EVERYTHING about HPAT and getting medicine

OxfordComma

Anne-Marie!! wrote: »

Found something about the garda clearance thats needed for medicine....its up on the NUIG website for orientation for 1st years that:

College of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences Note:

Garda Clearance: Garda Clearance is a requirement to enter all undergraduate degrees in the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences. Students will be advised of the procedures at their Orientation on Saturday September 12th.

What exactly is it, does anyone know?

Hmm... Maybe you can't do medicine if you have a criminal record or something? I've heard about the whole garda clearance thing, but I'm not sure what's involved!

ZorbaTehZ

Anne-Marie!! wrote: »

Found something about the garda clearance thats needed for medicine....its up on the NUIG website for orientation for 1st years that:

College of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences Note:

Garda Clearance: Garda Clearance is a requirement to enter all undergraduate degrees in the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences. Students will be advised of the procedures at their Orientation on Saturday September 12th.

What exactly is it, does anyone know?

In the envelope (read: gigantic package) you get from NUIG after accepting your offer, you'll get the "Garda clearance sheet" - all the info. will be included there on what to do with it.

Blur

I'm pretty sure I'll just do the pre-med anyway despite having two sciences already.I really want a nice year to get used to college life without the pressures.

I'm all for a boardsie meet up by the way!

I think the 10 lads or so from my school who were going for med didn't get it or are going somewhere else so I'll probably just have a few acquaintances in there from other schools..

Aoibheann

JSK 252 wrote: »

I have heard the complete opposite about the place and peoples sentiments were proven true when I went up to the open day in January. I wasnt majorly impressed. I suppose a med degree is a med degree but the place is looked down upon.

JSK 252 wrote: »

See my above post.

Having experienced the college for a decent spell firsthand myself, I'd like to think I know it well enough to make the comments I made and I stick by them. You may not have had a great experience, but the open day can't possibly give nearly enough insight into what the course is like, what the lecturers are like and what the people are like. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and while I learned that medicine isn't right for me (at least right now, it's too huge a commitment), I would recommend RCSI to anyone and I am happy to give anyone information on the course if they're interested. The structure of the course is done well IMO and it's not a heavy workload hours-wise, but you do need to put the work in yourself!

And the place is definitely not looked down upon!

Also, congrats to everyone on getting medicine. I sincerely hope you all enjoy the course.. and med students are generally the crazy ones so you'll have a good time - just make sure you leave some time for study..

drrkpd

Aoibheann wrote: »

Having experienced the college for a decent spell firsthand myself, I'd like to think I know it well enough to make the comments I made and I stick by them. You may not have had a great experience, but the open day can't possibly give nearly enough insight into what the course is like, what the lecturers are like and what the people are like. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and while I learned that medicine isn't right for me (at least right now, it's too huge a commitment), I would recommend RCSI to anyone and I am happy to give anyone information on the course if they're interested. The structure of the course is done well IMO and it's not a heavy workload hours-wise, but you do need to put the work in yourself!

And the place is definitely not looked down upon!

Also, congrats to everyone on getting medicine. I sincerely hope you all enjoy the course.. and med students are generally the crazy ones so you'll have a good time - just make sure you leave some time for study..

I totally agree with this honest post and it is a reminder to all that Medicine is NOT for everyone and you can be very happy and not do medicine!! Also you need to work hard but if you enjoy it it passes quickly with your class-mates. And delighted RCSI gets a good and truthful review!!

randylonghorn

Anne-Marie!! wrote: »

College of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences Note:

Garda Clearance: Garda Clearance is a requirement to enter all undergraduate degrees in the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences. Students will be advised of the procedures at their Orientation on Saturday September 12th.

What exactly is it, does anyone know?

Garda clearance (mainly to work with children / young people) is a pre-requisite these days for a lot of professions including social workers, doctors, etc. ... for reasons I'm sure you can imagine!

It's really just a formality for the vast majority of peoeple, esp. at the age that most people enter college.

Some info here ...

rgnmb

You complete a Garda vetting form:

Declare your full name, previous name if any, alias, DOB, your current and all previous addresses, PPS No.

