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*Everything HPAT and Medicine 2013*
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Hello am in a very similar predicament to yourself. Am 10 points off Galway
I got offered Pharmacy in Trinity. To be honest I don't know what to do either... I heard a couple of pages back think it was pg 2 that you can take biomed as a premed year but I don't think it's true.
First question are you sure you really want medicine or are you doing it because of your sister?
Secondly do you really want to put yourself through another year of the Leaving?
And Finally if you do biomed would you be able to pay the fees if you switch to med?
Personally I would take the year out to study for the HPAT. That 's what I think I'm going to do . Hope this helped
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Hermione Granger wrote: »Hello am in a very similar predicament to yourself. Am 10 points off Galway I got offered Pharmacy in Trinity. To be honest I don't know what to do either... I heard a couple of pages back think it was pg 2 that you can take biomed as a premed year but I don't think it's true.
First question are you sure you really want medicine or are you doing it because of your sister?
Secondly do you really want to put yourself through another year of the Leaving?
And Finally if you do biomed would you be able to pay the fees if you switch to med?
Personally I would take the year out to study for the HPAT. That 's what I think I'm going to do . Hope this helped
Hard luck, it really is a horrible place to be
To answer your questions, yes I want to do Med because it's all I have ever wanted to do! The fact that my sister is in it just furthers my ambition to join her, it's a fantastic career, who wouldn't want it!
No, I do not want to do the LC again, it will take huge stamina to repeat it. Unfortunately, I may not have a choice.
And finally, fees aren't a problem at the mo, whatever way I can get in I will!
Would you not consider taking pharmacy aswell as repeating the hpat? 0 -
Inspired171 wrote: »Hard luck, it really is a horrible place to be
To answer your questions, yes I want to do Med because it's all I have ever wanted to do! The fact that my sister is in it just furthers my ambition to join her, it's a fantastic career, who wouldn't want it!
No, I do not want to do the LC again, it will take huge stamina to repeat it. Unfortunately, I may not have a choice.
And finally, fees aren't a problem at the mo, whatever way I can get in I will!
Would you not consider taking pharmacy aswell as repeating the hpat?
Well to be honest I had pharmacy no. 6 after the 5 med courses. I had dentistry no. 7 . If I got dentistry I would have taken it but I just made the wrong decision on the 31st of June. I can't afford to pay the fees if I change to medicine from pharmacy or anything else so its just tough luck.
Did you do any prep courses for the HPAT ?0 -
Hermione Granger wrote: »Inspired171 wrote: »Hard luck, it really is a horrible place to be
To answer your questions, yes I want to do Med because it's all I have ever wanted to do! The fact that my sister is in it just furthers my ambition to join her, it's a fantastic career, who wouldn't want it!
No, I do not want to do the LC again, it will take huge stamina to repeat it. Unfortunately, I may not have a choice.
And finally, fees aren't a problem at the mo, whatever way I can get in I will!
Would you not consider taking pharmacy aswell as repeating the hpat?
Well to be honest I had pharmacy no. 6 after the 5 med courses. I had dentistry no. 7 . If I got dentistry I would have taken it but I just made the wrong decision on the 31st of June. I can't afford to pay the fees if I change to medicine from pharmacy or anything else so its just tough luck.
Did you do any prep courses for the HPAT ?
Aw I get you Ya i did, ********? Not sure if you're allowed mention it on here! Gonna do it again for this year I reckon! You? 0 -
Join Date:Posts: 25770
Inspired171 wrote: »Aw I get you Ya i did, ********? Not sure if you're allowed mention it on here! Gonna do it again for this year I reckon! You?
No, you're not allowed and any more posts about it will be deleted.0 -
Inspired171 wrote: »Aw I get you Ya i did, ********? Not sure if you're allowed mention it on here! Gonna do it again for this year I reckon! You?
Same on both accounts ... If your a total optimist (which I'm not) at least we 'll get the return students discount
Thought the HPAT would get cancelled for this year after all the previous controversy .. Anyone want to start a petition ????0 -
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Word of advice to anyone interested in Medicine for next year - make sure you apply to Queens In Belfast through UCAS. I did just encase I didn't get Dublin and I'm so happy I did!
