HPAT

Homicidal_jesus

At one point i was but im now going into drug research if possible!!the medical kind of course!!:D

Purple Funk

Ah but narcotics is where the fun is at. :P

Medicinal Chemistry would be interesting though, I'm stuck between that and a Science Omnibus as my second choice.

QueenOfLeon

deex wrote: »

ugh horrible day =(
apparently i didnt bring correct id (the school didnt put the stamp overlapping the photo in my letter of identification) so i was told i was allowed sit the test "provisionally" but unless i contacted ACER asap and gave them correct ID, my result wouldnt be counted...
but the school is closed for midterm break and i cant find the ACER address. -_- what a horrible day... was anyone else only allowed sit their test "provisionally?" it happened to two or three of us in my center and that was quite a small center so i'm thinking maybe it happened to some other unfortunate soul?
its terrifying to think that unless i get this sorted out immediately my result wont be counted DDD:
worst valentines day ever!

omg no way hope it all works out 4 u...it was the organisers at fault for everything that went wrong tho, like some of the details they gave us before the test wasnt clear so if a few people didnt get their letters of ID done properly it must av been them that didnt explain it properly
There was no delays in sligo for id or anything bcos d woman didnt look at half of them!! i didnt even open my passport i just walked straight thru!!

i think it shuda been organised betr, d tiny hall we wer in was freezin, i thought itd be in the IT but we wer in this little community centre :P
Any way we can campaign to get the results earlier?! Lol i need somethin 2 enourage me 2 start studyin!! I found it more or less d same as evry1 else...section 2 way harder than d sample, didnt even understand some of those words :eek::eek:

Dubs

i THINK the point is that we get it the day after the leaving cert ends so we dont go making stupid changes to our cao. Like thinking you did crap and so putting something else ahead of medicine even though you still could have gotten the points

QueenOfLeon

But the closing date of the cao is around the 1st of july, so people will be more likely 2 take it off if they didnt do gr8 in the hpat but mite hav dun really gud in the leavin? I dunno...id prefer 2 get it now tho cos id hav some idea of wot sorta points id be looking 4!! does any1 hav any idea of like the minimum you wud need 2 get into medicine with the combined leavin and hpat?:D:D

gotabi

Purple Funk wrote: »

I was in Galway too, and yes, that blonde was definitely a head turner.

As for the test;

Section 1: Fine. Hard to gauge how well/poorly I did. I didn't get stuck per se, and I finished with time in hand, though I would have liked a bit more time to check over one or two questions.

Section 2: Quite a bit harder than the Sample Paper. In the Sample, I only got two wrong. I imagine I still did well in this section for the real thing, though I think I likely got several more wrong than in the sample.

Section 3: Struggled with this in the Sample greatly, oddly, though challenging today, I progressed very smoothly.

I hope to attain at least 260.

Bahaha 260?
You realise that the top 1% percentile of people will only get around 206?
Nobody will get 260

Homicidal_jesus

gotabi wrote: »

Bahaha 260?
You realise that the top 1% percentile of people will only get around 206?
Nobody will get 260

Thats a strong statement!
Im sure there are people well capable of it

Piste

DáireM wrote: »

My god you are a nobend

Cop on. There are strict rules about insulting other member, I suggest you read the charter if you don't want to be banned.

Acid_Violet wrote: »

Just out of curiosity, I know a lot of people (myself included) who did the Hpat but don't actually want to do medicine or who are using medicine as a back-up (most perverse logic EVER behind that notion) or just doing it in case they decide to do medicine. Anyone else know people like that?

Yeah I know about three people who all have medicine either 2nd or lower on their CAO.

shamoono

gotabi wrote: »

Bahaha 260?
You realise that the top 1% percentile of people will only get around 206?
Nobody will get 260

WOW, 260, man I would be delighted with 150.

MrPain

Homicidal_jesus wrote: »

Thats a strong statement!
Im sure there are people well capable of it

If I recall that the same person said if you didnt do the prep course youd be screwed, i guess they are just a person of strong statements.

ps. I mean no hate to that person its just the opinion I get of them.

shamoono

Oh, can somebody tell me how the percentiles work? Also are the questions like given 1 mark for every right answer OR various marks depending on how good your answer is?

