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What marks should I be achieving to get into Medicine (1 Viewer)

zlum23

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What internal assessment marks and HSC scores should I aim to achieve for each subject if I want to go to UNSW for Medicine?
My subjects are:
Advanced English
Ext 1 Mathematics
Ext 2 Mathematics
Chemistry
Biology
 

jimmysmith560

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For your application to UNSW's Bachelor of Medical Studies/Doctor of Medicine to be competitive, you need to maximise your ATAR (preferably 99+). The higher it is, the higher your chance of receiving an offer. An ATAR this high implies the need to achieve HSC marks in the band 6/E4 region across your subjects. An HSC mark in a subject constitutes an average of two marks, being the Assessment Mark and the Examination Mark. Based on this, maximising your Assessment Marks requires that you place as high as possible internally relative to your cohort in all of your subjects. Maximising your Examination Marks requires that you do your utmost to effectively prepare for your HSC exams so that you can perform at a sufficiently high standard.

You may wish to use the following HSC marks as a guide in terms of achieving a 99+ ATAR:
  • English Advanced - 91
  • Mathematics Extension 1 - 91
  • Mathematics Extension 2 - 91
  • Chemistry - 92
  • Biology - 93
Of course, HSC marks can differ while still leading to the same ATAR. For example, you may perform at a slightly lower standard in English Advanced (such as a high band 5), but you may be much more capable in Mathematics Extension 1.

Of course, while the ATAR is important, it is not the only element that UNSW considers when assessing your application. Your performance in the UCAT as well as the interview is also important and will contribute to their decision of whether you should be made an offer.

I hope this helps! :D
 

howcanibesmarter

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maths ext 1 and eng adv is easy to get hsc mark 94 with enough practice. (remind yourself that around 67% in 3U maths is equiv to a 91hsc mark) and for English: you just need to memorise 4 20/20 responses, (3 essays, 1 creative and your set, 90/100 raw is around 94, which is 18/20 for each essay - mind you a lot easier to prepare for than other subjects. Memorising 4000words and your ready to go for the hsc is a good deal considering you got 1 entire year to prepare for that)

Whereas your other subjects, might be a little harder.
You will need the following results, or if I were you, I would be aiming for.
Eng Adv: 94
MX1: 94
MX2: 90 (4u is a lot harder, but with practice, easy to get higher too. BUT remember, is it worth sacrificing your studies for just maths? A 90 in MX2 is already atar equivalent to a mid 99, and caps out at 99.95 at around 92, which is already past your atar aim, while a 89 in chem is only around 96-7 atar, so you would rather get chem up to a 90 for a better chance at achieving ur atar aim if u get what i mean.)
Bio: 91
Chem: 90 (Chem is hard btw - I do not do, but all my friends struggle, even the smart ones)

that gives you around 99 atar :) (not trying to put u off but dont forget ucat, unsw med requires roughly a minimum of 95th percentile with a 99 atar.

Focus on your worst subjects, since you only do 10 units, everything counts. I would focus on 4u only when your other subjects give around the same atar points.

PERSONALLY SPEAKING:
I do not do chem or bio, but I can give you advice for eng adv, MX1, MX2.
For a little context, I am currently sitting at the bottom of our MX2 class, however my teacher told me not to worry, because my estimated mark, which is a 89-90, is still roughly the same as my MX1 mark (a bit lower), which is estimated to be a 94 (i.e. I'm median for MX1). I'm also currently sitting below median for Eng Ext1, but it doesn't matter as much since my Eng Adv is estimated as a 94 - I do 11 units, unlike you. What I'm tryign to say is dont get too focused to score good for the better scaling subjects, focus on your weaknesses and unless your heading towards the low 80s, I woudn't fret too much about subjects like MX2 as long as you are consistenly around 87+ since that fits your atar goal.

You can ask your school teachers/ head teachers about estimated marks/ranks if youhavent already

Hope that helps:)
 
Last edited:

idkkdi

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maths ext 1 and eng adv is easy to get hsc mark 94 with enough practice. (remind yourself that around 67% in 3U maths is equiv to a 91hsc mark) and for English: you just need to memorise 4 20/20 responses, (3 essays, 1 creative and your set, 90/100 raw is around 94, which is 18/20 for each essay - mind you a lot easier to prepare for than other subjects. Memorising 4000words and your ready to go for the hsc is a good deal considering you got 1 entire year to prepare for that)

Whereas your other subjects, might be a little harder.
You will need the following results, or if I were you, I would be aiming for.
Eng Adv: 94
MX1: 94
MX2: 90 (4u is a lot harder, but with practice, easy to get higher too. BUT remember, is it worth sacrificing your studies for just maths? A 90 in MX2 is already atar equivalent to a mid 99, and caps out at 99.95 at around 92, which is already past your atar aim, while a 89 in chem is only around 96-7 atar, so you would rather get chem up to a 90 for a better chance at achieving ur atar aim if u get what i mean.)
Bio: 91
Chem: 90 (Chem is hard btw - I do not do, but all my friends struggle, even the smart ones)

that gives you around 99 atar :) (not trying to put u off but dont forget ucat, unsw med requires roughly a minimum of 95th percentile with a 99 atar.

