* Everything HPAT and Medicine for 2011 *

neurodegenerate

Hi everyone! I just thought I would give you guys some advice from someone who has been through this - well, without the HPAT (wasn't there in my time)! I didn't get enough points for medicine, which was devastating at the time and I went on to do a degree in neuroscience. I've just finished and had the time of my life! I adored my degree and I'm starting graduate entry medicine (gem) in a few months. I would strongly advise all of you to consider the post-grad medicine route as opposed to repeating the LC.

You might think now that doing a degree for the next 3 or 4 years is an incredibly long time to wait to do medicine but hear me out! Repeating the LC and, if you get a place, completing a degree in medicine is potentially 7 years. If you took a 3 year degree and got into GEM that is also 7 years. So time wise there is little difference. But the benefit of having a degree under your belt before undertaking medicine is great! You don't have to do science to get into gem, you will need a 2.1 (which wouldn't be too hard if you're interested in your degree) in any discipline and an adequate score in the GAMSAT (check out the health science education board for more on that!) to get in. Personally I would recommend doing a science/health course because if you're passionate about being a doctor you're probabaly going to really enjoy learning about the biological basis of disease in detail. Also its gonna be a LOT more interesting than LC biology/chemistry!;) anyway just wanted to let you guys know about this option & give you some food for thought! If I can answer any questions please let me know I'd be very happy to try give you guys some hope!:)

electrictrad

Danielle Power wrote: »

I'm a repeat. I got 179 in the HPAT last year (89th percentile) and 535 in the leaving cert. I decided to repeat both but on opening my scores I found out I've only gone up to 181 (82nd percentile). I was dying sick on the day of the HPAT.

I've worked really hard this year but I'd say I only got about 555-560 points, could've gotten as low as 550.

I'm really, really worried now as I think the points will go up to min 730 this year, possibly 735 as they went up 7 points last year even though there was only an approx. 3% percentile increase (bear in mind that this year there is a 10% percentile increase).

What are other people's thoughts on this? How big an increase do you think we will have to face? What do you think are my chances of getting in with a percentile score of only 82?? as judging by that percentile there are approx. 600 people with better HPAT scores then me. ( even if you're expected to get 600 points I've heard the minimum HPAT to be in with a chance is 80 percentile).

seriously worried:(

darling1 wrote: »

chances of trinity with 735?!

Yes!!!

Deborah101 wrote: »

Hey, I got 161 in the Hpat which put me in the 53rd percentile, not really what I was expecting to be honest. I got 590 points in the mocks and am hoping to do the same or better in the leaving cert-do i have any chance of getting medicine in galway?

Yes. . . I have a feeling you'll be studying medicine in galway in september. . .

caroline1111 wrote: »

Its looking like the points might go way up actually, for example 161 was in the 67th percentile last year...

I know people are worried about futures here(as am I), but there is no cause for all this alarm. . .there are many reasons to be positive. .

The numbers are reducing. . .down slightly this year

There are extra undergrad places in NUIG. . .as far as I know, 20 extra places. . .

The new graduate school in Limerick is diluting the number of Gamsat's away from the other colleges, leaving more undergrad places. . .

Some of the numbers may look bigger all round, but these are general impressions. . .and remember, not everyone who does HPAT puts medicine at number 1. . .and not all high achievers in HPAT get the points required to go to medicine. . .

The HPAT also keeps the same scale each year. . .we can assume the best score was still around 223, and the worst around 60. . .and the majority of applicants will be in the 130-170 range or thereabouts. . .

I predict a reduction of around 5-10 points in galway. . .the rest should stay quite static. . .or may even all reduce slightly, with galway taking a small dive. . .

It aint over until the fat lady sings. . .and we don't know our leaving results, the 1st round points, or the 2nd round points yet. . .obviously, if you're in a certain range, you know already. . .but don't drive yourself insane over things you can't control at this stage. . ..

neurodegenerate

The new graduate school in Limerick is diluting the number of Gamsat's away from the other colleges, leaving more undergrad places. . .


