Medical Science and Electives @UNSW (1 Viewer)

[Xt]

Thank you for all your help so far, I really appreciate it.

My head is actually going to explode.

Np man, I just wish sum1 gave me advice in first year xD. U can always call up the Science student centre for sum advice or defs come over to the Med Sci Stall in O-week and ask for advice from the 2nd/3rd year students. BTW i'm sure u have the idea that MedSci is pretty cut throat and everything but its not, every1 is pretty chill. Ofc note sharing and exam tips like that don't really happen in first sem but eventually every1 starts warming up to each other and its pretty okay. OFC u always have those...really isolated and competitive people...just avoid them lol.

 

[Riproot]

oh really? i'm not sure about that MATH1141/1241 getting u exempted from MATH1041 besides sum1 getting transferred from another degree into medsci. But man, u should do MATH1041...its pretty easy as well.

Well, maybe it's because he got HDs but he told me he didn't have to do stats because higher maths 1B has a little prob and stats anyways.

 

[SunnyScience]

Np man, I just wish sum1 gave me advice in first year xD. U can always call up the Science student centre for sum advice or defs come over to the Med Sci Stall in O-week and ask for advice from the 2nd/3rd year students. BTW i'm sure u have the idea that MedSci is pretty cut throat and everything but its not, every1 is pretty chill. Ofc note sharing and exam tips like that don't really happen in first sem but eventually every1 starts warming up to each other and its pretty okay. OFC u always have those...really isolated and competitive people...just avoid them lol.

I've already got my first-year note-sources ready to go. <3 my uni buds.

 

[SunnyScience]

I'M AM LITERALLY SO CONFUSED NOW. D:
All I know is, is that I'm doing maths as an elective now. I struggled in 3U but loved 2U. Which do I pick to maximise marks, and sanity? :S

Also, I just changed Chem to the harder one as per your suggestions. Lab from 5-7 on thursday now. yay. :3

 

[Xt]

I'M AM LITERALLY SO CONFUSED NOW. D:
All I know is, is that I'm doing maths as an elective now. I struggled in 3U but loved 2U. Which do I pick to maximise marks, and sanity? :S

Also, I just changed Chem to the harder one as per your suggestions. Lab from 5-7 on thursday now. yay. :3

For chem1031 dw about it coz after u do the Diagnostic test first (b4 any real exams/quizzes/lab works, maby except 1 quiz altho u can ask tutors for help on those). After the Diagnostic test, the course coordinator will contact u if he thinks u should drop down to CHEM1011 so dw about chem for now.

Ummm u can pick MATH1031 or MATH1011. MATH1031 was 2 inclass 1 hour exams, a computer test, and finals. MATH1011 was 5 inclass 1 hour exams but they only take ur best 3, a computer test and finals. The computer test just tests if u know how to plug in codes to solve math problems, u can just self-teach urself from the Lecture Notes they provide. This was for my year tho, they could have changed the assessment structure by now lol

Here's the course details (click on the course handout pdf file for details) - they're provide u with the topics they cover.
http://www.maths.unsw.edu.au/courses/math1011-fundamentals-mathematics-b
http://www.maths.unsw.edu.au/courses/math1031-mathematics-life-sciences

 

[sydneyroosters]

As someone who has gone through BmedSc and fortunately got accepted into Med, I totally agree with Xt. I did MATH1131 in the first year because I wanted to 'learn new stuff' but I regret not choosing MATH1011 to boost my WAM even more - many of my colleagues chose 1011 and got perfect scores. And CHEM1031...the bonus questions were really give away marks so you'd be crazy not to choose it; CHEM1041 vs CHEM1021 in the second semester is a little different though.

 

[Riproot]

I'M AM LITERALLY SO CONFUSED NOW. D:
All I know is, is that I'm doing maths as an elective now. I struggled in 3U but loved 2U. Which do I pick to maximise marks, and sanity? :S

Also, I just changed Chem to the harder one as per your suggestions. Lab from 5-7 on thursday now. yay. :3

Do MATH1041 because you have to do it anyways.

Also, lol, should've picked it earlier I guess.

 

[Survivor39]

May be do MATH1041 since it's compulsory.

