Medical students/interns/Doctors - UMAT and the like advice?

[bitterbro]

I'm currently sitting a course to aid me with the UMAT this year. Ideally i want to study medicine, but i feel the UAI is a bit out of reach, none the less i'm going to sit the UMAT just incase i fluke it. Part of the course i did today, our lecturer gave me a few questions to ask some interns or med students.

Feedback to these would be really appreciated, and general jottings about your view on this path would be appreciated

What's it like? Do you enjoy it? Pros and Cons.
How long do you work each week?
When do you get a break?
What's your social life like?

And these, i'm just keen to know
How did you score in your last year of school? (VCE, HSC etc.)
Did you do a UMAT course? Did you think it helped?
How long is your course?

 

[gorskyforpm]

Hey mate - I'm a sixth year at Adelaide uni, just starting to apply for intern positions. Not a doctor until December but been around the traps long enough to get the general idea.

What's it like? Do you enjoy it? Pros and Cons.'

Haha. Well like any profession med is awesome if it is what you really want to do. If its not, then it would suck, especially due to the long course, long hours and large amounts of study to do at home. I personally enjoy it and dont mind the long course especially because at the end people will trust you (and expect you) to know what to do when the shit hits the fan. Dont do it for the money - there are easier ways to make cash, and there isnt much of it until you are a consultant, which normally would take a minimum of 13-14 years after you finish school. But you get paid after the first 5-6

How long do you work each week?

At the moment I am expected to do an interns job so I am mainly there from 8-5pm. Once you qualify it depends what job you are in. If you are a GP you can work part time and 9-5pm, but a junior registrar for instance in orthopaedics in a big referral hospital can clock up 150+ hours a fortnight (sounds bad i know - but at $35+ dollars an hour overtime it adds up bloody quick, and you have no time to spend it!) As a student you can do as little or as much as you want - The way I explain it is that the work that you do is no harder than any other degree, there is just a lot of it.

When do you get a break?

All the time. You get holidays same as everyone else. When finals come up you find you will feel guilty for having a break but its good for your sanity. Once you are qualified different jobs have different hours.

What's your social life like?

Contrary to popular belief med students are some of the hardest partiers on the uni scene, as exemplified by the debaucherous beer-fest that is the national convention, this year in Melbourne. Med schools as a rule have pretty close knit groups and they are all of the people you will see for 5 years so the social life tends to be pretty good.


UAI - for me was 95% - low when you are talking about med students but UAI isnt everything. There are several people in my year who have failed and have scored a UAI of 100. The duxes of the med school last year wouldnt even have got in to med school if the cutoff was still 99.95%.

UMAT course - I did one and I think it did help despite what they say, especially for the last section with that rubbish pattern matching thing. I think they give you a chance to practice the exam - they dont tell you the answers but they give you more of an idea of what to expect.

Course - mine is 6 years, as is UNSW. I know that Newcastle and Monash are 5 years, and cant remember the others. Postgrad courses (Sydney, UQ, Flinders, ANU etc) are 4 years.

Hope that helps mate.

 

[STS01]

I'm an Anaesthesia / Intensive Care Registrar. I went to Newcastle Uni and graduated in '03.

I'd say gorskyforpm has covered it pretty well so I'll just add some info about work (rather than Uni) to it...

What's it like? Do you enjoy it? Pros and Cons.
You have more choices in Medicine than almost any other career I can think of- I know people doing public health etc who have almost a total office job while I work in OT, ICU and on the rescue chopper. Others I know are doing GP, surgery, ED, ophthalmology etc.

I definitely enjoy it but I think most of us would admit there are hard times and good times. This applies to both your time at Uni as well as working.

Lots of the time it is fun, exciting and satisfying. You will have periods where the amount of stress and work can be overwhelming and there's a good chance you will be involved in some sad and tragic stuff (every intern has to do ED etc).

Pro:
-interesting
-Positive contribution to society (mostly- i guess you could become a plastic surgeon for the Yakuza or something)
-Well paid (mainly once you are a consultant)
-Work with a good group of people
-Nurses

Con:
-Uni is long and lots of work. Hard to fit in much paid work if you are supporting yourself.
-training as a registrar is expensive, hard work and the exams are a BITCH
-May have to move around for Uni / work / training etc
-Some jobs have bad hours and lots of social disruption
-Nurses

How long do you work each week?
Anaesthetics: usually 40-50 hours a week. About every 3rd weekend. A week of nights each term.
ICU: 'week-on / week-off' 7x13hr shifts (8am-9pm or 8pm-9am) then have 7 days off.
As an intern and RMO it depends a lot on what term you're doing. it's not unusual in a busy term to do 90 hours a week...

When do you get a break?
See above

What's your social life like?
Great. As gorskyforpm said Med students have a well deserved reputation for partying and this usually carries on into working life. Despite the boring doctor stereotypes most are very much the opposite- they usually have multiple other interests, hobbies etc. In the last couple of weeks we've had the regular "End of Term" drinks, 2 seperate bands playing who are mostly Docs and Med students, 3 bike rides (there are about 15 regular riders I know from work) and a couple of casual pub sessions


How did you score in your last year of school? (VCE, HSC etc.)
I think I had a TER about 90 but I worked for a few years and did 2 years of another degree first. As gorskyforpm said high school success doesn't necessarily equate to med school success. I was a pretty ordinary school student but got honours in med, probably because I enoyed it and it was interesting.

Did you do a UMAT course? Did you think it helped?
No but I've talked to a few people who have and they found it helpful. I think if you really want to get in then do everything you can to improve your chances.

How long is your course?
Newcastle is 5 years undergrad

Hope that helps.



PS- You could have a normal job.

Or...

 

[del]

I did the UMAT last year. Did no prep couse however I did do the practice q's off the website and a few of my mates practice exams who did a course. Three questions on the acer website actually turned up on the exam so they are worth a look. I got 100,90-something and 92 for the 3 sections respectively with an overall percentile of 99. MedEntry is supposed to be the best going around, they give you soooooo many practice questions. If you like i can try and dig up the image files from when i screenshotted the practice exams??

The biggest help in the practice exams was learning the style of question they might ask and learning what to look for in particular in terms of traps etc, though the actual exams was in a slightly different style, especially section 3.

I ended up choosing commerce over med in my preferences though, so I don't know about the course at monash or melbourne. It's pretty full on my mates tell me.

Theres some australian medical student forums I came across looking for prep material- has umat, interview etc everything in it. can't remember the name but google might.