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*Everything HPAT and Medicine 2015*
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MedHead1995 wrote: »I assume you're sticking to the time? They're the scores I generally get! However I am getting 20-23/30 in S3 most of the time which is a morale boost as it's generally in the 90th+ percentile; but there is a certain melancholy mood present after I see the 50th percentile or something due to 27/44 in S1 and 24/36 in S2 or something along those lines
I still have a lot of exams to do and it's early days yet, but honestly I think those scores in S1 & S2 are okay, especially since we are being compared to a more prepared and able "cohort" of students. On the day of the HPAT, lots of people won't be fully prepared and won't be as strong at these tests than the crowd taking these M.E tests (as a general conjecture!).
Onwards and upwards anyway...
although i'm sure you'll improve because you have loads of time (woo!) i have two friends who were getting 80th and 90th percentile in ME tests and ended up in the ~40th percentiles in the real deal so just don't take anything for granted and prepare yourself as best as you can - the actual test is a whole other beast!
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Join Date:Posts: 25686
Doctorhopeful wrote: »Found out today that one of my friends in ucd premed got 239 in the hpat last year! This must be the highest result in the country? Probably the only person with a combined score of over 800 this year too. What an incredible score
It would be interesting to see how s/he gets on in the course.0 -
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Hey guys! hope you are all well! I have messaged some of you with regards to HPAT advice.
I am looking to complete all of the paper material that I can get my hands on!
I previously wasn't looking to complete any Med--Entry material, but have recently got several exams in paper form! so about 8 exams, this includes 1 mock from one of their courses and some sample questions. Funnily enough, I bought those exams and came to find, that they are from
Med--entry! I have a preference for material that simulates the conditions of the actual HPAT.
I also have 8 exams from the Institute of Education. 4 from Acer, 3 from Career Services and a few more from another company, about five more. As well as these exams, I have a lot of questions with solutions from all of these companies.
I was wondering, would this material be enough to achieve a great score?
also, do you have any advice with regards to the Leaving Cert? I am doing Maths, the three businesses, Chemistry, Biology, German, pass English and Irish.
Thanks a million guys, would really appreciate all the help that I can get. 0 -
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Predicted V Real
Alot of this depends on how much preparation you have done before the exam. If you have no prep a result less than 40 is fine, if you have been working at it for a year, it wouldn't be so great! Same as a score of 70, brilliant for no practice, lots of practice - absolutely fine. In my own experience I know predicted less than 40's who got 75 and predicted 90-95 who got 99
Lack of improvement
LMS get's more competitive as you progress. The same volume of people will not have completed the last 5 tests as say, the first 5 (especially this time of year). Only the best students will have gotton this far so you are no longer being compared to the whole HPAT population. Also, remember that people who do Medntry are usually better than average!
TL/DR - don't get discouraged, percentiles drop as you progress!!
@MedHead1995. If you want advice from a Trinity med don't be such a snob. One of the best HPAT's is in Galway, one of the best combined in Cork and sorry to burst the bubble but Trinity/UCD are not all there craiced up to be. I know you said 'or anyone who achieved highly" but in reality - you need all the advice you can get, it's not your time to be picky.MedHead1995 wrote: »Any successful students in either UCD or Trinity especially care to comment?
Moving on....
These next few paragraphs i'm re -posting it's a mixture of stuff about Med & HPAT i posted a while ago
Med Entry percentiles fluctuate so much. In section one I got between 100 percentile in the first test to 60 or so in latter ones. In section 2 I was a wee bit more consistent I was around 80 percentile alot of the time. Section 3 was by far always my worst. I got the dreaded 0-20 bracket sometimes. In the HPAT course day exam I got 80, 80, 20. In the HPAT I got 72, 70, 58 (201, 99th percentile)
TBH, I know everyone wants to constantly know would that test have gotten them in - but it is way more important to do the tests under timed conditions - and then review every single answer until you understand it absolutely. Message them if you don't understand a conclusion they came to. It possible you will see the ME practice Q's on the real exam! It happened for me.
In section 1 12 or so out of the 40 q's i had seen before or seen something very similar which used the same premise. ( there were all given at the 2 day practice course). It's wrong and sickening but it's true.
