Hey ^_^ I'm currently working at a speech pathologist now haha, this year will be my 3 year post uni from usyd LOL
I went to look for my old thread where I posted my experiences in regards to speech path, and ill copy and paste it below for you in case it's of relevance! The only math you'd probably be doing is statistics, whereby in 1st year uni you do the basics and in 3rd year you do 1 semester of it lol. The exam was just multiple choice back when i did it in 2012 from memory hahaha, or like 'fill in the blank'. But they walk you through it anyway so you don't need to worry if you just study the notes/textbook.
Working as a speech pathologist now is fulfilling hahaha, but not gonna lie I didn't graduate from uni without crying at least once LOL! It was not a breeze, but it's definitely not impossible to complete
. The course emcompasses both 'sciencey' and 'englishy' subjects - so be prepared to learn all about the human body/brain and essay writing haha!
My post below was back from like 2013 hahaha, but I hope it helps ^_^ let me know if you have any other specific questions
!!
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Heeeey
I just graduated from speech path last year. Yeah its like what the above posts say: pretty much half sciencey (not just hsc science, I mean like neurology, anatomy, dysphagia [swallowing] etc) and half Englishy (like language, stuttering, phonological speech errors etc.). But both science and englishy subjects overlap all the time e.g. 'aphasia'. You also have random but important subjects too like ethics, statistics, psychology, counselling
Ummm regarding the down-side of speech path is............ CLINICAL PLACEMENTS. LOOOL there's so much paperwork and it is VERY VERY STRESSFUL ASK ANYONE THEY WILL SAY THE SAME THING UNLESS THEY'RE JUST AWESOME !! But don't worry, YOU WILL GET THROUGH IT!!!
I've read up about them but it would be great to hear from someone taking a speech path course as to how they find the course, what the subjects are and how they're finding them and even what clinic prac is like and the main aspects of the course- a breakdown really.
Okay so now to your actual question:
Q1. How I found the course: Initially I was excited about going to uni, but I soon realised it was pretty much like highschool because the Cumberland campus is so small and looks like a highschool hehe
! In terms of the actual course, I personally found it demanding academically and emotionally. At the end of 4th year, our whole grade had to write a "metaphor" to describe what the course was like... what we came up with was along the lines of "having a baby without an epidural injection. But afterwards you just forget about it all cuz you're just so happy to have your child" (Can't remember the exact metaphor but it was something along those lines!). Additionally, we started off with around 120 students, but only 50 something graduated (and only 1 male graduated in 2012 lol). First year was a pain because you had long hours at uni, sometimes 8am starts and you'd finish at 6pm too at times. As the years go by, you'd have less work academically but more clinical placements. Make the most of your breaks in 1st year to "hang out" with your friends, because in 2-4th year your breaks would consist of doing group assignments and clinical paperwork
Q2. What the subjects are: Alot lol! I think I covered this in a previous post *tries to find it*. Okay found it, basically if you're interested you can google these terms: phonology, semantics, syntax, morphology, dysarthria, dysphagia, dysphonia, apraxia of speech, stuttering, aphasia, pragmatics, phonetics, linguistics, phonological awareness.
Q3. How did I find the academic subjects? For anatomy and neurology subjects try not to cram it in for the exam. Also, you need to know your cranial nerves for life, but you'll know them off by heart by 3rd year. For the other subjects such as stuttering I found them not too bad. Some group assignments were a pain though =/ LOL! I think the hardest subject in my opinion was voice (dysphonia) cuz it was quite "abstract" and neurogenic communication disorders (both learnt in 3rd year).
Q4. What clinical prac is like?
Second year: You have your first clinical placement in 2nd year and you will be split into two groups. One group will start off with a 'preschool' placement where you have to find your own preschool and go there once a week for 12 weeks to 'observe' typically developing kids and run language activities. In the second group, you will have a 4th year mentor and you will be basically providing therapy to a real client at the university clinic. Intially, the 4th year will do everything, but as the weeks go by you will eventually run the sessions on your own (don't worry it's more scary for the 4th year student
lololol). In terms of clinical paperwork, you will be writing up session plans. When I was in 2nd year, my session plans were around 14 pages long; BUT THANKFULLY they cut that all out now. You'd probably be writing around 4 pages max for session plans (Note: this is different for off-campus placements where session plans can get up to 20 pages....no idea why LOL).
Third year: You'll have the following
1. weekly school placement with peers
2. weekly adult placement (either stuttering OR a stroke placement at St Josephs Hospital) with a partner (have your own individual client and group sessions)
3. assessment clinic where you will be administering language assessments on 1 child with a partner
4. neuro block (4 days a week for 4 weeks) e.g. at a hospital
5. viva: you're in a group of 4 and you need to plan an assessment for a hypothetical child. Then you will be interviewed by the clinical educators who will ask you random questions and you need to role-play (you need to pass this to move onto 4th year)
Fourth year:
1. on-campus placement (1st semester): (a) you will mentor a 2nd year and have your own individual client, (b) you'll have another client for diagnostic clinic, (c) you have 1 session of voice placement at the children's hospital, (d) weekly school placement. You might have an additional university clinic client if something happens.
2. off-campus placement (2nd semester): (a) 4 days a week for 6 weeks for paediatric placement, (b) 4 days a week for 6 weeks for adult placement. Note: some peers might have 3 days a week for 8 weeks, so it depends on what placement you get.
I think that's it unless I missed something!!!
Q5. main aspects of the course- I think I covered that above
Do you know where the main focus is within the course, as in is it more science or English based? I study a lot of the humanities subjects and do find that side of things interesting, but I also take bio and chem so hopefully both aspects are part of the cours
You'll be fine. I also did bio and chem in highschool lololol! And yeah that's good you like humanities, you'll love the essays then
hehehe!!
Is there are great deal of ATAR movement around the health science courses from year to year, they seem to be trending upward, is this type of course increasing in popularity?
Yep, when I finished highschool (2008) the cut-off for speech path was 87.45 (UAI though, so probably an atar of like 89?). But the last time I checked the ATAR for speech path was like 93 or 96 or something (2012)?????? It's probably cuz no-one is applying for pharmacy anymore
AHAHAHHA (since chemist warehouse killed all the jobs lol). But it's VERY hard to find a speech path government job, just saying lol.
If you have any other questions just post them up
Last edited by me-mfhs; 13 May 2013 at 9:50 PM.
