*Everything HPAT and Medicine 2013*

Just Like Heaven

Well for somebody who does want to do medicine, it carries potentially as many points as 3 HL LC exams, and no matter how prepared you are, you'll still feel unprepared.

I don't think sitting the exam will benefit you academically really, whilst being good at maths and problem solving might make you better at answering the puzzles in section 3, you're better off spending your time studying and learning more about maths and problem solving, than trying to figure out those damn puzzles :P

ChemHickey

fewtinsoffroth wrote: »

Well for somebody who does want to do medicine, it carries potentially as many points as 3 HL LC exams, and no matter how prepared you are, you'll still feel unprepared.

I don't think sitting the exam will benefit you academically really, whilst being good at maths and problem solving might make you better at answering the puzzles in section 3, you're better off spending your time studying and learning more about maths and problem solving, than trying to figure out those damn puzzles :P

Oh, I'd only do it for learning how to improve my problem solving skills :L Because I do need to learn how to do that :L I'm god awful at spacial reasoning and I'd love to improve that and also, I like tests and shít.... I'm weird like that.

finality

ChemHickey wrote: »

Is it bad to do the HPAT without a serious interest in medicine? I would love to do the HPAT for the experience and to sharpen my academic side too. It would help pinpoint places to improve etc. I don't have much of a desire to head into medicine though. Is it bad to do it for experience and the like or would it cause some bumps to other candidates if I got a question right that not many got right or if I got a question wrong that not many got wrong etc.?

I'm heading into 1st year college btw. :L

You have to agree to a thing stating you're a bona fide medicine applicant when you apply, I suppose they can't really prove you're not genuinely interested though.

ChemHickey

finality wrote: »

You have to agree to a thing stating you're a bona fide medicine applicant when you apply, I suppose they can't really prove you're not genuinely interested though.

Cool! I'll keep that in mind. It'd be a great opportunity... I suppose it is a hard test? :L

hollingr

ChemHickey wrote: »

Cool! I'll keep that in mind. It'd be a great opportunity... I suppose it is a hard test? :L

It costs 145 euro just to register for CAO and HPAT which you must do to sit it..

ChemHickey

hollingr wrote: »

It costs 145 euro just to register for CAO and HPAT which you must do to sit it..

Ah.... You have to register for the CAO too? Meh, I'll probably just stick with IQ tests and things like that... :L

Thanks :P

finality

ChemHickey wrote: »

Ah.... You have to register for the CAO too? Meh, I'll probably just stick with IQ tests and things like that... :L

Thanks :P

Apply for mensa sure! Much easier than the hpat :L

ChemHickey

finality wrote: »

Apply for mensa sure! Much easier than the hpat :L

Ah sure, why not! YOLO.

finality

ChemHickey wrote: »

Ah sure, why not! YOLO.

The organisation itself isn't worth joining imo, most of the people are pretentious and the events and newsletters aren't really relevant to my interests most of the time. If you pass the test they ask you to pay a membership fee to join. When I joined I got a membership card and a mensa usb stick, those are nice to have so you can accidentally wave them around in people's faces ALL THE TIME ( :P ) but meh, I don't even look at the newsletters anymore.

ChemHickey

finality wrote: »

The organisation itself isn't worth joining imo, most of the people are pretentious and the events and newsletters aren't really relevant to my interests most of the time. If you pass the test they ask you to pay a membership fee to join. When I joined I got a membership card and a mensa usb stick, those are nice to have so you can accidentally wave them around in people's faces ALL THE TIME ( :P ) but meh, I don't even look at the newsletters anymore.

Yeah? When did you join? :L You must be extremely smart :L Any tips on it? :L

Yeah... I'd only do it for the USB stick and bragging rights... :L

0mega

ChemHickey wrote: »

Yeah? When did you join? :L You must be extremely smart :L Any tips on it? :L

Yeah... I'd only do it for the USB stick and bragging rights... :L

You like that ':L' face dont'cha? :P

ChemHickey

0mega wrote: »

You like that ':L' face dont'cha? :P

I do indeed. It is the only acceptable way of effectively showing humour online. Lol and Hahahaha are over-rated. Lerl is acceptable, and so are specific memes. Anything else is just irritating. Lerl :L

finality

ChemHickey wrote: »

Yeah? When did you join? :L You must be extremely smart :L Any tips on it? :L

Yeah... I'd only do it for the USB stick and bragging rights... :L

Must've been in second or third year when I joined. I think I was smarter then, if I took the test now I probably wouldn't get in. :L There's a home test that you can get, and you can send it back and they'll tell you if they think you should take the real supervised test. There are two different tests, verbal and non-verbal, and if you're in the top 2% of the population in either of them, you're in. I was in the top 0.5% in one, I think, and only in like the top 10% in the other. :L

ChemHickey

finality wrote: »

Must've been in second or third year when I joined. I think I was smarter then, if I took the test now I probably wouldn't get in. :L There's a home test that you can get, and you can send it back and they'll tell you if they think you should take the real supervised test. There are two different tests, verbal and non-verbal, and if you're in the top 2% of the population in either of them, you're in. I was in the top 0.5% in one, I think, and only in like the top 10% in the other. :L

Wow. I might actually do that! :P That's pretty amazing results though! Pretty nifty... And i'm sure you're smarter now anyways! Sure, weren't you a few hundred points over your course requirements?

