Everything HPAT and medicine for 2010 (R1 points post #1247)

H2student

My scanner isn't great and plus it's my first time using it so the quality isn't good.....

Here you go:

http://yfrog.com/2dhpatj

H2student

H2student wrote: »

My scanner isn't great and plus it's my first time using it so the quality isn't good.....

Here you go:

http://yfrog.com/2dhpatj

Thanks a million, that's great

Anthony16

clartharlear wrote: »

His credentials, which he told us about at the start, included that his wife was a GP and he worked nearby the people who actually make out the UMAT... He seemed to have a dozen children and they ALL got 100th percentile in the UMAT thanks to his coaching. :rolleyes:

On the other hand, the practice tests etc on the **** website might be worth the money if you had several months to devote to the hpat.

True,but if u are doing your leaving cert then there is no time to devote to hpat.I did my leaving last year and barely had time to watch tv at night,never mind study for another exam.Jees it must be tough for you guys.
Yeah,my mate felt it wz a bit far fetched that ALL his children got in 100th percentile and that he supposedly spoke to the people who make the exam.Needless to say,hes pretty disappointed right now......

clartharlear

Anthony16 wrote: »

True,but if u are doing your leaving cert then there is no time to devote to hpat.I did my leaving last year and barely had time to watch tv at night,never mind study for another exam.Jees it must be tough for you guys.
Yeah,my mate felt it wz a bit far fetched that ALL his children got in 100th percentile and that he supposedly spoke to the people who make the exam.Needless to say,hes pretty disappointed right now......

exactly and exactly!

I'd recommend buying in if you just finished fifth year and were going to spend the summer doing practice questions. Not a good idea for 6th years. hpat is important, but getting ~550 points is more so!

james5001

i disagree clartharlear. the hpat exam is so important, i think it would work out to be worth 2 fifths of your time. Without some revision of the hpat exam, you will be unfamiliar with the layout and get stressed out on the day. Also, the hpat is like running a marathon, revision and practice tests are essential so your brain can cope with the length of the test.

james5001

james5001 wrote: »

i disagree clartharlear. the hpat exam is so important, i think it would work out to be worth 2 fifths of your time. Without some revision of the hpat exam, you will be unfamiliar with the layout and get stressed out on the day. Also, the hpat is like running a marathon, revision and practice tests are essential so your brain can cope with the length of the test.

Yeah but it doesn't take an hour a night to get to grips with the layout, a few timed practice tests and you're sorted in that regard. There is no 'revision' for the hpat, you can practice the types of question but I don't think you can improve your score significantly, except over long term (like years). You're either good at a type of question or you're not.

james5001

Can i ask if you have done the hpat or any revision courses? When i did the test last year i found that when coming to the end of the test the brain gets very tired and it is harder to think. I am now doing sample tests under similar conditions and I find that I get less tired every time I do it. Also, when you do a course, you learn quick tricks and easier ways to do some questions, especially in section 3.

Anthony16

james5001 wrote: »

Can i ask if you have done the hpat or any revision courses? When i did the test last year i found that when coming to the end of the test the brain gets very tired and it is harder to think. I am now doing sample tests under similar conditions and I find that I get less tired every time I do it. Also, when you do a course, you learn quick tricks and easier ways to do some questions, especially in section 3.

I have never done the hpat exam and probably never will,so i cant really dispute what you say.however,from speaking to people who sat it they all say its hard to improve your score and that the test makers say you cant improve by much.Maybe im wrong but arent aptitude tests supposed to test natural ability over learned info.
Id agree that if u took a few months out to do hpat alone you might be able to improve your score but the majority of people doing it will also be doing their leaving,so its very hard to find ti me to fit it into their schedule

james5001

When i was doing it last year i thought that doing a preparation course was useless because of the point you made. But I changed my outlook now that im doing a prep course. I agree with you when you say that its hard to fit into the schedule but its so important it needs to be fitted in. Just a few hours every week can make a massive difference i think

whadabouchasir

james5001 wrote: »

. I agree with you when you say that its hard to fit into the schedule but its so important it needs to be fitted in. Just a few hours every week can make a massive difference i think

I think that's a bit much now.I'd say I did a few hours study in total just the sample papers and a few intelligence tests on the internet.Tbh I don't think that many of the people in my year did this much either.There's probably a reason for this,it's not necessary to spend this long studying for it.

No I haven't done the HPAT or revision courses. I have done 3 practice tests, and was given a copy of the power point slides from one of the well known courses, with all the tips and stuff in it. Wasn't too impressed with what they were offering, I could've worked out all of it myself.

ACER themselves say that they don't support or endorse the courses because they won't help...

james5001

ACER have said this because if people do improve their score through courses and people generally do better in the test, then that makes acers job easier because they have to prepare harder questions, spending more money. remember, acer is a business.

That's such a load of crap. The majority of people I know who've done these courses said they're of very little help. You're not getting a significant edge over the competition. People who did HPAT courses did not perform better than people who didn't, and those who did probably would have done just as good if they hadn't done the course. This year's med students are not all the people from these courses.

james5001

how can u say that people who did do hpat courses didnt do better than the 1s who didnt?! this is only the second year, how can you state that as a fact without making any factual comparisons?!the proof will b with the people who didnt do the hpat courses in the 1st year, didnt get in, did them the second year and got an improved score. And i didnt say that this years med students are from these courses!

