#macrobpostschool

Hey there,

If you are applying for any program that is basically not overseas or doesn’t have special entry requirements (ie. the viewing of your transcript), then it will not affect your atar. This is because for the large majority of courses all that is assessed is your atar. As ½ subjects do not directly affect your atar, this will not affect your entrance to university. This is because your atar is only calculated with your study score from the ¾ subjects you complete. So one N will not affect anything.

Hope this helps!

Love,

Hey,

Check out the answer here: http://friendsatmacrob.tumblr.com/post/178999043572/anyone-applying-for-dent-at-la-trobe-have-you

Hey,

I have put it as my first preference but as the cut-off selection rank was 98.9 last year, I honestly am not sure whether I will get in. I haven’t applied for residency yet, but probably will later because if I do get in, I will be living on campus.

Hey,

We’re sorry to hear you’ve been feeling this way. Sometimes the stresses from school and parents can make us feel like we’ve wasted our time, but please don’t think that you’ve wasted your life! There’s such a bright future ahead of you and remember, school is just one tiny portion in comparison to all the wonderful things you’ve yet to do. In the meantime, maybe try finding joy and areas to focus and excel in other than school, whether that be something creative or maybe a sport etc. I feel a similar way to you about school, skipped many classes, only studying when I feel like it, which is usually just to pass a SAC, but just stick it through, you’re almost there! Get that VCE graduation certificate thing and go out there and pursue YOUR interests, do something that’ll make YOU happy, because your parents will be happy if they see you’re happy.

What I always tell myself is to just deal with the fact that I didn’t drop out earlier, but when I get out of high school, I’m gonna hit that grind, work my ass off and live my best life to make up for all the wasted time in high school. I don’t have a great plan for my future or how I’m going to do it but I’m motivated and smart-ish (can’t be too conceited), I’ll make it work somehow, and I’m sure you will too!

While on the topic of future, I suggest that’d be good to talk to the careers counsellors about where you may want to head into in the future, they’re here to help us with that, especially if you have no clue.

Super sorry this is a really late reply, but I hope you feel a bit better after reading this :))

Hey!

For quite a few of us this is the first we’ve heard of the UCAT. So for anyone else wondering the UCAT stands for University Clinical Aptitude Test and, as you said, will replace the UMAT from 2019 onwards.

The testing is similar to UMAT and sitting the test online is kind of nice in the sense that it gives students more flexibility into when they want to sit the test. The results from the test are delivered immediately after the completion of the test which can be either more or less daunting depending on how you look at it we suppose. At the end of the day, the UCAT still holds the same purpose as the UMAT.

We wish everyone who is considering this the best of luck as this is the first time it’ll be implemented in Australia.

Love,

Hey there,

So, any information relating to programs/opportunities outside Mac.Rob (such as Godstowe/Gap year related) can be found under our #macrobpostschool tag - so check that out!

To help you out, you can check out the following links (tagged under #macrobpostschool)

http://friendsatmacrob.tumblr.com/post/176224624487/curious-to-know-how-many-people-applied-for

http://friendsatmacrob.tumblr.com/post/162974397287/hi-just-wondering-if-anyone-applied-for-the-adf

http://friendsatmacrob.tumblr.com/post/153899799422/hey-fam-just-wondering-if-any-of-you-are-taking-a

http://friendsatmacrob.tumblr.com/post/151001257592/hey-fam-just-wondering-if-the-people-at-godstowe

http://friendsatmacrob.tumblr.com/post/147427983907/hey-fam-just-wondering-is-godstowe-only-for-18

If you can’t find what you’re looking for here, definitely email one of us individually and we can see what we can do to help otherwise it might be worthwhile to ask any year level coordinator.

Hope this helps!

Hey there,

We posted a question recently regarding our experiences with UMAT and the link is here:

http://friendsatmacrob.tumblr.com/post/178169549222/so-how-were-your-umat-scores

In terms of preparing for it, here is what some of us did:

FAM Member 1: My friend gave me her MedEntry and I did a couple of the drills and exams to familiarise myself with the sorts of questions. I only really started 2 weeks before UMAT. I’d recommend doing a couple of full exams so you know roughly how long you should spend on each question.

FAM Member 2: Some people begin preparation years beforehand. Some people start a few weeks before. So that you’re comfortable with the type of questions on the UMAT it’s best to have a regular study schedule at least two weeks before the UMAT. As long as you go into the UMAT knowing what your game plan is: what questions to do, how to answer them, what to do when you come across a difficult question, etc, then any amount of prep time should be fine. I recommend practising with the ACER practise tests a few weeks/nights beforehand so you’re familiarised with the layout and types of questions you’ll have to answer (however, keep in mind that some people find the practise tests easier than the actual thing). MedEntry is recommended in that it contains many, many practise questions with answers which are generally much harder than the ACER ones. I did ICanMed which has a different approach in that they categorised questions in order to learn techniques in dealing with each one (they have free workshops you can attend to see what they offer), and that it’s better to know how to answer a question as opposed to mindlessly doing practise questions over and over. See if you can go through someone else’s account (in external prep programs) before you decide to pay for one because they’re pretty expensive imo. Our school library has a bunch of books with practise UMAT questions as well.

Love,

Hey there,

Similar to ATARs, the UMAT is a very personal thing in which students decide whether or not to share their score. Everyone has a different experience with it. Some decide to open their scores with their friends, whilst others wish to open them alone or with with their family members. It is sometimes the case, that whilst one friend opens their score in front of the other, the other friend may not reciprocate that feeling - instead they may want to open their scores alone.  It is important that we respect the privacy of each of the individuals that have undertaken the UMAT, regardless of our curiosity to know their scores, and give them time and space to process their results.

FAM Member 1: Hey! My scores were definitely lower than I wanted but honestly going into it I did no prep so I wasn’t surprised. Honestly it was section three that brought my score down so if you’re going to do the UMAT in the future definitely familiarise yourself with those sorts of questions. It definitely still hurt getting a pretty low score though, as I won’t be applying to some universities that I initially wanted to apply for. However I am still indecisive so I guess I’ll have a better idea of what I want to study next year.

FAM Member 2: Hey there, my UMAT scores were a definite shock to me, given how much effort I put into preparation. And it took me a while to overcome the feelings of disappointment and shock, and I realised that it really isn’t the end of the world. So right now I am re-thinking my uni options and figuring out different pathways to get into med. If there is anything I took away from my experience is to get adequate sleep the night before the UMAT because I definitely think that played a big part in my score, and also to not have a concrete plan, because you never know how things will play out.

FAM Member 3: Heyo, check out this website for other people’s scores: https://medstudentsonline.com.au/forum/threads/umat-2018-results-discussion.34997/

I wasn’t expecting much but my score was lower than what I needed to get into the medical course I wanted so I guess it’s more confirmation? Surprisingly, I did the best in section 3 which was the worst one I scored in for every practise test I did. How well you do on the UMAT compared to someone else differs only between a few marks. It’s disappointing to know that I was a few marks below a pass but what’s done is done.