0mega

For those who have done the UKCAT, how the heck did you manage with the timing constraints? Particularly in the quantative reasoning section using that awful calculator :eek:

standup

ok just did a practice ukcat there for the first time and my gosh i did terrible! was is like that for everyone else?? any tips on how to make our self do it faster?

yoppo

Repeating my LC after nearly 10 years and a degree! I decided last minute a grind school would be better because my will power to study is quite dire I hope it all works out and will see some of you in some med school next Sept!

hollingr

yoppo wrote: »

Repeating my LC after nearly 10 years and a degree! I decided last minute a grind school would be better because my will power to study is quite dire I hope it all works out and will see some of you in some med school next Sept!

Did you try mature student entry? Also.. I'm assuming you don't qualify for gamsats?

Dead right on going to school.. the forced organisation/notes and testing/homework is important.. I did chem/bio as an external this year and the first test I did that was graded was the actual leaving cert!

yoppo

hollingr wrote: »

Did you try mature student entry? Also.. I'm assuming you don't qualify for gamsats?

Dead right on going to school.. the forced organisation/notes and testing/homework is important.. I did chem/bio as an external this year and the first test I did that was graded was the actual leaving cert!

Ya don't qualify for gamsat's... damn 2:2! Mature entry would be very competitive I assume so the leaving is a good way to get in. I'm hoping 4 A's and 2 B's would be good enough for England too.... I had my first day today, only from 8.30am - 3pm but it was exhausting. Driving from Ennis to Limerick and back when your tired is hard... Starting Monday its 9-9pm... then a drive home and Sat 9-5pm (study period) then a few hours work in the pub 8-4am Sat and then a few hours Sunday Morning! My GF will break up with me soon i'd say :pac:

hollingr

yoppo wrote: »

Ya don't qualify for gamsat's... damn 2:2! Mature entry would be very competitive I assume so the leaving is a good way to get in. I'm hoping 4 A's and 2 B's would be good enough for England too.... I had my first day today, only from 8.30am - 3pm but it was exhausting. Driving from Ennis to Limerick and back when your tired is hard... Starting Monday its 9-9pm... then a drive home and Sat 9-5pm (study period) then a few hours work in the pub 8-4am Sat and then a few hours Sunday Morning! My GF will break up with me soon i'd say :pac:

I was in the same boat this year, 2.2 in my degree. You should at least put in an application for mature entry, it's part of the CAO system anyway just a few extra forms/personal statement to fill in so no harm in it, it's just an extra bonus chance to get in for those of us who are 23 yrs+. RCSI has 15 places for mature students so it's the place with best chance to get in (I got in there this year as a mature student) and they take people from all sorts of work/life experience backgrounds. If you've done any volunteer work or have anything relevant to medicine on your cv it all looks good. It is doable, I urge you to at least try!

yoppo

hollingr wrote: »

I was in the same boat this year, 2.2 in my degree. You should at least put in an application for mature entry, it's part of the CAO system anyway just a few extra forms/personal statement to fill in so no harm in it, it's just an extra bonus chance to get in for those of us who are 23 yrs+. RCSI has 15 places for mature students so it's the place with best chance to get in (I got in there this year as a mature student) and they take people from all sorts of work/life experience backgrounds. If you've done any volunteer work or have anything relevant to medicine on your cv it all looks good. It is doable, I urge you to at least try!

thanks for that info!! I didn't know RCSI had 15 places for us oldies... I was thinking one or two! Would it be competitive i.e people with Master's and phD's?

I haven't done any volunteering unfortunately.... does cleaning up my brother's mess count?!

I've been lurking on boards.ie for the last few weeks reading the LC medicine threads... Are you applying for medicine for next Sept hollingr or did you apply last year for this year?

hollingr

I didn't have a master's or a phd, it's not that common I don't think.

Mostly people who are from a science background or did some sort of medicine related course like radiography etc.. Having said that I did Engineering and had no relevant work experience, but a good bit of volunteering experience (you could easily pick up the same levels of volunteer work I had between now and when the forms go in at end of January)

A solid L.C score (480+) and a decent hpat score (160~170+) will get you through the first round for RCSI.

there is a whole board dedicated to mature students, here's the thread about RCSI mature entry:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055954683&page=28

good place to start! also read the sticky at the top of the mature students board about mature student application tips, some good stuff in there.

here's a post I write a while back about what I have learned from applying for mature med over last 2 yrs:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=79211585&postcount=232

yoppo

hollingr wrote: »

I didn't have a master's or a phd, it's not that common I don't think.

