Is Medicine really a hard course? (1 Viewer)

[Paradox1345]

Medicine has a high UAI requirement, but thats only because its extremely popular and as we all know the UAI is only an indication of the popularity of the course.

So my question is: Does Med really live up to the UAI requirement? Is it really that hard to learn to be a doctor?

It's one of the courses with the highest entry requirements, so is the difficulty of successfully studying medicine greater than the difficulty of other courses such as commerce or engineering, etc?

btw in what yr did med start being such a popular course? has it always been such a prestigious course throughout history?

Thanks. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

 

[Omium]

As you said, UAI is a measure of popularity of a course.

Im pretty sure engineering courses are pretty hard.

Pure mathematics, Physics , Chemistry courses are also quite difficult.

 

[dp624]

Med isn't _that_ hard

 

[doink]

hard? no but the amount of information is extremely vast and the sheer amount makes it difficult to learn.

 

[freq707]

it seems that med is more about handling and managing work load...
you can be pure genious and not succeed at med...
i was talking to a friend whose uai was 99.5..or99.6 i cant remember, but he was struggling to keep a credit average and actually fell below this and lost half of his med scholarship
but then i know a girl whose uai was about 10 lower, she went in as non-standard entry and is acing med so far - but she has coped with large work loads for a long time and puts in massss amounts of effort..which it seems is required

 

[iRuler]

It's not that hard, a lot of work load and stuff you need to learn, Acturial Studies could be called harder... just my opinion tho, med is a respectable profession and thats why its popular. The UAI is there to show if people have been maintaining high results to cope with the workload I guess..

 

[Paradox1345]

Hm.. just wondering, has med always been this hard to get in? has the uai requirement always been this high throughout australian history?

 

[Wooz]

^ yes, as it is one of the worlds oldest and most challenging professions and previously only exclusive to the landed gentry, except for surgery which derived has its roots from butchers and barbers.

In the days before UNSW, etc you still needed marks in the 99 to get into Usyd, Chris O'brien also talks about his schooling and he worked extremely hard to get into Usyd which also had a 99 requirement.

The reason why tests such as UMAT/GAMSAT and things like the interview were introduced, was to broaden the candidature and allow other students with 'desirable' aspects the opportunity to study medicine. Hence some uni's such as UNCLE, UWS have a threshold where if you achieve over 95 (less for students residing in the area) they only look at your UMAT score to determine whether you obtain an interview place or not. Most other uni's use a combination of UMAT and HSC/GPA to determine ur interview placement.

 

[simplyyme]

i was wondering how hard actually is it to get a 5-5.5 GPA ?

 

[Cookie182]

I think causes in quantum mechanics, theoretical astrophysics, aeronautical engineering or obviously pure mathematics would require the most amount of "raw intelligence" however you define that. Med, followed by Law are often viewed as "hard" due to the intense amount of workload present, amount of reading and just the general scope of knowledge that is required to meet such a demanding position of responsibility.

Lol Commerce

 

[Schoey93]

very hard, but Grade Point Averages are only used to place international students into certain courses...

to be honest, you can get 90 UAI and, due to scaling... have a relatively average "grade point average". You can average 70s all year in all your subjects' assessments, then ace the HSC exam for each one (by 'ace' I mean... hm ... 90% RAW) and end up with maybe (maybe being the key word here)... 95 UAI...depends on your subjects. If you did this with 4-unit maths, chem, economics and english then it would probably equate to a NSW UAI of 100.


To be honest I think scaling is one big gyp...how can one subject be easier or harder than another? Everyone has different talents, so you can STILL work the system by choosing subjects with low course candidatures. Less people = more chance of 'bad' results = scaled up... for example, Spanish Beginners actually scales higher than Spanish Continuers!!! (seems obvious to me that continuers is more difficult than beginners however)

anyways I'm rambling here... I'm out now... laters

 

[+Po1ntDeXt3r+]

psychologically it can be hard. It can be a relationship killer, if you dont have supportive friends/partner/family/etc. It is hard to schedule work in later years. you are poor longer than most ppl.

but it can be fulfilling just need to remember to switch it off when you arent studying. High rates of alcoholism, high rates of suicide and divorce but it is a close knit group cause you all made the same decision to get there.

 

[Paradox1345]

psychologically it can be hard. It can be a relationship killer, if you dont have supportive friends/partner/family/etc. It is hard to schedule work in later years. you are poor longer than most ppl.

but it can be fulfilling just need to remember to switch it off when you arent studying. High rates of alcoholism, high rates of suicide and divorce but it is a close knit group cause you all made the same decision to get there.

wow. I just gained new insight into the life of a med student.