Sign a declaration that you have not changed your name.

Asked have you any previous criminal convictions, with exception of traffic offences. If you have any convictions you declare the charge, outcome, court.

Sign a declaration to allow GVU to disclose any convictions to the head of college/deputy.

This is sent to Garda Vetting Unit for processing. Must be back before you enter a clinical environment.

In relation to all this, Med students (and nurses etc.) will receive a health and vaccination history document to be completed by their own GP, not the college Doctor. Its basically a medical. You will have to provide evidence of past Varicella (chicken pox) infection or vaccination, a BCG (for TB, leaves scars on arm, normally left upper, your GP will check for this) and MMR (checked on bloods). If you haven't been vaccinated against Hepatitis B (usually only healthcare workers and patients at risk) you will have to get this done once you go to college, the college Doctor normally does this (at your expense). Your GP will also be asked to take a sample to blood to check for previous Hepatitis B & C exposure (HBSAg and Hep C Core).

All this will come in the pack. Get it done early! :pac:

Anyone heading to UCC?

rois!

I got Med in Trinity....so excited

All i need now is to be accepted to Halls and the icing is officially on the cake...

Carsinian Thau

ZorbaTehZ wrote: »

In the envelope (read: gigantic package) you get from NUIG after accepting your offer, you'll get the "Garda clearance sheet" - all the info. will be included there on what to do with it.

Be sure to read this fully.

I filled mine up in a hurry (only got it a few minutes before I completed registration, long story) and where it asked about any criminal charges being brought against me, I ticked yes instead of no. I corrected it in time but having to scribble on the form and tick yes with a larger than necessary mark, must have caused the people in the office to think that I was incredibly stupid.

A Neurotic

rois! wrote: »

I got Med in Trinity....so excited

All i need now is to be accepted to Halls and the icing is officially on the cake...

Finally, another Trinityhead! You rock! :pac:

A Neurotic

Does anyone feel all that sympathetic for her? Obviously it's hard luck on her that the system changed at a time that didn't suit her, but her claim that ordinary level Maths severely hurt her HPAT performance was completely ridiculous. She said that "her friend who did HL Maths found the HPAT much easier as 2 of the 3 sections are Maths based."

Such lies. Typical of the Independent to publish such a tabloid, emotive, foundless piece of crap article.

Malmedicine

JSK 252 wrote: »

Each to their own I suppose! My friend told me of how felipe conteponi got a med degree from RCSI while holding down a place in the leinster rugby team panel! I was like they must have been easy on him!

I have also heard stuff of how their exams are marked easier. Especially for MCQs with no negative marking. Could be hearsay but I have heard friends of friends who have said it.

I didn't go there but but from the guys I know they love surgeons and the teaching seems to be top notch especially in the clinical years. As regards the MCQ's some UCD Medical Modules have no negative marking (its supposedly to uninhibit ppl scared of writing an answer their fairly sure of . . . feck it its to help girls supposedly because they dont guess)

BTW if any one plays rugby and is going to UCD P.M me I'm involved with one of the Medical Rugby Teams based there and we would always welcome new members. To everyone else congrats except if you got Trinity

A Neurotic

Malmedicine wrote: »

I didn't go there but but from the guys I know they love surgeons and the teaching seems to be top notch especially in the clinical years. As regards the MCQ's some UCD Medical Modules have no negative marking (its supposedly to uninhibit ppl scared of writing an answer their fairly sure of . . . feck it its to help girls supposedly because they dont guess)

BTW if any one plays rugby and is going to UCD P.M me I'm involved with one of the Medical Rugby Teams based there and we would always welcome new members. To everyone else congrats except if you got Trinity

Now that was just uncalled for

ZorbaTehZ

A Neurotic wrote: »

Does anyone feel all that sympathetic for her? Obviously it's hard luck on her that the system changed at a time that didn't suit her, but her claim that ordinary level Maths severely hurt her HPAT performance was completely ridiculous. She said that "her friend who did HL Maths found the HPAT much easier as 2 of the 3 sections are Maths based."

