Everything HPAT and Medicine 2012

hollingr · 26-02-2012 5:38pm

leavingcert. wrote: »

What sun? :L ... i have to say i wasnt at all stressed about it.... at the end of the day your gonna get what your gonna get.... I really can't see how people can "study" for it but i spose you can practice... but really every question is different! If i do well I will definitely be proof it can't be studied for! Would love some ice cream actually! :P

brought my pup out on dun laoghaire pier this morning, was warm even in just a t-shirt, very sunny! spring has definitely sprung.

As for practising - some people don't need to, and will get very high scores regardless, you getting a high score doesn't prove anything except that the test suits you! I know a girl who got 240+ last year, she just did the official practise tests. I also know of people that went from 60th percentile to 100th percentile with hard work and training in s1 and s3. There are a limited amount of question types they can ask and familiarity does help.

You can improve by practising and from personal experience - many questions that came up in the test were very, very similar to material I had seen before in practise tests, meaning I could answer them much faster. This is only applicable to s1 and s3 in my opinion.

FairytaleGirl · 26-02-2012 6:31pm

Mature Entry Candidate here (24 not tooo old!)

Was my first HPAT, i had the two past papers but that was all.

Section 1 was my most difficult - but i struggle with maths anyway. the lights question was awfully complicated - so i skipped it and then had to mark random answers because i ran out of time. I thought the smoking/blood pressure fine, the table had all the info you needed.

I have a degree in English Literature so I flew through section 2 with 20 mins to spare. Although I did have to re read the David/Andrew section - and the stalker one - i changed my answer about her towel from 'wanting to punish him by being flippant' to 'realising she was losing the argument'... Still dunno which was right!!

Section 3 was way harder than anything in the practice tests, there were a few i had to guess - and alot didnt seem to have any trends etc. I specifically remember struggling with the last few - the stars one.

Guess i found it ok - dont know if it was just because im older - but i felt alot of the people at my centre (blackrock) were ... perhaps not ready for medicine. They not only had parents in tow - but couldnt read simple instructions about where they were supposed to be!! In the test centre when their ticket clearly said Oratory etc..

hollingr · 26-02-2012 6:58pm

the stars one ans was A, or at least I found a pattern that matched that.

one dot went from apex to apex one step at a time - when it reached the next apex it bounced back along the connecting line. the other dot did the same, but it moved two spaces each time. so the ans had both dots in the same place (lower middle).

nothing wrong with a bit of moral support from parents, such a high stakes test which can ultimately decide the path your life is a lot of pressure to place on a 17-18 yr old.

don't judge the youngin's too harshly!

jenny18 · 26-02-2012 7:11pm

Stalin and rugby wrote: »

I think what he means is that the marking scheme is manipulated in order to get a certain percentile curve. If too many people did well in section 2, more marks would go to section 1 etc.... Besides nobody can really tell how anything works since it's so secretive

its based on percentiles doesn't matter what people get you get get more than 100% that's impossible. someone has to get in the 100th percentile per section same as overall. they all get equal marks.

partyatmygaff · 26-02-2012 7:27pm

jenny18 wrote: »

its based on percentiles doesn't matter what people get you get get more than 100% that's impossible. someone has to get in the 100th percentile per section same as overall. they all get equal marks.

No they don't.

The way it appears to work is as follows:

ACER assigns an unweighted mark to each question at first (Taking any trial questions out of the equation). This would be around 2.25 for Section 1 in the event that there were no trial questions.
ACER reads all the OMR scripts and stores each candidate's answers on a computer. It marks each answer given as correct or incorrect.
The number of people who got each question correct are counted and a marking scheme is generated with the weighting being inversely proportional to the number of people who got the question correct. For example, if only ten people got a particular question correct that question could be assigned a weighting of 5 whereas if nearly the entire cohort got another question correct it could be assigned a much lower weighting such as 0.25. I would assume questions would be weighted relative to questions from the same section and not the test overall.
They assign marks to each question, total each section and round to the nearest integer.
They add the marks obtained in each section for each candidate and form a percentile curve based on the overall score.

