NCEA Level 3 Chemistry is the best thing you can do to prepare yourself for the academic load of your first year. It will give you a good foundation for the CHEM 110.
NCEA Level 2 Biology at a minimum will put you in a good spot for your biology courses. The current Level 3 Biology curriculum focuses are not relevant to the Biology taught in first year but if you enjoy taking it won’t hurt.
NCEA Level 3 Physics, is the best way to prepare for PHYSICS 160 if you intend to enroll in BIOMED; there is a lot of overlap and it will make your year a lot easier. If you’re thinking of enrolling in HLTHSCI Physics isn’t necessary.
The rest is really up to you. Take what you’re interested in, that’s fun and what you enjoy. But you should keep in mind the entry requirements for the first-year courses.
What are the entry requirements for BIOMED and HLTHSCI?
BIOMED Rank Score: 280 (NCEA)
HLTHSCI Rank Score: 250 (NCEA)
“Your rank score is based on your best 80 credits at Level 3 or higher over a maximum of five approved subjects. These credits are then weighted by awarding points based on the level of achievement — Excellence (4 points), Merit (3 points) or Achieved (2 points) — attained in each set of credits.
A maximum of 24 credits are counted for each approved subject. The maximum rank score is 320. Approved subjects are determined by NZQA.
If you achieve less than 80 credits, the rank score will be based on your total Level 3 credits gained over a maximum of five approved subjects and weighted by the level of achievement.
Credits obtained in required subjects do not have to be among the best 80 credits used to calculate the rank score.
You are also required to obtain at least 18 credits each in Table A and Table B. As well as University Entrance requirements.
Should I take the UCAT in high school as a practice for the real thing?
That’s up to you! I did (well I took the UMAT and then I ended up taking the UCAT in my first year) but this was because I was considering studying in Australia. It quite expensive to take the UCAT just for practice but if want to it can’t hurt. Check out my article on the UCAT to help you prepare. Otherwise you can find free practice questions online; you won’t be disadvantaged by not doing a practice UCAT.
What else can I do to prepare?
Develop your communication skills; as a doctor you will have talk to lots of different people you’ve never meet before and be comfortable doing so. Be social during high school and don’t study all the time.
Stay up to date on New Zealand News- health, housing, environment and policy. This will help you out when you interview at the end of first year.
Shadow a doctor. This isn’t to help you prepare; this is more about making sure you actually want to be doctor. This will give you a grasp on the realities of being a doctor.
Lastly enjoy your lasts years at high school. Get involved in all your high school activities and don’t worry too much about preparing for first year as long as you hit the rank score you will be just fine.
As you may already know if you are coming out of college or a gap year and are interested in pursuing a career in Medicine; you have two options for first year programs that can lead into Medicine. At Otago there is only one option the Health Sciences First Year Program. There is no direct entry from high school into Medicine in New Zealand. If you would like to know more about the differences between Otago and Auckland; click here. The two options at Auckland are a Bachelor of Health Science or a Bachelor of Science specializing in Biomedicine.
*Note you can also enter Medicine through a graduate pathway provided you took the prerequisite or recongised equivalents in your previous degree.
See below for information regarding (graduate) entry into Medicine at UoA.
Firstly, I’d like to tackle a common myth. Many students believe that more Biomed students get into Medicine and therefore taking Biomed over Hlthsci gives you an advantage. While it is true that usually more Biomed students are admitted into Medicine than Hlthsci this is actually because more Biomed students apply for Medicine than Hlthsci students. The relative ratios of those that apply and those admitted are the same for either first year program. Now let’s look at the differences between these two programs
Papers
Each semester you will take four papers. It may be possible to take your general education paper during the summer school before you begin but I cannot guarantee this. This would in theory decrease your workload for one of the semesters. If you would like to explore this option, I would recommend you contact a person in the MBChB admission office to see if this is possible.
I’ve linked the descriptions of each paper but if you would like to see more detailed information about Biomed paper head to my ‘Course Specific Advice’. Both courses have the same four core papers but differ in their non-core papers.
