* Everything HPAT and Medicine for 2011 *

partyatmygaff

AdamD wrote: »

Then Chemistry and Maths should not receive the same amount of points

Why not? Chemistry may have been easy for me but for others Chemistry was nothing short of a nightmare. The only reason I spent so much time on Maths was because we were never taught the subject properly. Effectively for Maths I had to teach myself the entire course on my own time whereas I had an excellent teacher for Chemistry. Maths is no more difficult than any other subject, it's the extremely poor teaching of Maths that gives the exam such a bad reputation. Take Complex Numbers for example. Our teacher spent a week talking about De Moivre's Theorem and finding the roots of a complex number. She gave us a formula and told us to memorise it with a step by step tutorial as to how to use the formula in questions. A completely ineffective method of teaching Maths. I never understood the formula and as such never bothered to memorise it. Instead I went looking on the internet for the method. All it took for me to understand was a simple image and a caption saying "There are n equally spaced roots of Complex Number: [LATEX]Z^n[/LATEX]"

AdamD wrote: »

They don't have to study honors maths. Last time I checked you will still be able to get into medicine with a good LC and HPAT, you wont need 625 points. The people who put the extra effort into Maths, rather than a subject like Chemistry which seemingly takes a lot less effort, will be rewarded for it.

I'd much rather a Doctor to have an aptitude for Chemistry rather than Maths. Knowing how to find the area under an arbitrary curve won't be of much use to a Doctor.

randylonghorn

Pugzilla wrote: »

Randy and I were going off topic, leave us be.

You know something, you're right, and thank you for pulling me up before the anal-retentive academic in me started rooting through my bookshelves!

I have copied out a few of the relevant posts and moved them to this thread in Psychology; I would imagine there might be a few people over there from all schools of thought happy to discuss it with you.

You'll forgive me if I bow out; it's a bit of an old chestnut for me and I'm not that interested in discussing it yet again, and CERTAINLY not in this thread which it's driving more and more off-topic (and I accept my own share of the responsibility for that!)

Sunny!!

does any one have a spare hpat booklet 2 rather than waiting for it to come from australia for 2 weeks? pm if you do. tks in advance:)

Joeyjoejoe83

partyatmygaff wrote: »

AdamD wrote: »

Then Chemistry and Maths should not receive the same amount of points

Why not? Chemistry may have been easy for me but for others Chemistry was nothing short of a nightmare. The only reason I spent so much time on Maths was because we were never taught the subject properly. Effectively for Maths I had to teach myself the entire course on my own time whereas I had an excellent teacher for Chemistry. Maths is no more difficult than any other subject, it's the extremely poor teaching of Maths that gives the exam such a bad reputation. Take Complex Numbers for example. Our teacher spent a week talking about De Moivre's Theorem and finding the roots of a complex number. She gave us a formula and told us to memorise it with a step by step tutorial as to how to use the formula in questions. A completely ineffective method of teaching Maths. I never understood the formula and as such never bothered to memorise it. Instead I went looking on the internet for the method. All it took for me to understand was a simple image and a caption saying "There are n equally spaced roots of Complex Number: [LATEX]Z^n[/LATEX]"

AdamD wrote: »

They don't have to study honors maths. Last time I checked you will still be able to get into medicine with a good LC and HPAT, you wont need 625 points. The people who put the extra effort into Maths, rather than a subject like Chemistry which seemingly takes a lot less effort, will be rewarded for it.

I'd much rather a Doctor to have an aptitude for Chemistry rather than Maths. Knowing how to find the area under an arbitrary curve won't be of much use to a Doctor.

Yeah but precision is required in areas like anesthetics, where proper calculations are required, some strong math skills would be important when administering drugs.

YodaBoy

so what did everyone put down after medicine??

I've Human Health and Disease in Trinity, partially because I find it interesting, patially because it's a good option if I find myself doing GEM.

Jaafa

various biomedical courses mainly.

partyatmygaff

Joeyjoejoe83 wrote: »

Yeah but precision is required in areas like anesthetics, where proper calculations are required, some strong math skills would be important when administering drugs.

Chemistry style mathematics (Aka basic arithmetic and basic algebra) is learned well before 2nd year. There is very little (If anything) on the HL Maths course that would be of benefit to a Doctor.

partyatmygaff

After Medicine i've put down three Pharmacy courses, TCD Medicinal Chemistry, UCD Science, TCD Engineering, NUIM Pharmaceutical Chemistry.

BrendaN_f

after medicine i have

dentistry (tcd and ucc)
pharmacy (tcd)
radiation therapy (tcd)
human health and disease (tcd)
biomedical science (nuig)
science (ucd)

YodaBoy

partyatmygaff wrote: »

After Medicine i've put down three Pharmacy courses, TCD Medicinal Chemistry, UCD Science, TCD Engineering, NUIM Pharmaceutical Chemistry.

nice sneaking in engineering in the middle of scientific and medicinal courses..?

partyatmygaff

YodaBoy wrote: »

nice sneaking in engineering in the middle of scientific and medicinal courses..?