That's my understanding of it from what i've read about the Australian UMAT. ACER obviously will never openly discuss their methods but from the little they divulge about the test, the best explanation I can come up with is the above.

jenny18 · 26-02-2012 7:29pm

hollingr wrote: »

brought my pup out on dun laoghaire pier this morning, was warm even in just a t-shirt, very sunny! spring has definitely sprung.

As for practising - some people don't need to, and will get very high scores regardless, you getting a high score doesn't prove anything except that the test suits you! I know a girl who got 240+ last year, she just did the official practise tests. I also know of people that went from 60th percentile to 100th percentile with hard work and training in s1 and s3. There are a limited amount of question types they can ask and familiarity does help.

You can improve by practising and from personal experience - many questions that came up in the test were very, very similar to material I had seen before in practise tests, meaning I could answer them much faster. This is only applicable to s1 and s3 in my opinion.

that girl was lying highest last year was 242 gotten by a mature student who did med entry and that was amazing highest year before was 224

hollingr · 26-02-2012 10:33pm

If you look at the graph 242 is not the maximum score. (year before max score was 224 as you say, but highest number on graph is 223).

You are basing your assumption on what you were told by the med ent people; they base their assumptions on feedback from their own students, since they only have the same data as us for everyone else. They said 242 was the highest, but this is only the highest among med entry cohorts. They only have information from what past pupils tell them and the same graph we do.

The girl I am talking about got 78, 99 and 66 respectively adding up to 243. She did a career services day course, one of their prep tests, and the two official ones. She is now studying in trinity and was also a mature student.

Also - if you look at the past results graphs it clearly states 100 is the maximum score for each section. Section 1 had a lot of sneaky, deceptive questions and more traps than people are recognising. Even though it seemed like a 'short' section 1 and a lot of people didn't have to 'guess' any questions, they may be in for shock when they get their results. If section 1 is as tight as it seems to be with everyone scoring very highly, all it takes is 4 or 5 wrong answers with an extremely high weight to drop a lot of points, so don't count your chickens just yet.. it's all down to the weighting, which will always be manipulated to fit the bell curve for scores and S curve for percentiles, keeping the vast majority within the same ball park scores as last years cohorts.

there really is no point in speculating..

finality · 26-02-2012 11:04pm

FairytaleGirl wrote: »

Mature Entry Candidate here (24 not tooo old!)

Was my first HPAT, i had the two past papers but that was all.

Section 1 was my most difficult - but i struggle with maths anyway. the lights question was awfully complicated - so i skipped it and then had to mark random answers because i ran out of time. I thought the smoking/blood pressure fine, the table had all the info you needed.

I have a degree in English Literature so I flew through section 2 with 20 mins to spare. Although I did have to re read the David/Andrew section - and the stalker one - i changed my answer about her towel from 'wanting to punish him by being flippant' to 'realising she was losing the argument'... Still dunno which was right!!

Section 3 was way harder than anything in the practice tests, there were a few i had to guess - and alot didnt seem to have any trends etc. I specifically remember struggling with the last few - the stars one.

Guess i found it ok - dont know if it was just because im older - but i felt alot of the people at my centre (blackrock) were ... perhaps not ready for medicine. They not only had parents in tow - but couldnt read simple instructions about where they were supposed to be!! In the test centre when their ticket clearly said Oratory etc..

in the towel question I said she realised the relationship had changed - at the end she said something about how the records of the phone calls would have been proof for her, I don't think she was being flippant, she was being quite serious about the whole thing...don't think she thought she was losing either, she was sticking to her guns. :P

There were parents still in the queue with people at the center in cork! They actually had to ask the parents to leave as they were holding up the queue. I was pretty surprised at that too, and I'm barely 18. Don't know about them being in the wrong test centre though, for a lot of them it could've been their first time there so I wouldn't blame them for not knowing where everything was.