Once you’ve had a read about each courses’ papers you should think about your strengths, interests and passed academic history. If you hate physics for example or haven’t taken it in college than you may not want to take Biomed. I recommended that you should have taken at least NCEA Level 2 Physics but preferably Level 3 as well. If not, you may find Physics 160 more difficult than others. If you hate writing assignments/essays, you might want to avoid Hlthsci. Most assessments in Biomed are assessed via tests, exams and laboratories. While Hlthsci is often assessed via assignments and presentations. This is one of the main reasons I chose Biomed over Hlthsci. Additionally, I had more interest in the Biological Science courses than the Population Health courses. You most likely will naturally lean towards one of these programs over the other and for the most part I think you should go with that. However, there are other things to consider.
Firstly, are alternative pathways: After first year Biomed you can apply for the following programs: Bachelor of Medical Imaging (Honours), Bachelor of Medicine & Bachelor of Surgery, Bachelor of Optometry, Bachelor of Nursing and Bachelor of Pharmacy. However, after Hlthsci you can only apply for: Bachelor of Medicine & Bachelor of Surgery and Bachelor of Pharmacy.
Should you not gain entry into your program of choice; what degree would you like to continue? While you can transfer and change majors it can be somewhat of a process so you should consider what you would want to do if you don’t get into Medicine. For me I would have wanted to go into the Biomedical field while some of my friends wanted to go into Health Sciences or Population Health.
What program will you be most successful in should you want to reapply for Medicine as a graduate? This is something I have mixed feelings about. I often hear first years saying things like “If I don’t get in this time, I’ll transfer to arts or teaching and then reapply because these degrees are easier to get As in.” I think this attitude undermines these degrees; no degree is easy and secondly if you have that sort of attitude about hard work, I believe you won’t be successful long term even if you do get into Medicine. That being said you can make strategic choices to aid you in getting the best grades possible. While I believe you should stay in the field you are passionate about presumably biology and the sciences; you can also consider which papers you take and when or if you want to go to summer school so you can decrease your workload during the semester.
Hopefully this information will help you pick the write option for you. Make sure you check out my other articles if you have any other questions.
Congratulations! You’re starting university and that comes with sorting out your timetable. I’m going to go through it as it is for biomed so if you’re taking healthsci feel free to only read the relevant sections.
Semester One:
Once you have received and accepted an offer you will be able to enroll. You will get an email with instructions on how to accept your offer and enroll. Once you’ve accepted your offer; sign in to SSO (Student Services Online) using your UoA credentials and click on the ‘Enroll’ icon. Make sure you start with semester 1. On the left-hand side of the page, click the menu option called ‘Add Classes with’, followed by ‘Timetable Planner’.Click the blue ‘Add Course’ button next to the large Courses heading. Next click the tab that says ‘Search by Cohort’. From the programme drop-down menu select ‘Bachelor of Science (Biomedical Science)’.
If you are taking biomed for first year med entry, the only option you get in terms of the papers you take is your general education paper. If you’re unsure about what general education check out my article under the course advice section.
The drop-down menu will reveal your options for timetabling. Make sure you enroll in a cohort for a professional program; those who are not intending to apply for a program such as medicine are not required to take POPLHLTH 111.
The papers you take in semester 1 are BIOSCI 107, POPLHLTH 111, CHEM 110 and your gen ed.
Due to the size of the cohort biomed is run in two streams; morning and afternoon. These refer to when you attend lectures; every lecture for your three core papers runs twice on the same day; in the morning and afternoon. Remember that if you choose morning stream; your labs for BIOSCI and CHEM and your workshop for POPLHLTH will be in afternoon and vice versa.
Morning Stream
Morning stream has lectures in the morning and labs in the afternoon.
Lectures 9-1pm (9-11am and then 12-1pm in 2019)
Labs 2-5pm
Afternoon Stream
Afternoon stream has labs in the morning and lectures in the afternoon.
Labs 9-12pm
Lectures 12-5pm (12-1pm and 3-5pm)
Which stream you choose is up to you; neither is better; it really depends on personal choice. Morning stream tends to be more popular in general so if you are wanting a spot in morning stream make sure to do your timetable as soon as possible. For each paper you will have 3 lectures a week (Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays).
Things to consider when timetabling:
Lectures: One thing to remember about lectures is that you can ‘stream hop’ but you can’t with labs so it’s more important to think about when you want your labs then lectures.
Breaks: in 2019 the afternoon stream has a two-hour break between lectures whereas the morning stream had a one-hour break between lectures.
Traveling: if you live far away; you don’t want to waste time coming into uni for just a lab so you may want to schedule your labs on the days you have lectures too. You may also want to join the afternoon stream to reduce the amount of early mornings.