Such lies. Typical of the Independent to publish such a tabloid, emotive, foundless piece of crap article.

Mmm, I was reading that wondering wtf she was talking about...
Actually it must have been those pesky integration and vectors questions that got her... :rolleyes:

DrIndy

Please all join the gang in biology/Medicine now that you are in!

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=392

We hope to get a subforum going for undergraduates where you will all feel extra home!

drrkpd

Expert warns medicine exam could face court challenge


http://www.independent.ie/education/latest-news/expert-warns-medicine-exam-could-face-court-challenge-1862301.html


Aptitude test violates our policy on fairness and social mobility

http://www.independent.ie/education/latest-news/aptitude-test-violates-our-policy-on-fairness-and-social-mobility-1862302.html

and

High scorers signing up to try again

http://www.independent.ie/education/latest-news/high-scorers-signing-up-to-try-again-1862201.html

!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Neurotic

drrkpd wrote: »

Three Irish Independent links

"An Australian-based company, ozimed.com, which provides preparation courses in Australia, the UK and Ireland, insists HPAT preparation does work and it has helped hundreds of students enter graduate medicine programmes."

How surprising, a company providing HPAT prep courses insists that they help. The Indo is really going all out here against the HPAT, it's quite surprising - I've known it was a tabloid in disguise for years now, but I always thought it had just a tad more objectivity than the fully blown tabloids.

xxcocochanelxx

Was thinking of doing the HPAT next year...can somebody tell me what does the test involve? What are the questions like etc? I just did the leaving and am taking a year out cos i dont have a cluuue what to do with my life! So will I have to do the leaving again this year or can my points from this year be taken? (550) thanks:)

drrkpd

Welcome for more men doing medicine


http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0818/1224252774788.html


!!!!!!!!!!

OxfordComma

drrkpd wrote: »

Expert warns medicine exam could face court challenge


http://www.independent.ie/education/latest-news/expert-warns-medicine-exam-could-face-court-challenge-1862301.html

This article is horribly biased. They don't even bother giving any statistical evidence that these prep courses actually improve results at all. Didn't the Institute say the average HPAT score its students got was around 150? Same as the rest of the country then. :rolleyes: And by definition, a test that measures your aptitude for something won't be any easier if you've prepared. You can't "learn" how to spot patterns, identify human emotions or draw conclusions from vague reams of data. Funny that the people trying to sell HPAT prep courses are the only ones claiming they work :rolleyes:

And cocochanel, your points can be reused for next year, as far as I know (although I'm open to correction on this one).

slemons

Legal challenge against HPAT?
Isnt that a bit of a joke?

Its the same exam for everyone.
Plus doesnt it show the ability of someone to react to something new? And react to pressure?

Surely they're attributes a doctor would need in abundance?

Its tough not getting in. But at the end of the day, its the same exams for everyone...

Piste

xxcocochanelxx wrote: »

Was thinking of doing the HPAT next year...can somebody tell me what does the test involve? What are the questions like etc? I just did the leaving and am taking a year out cos i dont have a cluuue what to do with my life! So will I have to do the leaving again this year or can my points from this year be taken? (550) thanks:)

If I can give you any advice it;s to prepare. Not to take an expensive prep course, you can prepare on your own. For those of you with your fingers hovering over the "quote" button ready to jump down my throat, think of it like this: take sudoku. It tests logic. Now when doing it for the first time some people will be naturally better at it than others, but when people do lots of them they find themselves becoming much faster and better at them. The same can be said of the HPAT, once you get used to the type of questions asked and type of thinking required, you can do it faster. I think many people's problems were not getting the answers wrong, but getting them so slowly that they ran out of time. You can improve on this. In any bookshop you'll find logic and puzzle books which will help you develop your sense of deductive reasoning, if you buy a few of these and practice them throughout the year you will have tuned the type of thinking needed to do well in the HPAT.

drrkpd

And cocochanel, your points can be reused for next year, as far as I know (although I'm open to correction on this one).