You'll need to draw up a personal statement, submit your JC results (you'll need 8/9 A's at least) and take the UKCAT (HPAT equivalent although not weighed as strongly as the HPAT). If you score high enough you'll be invited for interview, score well in them and you get a conditional offer and if you meet the conditions (5A1's including Chemistry and Biology) you'll get Med! Sounds a lot more difficult but I got into Medicine this way as I only got an average HPAT so hopefully some of you will too:)
I just came here to post about the UKCAT! I'm going to be sitting it in September/October but haven't started practicing for it at all.
Is it too late to do well enough to be in contention with other UK candidates? I've been focusing more on the HPAT and I see that they're aren't as similar as I had believed. Also, how did you practice for it?
I feel like I'm going blind into this, so any help would be appreciated. 0 -
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I just came here to post about the UKCAT! I'm going to be sitting it in September/October but haven't started practicing for it at all.
Is it too late to do well enough to be in contention with other UK candidates? I've been focusing more on the HPAT and I see that they're aren't as similar as I had believed. Also, how did you practice for it?
I feel like I'm going blind into this, so any help would be appreciated.
Don't worry, I pretty much turned up on the day and sat it so you'll be fine I only did it as a back up to med in Ireland. I know that there are some books you can buy to prepare from book stores and on the internet and there are also practice tests you can download. Obviously, the more prepared you feel the more confident you will be going into the exam so I'd advise you to make use of these tools and just be familiar with doing the test on the computer and with the exam structure in general. But I have to admit that I started preparing a few weeks beforehand and it went fine:)
Once you get over 600 which is the average mark (900 being the max) this is an acceptable score. In general, your UKCAT score will determine whether or not you get an interview, but details on how strongly each university weighs the UKCAT can be found on the UCAS website. I'd advise you to do the UKCAT in September or as early as possible so you can begin focusing on your personal statement which is very important.
Any other questions feel free to ask but I would DEFINITELY recommend applying through UCAS as long as you are willing to put in the work. The HPAT is ridiculous as it is weighed to strongly and anything could go wrong on the day!
Best of luck with everything 0 -
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Don't worry, I pretty much turned up on the day and sat it so you'll be fine I only did it as a back up to med in Ireland. I know that there are some books you can buy to prepare from book stores and on the internet and there are also practice tests you can download. Obviously, the more prepared you feel the more confident you will be going into the exam so I'd advise you to make use of these tools and just be familiar with doing the test on the computer and with the exam structure in general. But I have to admit that I started preparing a few weeks beforehand and it went fine:)
Once you get over 600 which is the average mark (900 being the max) this is an acceptable score. In general, your UKCAT score will determine whether or not you get an interview, but details on how strongly each university weighs the UKCAT can be found on the UCAS website. I'd advise you to do the UKCAT in September or as early as possible so you can begin focusing on your personal statement which is very important.
Any other questions feel free to ask but I would DEFINITELY recommend applying through UCAS as long as you are willing to put in the work. The HPAT is ridiculous as it is weighed to strongly and anything could go wrong on the day!
Best of luck with everything
You hadn't done much prep and you still got in? Do you mind me asking what your score was?
Thanks for the advice!0 -
You hadn't done much prep and you still got in? Do you mind me asking what your score was?
Thanks for the advice!
It was something like 620 i think! Most people get between 500 and 700. But for a higher score I would definitely recommend putting in the work since the UKCAT can be pretty important for getting interviews.
Also make sure you research how each University selects applicants for interview as it is pretty difficult to know which ones to apply to!
I found this like very helpful in seeing how each University weighed the UKCAT.http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/UKCAT 0 -
It was something like 620 i think! Most people get between 500 and 700. But for a higher score I would definitely recommend putting in the work since the UKCAT can be pretty important for getting interviews.
Also make sure you research how each University selects applicants for interview as it is pretty difficult to know which ones to apply to!
I found this like very helpful in seeing how each University weighed the UKCAT.http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/UKCAT
Thanks! So, for Queens you have to be in the top 500 candidates rather than getting a certain score?
