HPAT preparation - when to start?

dublin1212

Hi everyone, I'm new here but wondering what's the best time to start preparing for HPAT?
What's the best time to take the courses and practice exams?

My daughter who is interested in doing medicine is going into 3rd yr, this year bring her junior cert exams I'm not sure if she should think about HPAT but then if her longer term goal is medicine, she needs to start putting the efforts, i don't want her to take so much pressure as well and then burn out when the time comes.

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated.

Psychologeeee

I did the LC the year the HPAT came in, and we prepared from about Oct/Nov onwards. It wouldn't be any harm at all to buy a set of practice papers (if they do those still!) and let her have a look. Maybe even to demystify it a bit. 15 mins a week would be perfect at this stage!

alexandrrax7

Eh?She still has about 4 years left, do you realise that her mind would probably change until then?I changed my mind from medicine to law to business and back to law...
Anyway, the summer before sixth year would be fine.Or even octomber-nov (that's when I started too) sixth year.

Ponguin

Just after doing the leaving and hpat this year :P I literally started some mild hpat prep Nov/December of last year and still managed to end up with the 96th %ile (without a course!) I think your daughter will be fine, don't push her too hard.

em0192

Ponguin wrote: »

Just after doing the leaving and hpat this year :P I literally started some mild hpat prep Nov/December of last year and still managed to end up with the 96th %ile (without a course!) I think your daughter will be fine, don't push her too hard.

I'm with Ponguin on this one, I started doing a few exams around the exact same time ( Nov of 6th year) and achieved 97th percentile ! If your daughter starts any kind of HPAT prep now she will 100% be sick of it by the time the exam comes around , it can get very draining I think!

dublin1212

Thank you all for you replies, so how did you find HPAT exam??

Good luck with CAO offers tomorrow..

randylonghorn

dublin1212 wrote: »

My daughter who is interested in doing medicine is going into 3rd yr, this year bring her junior cert exams I'm not sure if she should think about HPAT ...

I had to read that twice before I was sure you hadn't written a 3 instead of a 5!

I'm not sure whether it's your daughter or yourself who are so driven (or both), but yes, the very fact that you're asking this question at this stage would have the "potential burnout" red light flashing in my brain!

Forget about HPAT for the moment, and encourage her to study for her JC while still keeping a good balance between study / sleep / exercise / social.

Actually, if she could learn THAT skill ... to keep a good life balance ... this year, you have no idea how well it will serve her not only for LC but if she does indeed pursue medicine in college!!

Ponguin

em0192 wrote: »

97th percentile !

Now that's just showing off :P

dublin1212

Thanks !! I understand what you are saying there but wanted to validate my thinking so thanks for all the replies.

jeonahr

I'm going into 5th year and am interested in medicine as well. Hoping to know where the best learning resources are