To SunnyScience, may I just offer a piece of advice? Try not to get fixated on marks and the top 10 WAM business because you cannot predict how you will do compare to everyone else. You also can't change how others perform. All you need to do is do your best and not worry about your competition. If you are good, you will ace CHEM1011 or CHEM1031, MATH1131 or MATH1141 - it really doesn't matter! I have done better than expected and worse than expected in advanced courses so it's impossible to tell doing which would get you a higher mark!

Good luck!

 

[fizzbylightning]

My HSC chem mark was lower than that and I still did 1031/1041 and got decent marks, but it's up to you. You can move down to 1011 if you don't like it, but I don't know how easy it is to move up to 1031.

And on the topic of psychology, I really liked it (but then again I'm doing neuroscience). The written assessments can be kinda annoying though, but the final is pretty good. If you're contemplating psychology, psych A is more artsy stuff (like social psychology, health psychology, developmental psychology, etc) but psych B is more biology stuff (neurobiology, memory and cognition, animal learning etc). So keep that in mind.

I feel like I would like to go with Psych B more than A but are we allowed to enroll into B before A (or not do A at all) if we were choosing this as an elective?

 

[cormacshaw]

You have to do them in order. Plus, Psych B is only offered in Second Semester, so you can't do it this semester.

 

[Xt]

I feel like I would like to go with Psych B more than A but are we allowed to enroll into B before A (or not do A at all) if we were choosing this as an elective?

You can definitely enroll into Psych B without completing Psych A. This is because they cover different areas of Psychology. Some other electives you can consider are BIOT1011, PHYS1111, MATH1011/1031/1131/1141. Even some geology courses like GEOS1111 or BIOS1301 if ur interested in ecology, or even CLIM1001 if you wanna do something in climate change.

I'd suggest looking at the Adv Sci handbook page: http://www.handbook.unsw.edu.au/undergraduate/programs/2013/3972.html and click through all the majors your interested in and see the first year subjects within that area. Then you can just pick one of those subjects and do it as an elective

 

[Riproot]

May be do MATH1041 since it's compulsory.

To SunnyScience, may I just offer a piece of advice? Try not to get fixated on marks and the top 10 WAM business because you cannot predict how you will do compare to everyone else. You also can't change how others perform. All you need to do is do your best and not worry about your competition. If you are good, you will ace CHEM1011 or CHEM1031, MATH1131 or MATH1141 - it really doesn't matter! I have done better than expected and worse than expected in advanced courses so it's impossible to tell doing which would get you a higher mark!

Good luck!

Yeah, just aim for the top, don't compare yourself.
If you get 90s in everything you'll be in a gr8 position.

 

[findsome1]

Maybe I can give some advice, seeing as I have just completed my first year in medical science.

I got around the same HSC mark for chem as you, and I decided to pick CHEM1011. I also, was wondering which chemistry class to pick but I was pretty happy with CHEM1011. A lot of my friends who did CHEM1031 complained that the final exam was pretty tough (I think they no longer do the bonus question thing for higher chemistry as they completely revised the course, and now offer separate exams with different questions). CHEM1031 has an additional workload and slightly harder practicals with additional questions, some of which are challenging. There is always the option of doing CHEM1011 in semester 1 and achieving high marks and then being able to do CHEM1041 (for semester 2).

As for the elective, I picked Physics PHYS1111 during first semester. If you intend on doing the GAMSAT I think this is a good course which will cover most important physics topics. However I found this a hard course and is not as easy as its name may suggest (the final exam was tough). I know some people who chose to do 2 biology subjects in semester 2 as their elective such as Molecular Cell Biology, Evolutionary and Functional Biology or Genetics. You need to wait till semester 2 to do these subjects though.

Psychology 1A is offered only in semester 1 and Psychology 1B in semester 2. Both of these courses are different I think and you don't need to do Psychology 1A to do Psychology 1B.

If you are unsure of which elective to pick, maybe choose MATH1041 in semester 1 as it will allow you more time to decide since you have to do it anyway.

Hope this helps.

 

[fizzbylightning]

Hey, thanks for the advice. It's always good to hear tips from a medical science student.