*Everything HPAT and Medicine 2013*

nomnomnomnom wrote: »

hi guys , since the points for med jumped up so much this year, do ye expect it to level out next year? go up by a 2 or 3 point increase? or a 9pointer? i expect the huge jumps were as a result of the extra points for maths !

I really hope they don't rise much more! Fingers crossed! Yet knowing my luck.....:rolleyes:

Ok so prepare for a possibly longwinded post. I am really considering applying for medicine next year but I don't know if I'll be able to get the points. After calculating my summer exams I got 515 but we only sat an ordinary French paper and an ordinary chemistry paper and i'd plan on doing both at honours next year, but at the same time I know some of the teachers marked it easy so I don't know what I can expect. If I put in the work I could probably improve on 515 because to be honest Irish is the only subject I really worked on this year and for every other subject I only studied the week before the exams.. and my other problem is the HPAT. I'm baffled about the points in relation to it and the actual leaving cert. And aptitude tests aren't exactly a strong point so I'm probably going to have to work on that.
If it makes any difference or is helpful in any way I'll put a list of the subjects I'm doing here as well. Any help or advice would be gratefully appreciated and thank you and we done if you read through that
Subjects;
Engligh
Irish
Maths
Religion
Chemistry
Biology
French
(I plan to do all honours for now, it probably won't change but would that make much difference?)

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!!

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

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 ?

hey i'm going into leaving cert this year and i want to know where is the best place to do a hpat course in galway?

banana4 wrote: »

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:)

what did you get in your leaving cert?
what's the minimum they accept

0mega wrote: »

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

banana4 wrote: »

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!

banana4 wrote: »

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?

banana4 wrote: »

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.

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