Also, what's the 'personal statement' about? 0 -
Thanks! So, for Queens you have to be in the top 500 candidates rather than getting a certain score?
Also, what's the 'personal statement' about?
No probs! They give points to potential applicants based on their JC results and on their UKCAT score. For the JC results they award 4 marks for each A, two for a B etc. Your UKCAT is awarded a certain amount of points out of 6 depending on which band you fall under. The top 500 candidates are then invited for interview. So you can see that for Queens in particular having a good JC is way more important than having a good UKCAT!
It's basically like an essay you have to write about yourself telling the University how you would be suitable for the course you are applying to! There's some great guidelines on the UCAS website .. http://www.ucas.ac.uk/students/applying/howtoapply/personalstatement/
It takes into account work experience, part time jobs, extra curricular activities and school responsibilities but to name a few!
It is so much more work than the CAO but I would seriously recommend it!:)0 -
No probs! They give points to potential applicants based on their JC results and on their UKCAT score. For the JC results they award 4 marks for each A, two for a B etc. Your UKCAT is awarded a certain amount of points out of 6 depending on which band you fall under. The top 500 candidates are then invited for interview. So you can see that for Queens in particular having a good JC is way more important than having a good UKCAT!
It's basically like an essay you have to write about yourself telling the University how you would be suitable for the course you are applying to! There's some great guidelines on the UCAS website .. http://www.ucas.ac.uk/students/applying/howtoapply/personalstatement/
It takes into account work experience, part time jobs, extra curricular activities and school responsibilities but to name a few!
It is so much more work than the CAO but I would seriously recommend it!:)
Oh wow! So the JC was important after all.. that's 40 odd points under my belt already, whew.. I'm shocked that the UKCAT is only worth 6 points, that's certainly some stress alleviated!
I'm a bit worried about the statement now though, as I have very little work experience and I've never had a part time job! Perhaps it's time to start looking about one for the Halloween break..
Thanks so much for all your help! Really appreciated.
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Oh wow! So the JC was important after all.. that's 40 odd points under my belt already, whew.. I'm shocked that the UKCAT is only worth 6 points, that's certainly some stress alleviated!
I'm a bit worried about the statement now though, as I have very little work experience and I've never had a part time job! Perhaps it's time to start looking about one for the Halloween break..
Thanks so much for all your help! Really appreciated.
In my experience Queens do not take the personal statement into great consideration however you will be asked about the info on your personal statement at interview so it is important.
Yes, I'd definitely advise some form of work experience, obviously if you could get into a hospital that would be a great advantage!
No probs, hope everything goes well!:)0 -
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Join Date:Posts: 25770
Does anyone know of helpful books for the hpat? I got 176 last year but fell down a bit in section 1. If anyone knew of books or podcasts that were useful for revision, that would be great
I'm not trying to be smart, but you really need to learn how to do some research yourself. Your first post and you ask a question you could have googled?
There is a search function on these forums and a number of search engines available, all of which work.
Here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=20559562080 -
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I'm the same, I'm going to do HHandD in Trinity and hoping to repeat the hpat next year. I'm 7 off Galway this year but I don't think it'll go up by more than 5 in 2013.Inspired171 wrote: »Okay I have been torturing my family, bf, etc. with my dilemma but you guys are going through the same thing so maybe you have some advice
Aiming for medicine, my sister is in 3rd med in UCD. I just did the leaving (for the first time), got 580 points, including the bonus maths points. Got 169 in the HPAT, 67th percentile. This leaves me with 725 in total, 12 points off gtown.
My options are:
1. to repeat both leaving and hpat, in the hope that I can push my 4 a2s to a1s, and increase my hpat score by 15+.
2. To take my 6th choice (Biomed in UCD) and repeat the HPAT, hoping to God I can come up by, like, 20 points.
3. To take a year out and just concentrate on HPAT prep.
Has anyone been/ is anyone in a similar situation? If I was nowhere near getting it, I would just take my other choice and forget medicine. It's because I'm so near that I feel like I should keep trying.
Is it possible to go up by alot of points in the 2nd HPAT attempt?
Is there any point repeating for 9 measly points in the LC?
Should I take Biomed to heck?!
