Should I do medicine given the type of person i am? (1 Viewer)

[mysterymarkplz]

Hi
So throughout my HS life I've never really had an idea of what i wanted to do in the future, I loved and excelled in my sciences during my HSC year (I did phys and chem but i failed in bio), I've been jumping from psychology to physics to engineering to actuary and back and it was only until recently did I put in the thought of me doing med.
The issue arose when i started thinking about the interviews, looking back throughout my high school life I was that kind of kid that did nothing besides study, game and hang out with my friends alot, although I believe myself to have the traits of being rational, empathetic and occasionally display leadership when necessary, i have no evidence to show that, I had never done extra curricular activities of any kind. This is a pretty big obstacle and I think it'll destroy any chance I have at succeeding the interview.
Should I pursue med regardless? Is there anything I can do to fix this without making it seem a bit superficial?
Thanks.

 

[enigma_1]

Definitely. Althought you're aware that a competent score in the Umat is required, yeah? It's in July and you'll need to prepare for it.

 

[enigma_1]

In regards to the interview, I'm not quite sure. Hopefully someone else knows.

 

[mysterymarkplz]

Yeah I know, i've done quite a lot of past papers a year ago and did fairly well in sections 1 and 2, use to be good at 3 and now i'm just shit but we'll see, i mean i'm asking about the interview because its the last stage and if i can't get through it i don't see any point in trying but i might try it out anyway, an opportunity shouldnt be missed.

 

[lilcutetricker]

yeah dude! i'm actually prepping for umat right now, pretty keen on umat haha

 

[bangladesh]

yeah dude! i'm actually prepping for umat right now, pretty keen on umat haha

you're preparing 1.5 year before you sit the exam?

 

[mysterymarkplz]

lol i remember doing the section 1 questions in year 10 with a mate cause we didn't wanna do junior science, they were pretty fun to do, we had no idea wtf umat was anyway we just thought it was some interesting problems

 

[bangladesh]

lol i remember doing the section 1 questions in year 10 with a mate cause we didn't wanna do junior science, they were pretty fun to do, we had no idea wtf umat was anyway we just thought it was some interesting problems

well the nature of umat has changed quite a bit over the past couple of years. Also, Did you sit the gamsat or not?

 

[Medman]

I've trained students like yourself with minimal extra-cirrucular activities and I have to say many of them would not receive offers for medicine. Is it purely based on their lack of extra-cirrucular activities? I would say not. It's a mixture of lack of social skills with a lack of evidence to showcase those skills. Students who I trained with a vast repertoire of extra-cirrucular have received offers 100% of the time. This is from my experience of helping 40 students get into medicine/dentistry across universities in Australia.

I suggest you start padding extra-cirrcular's these on now. If you get low marks with a poor interview performance you will definitely not get in. Given the lack of extra-cirrucular activities, I suggest you try to maximise your other marks. In addition, if you think you can't even be bothered doing this you will probably have trouble finding a job in medicine in the future. Given the number of medical students you will need to put in extra effort during your medical degree to get yourself ahead of other people or you may be waiting 6-7 years to even get on the training program for specialties by the time you graduate. I know doctors already waiting 4-5 years at the moment and it will only get worse in the future.

 

[JohnMaximus]

 

[such_such]

Just try it out, who knows. Also, apparently med is heaps bio...

 

[Futuremedstudent]

tbh, try out for med and aim to get an atar of 99.65+, umat percentile of 95+.
Like Medman has said increase ur extra curriculars like volunteer at a hospital and talk about that in the interview.
It doesn't hurt trying out, it's better than regretting it for the rest of ur life.
good luck

 

[Willow129]

Hey, a friend of mine studying medicine at Newcastle Uni just wrote about this kind of thing, and also details about her own study: http://thefootnotes.com.au/medicine-newcastle/ I wouldn't worry about failing Bio, and your interview would be fine- she talks about her interview and school subjects in this article too too, and let me know if there's any other info you need and I'll ask her!