Labs and workshops: you will have a CHEM lab, BIO lab and POPLHLTH workshop every two weeks. When it comes to timetabling there will be options to have them all within one week and then have a more relaxed week or have them on alternative weeks to spread out the workload. Another thing to note is that some streams in the morning stream will have labs in the afternoon directly before a test… tests are very often held in the evening.
Meal times: This is most relevant if you live in halls where meal times a pretty set in stone. Breakfast: 7am-9am; Lunch: 11:30am-1:30pm; and Dinner: 5:30pm-7:00pm. While you can order a packed lunch; it’s not the most delicious thing in the world so think about if you will have time to make it back to halls during meal times.
Extracurriculars and work: this is pretty self-explanatory. I worked nights so if I had a late night at work; I didn’t timetable an early morning the next day.
General Education: When your general eductation paper’s contact hours may affect what your timetable will look like. I took PHIL 105G as my gen ed which is designed as a online course or has lectures and tutorials. While I enrolled in contact hours; I decided not to attend these so I didn’t factor this into my timetable.
It’s a lot to think about and a long process but you really want to make sure have a timetable you are happy with and that works with your gen ed.
There options to compare timetables and view them in mor detail. Make sure you look over your desired option to see when all your labs will fall. You won’t know when your tests are but most often they are held in the evenings. For reference mine were held on April 10th, May 10th and May 13th. Hopefully these will be roughly similar to yours but no promises.
Once you’ve found a timetable that suits you and you have added your gen ed you can add this to your enrolment cart.
Okay so this was my timetable for semester 1; I enrolled late because I was travelling when offers came through, so my options were limited but I was pretty happy with it.
I decided to spread my labs and tutorial across the two weeks as I didn’t want to end up having a full-on week and potentially a test on as well. I never attended any of my PHIL related lectures and tutorials as the course can be taken purely online so I decided to leave these days completely free with no labs etc. The afternoon stream worked for me as the two-hour break meant I had time to walk back and get lunch. When I didn’t have a lab/tut I would stream hop to the morning stream. The only thing I didn’t like about my timetable is the 3-5pm lecture stretch. I personally get a really bad 3pm trough as we called it during semester so focusing especially for CHEM was a little difficult.
If you’re a bit like me and have a period in the day that isn’t your best; not a morning person; afternoon lull; etc. I would work around it not against it. It will just make your semester that much harder. That being said don’t sleep till 12pm everyday!
Semester Two:
You’ll will need to enroll in your semster 2 papers at the same time as well. It is very important you enroll in your semster 2 papers at the same time as MEDSCI 142 quickly fills up so you will be put on a waiting list if you enrol late.
Your semster 2 papers are: MEDSCI 142, BIOSCI 106, BIOSCI 101 and PHYSICS 160
Since none of these papers are optional you will only have to enroll as a cohort and won’t have to add any papers.
All these papers have labs that run every two weeks except physics which runs weekly.
Again there is a morning and afternoon stream. You should consider the same things I talked about above except for the gen ed paper. Ultimately you will want to find the timetable that works best for you.
Here’s my timetable for semester 2:
As you can see there are a lot more contact hours so staying ontop of everything will be very important.
When you are all done; add these to your enrolment cart and confirm!
Once you have finished enrolling and completed your timetable you will be able to download your UoA timetable onto your phone/computer using the link in SSO.
BIOSCI 107 was my favourite course in semester 1 but also needed a lot of work. It’s the closest you’ll will get to medicine in semester 1 so if you like the idea of that you’ll love MEDSCI 142 in semester 2.
Structure:
Lectures:
The course is taught in 7 modules. I’d preferred the second half of the semester with my favourite block being Blood and Immune; that being said the one lecture we got on Embryology was absolutely the coolest lecture ever.
Module 1: Cells and Tissues
You’ll cover body systems and the 4 major tissue types; and while the content itself is pretty cool and the lecturer does a good job at teaching it; he does, however, teach A LOT. It’s a bit of a rough way to start your first semester at university but you’ll get through. As a whole BIOSCI will go a whole lot faster than your other courses; you’ll be switching modules so quickly so staying on top of it all is key. This section was definitely overwhelming for me especially while trying to adjust to university. Be sure to listen to these lectures again to be on the safe stuff; there’s a lot of detail to remember! This is the only module I used the Tortora textbook for aside from the Embryology lecture.