No but if these courses were so good than surely the people who took them should have performed better than those who don't? That's what you're claiming... but from talking to people in med school I know that their entire class isn't made up of people who did HPAT courses. There is no study done into this, so no factual information to back this up obviously. At the end of the day it's an aptitude test, no matter how you dress it up as something you can learn, you either are good at reasoning or you're not. No 2 day course can teach you logic, that's a long term skill. I'm not going to get into petty arguments over these courses because I've made my decision not to ask my parents to pay criminal fees for a course which I don't think is worth the money for what you're getting. The people running them might as well be random punters as you can read in comments by people who have done them in this thread.

pfannkuchen

To be honest, there's a huge amount of generalisation going on in this thread. A lot of people probably find it beneficial to spend a little time every week going over sample papers, whereas others don't. I do a couple of questions every Saturday to keep focused and I hope that it'll give me the best chance with this. I also did a prep course and thought it was great. They suit some people and others not so much, like everything in life - so to say that they're completely useless is not really fair.

james5001

i agree with you pfannkuchen. Also, wen u say piratequeen 'you either are good at reasoning or you're not.' - this is only one aspect to the exam. also, when you nearing the end of the exam, you will be physically wrecked. with timed pratice tests, your brain can improve its stamina, thus it may increase your score. And may i just say that before i did the exam last year, i thought the exact way you think now. 'the fees are far too much' 'how can it help at all'. once i did the hpat i then understood that a great portion of the test has to do with timing, stamina and practise. that is why i bought a course and am now repeating it

Fair enough if you think these courses will help by all means take one, if you can afford to throw money around like that. I do realise that they could be helpful for some people. I have a good few practice papers which I'm using to practice my timing and stamina, and that's working great for me, but maybe others need to be told how to work out exam technique, that's fine. I just think that it's very dangerous to let the courses give yourself a false sense of security or confidence, and then get a nasty shock if you don't do as well as promised in the HPAT. And reasoning is a part of all 3 sections, especially 1 and 3.

This test was designed to be grind proof, and I honestly think, from my own experience with the practice papers and from the sort of notes I've seen from these courses, that it IS grind proof; all you can realistically work on short-term is timing, exam technique and familiarity with the question types.

james5001

i do not believe that its throwing money at a problem! I also think it gives you the confidence, not the overconfidence that is essential for an exam like this

H2student

I'm sure the course does help certain people but I want to look at it this way.

According to an article on The Irish Independent, last year's points ranged from 150 to 220. Quite a small gap considering there's both people who took grind courses and those who did the least preparation. Therefore(being the cheapskate that I am), I would rather spend the time and money getting 550 points.

james5001

i am not calling you a cheap skate. of course you should spend a lot of time on the leaving cert, but for a lot of candidates the hpat is the key. and you have misquoted the article. the marks were a much broader range. read the article again.

pfannkuchen

I think that the phrase "throwing money around" is a little strong. Obviously we all want to give ourselves the best chance of doing well on February 27th, and if some people feel that a prep course is the best thing for them personally, then they should be allowed to do that. Prep courses aren't for everyone though, clearly. And like james said, confidence is absolutely essential and that's what the course gave me.

It's a lot of money to spend on confidence. I feel like these courses are very overpriced for what they actually offer. They are run by businesses out to make money (which I'm not condemning because that's how to world works, but it's not like they really care how you do once they get their money), and they're cashing in on panicking students who don't know how to approach this exam. A lot of students' families can't afford these courses, and I hope they are not under pressure or feel they are at a disadvantage because of it.

I could afford one of these courses if I wanted to do it, but the way I see it the exam is expensive enough as it is, and I don't believe I can buy myself a higher grade.

james5001

I have already mentioned other numerous motives for doing 1 of them, apart from confidence. I agree to u that they are out to make money, but the also have to build up a gud reputation, otherwise, no one would buy their product. And i wish you good luck in the exam, im just learning from experiencing the exam last year

Thanks, best of luck to yourself too.

cweeva

Deleted User wrote: »

I have done 3 practice tests, ...

Piratequeen, where did you get these practice test please? I have the hpat one and the two umat ones but i think one of them is the same as the hpat one! and do you know anygood websites that would be useful please?:D

cweeva

cweeva wrote: »

Piratequeen, where did you get these practice test please? I have the hpat one and the two umat ones but i think one of them is the same as the hpat one! and do you know anygood websites that would be useful please?:D

I have the HPAT one and about 4 UMAT ones, that's it! My school guidance counsellor gave them to me.

H2student

Okay this is a pretty stupid question, but that are we allowed to bring in the test centre apart from a bottle of water? (like, are we allowed to bring a watch/stopwatch?)

The article said:

In 2009, HPAT ranged from 153 to 225 and the combined marks of successful candidates ranged from 713 to 779.

Can you please explain how I misquoted the article? I'm pretty sure I'm wrong, I just want to know where I went wrong in my interpretation.

H2student

H2student wrote: »

Okay this is a pretty stupid question, but that are we allowed to bring in the test centre apart from a bottle of water? (like, are we allowed to bring a watch/stopwatch?)

The article said: Can you please explain how I misquoted the article? I'm pretty sure I'm wrong, I just want to know where I went wrong in my interpretation.

I think he meant for all applicants the range was much broader, but you were referring to successful applicants.

And I'm sure you can bring a watch to the exam. A watch, pencil, eraser and bottle of water afaik.

stainluss

Is there any essay writing involved or is it all short questions?