence in trusting my health with. Extremely smart, intuitive and genuinely friendly people, yet, even though they've done umat 3 or 4 times, they still dont get in.

Basically, what i'm saying is that marks aren't everything. The subjects you've chosen are sufficient for medicine in my mind. Maths probably wouldnt hurt, but if you feel you could do better in something else, do that instead. My biggest regret from the HSC is not choosing subjects that i really enjoyed but instead subjects that i thought would give me a good uai.
And they did. The problem arose when i went to enter uni, with background knowledge in all of these fields that i had absolutely no love for.

As cliched as it sounds: do what makes you happy.

 

[Josh-Wah2010]

Yeah I figured the UMAT would be crazy hard.
Are you sure that not doing maths would have no negative affect on my consideration?

 

[xxstef]

i think interview panels like to hear that you've chosen subjects because you genuinely enjoy them, so if that means no maths, then no maths it is.
seriously, i doubt it'd have any impact.

 

[The_highwayman]

Yeah I figured the UMAT would be crazy hard.
Are you sure that not doing maths would have no negative affect on my consideration?

it's not compulsory to choose maths for biomed, and we do much more intricate stuff than medicine.

 

[cannibal.horse]

I'm pretty ignorant of sciences but I cant see where maths would help you in medicine. Sounds like some bs spun up by hsc maths teachers (which they have a habit of doing).