Ahh!! The graduate course and the undergrad courses are totally seperate!! The post grads aren't taking away places from undergrads! It's not just UL that do graduate medicine either - its UCD, RCSI and UCC. There are about 200 places for graduates currently:)

JamJamJamJam

There are a few conflicting stories out there on whether it will be possible to repeat the HPAT without repeating the leaving cert next year. Some people have been told that the HPAT results and the Leaving Cert results that you use to apply for medicine must be from the same year, others have said that the HPAT can be repeated without doing the LC in the same year. I emailed the universities about it, and one of them have replied so far:

Dear JamJamJamJam (:p),

It is possible to sit the HPAT exam again next year without re-sitting the leaving certificates. My colleague and I looked into this and we found no regulations that would prevent you from doing this.

Thank you

That might interest some people..

randylonghorn

JamJamJamJam wrote: »

There are a few conflicting stories out there on whether it will be possible to repeat the HPAT without repeating the leaving cert next year. Some people have been told that the HPAT results and the Leaving Cert results that you use to apply for medicine must be from the same year ....

Hadn't heard that one; it hasn't been the case up to now certainly.

What may be confusing people is that for Medicine you must get:

(a) your points, AND

(b) your minimum requirements for the course

in the same year.

That isn't the case for most courses.

(And thank you for passing that on, btw.)

Sunny!!

i'm just abit confused, need clarification

i want to do the hpat next year again, ive sat it this year.
sat the lc this year.
so its possible to do the hpat next year and that i actually dont have to do the lc in the same year

QueenOfLeon

Sunny!! wrote: »

i'm just abit confused, need clarification

i want to do the hpat next year again, ive sat it this year.
sat the lc this year.
so its possible to do the hpat next year and that i actually dont have to do the lc in the same year

Yes, thats the way it always has been and seems like its staying that way

Sunny!!

QueenOfLeon wrote: »

Yes, thats the way it always has been and seems like its staying that way

merci beaucoup! so you can sit the hpat any year basically once youve sat the leaving cert at one stage.:)

partyatmygaff

To inject a bit of comedy in to the thread...

HI Partyatmygaff



The results we have on file now are your correct
results.



We received the results last week and then updated
our systems over the weekend



As previously stated, the results that appeared in
April were actual HPAT results but may not have
been yours.



The fact that they are exactly the sae is purely a
coincidence

I'm rather disappointed. I would have thought they could have prepared something a bit better than that. They're not very good liars in any case.

caroline1111

the curve is up on the hpat website now
http://www.hpat-ireland.acer.edu.au/images/documents/2011performance.pdf

Jaafa

Wow fair play to the 242 person.

johndoe91

Jaafa wrote: »

Wow fair play to the 242 person.

yeah it was a mature student who was on boards yesterday.....no one believed him/her including me...sorry!

johndoe91

for all those who were saying that the points are going to rise dramatically based on the hpat scores...dont really see that happening, the only difference between last year and this year is that the distribution seems to have evened out a bit and not really peaked at the 160ish region like last year.
to be honest i think its a mixture or reduced numbers of people just doing the hpat laugh to see what they get on the off chance that they do really well and the fact that there are a lot more mature students who sat the hpat this year. (as can be noted in the comment on this page).
i dont think there is going to be a sharp rise in points required like people are saying....

Holly123.

fk44 wrote: »

Hi Guys I know it's the middle of the night but correct me if I'm wrong points will prob go up sky high I got 181 82% this year, last year 181 was 91% so do the maths! sorry

wait so does that mean this year is more intelligent then last year? everyyear marking scheme changes, so same amount of people would have gotten 150 for example.. that means it'll prob stay fairly similar, won't it? you've worried me deeply!Lol

partyatmygaff

Holly123. wrote: »

wait so does that mean this year is more intelligent then last year? everyyear marking scheme changes, so same amount of people would have gotten 150 for example.. that means it'll prob stay fairly similar, won't it? you've worried me deeply!Lol

No it just means the HPAT is a flawed test. People are improving from repeating the test and taking preparation courses.

runningblind

electrictrad wrote: »

Yes!!!



Yes. . . I have a feeling you'll be studying medicine in galway in september. . .



I know people are worried about futures here(as am I), but there is no cause for all this alarm. . .there are many reasons to be positive. .

The numbers are reducing. . .down slightly this year

There are extra undergrad places in NUIG. . .as far as I know, 20 extra places. . .

The new graduate school in Limerick is diluting the number of Gamsat's away from the other colleges, leaving more undergrad places. . .