The odd one out

jumpguy

I've Science Choice in UL after all my medicines. Although if I don't get medicine, I'll most likely repeat.

YodaBoy

partyatmygaff wrote: »

The odd one out

Well heres hoping you don't have to look that far down your CAO come August!

Personally, I'd rather not meeting you in Medicinal Chemistry! Nothing personal, but that'd mark a disasterous LC if I went down to No.8..:P

YodaBoy

jumpguy wrote: »

I've Science Choice in UL after all my medicines. Although if I don't get medicine, I'll most likely repeat.

An option I don't want to consider but really might have to!!!

partyatmygaff

YodaBoy wrote: »

Well heres hoping you don't have to look that far down your CAO come August!

Personally, I'd rather not meeting you in Medicinal Chemistry! Nothing personal, but that'd mark a disasterous LC if I went down to No.8..:P

I'd rather meet you at registration for Medicine

MedMan101

how many places exactly are there for medicine this year? i tried to work it out myself but i couldnt find numbers for UCC and RCSI. Its about 360 not including them two colleges.

Bbbbolger

Im not completely sure but I remember hearing the figure 620 at an open day?

Jaafa

Roughly 550 I believe.

YodaBoy

Jaafa wrote: »

Roughly 550 I believe.

I heard it was 600 at TCD open day and there are more in Galway this year apparently.

How many people have applied??

partyatmygaff

YodaBoy wrote: »

I heard it was 600 at TCD open day and there are more in Galway this year apparently.

How many people have applied??

3,591 people have Medicine down as a first preference.

Only 16.7% or so of them will actually get an offer for Medicine if there are indeed only 600 available spaces.

YodaBoy

partyatmygaff wrote: »

3,591 people have Medicine down as a first preference.

Only 16.7% or so of them will actually get an offer for Medicine if there are indeed only 600 available spaces.

I don't like my chances! That's like 1 in 6??!

partyatmygaff

YodaBoy wrote: »

I don't like my chances! That's like 1 in 6??!

It's best to say que sera, sera.

jumpguy

YodaBoy wrote: »

I don't like my chances! That's like 1 in 6??!

Well, if medicine was picking random names out of a hat of people who applied, yes. :P

YodaBoy

jumpguy wrote: »

YodaBoy wrote: »

I don't like my chances! That's like 1 in 6??!

Well, if medicine was picking random names out of a hat of people who applied, yes. :P

Isn't that the basis of the hpat? :P
Not complaining though, my name came out of that hat luckily . can't say the LC went so well...

irishsprout

hoping 744 is enough for trinity next year, if not, ah well, anywhere's good

salbal

got 181, which is great seeing as i felt like it went horribly on the day,590 in my mocks so hoping for in and around 570-590 in real thing, really wana do med in dublin but id take galway or cork, any chances?

MedMan101

Just wondering if I get medicine, would I better off doing pre-med or should I go straight into 1st med? Has anyone gone straight into 1st med and how did you find it? Would it be better to take a year out doing pre-med or what?

what.to.do

From what I know of this, which isn't much, to be honest, pre-med is a kind of cover of all the sciences, an introduction.

I've a few friends doing it now, but none of them did Biology so thats why they chose to do it.

A lot of people that don't have chemistry or biology seem to do it.

QueenOfLeon

MedMan101 wrote: »

Just wondering if I get medicine, would I better off doing pre-med or should I go straight into 1st med? Has anyone gone straight into 1st med and how did you find it? Would it be better to take a year out doing pre-med or what?

I'd highly recommend premed, its a brilliant year to get into the swing of college, theres a lot to get used to if you've never lived away from home before and its just amazing to get to know everybody and have a real social life before the actual work starts. Most people that skip premed are internationals or those who've done a year of college already and have reapplied. Some of the LC's who went straight into first med found it quite tough and most dropped back into premed within the first few weeks.

Work wise, its nice and handy, I had done bio and chem before but the biology course was a lot different, chemistry was similiar to LC. In saying that, I can only speak for one college, and I have heard of premed being tougher in some places, and first med being easier, so the transition isn't as bad. The year absolutely flies though and it doesn't feel like you're spending a year sitting on your ass doing nothing! Well worth it

YodaBoy

irishsprout wrote: »

hoping 744 is enough for trinity next year, if not, ah well, anywhere's good

If 744 doesn't get trinity then we're all royally screwed!!! It was only 731 last year if my memory serves me...

I'm just hoping for 725 (730max) to get into where ever I can!! A 540 LC should get me there but I really made a mess of at least 3 exams and A1s will be hard to come by

Please don't say you're predicting the points to go up THAT much, or else I'm off to science or some such!