k..i have a question (1 Viewer)

[fashionista]

rite..with the umat and the interview thingo..i rang up the medical-entrance guy and he sed that u should have lots of community service experience under your belt...like..salvos, etc etc...did anyone get into med here without all that prior experience?..i mean in the interview do they really ask u all that stuff? wut DO they ask u?? and the guy sed that sum pple start training with him for the umat like from yr 10!!! sud i be worried now?

 

[scandal]

YEAR 10 - no way thats amazing - dont be worried about it yet - take one thing at a time

I didnt have a lot of community work behind me - im not invlved in any youth groups or young vinnies etc but i have done charity work and work experience at a doctors surgery. The interviewers said tere is no right or wrong answer - its not all about charity work its about you as a whole - hence the use of three things, the UAI, interview and UMAT - to determine entrance - good luck

 

[inasero]

well, dont try to portray yourself as someone you are not...
in short, the worst thing you could try to do is anticipate what kinda questions they are going to ask you and fabricate some stories...what I have found from personal experience (4 interviews) is that if you go int here relaxed and act "naturally" then you are more likely to be able to hold a conversation, as opposed to acting pretentiously.

but just to allay your concerns, they didnt ask me whether i had done community service- they were thinking more along the lines of "well i know you can study, but what else can you do?". It kinda seems selfish just to do community serivce for the sake of succeeding in an interview, rather, shouldn't it be out of a deep desire to help others?

 

[Fosweb]

It kinda seems selfish just to do community serivce for the sake of succeeding in an interview, rather, shouldn't it be out of a deep desire to help others?

Right On!
They want the kinds of people who are willing to go out of their way to do things for others. Not someone who has done it for the sake of a med interview. And they will be able to tell the difference.

 

[fashionista]

thats wut i was thinking!! the guy scared tha babebus outta me..im like community work??? kids who start training from yr 10???? man..thanx u guys..guess i shud jus focus on gettin a gr8 uai this yr huh??
thanx heaps!!

 

[Fosweb]

Um... You should do work experience still.

You will need good UMAT to get an interview at UNSW/Newcastle. You wont get a look in for an interview if you dont have good UMAT.

Your interview will be better if you _are_ the kind of person who has gone out of their way to get experience, to make sure med is what they want, and has done community service.

 

[inasero]

yeah do worek experience...that way you will be able to show the interviewers that you understand what a medical career entails

 

[fashionista]

i did work experience at a hospital ....man it was gr8!!!!! i got to do all this stuff like dress this amputee's wounds....it was more nursing but hey..still fun!

 

[Ziff]

Can you take the UMAT just for fun?

 

[fashionista]

ummmm sure!! Y not???tats only if u wanna blow $120 on a test for fun yeh go for it ..k i cant find a smilie wit one eyebrow raised so jus pretend its there

 

[inasero]

yeah you could...i knwo someone who did it just to see how he would fare against other people...

but then again he's from scots college so i guess he can afford it, otherwise dont waste your money

 

[freaking_out]

Originally posted by Ziff
Can you take the UMAT just for fun?

Yeah, do it- but i wouldn't spend $100 and actually sit for it- why don't u buy a practice paper and do it- waay cheaper.

 

[Lexicographer]

You can't buy sample papers because ACER doesn't release any.

 

[freaking_out]

Originally posted by Lexicographer
You can't buy sample papers because ACER doesn't release any.

well, i heard that those training courses give ya practice questions- so yeah, might wanna buy those notes.

 

[AK Gumbi]

Yeah work experience and community service is definately good...but if u dont do any it doesn't mean that u wont get in- i know 2 ppl who didnt do community work, etc and got in...but then again they got 99.8 and 100.00...hmmm so i guess they dont really count.
But in my UNSW and UQ interviews, they asked me about my community work and work experience...but in my Monash interview they didnt ask any of that and i had to sqeeze in my work experience in one of the Qs.
But its not so much about how many uv done, but the experiences uv had in them. A person who has done community work in 1 place and can describe it really well, is better off than a person who has done community work in 10 places, and cant describe their experiences there. But as it has been said before by inasero and Fosweb, u should do community work for the sake of helping ppl, and not for a Med interview.

 

[inasero]

i did work experience at a hospital ....man it was gr8!!!!! i got to do all this stuff like dress this amputee's wounds....it was more nursing but hey..still fun!

make sure you have a good reason for WHY you would prefer to do medicine over nursing in university.

 

[freaking_out]

Originally posted by inasero
make sure you have a good reason for WHY you would prefer to do medicine over nursing in university.

what sorta reasons is there?

 

[inasero]

well, "being a nurse is like being forever trapped as an intern student". They get the short end of the stick from their medical superiors and from patients.

As a nurse you don't get to make the diagnosis of the patient- thats for the physician to decide. You'll be limited in the number of procedures you can undertake, so in a sense nursing is a less specialised career and encompasses a broader field orf responsibilities.

You may prefer to do medicine over nursing or social science because of better working conditions and better salary, although in my opinion money shouldn't be the primary consideration.

 

[freaking_out]

so if u get asked that (why do u wannna b a doc. instead of a nurse?) in an interview- how would u answer it?

 

[Lexicographer]

Don't tell them - they need to know for themselves.