Ally7 · 26-02-2012 11:27pm

i was in Cork too and my Mom was with me, I was fairly nervous and because I wouldn't be too familiar with UCC she said she would come with me. PLus, I'm only just 17, still a babby

jenny18 · 26-02-2012 11:36pm

hollingr wrote: »

if you look at the graph there is clearly two people in and around 242, with 242 not clearly marked as the maximum, so I don't know on what you are basing your assumption other than what you were told by med ent people and what they know about their own students. They said 242 was the highest but they may just be speculating, as they have no extra information other than what past pupils give them and the official test data.

The girl I am talking about got 78, 99 and 66 respectively adding up to 243. All she did was a career services day course, one of their prep tests, and the two official ones.

nothing to do with what ******* told me the girl who got the highest was on boards said what she got maybe you're right and it was 243 and i looked at hpat. i don't think ******* necessarily helps didn't do it last year got 179 did it this year and found i was more stressed because of it. but the girl who said she got the highest 243 everyone said she was lying as people who where on that forum will remember, and she was a mature student and didn't even get med for whatever reasons i private mailed her asking if she did med-entry as i knew i was going to repeat anyway for medicine, and that is what i was told. but maybe your right anything's possible maybe there was a joint highest i don't know i don't work for acer.

Helloxoxo · 26-02-2012 11:42pm

I think that ******** definitely helps with section 1&3 the ones I had been practising were a lot harder so I found them easy on Saturday! I had seen similar material for section 3 but harder so it was great! But it definitely didn't help my section 2 which was already my weakest section and definitely my weakest on Saturday, I wouldn't be surprised if I got none correct!

finality · 26-02-2012 11:47pm

I love section 2. It just makes sense to me I guess, though I do want to become a psychiatrist so it's probably good if I understand people. :L

Section 3 is the devil. Although I did find it better on Saturday than in the practise test I did! (13/30, disaster :L)

DepoProvera · 27-02-2012 1:39am

finality wrote: »

in the towel question I said she realised the relationship had changed - at the end she said something about how the records of the phone calls would have been proof for her, I don't think she was being flippant, she was being quite serious about the whole thing...don't think she thought she was losing either, she was sticking to her guns. :P

Yeah i said that too, I think the passage made a point about how comfortable with each other they were(him on the toilet, nakedness) so her covering up showed a change?

I hope all these people who are this confident aren't saying so in real life as I remember last year the absolute ridicule these people got.. Always the dark horses

partyatmygaff · 27-02-2012 2:07am

DepoProvera wrote: »

Yeah i said that too, I think the passage made a point about how comfortable with each other they were(him on the toilet, nakedness) so her covering up showed a change?

While i'd agree with you about the "calm and comfortable" bit, I can't say i'd say the same for the towel question.

I don't see how a small argument about how the guy was handling his stalker could have lead to any significant change in the relationship. She appeared concerned for her partner more than anything in the extract. I'd have thought what she did at the end was something of a passive-aggressive reprimand directed at him for whatever he did (I vaguely remember something about deleting recordings?).

Paralysis · 27-02-2012 8:10am

DepoProvera wrote: »

Yeah i said that too, I think the passage made a point about how comfortable with each other they were(him on the toilet, nakedness) so her covering up showed a change?

I hope all these people who are this confident aren't saying so in real life as I remember last year the absolute ridicule these people got.. Always the dark horses

I said a change in their relationship too, as at the beginning of the passage they are very comfortable with each other sharing the bathroom, but by the end she seems to be less comfortable, so grabs the towel

BrendaN_f · 27-02-2012 10:02am

partyatmygaff wrote: »

While i'd agree with you about the "calm and comfortable" bit, I can't say i'd say the same for the towel question.

I don't see how a small argument about how the guy was handling his stalker could have lead to any significant change in the relationship. She appeared concerned for her partner more than anything in the extract. I'd have thought what she did at the end was something of a passive-aggressive reprimand directed at him for whatever he did (I vaguely remember something about deleting recordings?).

i actually got the feeling that she suspected he was covering something of a sexual nature up by deleting all the messages etc. so, i went with the "relationship change" answer as i felt she had some sort of realisation that he had been cheating on her and she became bashful

hollingr · 27-02-2012 11:23am

from the start of the passage she was distrustful of the whole stalker theory (she wished he didn't delete the msgs because she wants proof, and even says that to him) We aren't given any indication that he is lying or delusional, the evidence in the passage leaned more towards stalker being real.