Any suggestions/advice/testimonials/ similar stories would be so so much appreciated!!
I considered repeating but as I did pass maths I could only go up a maximum of 8 points. Aside from the cost of changing courses I think that it is worth your while doing another course and repeating the hpat as at least then, if worst comes to worst and you don't get med next year, you'll be doing a course that puts you in a great place to do graduate medicine.
Also it seems that most people do go up in the hpat he second time around so as long as you keep practising this year there should be no reason you couldn't be doing medicine in 2013 0 -
That's not very far or nice.. The reason we ask questions is because some people have done it and succeeded and we would like to know if you know any good books which ones are good which ones aren't! The whole reason for this thread is to help each other out.. Do you not think we've ask google already?? There's hindereds of books and courses and the likes we want to know what's best! We only have a few months.. A little patients and kindness would go a long way....Does anyone know of helpful books for the hpat? I got 176 last year but fell down a bit in section 1. If anyone knew of books or podcasts that were useful for revision, that would be great
I'm not trying to be smart, but you really need to learn how to do some research yourself. Your first post and you ask a question you could have googled?
There is a search function on these forums and a number of search engines available, all of which work.
Here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=20559562080 -
Does anyone know of helpful books for the hpat? I got 176 last year but fell down a bit in section 1. If anyone knew of books or podcasts that were useful for revision, that would be great
For what it's worth, I didn't find the official practice tests from the website to be very useful. They were all I used last year for the exam, and they obviously give a flavour of what the exam is like, but I found the questions in the real HPAT more difficult. I can't really offer much other advice on books, etc. Anything I used when repeating this year was through a HPAT course, which was really expensive but I found it helpful so I guess it paid off for me, because my HPAT improved a lot the second time round.
That's how it worked out for me anyway, but bear in mind that you might find the total opposite! :P0 -
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Closet Monkey wrote: »Hey, guys. I'd like to ask again if anyone wants to do the Med*Entry course with me because no one has replied to my post and I've sent a PM to all the posts about Med*Entry yet only one person replied saying they have already registered. Why do the people wanting to do Med*Entry bother posting here if they aren't going to reply to the people that will kindly do it with them?
A lot of them might have already signed up. 0 -
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Does anyone know of helpful books for the hpat? I got 176 last year but fell down a bit in section 1. If anyone knew of books or podcasts that were useful for revision, that would be great
Hey jess, i went from 174 to 192 - with the following changes:
S1 53 to 65
S2 58 to 50
S3 64 to 76
S1 - Do shed loads of practise questions, the more the merrier. In your mind always be trying to create a portfolio of all the different question types. Figure out which question types you are good at, and which you are bad at. Spend the bulk of your time analysing q's you got wrong or took a long time to do, and come up with strategies to do them faster/better.
Did you run out of time on 1st attempt at hpat in s1? Get better at knowing which questions to skip and come back to. 1st time round I ran out of time, 2nd time round I skipped 3-4 questions and came back to them at the end and this pays off.
I also have a theory that I applied this year that you should do the last 10 questions of section 1 and 3 first, as these will be statistically more poorly answered (the average hpatter goes in numerical order and has to rush the last few q's). I think the last 10 q's will give you more marks than the first 10 since question scores are weighted by how many people get them right/wrong. Just a theory though, impossible to prove/disprove but to me it makes logical sense.
Some key skills off the top of my head: Truth/False logic, reading different types of graphs, Speed reading (while still comprehending deeply, no easy task.. needs tons of work), statistics (barely featured this year, luckily for me),
S2 - I dropped 8 marks, not my forte! section 2 was seriously tough this year. I don't think the study I did for section 2 really helped, I don't think m3dentry and ACER are on the same page in how they mark this section so go with instinct.
S3 - All about strategy. Be able to weed out obvious wrong answers, and for the really hard questions you should still only be guessing between 1-3 options. Do as many abstract problem types as humanly possible - this is where m3dentry shines, they have an endless fountain of section 3 questions.
General advice:
- ALWAYS time yourself doing practise exams and don't let yourself go a single minute over. It's the only way to improve timing per question which is absolutely crucial to scoring highly. By the time the hpat came around I didn't even need to look at my watch more than 2-3 times because the pacing per question was built into me.