One of the most important things about ME to remember is because so few people actually do all the tests - your percentiles will drop as you do more and more. you will be comparing yourself against the people who have done the tests - these are likely to be the best students!
In my year there were little to no maths questions - but learn prob and stats principles ( the ones in LC book).
I think it is really important to finish every question. I did, and you really should make every effort to. nothing suggests all q's are worth the same amount so leaving ones out it a bit of a shame - work on your timing. bring a digital watch with a timer and a normal watch (incase they throw a hissy fit about the digital one) move on if you are over time.
weird advice - but for section 2 read with a little smile! it helps to have a positive outlook on the question and stops you putting feelings into the character's that are not present. Highlight words with describe tone, body language, watch for pauses that change the mood of the piece. Just keep going - it's tough but you need to just never give up.
Ah we have free time - mostly at the start of the semester. I went out an awful lot in the first 3 months. 2-3 times a week! I wasn't willing to sacrifice my only freshers week and 1st year for med. Non - med peeps have remarked on how much we go out But this term i will be taking it a little easier. I got a first in one of my exam's passed the 2nd and am awaiting the 3rd's result! I work in a pub sometimes, on weekends - but i live so far away i rarely go home.
I got involved in alternative music soc and boxing fitness classes. I have friends in the Phil and the Drama soc - both these are a massive time commitments. about 1/5 med's do a society - it's hard as our timetable changes a little bit each week and we have xmas exams unlike nearly every other course
I picked TCD over UCD because of the affiliated hospitals, TCD have larger hospitals and there are more of them. TCD is beautiful and central, but you will get the same education everywhere i'm sure.0 -
Hey i've just started medicine in trinity and after spending a year on here i thought i'd share a bit of what it is like so far.
1. It's hard work. I know this is obvious but it is. I didn't take leaving cert chemistry (it's not a requirement ) and I regret it a lot. I took physics and biology instead. The biochemistry lectures are tough, people with A1's in higher leaving cert are finding it hard. People with A levels aren't having a walk in the park either. I would 100% recommend doing chemistry, I was mad not to. If you aren't doing it there is a pre chemistry course the week before freshers which would be essential. I didn't go because i didn't hear about it To be honest the only reason i'm keeping my head above water is LC home economics!
2. The HPAT is ten times more important than the leaving, every person that i've spoken to that got medicine first time round straight from the leaving (about 50\183 people i think) ignored their mocks and did an unreal amount of HPAT prep. It is the only way to go. There are people in Trinity medicine with 520 - 545 LC points who did amazing HPAT's (95th percentile and over)
3. never take medicine off your CAO. NEVER never ever!! points fluctuate. there are people with enough points for TCD who took it off their CAO's cause they taught they wouldn't get it, its crazy. HPAT will fluctuate massively in the years to come.
4. the ratio of guys to girls has changed dramatically. It used to be 70 percent girls i think, now in 1st med it's about 40%. I think that's the effect of the HPAT. it is quite strange, i was resigned to a majority of girls when it is quite different.
5. Age. There average age is like 20, for irish people maybe 19. Don’t be put off by repeating there are loads of 20’s and even some 30’s undergrads.
6. Stay in trinity halls – its class. People not here miss out. Make the effort with your personal statement. You will spend a year regretting it if you assume you will get in cause you are living 300 miles away. It’s Trinity – they want accomplished, interesting people.
7. The Acer practice test’s don’t even vaguely resemble the difficulty of the actual exam. I don’t mean to discourage anyone, but there is a marked difference. Acer have way fewer really tricky questions than the HPAT – there will be some easy ones – just not enough to bother mentioning! On the other hand, lots of the prep courses are more difficult than the actual exam (which is exactly what you need). I did Med Entry. I don’t want to promote any course and if you look at my previous posts ive never mentioned any course by name before. It’s just that I found the extra questions invaluable. To be fair, it goes totally against the premise of the test that you can improve so much by practicing but it’s undeniably true. I know there are ridiculously expensive but so is repeating and doing a post grad!
8. Be sure you actually want to be studying until you are at least 30( to be a GP), probably 40 years old (to be a consultant). It takes a lot from your life. There are sooo many other occupations that allow you to work with people to help them get better.