At the end of the passage nothing had really changed in their relationship as far as I could see.. she is still not believing, and he seemed kinda of pissed off about her questioning his reality.

It did seem a lot more tense between them after she questions/confronts him on it though, so maybe that counts as a change in their relationship, who knows. For me the towel thing seemed more like her closing herself away from him after an argument, so I think I chose whatever fit in best with that, but I wouldn't have much confidence in section 2's toughest questions, it always seems more like a healthy combination of instinct and guesswork.

I think the right option was just that it was a really cold day and she wanted a towel to dry herself fast, but for some crazy reason that wasn't one of the options..

partyatmygaff · 27-02-2012 11:57am

I've found the book where the extract was taken from: "Enduring Love" by Bran Nicols.

According to plot summaries I've read... Joe and Clarissa have a "comfortable" relationship that's strained by Joe's stalker Parry and Clarissa's belief that Joe has started to lose his mind.

Overall, although the relationship does appear to change somewhat, I don't think you can say it changed significantly in the extract. She's afraid he's going mad when she says "It may be a symptom rather than a cause" and seems annoyed and frustrated more than anything near the end.

MCQs really aren't the best way to ask questions like these tbh. There's so much ambiguity that it's difficult to conclusively determine the correct answer.

finality · 27-02-2012 12:00pm

I think she was annoyed with him and wanted to sort of close off with him as it was no longer a comfortable situation, I didn't think any of the options really fit it to be honest.

penguin_p · 27-02-2012 7:39pm

when do the results come out?

hollingr · 27-02-2012 8:33pm

Pasted from UCD Booklet on undergraduate entry to medicine:

Date of HPAT-Ireland test

25 Feb, 2012
HPAT-Ireland test result to candidates

25 April, 2012
Collation of HPAT score & leaving results

15 to 20 Aug, 2012 (provisional)
Round 1 CAO offers

20 August, 2012 (provisional)

spots · 28-02-2012 1:11am

All in all its pure and utter luck! It's pathetic really how our future depends on a test that is based on how our peers do. I know I seem like a right cynic but if I have any chance of getting into medicine it will be the hpat that saves me. I've done loads of practice tests including two last friday where I got 244 and 243 (perfect in section 3 may i add) but there are other people from my school who are smarter than me and deserve it more but they just can't get to grips with the hpat. The whole system needs a radical reform! Like when will you need to know anything you learned during Irish or English that you'll use if you're a doctor? We should be picking 3 or 4 subjects that are relevant to what we hope to study in University instead of 7 or more subjects with a stressful aptitude test thrown on top. The quicker those c*nts above in the dept. of education realise that the better!

hollingr · 28-02-2012 3:40pm

spots wrote: »

I've done loads of practice tests including two last friday where I got 244 and 243 (perfect in section 3 may i add)

ehm.. how did you calculate your score exactly? The questions are weighted, you could easily have gotten 150 or 280 after putting your scores through acer's bell curve formula, there is no way of knowing... its how you did compared to everyone else that counts, on a question by question basis.

UnholyGregor · 28-02-2012 11:27pm

i reckon she realised the relationship had changed. she had no problem being naked in front of her husband, then when he reveals that he deleted the messages without letting anyone see them, he suddenly feels tired and wants to go to bed.... seems like hes hiding something. the wife suddenly feels uncomfortable so covers up. i think she suspects somethings going on other than stalking (ie; its a cover up for him cheating) .

partyatmygaff · 28-02-2012 11:44pm

UnholyGregor wrote: »

i reckon she realised the relationship had changed. she had no problem being naked in front of her husband, then when he reveals that he deleted the messages without letting anyone see them, he suddenly feels tired and wants to go to bed.... seems like hes hiding something. the wife suddenly feels uncomfortable so covers up. i think she suspects somethings going on other than stalking (ie; its a cover up for him cheating) .