Cheers

Piste

Perecentiles work like this: 99% percentile means you are in the top 1% of people who sat the test. 70% percentile means you are in the top 30% etc.

The exam is divided into three parts with each part given equal weight, ie. 100 marks for each section. So what I assume they do is find your percentage in each section and that becomes your score for the section. So if you got 60% on section 1, 85% on section 2 and 40% on section 3 you would get 185 points.

At least that's how I think it works!

Piste

Perecentiles work like this: 99% percentile means you are in the top 1% of people who sat the test. 70% percentile means you are in the top 30% etc.

The exam is divided into three parts with each part given equal weight, ie. 100 marks for each section. So what I assume they do is find your percentage in each section and that becomes your score for the section. So if you got 60% on section 1, 85% on section 2 and 40% on section 3 you would get 185 points.

At least that's how I think it works!

shamoono

Piste wrote: »

Perecentiles work like this: 99% percentile means you are in the top 1% of people who sat the test. 70% percentile means you are in the top 30% etc.

The exam is divided into three parts with each part given equal weight, ie. 100 marks for each section. So what I assume they do is find your percentage in each section and that becomes your score for the section. So if you got 60% on section 1, 85% on section 2 and 40% on section 3 you would get 185 points.

At least that's how I think it works!

Thanks for the info Piste.

amacachi

Percentile goes by how well you did compared to the others doing the test. It almost certainly won't be a linear correspondence between the percentile and the point outs of 300 though. Realistically no-one on here has a clue how it's going to work out.
Also I'd've thought there'd be more marks going for some questions than others.

shamoono

Hopefully, there would be more marks going for some questions than other.
Because, I actually found the real thing harder than the actual ACER practice test, thought it would be something equivalent to it.

Purple Funk

You'd have to be in the top percentile to get 260? I didn't think it would be that low. I thought top might be >285 or so.

I know the HPAT or something like it was employed in Australia. Anyone know what the results have been like therE?

cautioner

According to one of my friends who did a revision course, the top percentile last year in Australia was ~230 points, I think. Quite possible I misunderstood.

Synods

Did hpat in Galway on Saturday, did anybody else on level one find bleeping from somebodies digital watch REALLY irritating??

Definitely agree section2 was harder than the sample paper, still fairly ok though....
Felt honours maths students were at an advantage on section1
Oddly enough i seemed to find section3 easy...........which is either a really good sign or a horrifically bad one!!:eek:

whadabouchasir

Synods wrote: »

Felt honours maths students were at an advantage on section1

The question with the aces in it was very similar to the probability questions in HL maths.

Synods

and the sequence questions too.... and the finger ratio question....
Generally thought there were a few vague links between leaving cert courses and section1 questions eg tropism q and biology, etc.

spurious

deex wrote: »

but the school is closed for midterm break and i cant find the ACER address.

Just because students are out doesn't mean the school is closed. At a minimum someone will be there to take in post.
Contact your school on Monday.

amacachi

Synods wrote: »

and the sequence questions too.... and the finger ratio question....
Generally thought there were a few vague links between leaving cert courses and section1 questions eg tropism q and biology, etc.

I think anyone who wants to do Medicine should be doing higher maths or at least capable of answering those questions. It's not like they required any prior knowledge of either series in fairness.

Was surprised at the tropism thing coming up, but it was explained so I don't see how those not doing biology were at a disadvantage.

cautioner

It could be all the difference. If a Biology student familar with tropisms managed to save 30 seconds on that question by not having to read and re-read the table then I think could be quite an advantage, especially considering a lot of people were pressed for time in Section 1. You never know.

amacachi

cautioner wrote: »

It could be all the difference. If a Biology student familar with tropisms managed to save 30 seconds on that question by not having to read and re-read the table then I think could be quite an advantage, especially considering a lot of people were pressed for time in Section 1. You never know.

Aye, that's the trouble with these tests though. If it's set up to be as close as it sounds like it is set up, it could well come down to a lucky guess as to whether a lot of people get in or not.