Focus on your worst subjects, since you only do 10 units, everything counts. I would focus on 4u only when your other subjects give around the same atar points.

PERSONALLY SPEAKING:
I do not do chem or bio, but I can give you advice for eng adv, MX1, MX2.
For a little context, I am currently sitting at the bottom of our MX2 class, however my teacher told me not to worry, because my estimated mark, which is a 89-90, is still roughly the same as my MX1 mark (a bit lower), which is estimated to be a 94 (i.e. I'm median for MX1). I'm also currently sitting below median for Eng Ext1, but it doesn't matter as much since my Eng Adv is estimated as a 94 - I do 11 units, unlike you. What I'm tryign to say is dont get too focused to score good for the better scaling subjects, focus on your weaknesses and unless your heading towards the low 80s, I woudn't fret too much about subjects like MX2 as long as you are consistenly around 87+ since that fits your atar goal.

You can ask your school teachers/ head teachers about estimated marks/ranks if youhavent already

Hope that helps:)
just a caveat, externals english kinda requires u to have nice handwriting and write many pages
 

howcanibesmarter

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just a caveat, externals english kinda requires u to have nice handwriting and write many pages
1000 words is good enough for 40minutes, you can do that with decent handwriting,

HOWEVER, english rather than starting from zero for marking (i.e maths), they mark downwards from 20. So as long as you answer the question, a 18/20 essay can easily go up to a 20/20 when addressed properly. Same goes with creative.
 

nsw..wollongong

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just a caveat, externals english kinda requires u to have nice handwriting and write many pages
my handwriting is a huge issue idk how to fix it 😭 it takes too long to be neat and write a lot
 

dav53521

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my handwriting is a huge issue idk how to fix it 😭 it takes too long to be neat and write a lot
You gotta find the balance of neat and quick pretty sure my English teacher commented on how when he marked mod c a lot of people's hand writing were bad because it was the last section and their hands were tired.
 

howcanibesmarter

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my handwriting is a huge issue idk how to fix it 😭 it takes too long to be neat and write a lot
honestly based, but I've noticed that you should strive to write bigger, leaving more space between letters. Start writing as early as possible, my exam is next tuesday for paper 1, wednesday for paper2, and I've already written mocks. Try not to write before the exam, it would jsut stress your hand out. Also opt for a heavier pen at first, then go lighter and ligther as you near your exam block

An alternative is that you write at a slower pace, but within each line, you start a little bit to the right for the given lined space, so over the duration of your essay, it seems like you wrote more than you actually did. (My teacher, a hsc marker, told us that our last cohort used to do this - 1000words instead of being 6-7 pages, usually ended up to 8-9) Because the first thing a hsc marker does, is flip through the pages to mentally prepare themselves, and if you have a short 4-5 pages response, it does not leave a good impression. But hey, thats just my advice, you could have a different way.
 

carrotsss

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honestly based, but I've noticed that you should strive to write bigger, leaving more space between letters. Start writing as early as possible, my exam is next tuesday for paper 1, wednesday for paper2, and I've already written mocks. Try not to write before the exam, it would jsut stress your hand out. Also opt for a heavier pen at first, then go lighter and ligther as you near your exam block

An alternative is that you write at a slower pace, but within each line, you start a little bit to the right for the given lined space, so over the duration of your essay, it seems like you wrote more than you actually did. (My teacher, a hsc marker, told us that our last cohort used to do this - 1000words instead of being 6-7 pages, usually ended up to 8-9) Because the first thing a hsc marker does, is flip through the pages to mentally prepare themselves, and if you have a short 4-5 pages response, it does not leave a good impression. But hey, thats just my advice, you could have a different way.
damn that’s actually smart
 

idkkdi

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honestly based, but I've noticed that you should strive to write bigger, leaving more space between letters. Start writing as early as possible, my exam is next tuesday for paper 1, wednesday for paper2, and I've already written mocks. Try not to write before the exam, it would jsut stress your hand out. Also opt for a heavier pen at first, then go lighter and ligther as you near your exam block

An alternative is that you write at a slower pace, but within each line, you start a little bit to the right for the given lined space, so over the duration of your essay, it seems like you wrote more than you actually did. (My teacher, a hsc marker, told us that our last cohort used to do this - 1000words instead of being 6-7 pages, usually ended up to 8-9) Because the first thing a hsc marker does, is flip through the pages to mentally prepare themselves, and if you have a short 4-5 pages response, it does not leave a good impression. But hey, thats just my advice, you could have a different way.
ye try get as many pages as possible. i suspect page count screwed up my externals mark a bit
 

dumNerd

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so fkn true ):::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: my internals for english was 95 because the teachers (some) actually cared and took the time to read it [note some didnt - evidenced by the time the teacher wrote "can't read disgusting" and just gave my 20/20 discursive a 16"] -> my externals was 89 cos i got 12/20 in my reading task after getting 18/20 and 19/20 in school --> hence I assume my handwriting fucked me up
just a caveat, externals english kinda requires u to have nice handwriting and write many pages

handwriting has to be treated as another subject if it's bad --> I didn't put in the effort and I paid for it so if you don't wanna get fked then put in the effort
 

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