He's not hiding anything though... according to the book itself, the stalker is real.

UnholyGregor · 28-02-2012 11:46pm

yeah but the book is irrelevant, all that mattes is whats in the extract, and well thats just the feeling i get off it..... the whole atmosphere gets really uncomfortable really fast.

partyatmygaff · 28-02-2012 11:54pm

UnholyGregor wrote: »

yeah but the book is irrelevant, all that mattes is whats in the extract, and well thats just the feeling i get off it..... the whole atmosphere gets really uncomfortable really fast.

I'd have said the atmosphere was getting tense due to her annoyance and frustration at his actions rather than uncomfortable. The thing is, I don't see her suspecting him of cheating. The only thing I saw was her suspecting that he was losing his mind. You wouldn't expect that someone fearing their partner was losing their mind would immediately jump to the conclusion that they were cheating.

I guess it's all open to interpretation... which is ridiculous for an MCQ test.

spots · 29-02-2012 12:22am

I just got the percentage I got right in each section and added them. I know there all weighted and all that comparing buts its probably the closest way any of us can check before the actual thing

Stalin and rugby · 29-02-2012 12:28am

spots wrote: »

I just got the percentage I got right in each section and added them. I know there all weighted and all that comparing buts its probably the closest way any of us can check before the actual thing

Don't tell anyone you did well until you get your results otherwise you'll look like a fool. This isn't something you can accurately or even marginally predict. Just sayin :pac:

leaving cert finished 2k11 · 29-02-2012 12:36am

what did ye guys put down as the answer for the question how would the boss feel towards rob and steve?? this was the extarct where the boss gives a special recognition for one of his two equal employes and the employee being congratulated(rob) points out that his partner deserves recognition also..i was between Rob:grateful,Steven:sympathy or Rob:irritated and Steven:Awkward???

finality · 29-02-2012 1:14am

leaving cert finished 2k11 wrote: »

what did ye guys put down as the answer for the question how would the boss feel towards rob and steve?? this was the extarct where the boss gives a special recognition for one of his two equal employes and the employee being congratulated(rob) points out that his partner deserves recognition also..i was between Rob:grateful,Steven:sympathy or Rob:irritated and Steven:Awkward???

I think I said irritated and awkward, but I don't remember him being called Steven...

hollingr · 29-02-2012 4:33pm

I thought it was mario and luigi, and the boss woman was bowser..

Between grateful and irritated I thought irritated was more likely - He undermined her and made her feel pretty awkward in front of the whole office. She was then forced to make an insincere 'congratulations' to the other guy, while the whole office half-heartedly clapped along.. an over-riding sense of awkwardness and insincerity (they mention that the clapping never reached anywhere near the same heights as for the previous guy). I don't know anyone who would be grateful in these circumstances, it just really didn't fit at all for me, and made me throw that option out.

Between sympathy and awkward, awkward fits better for me - it's not like she forgot to mention him by accident, she had not considered him in the first place. The way things went down, there was no sense of pity for Mario coming from her, just an uncomfortable feeling from the fact that she (and the whole office) had clearly chosen their favourite of the two gunning for promotion. I didn't foresee any sympathy coming his way any time soon (it seemed like everyone thought the best guy was getting the props), but I could definitely see boss lady being lost for words in his presence i.e. awkkkkkkwaaaaaarrdddd

So, I went with irritated & awkward. It was definitely not a perfect answer but for me, it was the best of a bad bunch.

Also small piece of advice.. there isn't really much point in replaying questions over and over again in your head at this stage - we aren't going to get any solid answers or solutions to particular questions - not now, not when we get our results, not ever.

Best thing you can do is forget about the exam entirely and focus on other things!

nomnomnomnom · 01-03-2012 11:43am

Did people go up or down from the their mocks test last year does anybody know?