Module 2: Cell Structure and Function
This module was all about the basic concepts of cells and was my least favourite module of the course. Suzanne Reid lectures this module and is a lovely person and an awesome course coordinator, but I found her lecture style difficult to learn from and it didn’t help that I found the content pretty boring as well. That being said the content isn’t in any way hard and Suzanne is good in terms of the questions she writes for the test.
Module 3: Special Topics
This module replaced the previous embryology module and defiantly made life a lot easier. It is a 4-lecture module with each lecture focusing on a new topic: Embryology, Skin Biology, Genetics and then an overview/recap lecture. Embryology will need the most work from this module. The best way to approach this is to write out a big flow diagram with drawings and add all the details from there. Skin biology wasn’t too bad the lecturer sped through in about 35-40 minutes which was an up. Genetics doesn’t go much further beyond the stuff you learned in high school which is handy because it’s one less thing to study. While the new special topics modules reduced the workload, embryology was so interesting that I almost wished we could have done a whole module on it.
Module 4: Blood and Immune
Blood and Immune was a huge effort but also so interesting especially as it was completely new content for me. The module covers blood, immunity processes and HIV. This module is taught by the Dean of the Medical and Health Science School and in my opinion, he does teach you like you’re already in med school, so I found his lectures hard to digest and came out of most of them very confused. However, after slowly rewatching each lecture and googling the meaning a few words to make sure I had notes I could understand the content he teaches is actually super enjoyable. Just be prepared to put in a bit of extra effort on this one.
Module 5: Cell Processes
This block was pretty unremarkable. It’s only been a month since I finished this paper and I can’t even remember what I thought of this block to be honest. Looking back on my notes this block wasn’t particularly hard or interesting. However, towards the end of the module the lecturer does look at the clinical implications of the fundamental concepts covered earlier which is mildly interesting.
Module 6: Excitable Tissue- Neurons
The neurons module content wise is pretty manageable; covering neuron structure and action potentials. The lecturer seems like a lovely guy however I personally struggled to understand him during lectures. Don’t freak out about the equations… you won’t have to calculate anything. Make sure you know how all the ions move at any point during action potential generation as he loves to test on this.
Module 7: Excitable Tissue- Muscles
This last module is a nice way to finish your semester off. You’ll look at the three types of muscle: skeletal, cardiac and smooth. This module isn’t overly complex and consists of 4 lectures. Skeletal and smooth are both pretty easy to get your head around; cardiac is a little more complex but not too bad. It somewhat builds on the previous module if you like to think of it as a linear sequence so it’s a good idea to have a decent grasp on the neuron’s module. I studied this as a flow diagram starting in neurons all the way to muscle contraction and relaxation which was super helpful.
Labs:
There are five 3-hour labs fortnightly. Your grade for each lab will be a combination of the prelab task on CANVAS and the assignment sheet you complete during the lab. The prelab opens the week prior to the start of the lab cycle and is due at the same time regardless of when your lab is. It consists of 7 MCQs- were 0.5 each- which must be completed within 60mins and are relatively easy to get full marks on. Make sure you have your lab script/course guide with you and do it with a group to make sure you get the right answers. All five labs count towards your final grade. While you don’t need safety glasses you do need to bring your lab coat to every lab or rent one for $2.
Lab 1: Histology
At the start of this lab you will learn how to use a compound microscope. After that you will get to examine a few histology slides: rat kidney, duodenum and oesophagus and trachea. Your assignment sheet will require you to answer a few questions and do some basic scientific drawings of what you see.
For reference I scored 95% for my embryo
Lab 2: Embryology
This lab was really fun and my favourite. You basically get to play with clay for 3hrs and at the end have your own 4-week embryo model. A lot of people got stressed out over this lab but don’t worry you don’t have to be particularly artsy to do well in this lab. I did do a practice embryo the night before the lab so I knew the process so if you have time that might help you feel a bit more confident going into this lab. Make sure to listen to the lab technicians they will give you lots of tips and advice. Also, as soon as you walk into the lab start playing with your clay; this will warm it up and make it easier to shape and work with. Have fun with this lab guys its basically 3hrs with playdough!
Lab 3: Haematology
In this lab you will prepare a slide of blood and then count up all the different cells you can see. After you the count you will use that to talk about the difference between a healthy patient and a patient with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia. Keep in mind the expected ratio of all the cells you should be seeing in each sample to make sure you are on track.