OH-MY-CANDLE

Don't mean to burst anyones bubble but the hpat is going to make it so much more difficult to get in to medicine.. there has been such a HUGE number of applications as opposed to previous years, people are applying who have no interest in medicine what so ever because they think they could be in with a shot... the competition for places this year will be fierce between the people who get crazy points and then the people who excelled in the HPAT

amacachi

OH-MY-CANDLE wrote: »

Don't mean to burst anyones bubble but the hpat is going to make it so much more difficult to get in to medicine.. there has been such a HUGE number of applications as opposed to previous years, people are applying who have no interest in medicine what so ever because they think they could be in with a shot... the competition for places this year will be fierce between the people who get crazy points and then the people who excelled in the HPAT

I doubt many people who excelled in the HPAT wouldn't have been competing under the old system anyway.

cautioner

I don't think it will be definitively easier or harder to get med with the new system. It'll be easier for some compared to last year's system, much harder for others. There's always been fierce competition for Medicine.

OH-MY-CANDLE

my mum is a lecturer in one of the medical schools... and this is the general consensus with most of her colleuges around the country the

Crystler

Anyone else feel it was severly understaffed, unorganised and not great conditions to do the exams? And my goodness! there were alot of people, but then again expected that much since there was about 3000 people or so taking it. They really should improve the whole test taking system in the RDS (not sure if other exam situations were similar). Here's what I think they should have improved on for the test taking... the test was decent, but there is no way to tell if you did well or not, since they only have the answers and what not.

1. Started about 40mins after it should have. registration started an HOUR late.
2. The queue to get INTO serpentine hall (which was actually the restaurtant? I think, I've only been to the main hall in the RDS and Serpentine hall during one of my sisters performances), but i just found that extremely odd, that they made us line up... but there were 2 queues and also one looked like it ended all the way to the main entrance to the RDS... thank god it ended just on the road, safety procedures a no-no i take it!

3. I was talking to about the first crowd of people (who arrived a tad early about 8:45 or so. And we were just sitting and walking up and down serpentine hall going wtf? are we in the right place and ended up going to the security guard a few times to ask if we were in the right area.... Hello HPAT! 1 measly sign doesn't help out a bunch of nervous/panicky people!

4. I had to go to the toilet during section 1 ... well beforehand after she went 'okay you are now under exam conditions' (now not to sound mean but anyone else think your main lady had a v.disproportionate body?) took me a few mins for me to get anyones attention... had to rush through a few questions to make up for time lost.

5. Finding your seat also! It doesn't really matter which freaking row number your supposed to be at, cause they don't give you any clue as to which row is which? I was like okay... so by rows do they mean from the top and count up or from the back and count up? I think most people just wandered around and noticed that columns went up in roughly about 50's-100's and counted their way to their seats.

6. Just for my curiousity? Anyone else find the generators buzzing noise really disturbing during the exam? or at least before? I kinda tuned it out since it's just there, might as well deal with it. When they noticed it was 'cold' more like freezing (got to love layers!) they turned on the air-conditioner, and it just spewed cold air for awhile...

7. Seemed really rushed to get set-up, invigilators running around, for a while i thought they looked much more panicked than the rest of us.

Overall, for a first time run at the exam, it was good... first time going over regulations and such... They should really pick up the act for next year's group. I agree with 'Piste' with the whole 'Why did they take up our booklets?' I was talking to my friend who was taking it in trinity. and we assumed, they used it for study, since I presume everyone wrote on their booklet to work stuff out? I know I did, since it is the first time it was applied in ireland, they'll need material to study (anyone else notice why they asked us to take down our booklet number?) That's why I think that's the reason.

I've always been bad in section 3... especially the 'find the middle one' I just used v.kid like tactics, like this bit moves 2 times while this bit moved one (you know those 'in series' things you do in junior school maths? like find the link in this series and find the last number 1->2->4->7->11 etc...

Sudoku helped alot in the missing sequences and for the 'in the middle one' I removed anyone with opposites and then the one without an opposite is the one you need, but i can't be certain if I just screwed up majorly in section 3 or not.

I felt really bad during the exam, cause everyone was all like oh 'good luck' and whatever, I had a few friends with me going in, met up with, etc... and I just couldn't wish them luck or anyone for that matter, since HPAT is one of those tests where you wish to do well in, and everyone else to do really badly in. I just felt sick with myself for not wishing everyone luck :S but I wouldn't change it anyways.... I WANT medicine so badly :S

Just posted this little rant as seemed like the best place to kinda just dissect and breakup such exams.