Dieticians work in hospitals with people who have diseases like CF and people recovering from surgery. They work as part of a team to treat the patient. But they have regular hours, no nights and no weekends.
Pharmacists also can work in hospitals (especially in the UK and go on rounds with doctors).
9. In trinity we study 3 subjects. Physiology (cells, tissues, systems, organs, organ systems)
Anatomy and Biochemistry. We have lectures 3 days a week.
3 phy lecturea, 3 biochem, 2 anatomy and one Human development, behavioural science and ethics lecture (HDBSE).
We have physiology labs, biochemistry labs, dissections and HDBSE tutorials.
We also have 4 hours of Problem Based Learning a week. In groups of about 10 we read about a case and chat about it. We all make learning goals and come back the next time and have learned about the conditions or issued raised in the case study. average 20 - 30 hours per week but usually 23-24.
Best of luck and of course PM any question
Year 2 now!!
Passed first year
Second year is great - we are in Hospitals one day a week - we learn how to preform cardiovascular, respiratory & abdominal exams. We practice blood taking (fake arm!) looking into ears, eyes, testing urine, blood glucose, history taking with real patients, Basic life support and get to follow consultants and loads of other stuff! Most of the year lOVES it.
Modules are Clinical Biochemistry (practical & interesting - looking at lab results a good bit) Pharmacology - drugs drugs drugs, Anatomy - head & neck, and Molecular Medicine - overview of diseases, cancer and bits and bobs that are important but don't fit in the other 3 .
Christmas exams, scholarship exams and opportunity to go on erasmus next year make it a busy time! Not to mention the Medicine trip to Amsterdam about 300 of us are going on the day after exams!! It's a great life :P
Any questions, PM :P0 -
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That makes perfect sense! I hope we never caused you unnecessary pain, and thank you for letting us learn it's the basics like taking histories that we really rely on the goodwill of patients, like you, to learn.
Ouch, really five?
First of all, I obviously don't know what results everyone in the year received. So take all my surmising with a massive pinch of salt!
Secondly, I think it is a marvellous exam. It undoubtedly broadens the range of students taken in - anything from 525+ secured a place (with sensational HPAT).
I can honestly say that there is no student that sat the HPAT (internationals don't sit it) that I would feel uncomfortable putting in front of a patient.
I can't say what the Med years were like before HPAT as i don't know anyone who hasn't done it! This years & some of last years interns sat it!
Now to the juicy bits...
The people who received 90+ the first time in the HPAT are very balanced. I'm thinking of 5-10 people in particular that have very active social lives, get involved in societies, are never stressed (excessively!) and who really enjoy Medicine and find it interesting.
But, I know people who got 625 and failed christmas and people who got 99% in HPAT and failed Christmas so it is far, far from an exact science.
I think it is easier for first -timers who achieve Medicine. We put less at sake (never having repeated or lost a year) so are less manic about the whole process!
I really believe the HPAT & Leaving should be sat in the same year. If you are to succeed in Medicine you need to be able to juggle both - it is massively unfair that some people can enter competitive courses (dentistry, pharmacy & human nutrition and dietetics) and drop them once they achieve the HPAT. It leaves spaces in essential courses and costs the state millions every year The college can't fill the place but there is space in every lecture & lab, and no-one is paying fee's. It's just a pity, and extremely widespread.
Also, affluent parents can pay for their children to repeat or "tri-peat" (i'm not even joking!) in a grind school and then get into Med ahead of some normal person. There needs to be a discouragement to repeat. I think a points reduction for a repeat LC isn't unreasonable.
Also, the people who came straight from LC represent a wide mix of different backgrounds, and wealths. The people who repeated are almost exclusively rich.
This is quite a long winded answer. In reality, I think my year will make marvellous doctors. Just because some people are more involved in nightlife or societies doesn't mean they will make better doctors. Those who never take their noses out of books may not make an unbelievable doctor either!
I really think it is all about balance!
I really need to stop procrastinating now -- i've five exams next week and they are not going to pass themselves :rolleyes: I hope I kinda answered your question!!0
This discussion has been closed.
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