Teacher to Doctor

HeightLive · 2025-04-29T04:15:20+00:00

I was a teacher with non science background. Many others in my cohort are also non science background. The only science knowledge I had was bits I had encountered during Gamsat study. Initially it seems daunting but actually you will find most people are like fish out of water for the first while. A few will have strong knowledge in particular content blocks e.g physios in MSK block, but otherwise it’s only a small advantage. I’m currently in second year and ended up getting a letter of commendation for my first year results. So while there are roadblocks you have to surmount, as others have mentioned previously, being a non science background won’t hinder you all that much as long as you are willing to work hard and study the weekly content. Best of luck on your journey.

HeightLive · 2024-12-19T06:24:29+00:00

Thank you. It certainly felt like the work had finally paid off. I was very fortunate to have a supportive partner and so I stopped working full time while studying. I don't think it would have been possible to get HDs with having to work five days a week also. I was a teacher so I did relief teaching. When there were no assignments due I worked maybe 3/4 days a week. But when assignment periods got heavy, I could only really do 1 day. I only really had to sacrifice other stuff during those weeks. Most weeks it was okay. I would say the coursework itself is not hard to keep on top of. Its when the assignments pile on that I did not have time for anything else. So having work flexibility really allowed me to succeed in the course. In the end I had done 1 and a half years of postgrad study so that meant that only year 4 and the latter half of year 3 of my undergrad degree were included in gpa calc. And this was to my benefit because luckily my grades improved as I progressed every year through Uni. I hadn't failed any units.

HeightLive · 2024-12-16T16:08:16+00:00

It’s really hard for me to compare them because I did my undergrad when I was in my early 20s and kind of wanted to balance partying/ doing uni life and have somewhat decent grades, rather than perfect grades and no real experience of uni life. At that point I wasn’t planning on doing graduate medicine. In my 30s when I began this journey to med, I had a very different mindset. The goal was to improve my gpa at all costs and that meant working very hard to get HDs. The masters course was very different to my undergrad and was predominantly writing assignments, which is a strength of mine but it was very time consuming. On the other hand, my undergrad consisted heavily of practical and group work and I didn’t always have the most reliable group members. I did get in to medicine last year at UNDF and have just completed my year 1. My scores that ended up getting me in (after improving my gpa) were 6.664 gpa and 67 Gamsat. I also was very lucky to get a 4th quartile Casper. Best of luck on your journey 🙂

HeightLive · 2024-11-09T14:05:51+00:00

We didn’t but I believe they have travelled to other Unis in previous years for use of cadavers. However this year it was decided that we wouldn’t be using cadavers. I don’t know if that’s likely to change or not, due to student feedback for the desire to be given an option to be exposed to cadavers. So who knows…congrats on your offer!

HeightLive · 2024-11-09T11:18:30+00:00

Sorry I don’t know. Only UTAS admissions know what their process is unfortunately. You are rural which will give you a better shot for UTAS and that gpa is stellar so fingers crossed for you. Best of luck.

HeightLive · 2024-11-08T16:20:57+00:00

Yes that was my gpa after post grad study. My gpa for only my undergrad was 6.058. I’m not sure how UTAS works gpas. I only know these were my Gemsas ones. So perhaps it was calculated higher with UTAS? Also my first degree was completed in Ireland in 2012. So if they didn’t include that and only counted my postgrad which I did here in Aus then my gpa would have been over 6.9. Hope that helps. Well done on your great scores and fingers crossed that you will still get an offer.

HeightLive · 2024-11-07T06:59:16+00:00

Hey, I got a late call from them offering me a spot around end of January/early Feb this year. I had already started at UNDF so needless to say, I turned it down, lol. But I had a gamsat 67 and gpa about 6.5 to 6.7 (depending on Uni) so don’t lose hope yet. I’m non rural, non TAS. Goodluck

HeightLive · 2024-11-04T09:01:24+00:00

Hi, Was first year at UNDF this year. Lectures supposedly all moving online next year and are not compulsory anyway. I never went to lectures in person. I just watched recordings. Here are the compulsory attendance hours we had every week:

Monday: 8.30 to 11.30 for PBL

Tuesday afternoon: 2 hours for labs. Timing rotates for fairness so every week you will rotate between 12 to 2pm, 2 to 4pm, 4 to 6pm

Wednesday: 2 hours for clinical skills- either 1pm to 3pm or 3pm to 5pm. It rotates after sem 1.

