ephemeral youth

Being a medical student is truly a privilege, but to be one studying abroad, is a truly satisfying and even more privileged experience, you get to be exposed to a different culture, and have your world views expanded, and some interesting stories to take home, at that ;) 

In being so, there are more steps to be taken being a twinning student compared to being in a local program. For example, you need to have a band 7.5 in your ielts and above to qualify for the twinning program. And your cert has to have a validity of 2 years until commencement of studies abroad, that means if your ielts expires 6 months before you’re to study abroad you’ll have to retake it :(  (thankfully in my case, my cert expired in August 2019, but I was still able to apply for my visa without having to retake it, my visa application counsellor helped me with it fuss-free; check below for info i.e. aecc global malaysia) 

I was initially in the undergraduate (PMS-UG) program but appealed a few months before I was supposed to start my UG studies in Dundee. I changed my mind because I can’t take the cold gloomy weather in North of Scotland. I will literally freeze to death and I love the sun too much, the way the heat and intensity strikes my skin giving that good ol loving Vit D. I knew Australia was my place. I wouldn’t last a year out North of Scotland. So I appealed to changed from the UG to G pathway. Plunging myself suddenly into the graduate program, came with a lot of confusion and uncertainty, and truly, a lot of doubts and was pretty scary. But thankfully I had my supportive family behind me. 

Tips before choosing your project: 

Choose wisely, choose one which interests you. Choose your supervisor well. Make sure you get along well with your supervisor and have one you truly are able to collaborate with and one who answers your doubts well and doesn’t ghost you, and who helps you along the way. Check for red flags when you meet them before you choose your project. I have had a friend in the same batch as me whose project was on biochemistry and nanoparticles and so he had 2 main supervisors, a bio and a chemistry supervisor. But his chemistry nanoparticle supervisor wasn’t there 90% of the time and didn’t check his dissertation before it was to be submitted, reason being he was busy. My friend had very little support and was extra stressed most of the time because of it. You don’t want this happening to you. And mind you, my friend’s project was really tough... coming from a medical background I felt as if he was doing scientist stuff. Totally incomprehensible. Choose a project which you are quite certain you’ll be able to present well later on in your research findings presentation and viva. Because you will do better if you feel like you understand your project at least to a certain degree. For me it was doing a project that had clinical value to it. 

Assessment components to note for Honours in your BMedScience degree to met the criteria to twin to unsw. 

1. Defence of research protocol (10%) 

2. Written examination (10%) 

3. Research findings in seminar (10%)

4. Dissertation (60%) 

5. Viva voce (10%) 

Components 1,3 and 5 are graded out of 10, therefore depending on your sem 3 and 5 results you can gauge how much you need to achieve in each component to make sure you meet the overall Honours result. 

The written examination paper has a total mark of 100 and are 10 questions with long-answer and short-answer questions and some are essay-style questions. As long as you master understanding the lectures in BMedSc you’ll be able to achieve flying colours. Always discuss with your lecturers your concerns before the paper, and you’ll definitely do better. 

In the Defence of research protocol component, you will basically be explaining to a panel of judges (10 or more) with a PowerPoint presentation, what your project is about and why it is of value and why you should research it. Introduction, Literature review and Methods are the bulk of your presentation. There’s Q&A at the end.

In the Research of findings in seminar component, you will be explaining, like above, in Powerpoint presentation style to a panel of 3 judges (might vary) about the results of your research. Methods, Results and Discussion are the bulk of your presentation. And there’s Q&A at the end. 

Your dissertation is a 20,000 word thesis on your project, follow all the guidelines in the BMedSc handbook.

In the viva-voce component, you’ll be talking about your dissertation with 2-3 examiners for 20 minutes and there will be Q&As.

It can all seem very challenging at first, but looking back in retrospect, I wonder why I put myself through so much anxiety with my daily struggles with all the presentations required in BMedScience and especially my negative mental self talk. If you can relate, I’m here to tell you, don’t fret it, maybe sweat some, but do what you’re supposed to do, and you’ll be a-okay! :) 

Class of Honours

First class: > 75.00%

Second class upper: 65.00% to 74.99%

Second class lower: 55.00% to 64.99%

Third class: 50.00% to 54.99%

Fail: < 50.00%

After completing research and getting your results, and achieving second upper class and above for honours, there are 3 main things on your checklist. 

1. Visa applications (online): this can take from 2 weeks and up to a month to process

2. Biometrics (immediate results and they upload it to your visa application, done at the YMCA building in KL)

3. Health check ups (done in Bangsar South and the results take about a week+ to show, and you’ll have to link these in your visa application) 

I sought the help of a visa application company for free, and you can do so too by messaging them on facebook at “AECC Global Malaysia” . The lady which helped me with my application was super sweet, her name is Ms Tan Mei Pei.   

The website for visa applications will be given via IMU. I started with visa applications on 2nd Jan with AECC’s help and was lucky to be able to finalise all of these within 2 weeks. 

By now you’d have received emails from UNSW about compliance check documents. These are health and police check documents needed to ensure you are not a health and security hazard in the clinical environment as you’ll be exposed to patients. The compliance check documents consists of certificate of good conduct from your home country (these take about a month to process so make sure you plan accordingly), vaccinations to Hep B, Diptheria, Pertussis and Tetanus, Varicella Zoster, and measles mumps rubella (MMR) and TB screening such as Interferon Gamma Release Assay (IGRA) or Tuberculin skin test are compulsory. These are independent of and separate from your visa health check.