Grad Med decisions (1 Viewer)

[adamparker69]

im not sure whether to do med science or liberal studies, with the intention of attempting the GAMSAT. i didnt do any science subjects in the hsc, so med science could be difficult, however if i do liberal studies, i fear i wont have the medical experience i need to pass the GAMSAT or even sit through the interview.

what should i do!!!

 

[RogueAcademic]

1st year science subjects like chemistry, biology, physics etc assume you have no prior knowledge. It still doesn't mean it would be a breeze though, you'd still have to study hard to keep up, especially if you didn't do any science subjects at HSC. Did you do maths at all in HSC?

What happened that made you suddenly decide to try for medicine?

 

[adamparker69]

yes i did do maths. and i always had this kind of urge to do medicine although i knew my uai would not be good enuff. i initially wanted to do law but every lawyer ive spoken to hated their job.

if i did a chemistry bridging course would that be enuff? or would i have to do a biology and/or physics one as well?

 

[RogueAcademic]

i initially wanted to do law but every lawyer ive spoken to hated their job.

They're lying. If they hated it, they wouldn't be doing it. They love being a 'lawyer'. Even so, you've been speaking to all the wrong lawyers because I know some who love their jobs.

if i did a chemistry bridging course would that be enuff?

The bridging course would bring you up to scratch to do chem at uni.

or would i have to do a biology and/or physics one as well?

I've got two questions for you:

1) Do you want to do med or not?

2) Have you checked out what GAMSAT is about?

 

[adamparker69]

i do want to do med, but my worry is that if i do liberal studies i wont have any clinical experience or anything, and hence get owned in the interview

 

[lionking1191]

don't do med science for the sake of getting you 'prepped' for med. you need nothing of the sort. do something that you enjoy, is intersted in and that will maximise you GPA. the 3 criterias assessed for entrance into grad is:

GPA - do a course that cn u get a high GPA
GAMSAT - first section is reading and responding (no science), 2nd is writing (no science, arts may help), 3rd is general knowledge science (1st yr uni stuff). you'll have plenty of time during ur 1st degree to prepare for the GAMSAT. and you can do it twice with the best score going towards ur selection.

Interview - no clinical experience necessary to show off.

imo it's not a good idea to do med science for the sake of getting into med. if you are genuinely interested in teh course it's fine, but it seems to me you are interested in other fields also.

 

[adamparker69]

so the consensus is that if i did liberal studies (im a musician so i could nail the arts part of the degree) i would be better off than if i did med science?

and do i really not need clinical experience for the interview? i feel it wouldnt hurt my chances...

 

[TBK11]

hmm for some reason id be in the same state as u if i didnt make it into MBBS as undergrad
but GAMSAT doesnt require MedSci but it would be useful according to some, me personally id do something id enjoy then apply again cause if ur doin medSci just for the sake of mbbs then it might not end up the way u want it to.

Example if u dont make it in Graduate med then? urleft with a MedSci Degree 0.o a bugger
go with something u like and ull own it

 

[RogueAcademic]

Clinical experience is not a prerequisite, although it helps show that you've worked in the health care environment before, and at least one medical faculty I know of will also give you extra points for it.

If you think that you can ace an arts degree, then by all means do it. You'll have yourself a high GPA and if you ace the GAMSAT as well, you'll be guaranteed an interview, and if you ace the interview, you've got yourself a spot in medicine.

But if you can do well in a medical science degree, it'll simultaneously help you prepare for the science part of GAMSAT (the section which you are weakest), and you will also gain extra points when you apply for grad med, some medical faculties will give you extra points if your first degree is medical science-related. You'll also be better prepared for the rigourous and constant medical science studies required in medicine. Medical students who come from a non-science background are expected to put in extra study time on their own on top of the usual work in a medical degree if they have gaps in their science knowledge, the lecturers will assume you've done that study in your own time and will assume you've already got the background knowledge when they teach. Some of these students may struggle just a little more than students who have a science background. It's quite possible for these students do very well in medicine but they do have to put in extra effort to keep up.

 

[adamparker69]

ok so liberal studies and med science have no vacancies for late round so im really stressing now...is there any other course that would be a good pathway to eventual grad med?

 

[Deltan]

ok so liberal studies and med science have no vacancies for late round so im really stressing now...is there any other course that would be a good pathway to eventual grad med?

if your really sure you want to do med, you should do a science related course since it will give you the background knowledge for science otherwise pick you something that you would enjoy and get good marks.

 

[RogueAcademic]

if your really sure you want to do med, you should do a science related course since it will give you the background knowledge for science otherwise pick you something that you would enjoy and get good marks.

That is good advice. You don't have to actually do a course that says "medical science". You can do any science degree and then do the medical science subjects from within the science degree.

Actually you can enrol in any degree, do well in it and get a decent GPA, you will still be eligible to sit for the GAMSAT apply for med. So under the circumstances, just get into a degree that you'll enjoy doing and can get a decent GPA in, you'll be fine.

 

[xxstef]

im sure theres still vacancies for b science somewhere.

 

[ssglain]

It isn't necessary to do B Med Sci to get into a graduate med program. Graduate medicine admission is open to students with any bachelor degree and offered on basis of GPA, GAMSAT and interview performance.

The combined medicine program at USYD offers combinations to a huge variety of degrees like B Arts/B Economics/B Business/B Music in addition to B Sci (adv) and B Med Sci. It shows you that students in the graduate medicine program, at USYD at least, come from enormously diverse backgrounds. The degree resolution for the non-science combinations may give you an idea of what the medicine faculty expects from students entering the graduate medicine program - basically, all the students in the non-science combinations have to complete 6 credit pts (so one subject) each of 1st year biology, chemistry and physics. And the last section in the GAMSAT tests general science knowledge related to these areas. So whatever degree you decide to do, you should consider choosing these (maybe as electives).

You said that you haven't done any science subjects in the HSC - what was the reason for that? If you're not interested in science, then a science degree (or even medicine) may not be right for you. If at the moment you're only concerned about getting into graduate medicine, then think carefully about what your interests are and pick a degree that will allow you to study the subjects which you like and will excel in, for the sake of a high GPA at least. So do arts, or music, or whatever you will really enjoy. It also makes sure that if you happen to change your mind about medicine later on, you won't have wasted all the effort of preparing yourself and then realising that it's not what you really want to do at all.