Mostly people who are from a science background or did some sort of medicine related course like radiography etc.. Having said that I did Engineering and had no relevant work experience, but a good bit of volunteering experience (you could easily pick up the same levels of volunteer work I had between now and when the forms go in at end of January)

A solid L.C score (480+) and a decent hpat score (160~170+) will get you through the first round for RCSI.

there is a whole board dedicated to mature students, here's the thread about RCSI mature entry:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055954683&page=28

good place to start! also read the sticky at the top of the mature students board about mature student application tips, some good stuff in there.

here's a post I write a while back about what I have learned from applying for mature med over last 2 yrs:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=79211585&postcount=232

Wow, thanks for all that info... I'll read all the RCSI thread now! I've nothing better to do

I'm really hoping for 550 and a good HPAT... But section 3 of the HPAT will kill me... I have Asperger's and ever since I did a test in 1st year of secondary school in 1998 which resembled that section I knew I was absolutely rubbish at non verbal reasoning! :rolleyes:

QueenOfLeon

yoppo wrote: »

I'm really hoping for 550 and a good HPAT... But section 3 of the HPAT will kill me... I have Asperger's and ever since I did a test in 1st year of secondary school in 1998 which resembled that section I knew I was absolutely rubbish at non verbal reasoning! :rolleyes:

With Asperger's would you find section 2 (Interpersonal Understanding) quite difficult? I would have thought that could be the case more so than for section 3. I hope you don't mind me asking, I don't know a lot about Asperger's but I find it interesting to see how people with the condition would fare in an exam like the HPAT

yoppo

QueenOfLeon wrote: »

With Asperger's would you find section 2 (Interpersonal Understanding) quite difficult? I would have thought that could be the case more so than for section 3. I hope you don't mind me asking, I don't know a lot about Asperger's but I find it interesting to see how people with the condition would fare in an exam like the HPAT

In fairness I haven't given the HPAT much of a look. Just had a quick look at Section 2 there....English and comprehension isn't my strongest area... As my psychologist said I see thing's in black or white if you know what I mean... I'm not pretty good with emotions or interpreting emotions...
I'm hopefully getting my mitts on HPAT notes so maybe I can give a couple of hours to it.... At 27 years old I would hate for the HPAT to be the reason at not getting into med school!

QueenOfLeon

yoppo wrote: »

In fairness I haven't given the HPAT much of a look. Just had a quick look at Section 2 there....English and comprehension isn't my strongest area... As my psychologist said I see thing's in black or white if you know what I mean... I'm not pretty good with emotions or interpreting emotions...
I'm hopefully getting my mitts on HPAT notes so maybe I can give a couple of hours to it.... At 27 years old I would hate for the HPAT to be the reason at not getting into med school!

You should look into applying through the DARE scheme. Asperger's is one of the conditions recognised to qualify for it - details here.

yoppo

QueenOfLeon wrote: »

You should look into applying through the DARE scheme. Asperger's is one of the conditions recognised to qualify for it - details here.

Thanks for that! I've looked into it but you have to be under 23....:(

I was told in the new school I started I look 19 (does that count?!)....! Yay for me Even all the students were surprised...! I can teach them chemistry with my degree :pac:

SharpshooterTom

Yoppo - You can apply as a graduate entrant for Nottingham and St.Georges in England with a 2.2. A 2.2 and merit in your masters is also accepted for Kings College London. I have a 2.2 myself and will be applying to all these for 2014 entry.

Be careful repeating, resitting A level exams for the UK is not allowed except for extenuating circumstances, so I don't know whether repeating the leaving cert is allowed either. Probably not I would imagine.

I'm interested in the mature route for RCSI - if I were to repeat my a levels, get near 600 equivalent leaving cert points, and an 160+ hpat score would that give me a chance?

EternalGeek

yoppo wrote: »

Thanks for that! I've looked into it but you have to be under 23....:(

I was told in the new school I started I look 19 (does that count?!)....! Yay for me Even all the students were surprised...! I can teach them chemistry with my degree :pac:

Yoppo, I'm more or less in the same boat, did my leaving in 2007, got my nursing degree, got a 2.2 and am repeating my leaving cert this year to get medicine...does everyone you know think youre crazy too?! :P

yoppo

EternalGeek wrote: »

Yoppo, I'm more or less in the same boat, did my leaving in 2007, got my nursing degree, got a 2.2 and am repeating my leaving cert this year to get medicine...does everyone you know think youre crazy too?! :P

Everyone without fail is thinking the same thing! One guy was like, I wouldn't do it unless you paid me (ironically enough were both in a grind school so he is paying a bucket load!!) I also found out one of the girls in my Home Ec class is my old Math's teachers niece! I didn't say great things about him

Are you repeating on your own externally or in a school?

I feel totally overwhelmed even though we haven't fully started! It should be easy because I've done it somewhat in college but all the small details to get the A1's will be tough! I'm a night owl and to get up at 7am, shower, eat and drive from Ennis to Limerick is going to be tough! Then I'm there till 9pm... I also work in a bar part time on Sat and Sun so even more fun for me