Lab 4: Osmolarity
In this lab you get to investigate the effects of osmosis and tonicity on cell volume. This lab was defiantly my worst and least favourite lab. My lab partner missed the lab and I was having an extremely bad day, so I didn’t have any fun during this one and ended up with 87%. The results of these experiments will affect your grade for the lab so be extra careful while doing this lab.
Lab 5: Muscle
This lab is the easiest of all the labs so it’s a good note to end on. I did absolutely no preparation for this lab even though they recommended you write notes on the case study; in my opinion it’s not necessary, I read the case study in the lab and still finished an hour and a half early with full marks in the lab. It’s completely up to you and if you have time to prepare for the lab or not but make sure you check if they have made changes to this lab or not in your year. In my year we looked at the role of calcium and ATP in muscle contraction and fatigue. You’ll do a few mini experiments and answer a few questions. Overall, it’s a super chill lab; Just make sure you know your crossbridge cycle and the role of calcium and you’ll be sweet, you have access to a computer, and you can always ask the lab technicians questions.
Assessment:
Lab 1 Histology 4%
Lab 2 Embryology 4%
Lab 3 Haematology 4%
Lab 4 Osmolarity 4%
Lab 5 Muscle 4%
Online Feedback 10%
Mid-Course Test 30%
Final Exam 40%
The online feedback uses the system ORION and is super easy to get the full 10% from. At the end of each lecture module you will required to complete at least 30 questions on ORION related to what you have just learnt- either MCQs or fill in the box- with at least 60% proficiency. Basically, you can just keep doing questions until you meant the required proficiency. However, I recommend you do the first 30 questions carefully as the more you do the slower your proficiency will change so make sure you have your notes and textbook with you.
The test and the exam are both 2hr 90 MCQs. Personally, I find MCQs the easiest assessment style, so I was really happy with this. The test covers the content up to and including special topics including the relevant lab while the exam covers the content thereafter and the relevant labs. This reduces a lot of the stress because BIOSCI was the most content heavy course in semester 1.
How I Studied…
This process was defiantly time consuming but to be honest I didn’t really see anyone who had a process that wasn’t time consuming for BIOSCI 107. Everyone had their own process for BIOSCI 107 so feel free to experiment over the first couple of weeks till you find something that you feel happy with you. The key is consistency so make sure you dedicate some time every day.
Before the lecture I would use the slides, course guide and the textbook where I needed it (module 1 and the embryology lecture) and use those to type up some basic notes. Then I would go into the lecture and add to the notes. This usually meant I had all the notes and didn’t have to rewatch the lecture. When I got home, I would read through the days notes and make sure they made sense so that I could easily look back and understand them later on. On the right is an example of what my notes on one lecture of Blood and Immune looked like. Then I would rewrite the days notes into my notebook, draw diagrams and flow diagrams and make some Quizlet flashcards where I thought they might be beneficial. On Wednesdays and Fridays, I would write up and condensed version of the most recent lectures in a second notebook. During the weekend I got out my A3 pad and made some of summary posters for the week. Once we completed the module, I would make more A3 posters for the whole module.
When it came to test/exam time I rewrote my notes again and made some more posters to help me visualise the information during the test. This allowed me to go through all the information and process it by condensing it down. I worked through the flash cards I had made continually through the entire semester and every night before bed and during study periods. Make sure to do the practice test and exams they offer. That way you can see where your gaps are and revisit your notes.
You will probably spend more time on this paper than any other in semester 1 but that’s totally okay. Despite the workload this paper is super enjoyable, so I hope you guys have fun with it.
Be sure to check out the rest of my course advice!
Thinking about your odds is something that occurs quite frequently throughout your premed year. There’s no exact answer to how good your shot is at getting into medical school but there are few resources that might help you get a good idea of where you stand.
That being said you won’t have any chance if you give up. Stats are stats and they can’t tell you for sure what will happen so never give up!
Justin the Tutor’s Estimate
This is a free resource provided by Justin the Tutor. It’s pretty self-explanatory but does come with a disclaimer.
“The “chances” represented by this table have been from independent observation of approximately 400 students since 2011 to 2017. It may not represent the true chances in reality and should only be used as a general guide.”
Hopefully these stats helped answer your questions but please, please DON’T give up!
One thing that not many people realise about premed is that the students who do well aren’t always super smart; they are students who are determined, disiplined and driven.
Pink Scrubs in Progress 