 

[xxstef]

very hard, but Grade Point Averages are only used to place international students into certain courses...

no, GPAs are also used for graduate entry into medicine for local students.

 

[KFunk]

One of the difficult things about medicine is the sheer quantity of information there is to learn. People can argue about whether you need to know the finer points of biochem, genetics, etc, but once you get to clinical years a great deal of the information is quite important (though perhaps Point could correct me here?). Trying to manage a time intensive clinical term like surgery or O&G (for which some people have 7am - 5pm days) whilst learning and revising clinical medicine is tough, especially if you want to maintain any significant degree of life outside of medicine, e.g. socialising, playing music, or working on occaision.

It takes a good brain and memory +/- perseverance. A high UAI is a fairly good surrogate marker for both of these (even if it is an imperfect measure).

In the days before UNSW, etc you still needed marks in the 99 to get into Usyd, Chris O'brien also talks about his schooling and he worked extremely hard to get into Usyd which also had a 99 requirement.

The reason why tests such as UMAT/GAMSAT and things like the interview were introduced, was to broaden the candidature and allow other students with 'desirable' aspects the opportunity to study medicine. Hence some uni's such as UNCLE, UWS have a threshold where if you achieve over 95 (less for students residing in the area) they only look at your UMAT score to determine whether you obtain an interview place or not. Most other uni's use a combination of UMAT and HSC/GPA to determine ur interview placement.

The 99+ requirement still stands for the most part. I can only really speak for UNSW, but I know that both the mean and median UAI for entry generally fall in the mid 99s (99.4 - 99.7). I seem to recall hearing something vaguely similar for UWS which I expect is at least 98+ on average.

 

[Wooz]

One of the difficult things about medicine is the sheer quantity of information there is to learn. People can argue about whether you need to know the finer points of biochem, genetics, etc, but once you get to clinical years a great deal of the information is quite important (though perhaps Point could correct me here?). Trying to manage a time intensive clinical term like surgery or O&G (for which some people have 7am - 5pm days) whilst learning and revising clinical medicine is tough, especially if you want to maintain any significant degree of life outside of medicine, e.g. socialising, playing music, or working on occaision.

It takes a good brain and memory +/- perseverance. A high UAI is a fairly good surrogate marker for both of these (even if it is an imperfect measure).




The 99+ requirement still stands for the most part. I can only really speak for UNSW, but I know that both the mean and median UAI for entry generally fall in the mid 99s (99.4 - 99.7). I seem to recall hearing something vaguely similar for UWS which I expect is at least 98+ on average.

The mean UAI for this years cohort at UWS was 99.35, despite the 93 and 95 thresholds.

 

[dp624]

The mean UAI for this years cohort at UWS was 99.35, despite the 93 and 95 thresholds.

Wow I must admit I am suprised. Mean, or median?

 

[melsc]

\


To be honest I think scaling is one big gyp...how can one subject be easier or harder than another? Everyone has different talents, so you can STILL work the system by choosing subjects with low course candidatures. Less people = more chance of 'bad' results = scaled up... for example, Spanish Beginners actually scales higher than Spanish Continuers!!! (seems obvious to me that continuers is more difficult than beginners however)

anyways I'm rambling here... I'm out now... laters

That is because often native speakers take continuers courses and thus ace it.

The way I see it medicine would be much like law, the workload, duration of the course and responsibility required are what make it hard. Additionally the skills required would take time to learn and a lot is expected. I can see how aptitude rather than intelligence makes a good doctor, the time management, ability to communicate and relate to the patient etc are very important! Again like law the popularlity is down to people perceiving doctors as rich, smart, important etc... some are urged into it by the families, tradition etc...in the end I'd rather a doctor with a genuine interest in medicine and helping people...For those doing medicine, is it like law in the sense that those without their heart in it drop out or get the lowest marks?

 

[Wooz]

Wow I must admit I am suprised. Mean, or median?

Mean, we have a ton of seletive high school kids who got around 99.75, etc. Many of whom are also GWS students, many from school in GWS got around the high 98's aswell.

 

[undalay]

Mean, we have a ton of seletive high school kids who got around 99.75, etc. Many of whom are also GWS students, many from school in GWS got around the high 98's aswell.

The median must be similar to unsw's then