Piste

Heh I agree with you completely! It was just so badly put together

MrPain

my theory for why they collected the booklets is so there wont be 3000 odd floating about next year so they can make as much money as possible by charging people next year for them.

Crystler

What do you mean MrPain? about 3k booklets floating around? Do you mean as practise papers? (no use in having papers to practise on without any answers for them). Anyone else after the 2 hours and 30min exam find that you couldn't walk properly/ walk in a straight line? I must have bumped into 2 or 3 desks till i could feel my legs properly... but then again the english and maths papers are longer... so can't say much about that.

MrPain

Crystler wrote: »

What do you mean MrPain? about 3k booklets floating around? Do you mean as practise papers? (no use in having papers to practise on without any answers for them). Anyone else after the 2 hours and 30min exam find that you couldn't walk properly/ walk in a straight line? I must have bumped into 2 or 3 desks till i could feel my legs properly... but then again the english and maths papers are longer... so can't say much about that.

Yeah I meant as practice tests for people sitting the HPAT next year.

shamoono

I didn't find the whole "BEEP" thing with the digital watches annoying.
OR the fact that the supervisors kept on walking around.

But the whole thing of not getting about 5 minutes to take a piss in between each section is a pain in the ass. I found myself running to and from the toilets during section two.

Piste

Crystler wrote: »

What do you mean MrPain? about 3k booklets floating around? Do you mean as practise papers? (no use in having papers to practise on without any answers for them). Anyone else after the 2 hours and 30min exam find that you couldn't walk properly/ walk in a straight line? I must have bumped into 2 or 3 desks till i could feel my legs properly... but then again the english and maths papers are longer... so can't say much about that.

Yes I had that too! Now I'm not the most graceful of girls at the best of times but Saturday was awful, I kept tripping and bumping into things!

Does anyone know if when we get our results we'll get a breakdown of the marks we got in each section?

Synods

If you consider that 2500 had medicine on their CAO last year and that 3000 people applied for hpat this year you cant really agree that competition will be THAT much greater this year...... and supposing you will only really be in with a shot if you score 550+ in the LC (and only 1500 score above that on average each year) you could argue that -assuming there's approx 500 medicine places in ireland- everyone who scores 550+ applying for medicine will have at least a 33% chance of getting in?
Cant really imagine there will be huge differences between hpat scores anyway...these things are all standardised!!

Fad

Synods wrote: »

If you consider that 2500 had medicine on their CAO last year and that 3000 people applied for hpat this year you cant really agree that competition will be THAT much greater this year...... and supposing you will only really be in with a shot if you score 550+ in the LC (and only 1500 score above that on average each year) you could argue that -assuming there's approx 500 medicine places in ireland- everyone who scores 550+ applying for medicine will have at least a 33% chance of getting in?
Cant really imagine there will be huge differences between hpat scores anyway...these things are all standardised!!

Well about 4 or 5 people in my school did the HPAT without much ambition of doing medicine. Id imagine there's more people like this.

cautioner

For some reason my "Thank" buttons have disappeared, so I'll just post it. I completely agree with Crystler. RDS was a shambles.

Synods

Fad wrote: »

Well about 4 or 5 people in my school did the HPAT without much ambition of doing medicine. Id imagine there's more people like this.

Ya i agree with ya there alright....that even increases the chances even more if you take that into consideration!

On another note, I was fairly amazed to hear of a few of last years students who were lucky enough to get medicine yet decided to put themselves through the hpat system because they wanted to change university!! If these people fail through the hpat method are they still sure of their place on their old course?

poppy08

Synods wrote: »

a few of last years students who were lucky enough to get medicine yet decided to put themselves through the hpat system because they wanted to change university!!quote]

not wanting to sound panicky or anything but who? what ? why!?
what was wrong with their college choice? personal reasons or did they just think the course was **** the that college?