- Don't pay much attention to percentile scores given by prep courses. Not everyone is going to keep to the time allowed and this distorts their scores hugely. M3dentry predicted I would be in the 50-60th percentile in the hpat, I ended up in 92nd percentile.0 -
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Hey jess, i went from 174 to 192 - with the following changes:
S1 53 to 65
S2 58 to 50
S3 64 to 76
S1 - Do shed loads of practise questions, the more the merrier. In your mind always be trying to create a portfolio of all the different question types. Figure out which question types you are good at, and which you are bad at. Spend the bulk of your time analysing q's you got wrong or took a long time to do, and come up with strategies to do them faster/better.
Did you run out of time on 1st attempt at hpat in s1? Get better at knowing which questions to skip and come back to. 1st time round I ran out of time, 2nd time round I skipped 3-4 questions and came back to them at the end and this pays off.
I also have a theory that I applied this year that you should do the last 10 questions of section 1 and 3 first, as these will be statistically more poorly answered (the average hpatter goes in numerical order and has to rush the last few q's). I think the last 10 q's will give you more marks than the first 10 since question scores are weighted by how many people get them right/wrong. Just a theory though, impossible to prove/disprove but to me it makes logical sense.
Some key skills off the top of my head: Truth/False logic, reading different types of graphs, Speed reading (while still comprehending deeply, no easy task.. needs tons of work), statistics (barely featured this year, luckily for me),
S2 - I dropped 8 marks, not my forte! section 2 was seriously tough this year. I don't think the study I did for section 2 really helped, I don't think m3dentry and ACER are on the same page in how they mark this section so go with instinct.
S3 - All about strategy. Be able to weed out obvious wrong answers, and for the really hard questions you should still only be guessing between 1-3 options. Do as many abstract problem types as humanly possible - this is where m3dentry shines, they have an endless fountain of section 3 questions.
General advice:
- ALWAYS time yourself doing practise exams and don't let yourself go a single minute over. It's the only way to improve timing per question which is absolutely crucial to scoring highly. By the time the hpat came around I didn't even need to look at my watch more than 2-3 times because the pacing per question was built into me.
- Don't pay much attention to percentile scores given by prep courses. Not everyone is going to keep to the time allowed and this distorts their scores hugely. M3dentry predicted I would be in the 50-60th percentile in the hpat, I ended up in 92nd percentile.
Great advice, thanks a lot!
I found what you said about the last ten questions very interesting, I think it's also a strategy that I might adopt. 0 -
@hollingr
Thank you so so much. Its so nice you took the time to share all your little tips I really appreciate it. I think learning lists of vocab and synonyms really helped me with section 2, which was my best but section 1 let me down so I'll certainly be applying your methods next year.
Best of luck with it all.0 -
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Hey guyss
ermm i was just wondering if u can do medicine after studying science(4yrs) in TCD/UCD...if so, then do i have to spend 5 more yrs in medicine??
thannks a lot
you can go graduate entry and do the gamsats (4 intensive years)
or go mature entry/undergrad entry (5 years, you should qualify to skip premed)0 -
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Just did my first prep exam, 17/42 for section 3.. wasn't expecting anything that low, I feel a little disheartened now.
Anyone have any tips for bringing your score up for that one?
Practise makes perfect, and section 3 is definitely the most study friendly section so don't worry at all. Prep exam scores are pretty irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. I got some 30th percentile and some 100th percentile scores along the way.
Focus on techniques like the 3/2 rule and familiarise yourself with all the question types, going over the ones you get wrong most. Know the patterns revolving around angles of 45,90,135,180,270,360, common object movement patterns in polygons from triangles all the way up to octagons, clockwise then anticlockwise movements, colour change patterns, etc etc..
The most important thing is to learn from each question you got wrong. Analyse the pattern in the ones you couldn't figure out so that the common patterns become more obvious to you as time goes on0 -
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ChemHickey wrote: »I did not understand what you just said... :L ********? hmmmmm....
med'entry is the eight letter asterix because it is filtered 0 -
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