EwEw · 01-03-2012 6:32pm

Stalin and rugby wrote: »

Don't tell anyone you did well until you get your results otherwise you'll look like a fool. This isn't something you can accurately or even marginally predict. Just sayin :pac:

Isn't it actually impossible to "predict" how you did in it before you get the results? First of all, you can't remember all of the questions and your answers to them to be able to guess which answers could have been right.
I think it's pointless now, all we can do is wait for the results =]

hollingr · 01-03-2012 7:24pm

even if you had your scoresheet in front you now with answers marked right and wrong you still couldn't accurately predict your results.

(unless of course you got 100% in a section, or did really, really terribly!

spots · 04-03-2012 2:19am

Look, I know people are on about it being 'impossible' to predict results but I'm sure most of you have done some sort of practice test. Last year I got 211 after getting around 200 in mock ones (yes this is my second hpat), so it does give you a fair idea. I know a few other people who got around the same in the real thing as they did in the mock. Now I believe in kind of 'getting what your deserve' which proved last year where I did decent in the hpat but didnt follow through in the leaving cert (got 505). So its simple, if u did do enough practice for the hpat you will be grand, same with the leaving cert! And does anyone know how many applied for medicine this year?

hollingr · 04-03-2012 11:49am

Were they different tests each year? If you're repeating the same mock tests you did last year I think it's pretty safe to say your results will go up if you do it again this year...

At the high end of results it will match pretty accurately since you're getting pretty much everything right - but each few q's you get wrong makes it more and more like a lottery - you might be good at the type of q's the average person is terrible at, meaning you get high points; even though you got the same amount of q's wrong as someone else your score could be very different - simple as that.

Since you're already in the 200+ range (especially if you are doing honours maths) all you have to do is nail a few A's down, regardless of your hpat score this year. No wonder you're so cocky..

Definitely agree about practise though - I think lots of very smart kids assume they don't need to study much for the hpat and buy into ACER's "you can't study for this test" line, and then get caught off guard and achieve mediocre scores in the HPAT (this is what acer want, it makes it easier for them to get a bell curve). I'm also a repeat student and I am very confident I will improve from last year mostly due to the huge amount of prep work I did this year.

Stalin and rugby · 04-03-2012 1:25pm

So many repeat students and grads going for medicine, how are we 16 year olds supposed to compete?

This thread makes me feel dumb :rolleyes:

drbtrenier · 04-03-2012 6:21pm

Stalin and rugby wrote: »

So many repeat students and grads going for medicine, how are we 16 year olds supposed to compete?

This thread makes me feel dumb :rolleyes:

I know how you feel, I'm only just gone 17! But hey, think about it, (no disrespect meant to repeat students by the way, you obviously want medicine badly enough to go through the horror of 6th year again!) they obviously needed to repeat for some reason, which means that they didn't succeed in lc or hpat last year... Maybe we'll be the lucky ones who'll get it first time round! Don't let it get you down or annoy you, that sort of attitude isn't gonna help come June, you've gotta believe you can do it. Chin up!

finality · 04-03-2012 6:57pm

hollingr wrote: »

Definitely agree about practise though - I think lots of very smart kids assume they don't need to study much for the hpat

That was my strategy. I hope it pays off, come April. :L

spots · 04-03-2012 7:25pm

I did 4 mocks tests and 2 were the same as last year, i know i seem cocky but i like to see it as confident, confidence helps big time as I'm sure you'd know if you're repeating. Where are you applying to??

hollingr · 04-03-2012 11:30pm

finality - don't be disheartened by what I said, I think in many cases your delicious spongey brains and high points in L.C are enough!

I just feel sorry for the few 600 pointers that bought the hook of "you can't study for hpat" and don't get in as a result, it's really unfair on them considering they deserve to get in 1st time round.

I'm a mature student spots, tcd ucd and rcsi are my possibilities.. I'm stuck with 545 after adding on the extra hons maths bonus points this year so I need an exceptional hpat to get in as an undergrad - realistically I am gunning for one of 15 mature student places in each college.. :S

finality · 05-03-2012 12:16am

hollingr wrote: »

finality - don't be disheartened by what I said, I think in many cases your delicious spongey brains and high points in L.C are enough!