Synods

not wanting to sound panicky or anything but who? what ? why!?
what was wrong with their college choice? personal reasons or did they just think the course was **** the that college?[/quote]

I really couldnt speak for all of these students, but of the two i was chatting to they really didnt like their course in a dublin uni and wanted to move to galway!! it all seems a bit ridiculous to me though....just because they got medicine last year they shouldnt automatically presume they'll get it this year! imagine how sickened you'd be if you lost your place:eek:!!!!

Was really surprised at the amount of last year leaving cert students who had started a totally different course in college this sepr but were now applying for hpat now too! i knew people there who were in courses ranging from engineering to occupational therapy!! i also was talking to a business graduate who seemed to think she could apply for medicine through hpat because she thought it was way easier than gamsat (the entry test for postgrad medicine) does anybody know what years you had to have done your LC in to apply for hpat? I thought it was just 09 and 08 but i doubt im right.

Purple Funk

In fairness to the organisation I thought the centre in Galway ran quite smoothly. I found my seat quickly and easily, the staff were thorough on the instructions and a trip to the bathroom was permitted, though supervised. Everything was easy to manage, the Phone Drop was well organised but could have used a few extra staff.

I had no qualms with the test itself, though yes, those with digital watches beeping were annoying at times, and I can certainly imagine how infuriating they would be if one was concentrating intensively on a question they were stuck on.

I do remember sitting down in the car after the exam and being overwhelmed by fatigue as the adrenaline wore off. Anyone else suffer from post-adrenal fatigue?

Crystler

Purple Funk wrote: »

I do remember sitting down in the car after the exam and being overwhelmed by fatigue as the adrenaline wore off. Anyone else suffer from post-adrenal fatigue?

Same here, but mine's a bit longer, I took the bus in from Wicklow to the RDS... and I ended up getting lost to find the bus stop again.... either from my own personal fault, or the fact that I was still working off that rush or what I deem to call it 'surreal-ness'. I was talking to a few others who finished it afterwards and they were going through the whole 'I can't think properly right now'. Needless to say I had an early night, great V-day story ain't it Something to tell the family one day xD

Crystler

Piste wrote: »

Yes I had that too! Now I'm not the most graceful of girls at the best of times but Saturday was awful, I kept tripping and bumping into things!

Does anyone know if when we get our results we'll get a breakdown of the marks we got in each section?

Phew... I thought it was just me and my chronic clumsiness.. I found it amusing when the invigilators in the RDS annouced that we could leave, just a large noise of people scrambling to get out happened.

whadabouchasir

Synods wrote: »

-assuming there's approx 500 medicine places in ireland- everyone who scores 550+ applying for medicine will have at least a 33% chance of getting in?

I'd say you'd have a much greater chance than this if you got over 550 as not everyone over 550 will want to do medicine.also around 40% of medical places each year go to repeat students and with the new requirement that points and subjects must be met in the same year,this is sure to make it harder for repeats to get in.

Synods

whadabouchasir wrote: »

I'd say you'd have a much greater chance than this if you got over 550 as not everyone over 550 will want to do medicine.also around 40% of medical places each year go to repeat students and with the new requirement that points and subjects must be met in the same year,this is sure to make it harder for repeats to get in.

Thanks for that extra info there, you seem to be mega well informed! what do you mean about the whole repeat thing though? you have to do your min. requirement subjects in the same year as you get your highest points kinda thing??
Does anybody know when the CAO stats for feb 1st 09 are coming out actually?

whadabouchasir

Yes. so no more dropping the subjects that you find hard. One repeat in my school has to do a whole new english course in just one year.

Synods

whadabouchasir wrote: »

Yes. so no more dropping the subjects that you find hard. One repeat in my school has to do a whole new english course in just one year.

I suppose its a fairer system overall though, it was a bit mad if you ever looked at the subjects that any of the repeats in the grinds schools had....it was like phys&chem/ag science/classical studies, etc. when all the poor first timers who were competing with them were stuck with the likes of irish and maths!!

cautioner

whadabouchasir wrote: »

Yes. so no more dropping the subjects that you find hard. One repeat in my school has to do a whole new english course in just one year.

AWHA? My brother's girlfriend is just doing Biology outside of school this year so she can do a course in Trinity. Are you telling me she's not allowed do this? When did this happen?