Is it easy to get into Medicine from a Med./Bio. Med. Science course? (1 Viewer)

[sointoyourself]

I doubt I'll get the required 98 + ATAR and UMAT scores to get into Med straight from High School, so I was wondering what's the easiest way to go about getting into Medicine? Should I still take the UMAT this year or...
Any advice appreciated!

 

[Dylanamali]

only way into undergraduate med is via the UMAT,
unless you can get an ATAR of 99.70+,
the only exception to this is JCU - which requires a relatively high ATAR 98+ and an outstanding application and interview.

So if you truly want Medicine do the UMAT..
even if you end up taking an alternative pathway e.g. med science,
and you want to transfer after 1 or 2 yrs then you will still need the UMAT to transfer.

The only alternative is - if you finish your undergraduate course, 3 years for med sci, and then you do the GAMSAT and do postgraduate medicine which is another 4 years.

All the best

 

[Dylanamali]

so to answer your questions..

it is definitely not easy to get into Medicine..
med is in my opinion the most competitive course to get into..
ATAR + UMAT + interview..

if you do med sci.. you will still need a high GPA - preferably distinction average, and will still need a competitive UMAT, preferably 85+ percentile..

 

[sointoyourself]

I could still take the UMAT in 1-2 years then couldn't I? I suppose it would be better to take it now. Ugh it's so difficult to get in. Thank you though!

 

[Dylanamali]

yeah you can do the UMAT at any stage..

but in my opinion its best to do it now and continually do it for as long as your trying for medicine..
coz it's the best form of practice and its a good way of understanding how to deal with the pressures on the day.
It is really difficult.. it is my goal aswell.. but unfortunately the UMAT didn't pan out for me.. so i'm doing it again this year.

 

[sointoyourself]

Was the UMAT as hard as they make it out to be? Are you doing a gap-year or going to try and transfer in?

 

[Dylanamali]

get practice papers to get an idea of its difficulty..
for some its easy, for other its hard.
It was difficult for me - because it was so foreign and new.. its nothing like the HSC which just requires pure rote learning and memorisation - and thus is easy.

I'm trying to transfer in.. taking a gap year is too much of a risk for me. I don't have that much faith in my UMAT ability - so to try again and fail and then be left 1 year behind on my degree would really suck.
Although, there are advantages of taking a gap-year, as you are still a standard applicant rather than a non-standard, and there are more places set aside for standards..

if you want more advice you should really check out medstudentsonline rather than posting on bos.

 

[sointoyourself]

Oh okay then. Thank you!