Some of the numbers may look bigger all round, but these are general impressions. . .and remember, not everyone who does HPAT puts medicine at number 1. . .and not all high achievers in HPAT get the points required to go to medicine. . .

The HPAT also keeps the same scale each year. . .we can assume the best score was still around 223, and the worst around 60. . .and the majority of applicants will be in the 130-170 range or thereabouts. . .

I predict a reduction of around 5-10 points in galway. . .the rest should stay quite static. . .or may even all reduce slightly, with galway taking a small dive. . .

It aint over until the fat lady sings. . .and we don't know our leaving results, the 1st round points, or the 2nd round points yet. . .obviously, if you're in a certain range, you know already. . .but don't drive yourself insane over things you can't control at this stage. . ..

Points are definetly going up this year! The hpat results are getting better and better and this can only push the requirement points up! Percentiles are the only indication of your position.

caroline1111

Percentiles are the only indication of your position.

Thats true. Does anyone know what the lowest percentile to get into Trinity was last year?

johndoe91

runningblind wrote: »

Points are definetly going up this year! The hpat results are getting better and better and this can only push the requirement points up! Percentiles are the only indication of your position.

people have to stop having this same debate...points will fluxuate depending on the combined scores of both the hpat and the leaving cert of this years cao applicants! we wont know till august! if your scared about cao just use last years points as a marker and just hope for the best! even if you have 5 med courses you will still have 5 other options to put down as a back up! no point trying to make calls about this now!

Enjoy your summer holidays now and try not to think about this anymore!

Sunny!!

anyone know anything about this? does the material get sent to your house? did anyone find it usefull in preparation for the hpat?

any info thanks in advance:)

kellogskelly

Sunny!! wrote: »

anyone know anything about this? does the material get sent to your house? did anyone find it usefull in preparation for the hpat?

any info thanks in advance:)

yeah i did the course, its really good! you get like loads of drills and stuff via internet!
also, there's a 2 day prep course!

jumpguy

I thought it was good, but not 350€ good - asking for advice from other students who've taken the HPAT, a bit of common sense and self-confidence have a similiar enough effect, I felt.

Sunny!!

jumpguy wrote: »

I thought it was good, but not 350€ good - asking for advice from other students who've taken the HPAT, a bit of common sense and self-confidence have a similiar enough effect, I felt.

true i wasn't really confident on the day tbh

partyatmygaff

Well I got 165 without taking any preparation courses. All I did was Practice Paper 2 the weekend before the exam and I read an article on the internet to help with Section 3. It's not the greatest of scores admittedly but people got in to Medicine on less last year so here's hoping.

I did very well in section 1 and section 2 but section 3 really brought me down.

Bbbbolger

partyatmygaff wrote: »

Well I got 165 without taking any preparation courses. All I did was Practice Paper 2 the weekend before the exam and I read an article on the internet to help with Section 3. It's not the greatest of scores admittedly but people got in to Medicine on less last year so here's hoping.

I did very well in section 1 and section 2 but section 3 really brought me down.

I was the same. I did no preparation other than the 2 sample practice papers which I did in the few days before the exam. My section 3 let me down aswel. I got a good result too so I'd say prep courses aren't necessary to get a good result.

DaveMur1

People need to stop worrying & over analysing this,
Yes, the grades went up in the Hpat.
But, the fact that across the country there's more places available for medicine & there has been a decrease in the number of applicants means the end result is going to balance out with points remaining around the same as previous years.

jumpguy

Section 3 is probably only section of the HPAT I would say you can practice. It should be scraped (I'm saying that and it was my best section - I was crap when I first started it).

YodaBoy

neurodegenerate wrote: »

Hi everyone! I just thought I would give you guys some advice from someone who has been through this - well, without the HPAT (wasn't there in my time)! I didn't get enough points for medicine, which was devastating at the time and I went on to do a degree in neuroscience. I've just finished and had the time of my life! I adored my degree and I'm starting graduate entry medicine (gem) in a few months. I would strongly advise all of you to consider the post-grad medicine route as opposed to repeating the LC.