Definitely-as long as you satisfy minimum matriculation requirements you can definitely use your points for this years LC or any years!!
The 5 year courses-(UCC,Trinity 5 year only) and NUIG and UCD 5 year have much higher matriculation requirements
See-http://www2.cao.ie/otherinfo/2009UGMedEntry.pdf

reindeerarmy

look this thing about the people getting 600 points and not getting medicine because they did a retarded aptitude just shows that the LC is not a measure of intelligence, granted intelligence does make the exam easier but if you go to a grind school, do nothing but study and have teachers that know how to manipulate the exam you can get a huge result despite being thick.
I have no sympathy for those whingers in the paper that want medicine because they think they are better than everyone else. COURT CASES those pr**ks would want to stop their nonsense and just get on with it like everyone else who didn't get their first choice, which i am not one of woooooooooooooo UL BOY!!!!!

OxfordComma

drrkpd wrote: »

Welcome for more men doing medicine


http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0818/1224252774788.html


!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, come on the lads! :P:P

It'd be interesting to see the percentage of males that scored highly on the aptitude test versus the percentage of females...

I definitely think the gender imbalance in Medicine was something that needed to be sorted out...

drrkpd

1fahy4 wrote: »

Yeah, come on the lads! :P:P

It'd be interesting to see the percentage of males that scored highly on the aptitude test versus the percentage of females...

I definitely think the gender imbalance in Medicine was something that needed to be sorted out...

The reason for the bias was simple- Girls score much higher than boys in LC full stop but especially at 570 and above.
I don't have the exact stats but was at least 60/40 and sometimes for medicine it was as high as 66% female admissions.

There will be no gender bias in hpat- the change in marks for LC over 550 is the reason for the change.

drrkpd

reindeerarmy wrote: »

look this thing about the people getting 600 points and not getting medicine because they did a retarded aptitude just shows that the LC is not a measure of intelligence, granted intelligence does make the exam easier but if you go to a grind school, do nothing but study and have teachers that know how to manipulate the exam you can get a huge result despite being thick.
I have no sympathy for those whingers in the paper that want medicine because they think they are better than everyone else. COURT CASES those pr**ks would want to stop their nonsense and just get on with it like everyone else who didn't get their first choice, which i am not one of woooooooooooooo UL BOY!!!!!

Look it is a new system. Anyone who in the first year of a new system who would have walked into medicine under the old is entitled to feel upset and you do have to feel sorry for them. Especially first time LC students.

What is true though is that the new system means that the proportion of first time LC getting medicine has gone uo a staggering amount- from 59% to 83%. Now I don't know the % of students who are first time or repeats but it certainly must be fairer for all first time LC-male AND female.

rois!

Are people seriously considering repeating the HPAT? its an aptitude test like ur not gonna improve in a year...
i took the HPAT along with my friend and my cousin and one of the girls had taken the course in the Institute and the other did practise in Yeats, i on the other hand did no preparation or practise and i did the best...tbh i think all their practise made them more hyped up and nervouse bout the whole thing and that affected their performance IMO

OxfordComma

Yeah, I really don't see how you're going to improve your score dramatically if you repeat the HPAT... It's not going to get any easier.

Just as a matter of interest, did anyone do a preparation course and feel that it helped them? I didn't do any preparation apart from the sample test. (And haven't studies shown that preparation courses don't actually help?)

dontlikeurmam

The thing that I find funny over the whole Hpat controversy (basically the Irish Independent) is that we've seen a load of people with high LC low Hpat complaing over how unfairly they've been treated, while the obvious statement has never been thrown back at them....maybe your just not suited to Medicine?...is that not what an apptitude test measures?

In all fairness if the apptitude is legit (and why would it not be?) then I defo would not want people below the 50% mark. Just as in the Leaving I don't think people below the 520ish mark wud deal with the sheer amount of detail required to succeed in the course.I was fairly middle of the road in both the LC and HPAT so i do feel kind of impartial between the two tests although maybe i mite have just missed out on med without the HPAT suppose i'll never know.

We haven't heard any high HPATer's complaining about the 'unfair' Leaving Cert?...although that maybe a silly argument to begun with..