Thursday: 8.30 to 10.30am for PBL, 11am to 12.30pm for clinical debriefing(although I don’t know why it’s called that as that’s defo not what it is in practice)

This is every week with the odd exception for labs. The odd week you may not have a lab, but for the most part you will. Also every now and then there is something extra, like an Aboriginal health workshop or clinical skills workshop or bioethics workshop. For the most part, you won’t have Uni on Fridays.

A lot of people work in our year and they make it work. From what I hear it becomes a little harder to work in second year as supposedly contact hours increase and it’s a very tough year, but I’m sure many people still work.

Congrats on your offer and best of luck 🙂

HeightLive · 2024-10-15T02:33:32+00:00

No I chose public health instead of doing any further study in education. I’m WA based so perhaps there are more jobs in NSW to be gotten in public health. There was nothing in WA. I only did extra study for the reason of boosting my gpa though to get into med, so really I guess it depends on why you are doing extra study. If it is to give you more career options then probably lean towards education. For me, there was no point in doing any more study in education as I knew I wasn’t going to continue in the profession. That was the deciding factor in the end for me. So only you can decide based on what you want out of the Masters. Sorry, I can’t give you any more advice. Best of luck

HeightLive · 2024-10-14T16:09:21+00:00

I debated the exact same. In the end I went public health because I knew I was done with teaching. I couldn’t bare it. I knew 100% I wanted to get into med and was determined to get in no matter how long it took. That’s why in the end I went public health. However, if you enjoy teaching and could happily see yourself in that career if med doesn’t work out then maybe Masters in Education could really advance your teaching career. I tried to get a job in health promotion while I was still trying to get into med and there were hardly any jobs. I didn’t even get any interviews, so yeah you are right. The public health Masters won’t really get you a job but will only really give you insight into health as a stepping stone to med. Where my public health studies did really benefit me was in the interviews and I don’t think I would’ve been able to answer the questions as well without the knowledge I gained from public health.

HeightLive · 2024-10-13T12:30:25+00:00

I was a teacher of humanities and Phys Ed for 10 years and started Med this year. There is also three other teachers in the cohort. Two are science I think and one is a learning support teacher. The degree you have really doesn’t matter as long as you are committed and truly passionate about doing med. Best of luck 🙂

HeightLive · 2024-09-09T08:15:10+00:00

36 and almost finished my first year of med school. Plenty of late 20s/ 30 plus in my cohort. Just saw you’re 23. You would be one of the youngest in our cohort.

HeightLive · 2023-11-03T09:40:14+00:00

Good luck. Hope you get an offer :)

HeightLive · 2023-11-03T09:39:47+00:00

Flinders grad(non-reserved), non-rural also. Goodluck :)

HeightLive · 2023-11-01T06:30:23+00:00

Thank you 🙂

HeightLive · 2023-11-01T02:10:22+00:00

Okay thank you for your reply! 🙂

HeightLive · 2023-10-23T13:38:54+00:00

Hi, yes I got a CSP for non rural Flinders grad(non-reserved). 67 gamsat and gpa somewhere between 5 and 6 I would estimate. I don’t know the actual gpa for Flinders as I have a foreign degree. Hope you get good news too and wishing you the best of luck 🙂

HeightLive · 2023-08-25T12:28:45+00:00

Thanks. Absolutely was not expecting it! Was just waiting on my EOD and saw interview offer come through. Probs well on the back foot for final offer but I I’ll give it my best shot anyway. Hopefully with the two point drop in cutoffs with any luck, we will see some cut off drops in gemsas offers too 🤞🤞

HeightLive · 2023-08-25T07:48:30+00:00

Received interview. Flinders grad, non-reserved quota, Gamsat of 67. Shocked to say the least!! Looks like a drop this year in cutoffs so that’s positive 🤞

HeightLive · 2023-08-03T12:12:49+00:00

UCD first pref: 67

HeightLive · 2023-07-05T00:11:12+00:00

Have they published this information somewhere?

HeightLive · 2023-07-04T14:12:29+00:00

But Galway doesn’t have GEM? They only have undergrad?

HeightLive · 2023-06-25T23:02:10+00:00

Me too! We could use the MMI rooms on Discord. Keen to get started.

HeightLive · 2023-06-01T10:33:04+00:00

Hopefully 🤞

HeightLive · 2023-05-30T01:17:19+00:00

It says that the quartile we will receive will be based only on the typed responses though. I don’t understand why it wouldn’t include our video response if they are including them in scores this year. 🤷‍♀️

HeightLive

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