I just feel sorry for the few 600 pointers that bought the hook of "you can't study for hpat" and don't get in as a result, it's really unfair on them considering they deserve to get in 1st time round.

I'm a mature student spots, tcd ucd and rcsi are my possibilities.. I'm stuck with 545 after adding on the extra hons maths bonus points this year so I need an exceptional hpat to get in as an undergrad - realistically I am gunning for one of 15 mature student places in each college.. :S

I think the thing is that I'm not really too bothered whether I get medicine or not as I'll probably go to the uk even if I do. That lessens motivation a little. :L
I've done loads of aptitude tests in the past though, like the DATs and mensa's IQ tests, that probably counts as practise. I'm telling myself that anyway!

Actually aren't the bonus points for maths going to make the hpat matter more? As people with 520ish are now brought up to the point where the points start to be levelled off.

hollingr · 05-03-2012 12:18am

as someone with 520 points, i certainly hope so.

I've been waiting about 7 years for extra points in honours maths so hopefully they work to my advantage at long last.

spasmaster · 06-03-2012 6:55pm

does anyone know the amount of people aplying this year for medicine and what does everyone think about the pionts rising by 10 as they do every year (not counting the 5 for maths) ?

hollingr · 06-03-2012 11:23pm

Well the best way I can think of to get an answer to that is to find out how many people sat the hpat, since they are the only ones eligible to apply for medicine as undergraduates.

Unlikely ACER would be willing to part with such information, given their secretive smokescreen and veils mentality.. although no harm in asking? If you have the patience of a saint you can find out off the graphs how many people sat hpat each year (I assume this years graph will appear sometime after the results come out end of april)

Don't think there is much too point speculating until the graphs for hpat are out, by comparing between years it's a good rough guide to how the hpat scores will affect medicine entry points.

Just looking at the 25 extra points thrown in for honours maths - it will certainly contribute in a small way to increased points - A certain subset of people are put into contention for places.

The deficit in points between someone with 550 and 525 used to be 25 points. Someone with 525 would need 25 points higher in the hpat than the average hpat score which got into medicine. That's like going from 80th percentile to 95th percentile+.

Assuming they both get A1's in honours maths the deficit is now 5 points (555 vs 550). Now they are looking at 3-4 percentile in the difference - much more achievable.

However, how many people will actually fit into this category? Not many. Keep in mind how many people get A1's in honours maths - less than 1-2% (I think). Now, how many of those are in the 520 range and will actually need the extra 25 points to push themselves into contention? (hint: very small number). Not exactly earth shattering figures. Of course even b's and c's in honours maths are going to make a difference, but remeber the 25 is added to the MATHS score not total score, so if you go from b to c to d the effect gets weakened significantly.

So, as you can see it really is very difficult to come up with accurate figures for the time being. Concentrate on getting over 550 points or as close to that as you can, and you will be in a position to contend. Right now that is the one guarantee you can give yourself and far more important than speculating on things you cannot control or measure accurately.

spasmaster · 07-03-2012 8:43pm

What does everyone think of this April 25 test score release date. Why did they do it and how it may effect you. Eg if you get under 180 will you take medicine off your CAO.

QueenOfLeon · 07-03-2012 8:49pm

spasmaster wrote: »

What does everyone think of this April 25 test score release date. Why did they do it and how it may effect you. Eg if you get under 180 will you take medicine off your CAO.

Well the results were always released before the CAO closing date. This is the first time they're released before the Leaving Cert.

spasmaster · 07-03-2012 8:52pm

And do people think there hpat results will effect there lc performance.

finality · 07-03-2012 10:42pm

spasmaster wrote: »

What does everyone think of this April 25 test score release date. Why did they do it and how it may effect you. Eg if you get under 180 will you take medicine off your CAO.

If I do terribly I probably will take medicine off my cao, no point having it there if I haven't a hope in hell. :P

*Everything HPAT and Medicine 2012*

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Everything HPAT and Medicine 2012