You might think now that doing a degree for the next 3 or 4 years is an incredibly long time to wait to do medicine but hear me out! Repeating the LC and, if you get a place, completing a degree in medicine is potentially 7 years. If you took a 3 year degree and got into GEM that is also 7 years. So time wise there is little difference. But the benefit of having a degree under your belt before undertaking medicine is great! You don't have to do science to get into gem, you will need a 2.1 (which wouldn't be too hard if you're interested in your degree) in any discipline and an adequate score in the GAMSAT (check out the health science education board for more on that!) to get in. Personally I would recommend doing a science/health course because if you're passionate about being a doctor you're probabaly going to really enjoy learning about the biological basis of disease in detail. Also its gonna be a LOT more interesting than LC biology/chemistry!;) anyway just wanted to let you guys know about this option & give you some food for thought! If I can answer any questions please let me know I'd be very happy to try give you guys some hope!:)

So what sort of ballpark percentage do well enough in GAMSAT to be accepted?? ie. is it a safe option to go down the GEM route or is there a good chance of not being accepted? I'd be optimistic if GAMSAT is like HPAT as I did well in that but wasn't happy with the leaving...

This post was reassuring as I'm trying to put together my final CAO and seem to be looking down the same route of medicinal chemistry or biomed etc before hopefully moving across to medicine. It's good to know it's worked out for somebody

QueenOfLeon

YodaBoy wrote: »

So what sort of ballpark percentage do well enough in GAMSAT to be accepted?? ie. is it a safe option to go down the GEM route or is there a good chance of not being accepted? I'd be optimistic if GAMSAT is like HPAT as I did well in that but wasn't happy with the leaving...

This post was reassuring as I'm trying to put together my final CAO and seem to be looking down the same route of medicinal chemistry or biomed etc before hopefully moving across to medicine. It's good to know it's worked out for somebody

GAMSAT is nothing like the hpat, its an exam that you have to study for and put a lot of work into preparing whereas the HPAT is supposed to be designed so that you can't prepare for it in great depth. In the Health Sciences Education forum there is a lot of discussion on the gamsat and how to prepare for it, along with some good pieces of advice from people who have taken alternative routes, if you search the forum a bit.

KDM 1

First off I just want to say that I know how alot of you are feeling after getting your HPAT results on Monday, especially those of you who are disappointed or haven't done as well as you had hoped! I did my first leaving cert in 2008 and didn't get the points for medicine, repeated in 2009 got the points, but not enough in the HPAT so repeated the HPAT in 2010 and finally got into medicine in Dublin last year! (I also didnt get my first choice on first round, and got it in second round offers!!!) I just want to say to anyone who is disappointed with their HPAT result or with their leaving cert to just wait and see how the leaving cert results/CAO offers go in August, you may be pleasantly suprised. For those of you who don't get it first time, there are so many ways of getting into medicine, so don't be put off. It took me three years to get into it, and I absolutely love it now! Believe me, it will make you appreciate it so much more when you do get in. I remember reading alot of the posts on this board last year and feeling so defeated seeing people getting 200+ but I still got it in the end, so DONT GIVE UP, if medicine is what you really want to do then keep working at it!!! For anyone as well who is thinking of repeating the LC/HPAT, it isn't as bad as it sounds, take it from someone who had to repeat both!! In regards to the HPAT I went up over 20 percentiles, so it can be done!

Sunny!!

KDM 1 wrote: »

First off I just want to say that I know how alot of you are feeling after getting your HPAT results on Monday, especially those of you who are disappointed or haven't done as well as you had hoped! I did my first leaving cert in 2008 and didn't get the points for medicine, repeated in 2009 got the points, but not enough in the HPAT so repeated the HPAT in 2010 and finally got into medicine in Dublin last year! (I also didnt get my first choice on first round, and got it in second round offers!!!) I just want to say to anyone who is disappointed with their HPAT result or with their leaving cert to just wait and see how the leaving cert results/CAO offers go in August, you may be pleasantly suprised. For those of you who don't get it first time, there are so many ways of getting into medicine, so don't be put off. It took me three years to get into it, and I absolutely love it now! Believe me, it will make you appreciate it so much more when you do get in. I remember reading alot of the posts on this board last year and feeling so defeated, but DONT GIVE UP, if medicine is what you really want to do then keep working at it!!! For anyone as well who is thinking of repeating the LC/HPAT, it isn't as bad as it sounds, take it from someone who had to repeat both!! In regards to the HPAT I went up over 20 percentiles, so it can be done!

thank you makes me feel alot better:)