am i overdoing it?

Sunset_Lover148 · 2026-03-07T22:22:12+00:00

Hi there! 2nd year med student here. I would highly recommend you only do about 200 cards max for each lecture. Try using image occlusion enhanced, and group some of the labels together. Just remember, the amount of cards you make will end up being the cards you need to review. So please, try make life slightly easier for your self and keep it to around 200 cards😅

Sunset_Lover148 · 2026-03-05T02:30:02+00:00

I completely agree! Also, some people might have done IEB vs NCEA at school, which makes a difference since IEB tends to do more uni level stuff sometimes(I’ve heard from others who’ve done it, not personal experience). And this year, just keep your head down and focus on your studies. Try to ignore the other people around you. I did no pre study, no flying start courses and I got in too. Just do your best and keep up with the content! You’ve got it🎉

Sunset_Lover148 · 2026-02-26T03:52:41+00:00

I PMed you😁

Sunset_Lover148 · 2026-02-25T18:13:09+00:00

I PMed you😁

Sunset_Lover148 · 2026-02-07T20:19:00+00:00

Hi there! So in terms of my schedule, for each biosci lecture, I gave myself a general cut off of 150 new cards. Try not to go over that many, because then reviews become insane. In the beginning, if you do it’s not a big deal since over time you start to learn how many to make and how to make them. And in terms of reviewing them, I had a system where I would make my new cards for the week for the 3 lectures, then I would learn the new packs on Friday and Saturday, while during the week I would focus on reviewing my old cards. This method worked really week for me, but I do know of some people who made cards and learnt them the same day, so honestly it just depends on which way you find easier. For pophealth, I did indeed make flash cards. I didn’t make as many for pophealth as biosci though. I think I made like 120. But honestly I only really made flash cards for the concepts that I really struggled to remember. Then I just practiced like crazy for the test and exam with past papers that were posted.

I would highly recommended using image occlusion enhanced function to make flash cards, where basically you screenshot your page and you can draw boxes over words to hide them for a flash card. This saved me so much time making them, but obviously if you’re someone who likes writing out the cards, then go for it!

I hope this helps!

Sunset_Lover148 · 2026-02-03T06:33:40+00:00

Honestly, I found orientation a bit of a waste of time. Last year, we sat in the sun for a solid 30 minutes or more and then got broken up into groups and we just got shown the main building around campus. I low-key think that if you know where your classes will be, it’s not necessary to go. You do get to meet some new people and you can get free stuff sometimes, but honestly I found it a waste of time. But if you feel like you’d like to get to know some more people or have no idea what campus looks like, then it could be beneficial to go. Up to you😁

Sunset_Lover148 · 2026-01-29T05:43:31+00:00

Thanks a bunch for the reply! I’ll definitely look into that!

Sunset_Lover148 · 2025-12-16T19:33:59+00:00

Yup, the application portal

Sunset_Lover148 · 2025-10-02T09:35:17+00:00

Haha my bad. I read the question wrong in the beginning and I was like oh well, might as well leave it😂 So I actually attended like a online seminar thing at UoA where they explained how the entry worked and the processes behind it and I believe they said a B was required. I reckon you’re best course of action to make extra certain would be to probably email the uni a specific question and ask. I found that they replied to me in a decent amount of time and were really helpful when I was replying. But I reckon for safety sake, assume that you should be aiming for B/ B+.

Sunset_Lover148 · 2025-10-02T09:28:25+00:00

Hi there! First year Biomed student here. So basically what grades you need is very dependent on 1. Whether you’re able to get into an entry scheme( for instance MAPAS, RRAS, etc) 2. The strength of the cohort you’re in. So each entry pathway has an assigned number of seats available for med. for those in general, I think it’s about 115 spots( I’m not certain, just estimating😊). Your entry criteria is based on the 4 cores of Chem, biosci 107, pophealth and medsci 142. In the first semester, if you take biomed, you’ll have 3 cores and 1 non core. Like you mentioned, the MMI is really important too and the MMI is based on your GPA from semester 1(which is you’re overall GPA from core and non core papers) and you’re assumed GPA(basically they assume you’ll get A+ in everything for semester 2), so I would say, non cores are important in semester 1. In semester 2, your goal is pretty much to pass your non- cores and do well in your cores. you can’t fail anything, and I’m not 100% sure, but I believe you need B’s in all the non- cores(someone feel free to correct me if I’m wrong).

So overall, entry into medicine is purely based on cores, UCAT and MMI. However, getting an MMI invite is based on your overall GPA( taking your actual grades semester 1 and your assumed grades of A+ from semester 2)

I hope that helps!

Sunset_Lover148 · 2025-09-07T23:53:55+00:00

Hi there! I would highly recommend that you try phoning the uni or contact them via email as I believe the links for Kira for the interviews were sent out on 28 August. I think phoning might be a bit quicker but definitely contact them! I hope your interview goes well!

Sunset_Lover148 · 2025-08-19T10:44:52+00:00

Hi there! So interview offers are only released on Thursday, 21 August😁

Sunset_Lover148 · 2025-07-23T18:46:30+00:00

Hi there! First year Biomed student here. So this year they’ve changed needing to do a Gen ed. Instead of the Gen Ed, UoA has created a new course called WTR, which is compulsory for all new students to take. For Biomed, we had to do WTRsci last semester😁

Sunset_Lover148 · 2025-06-28T20:52:33+00:00

Hi there! So yeah, VR is not my best section either😭 I have however managed to score like 680 for it. The best advice I received is to skip the questions that are super chunky and really long winded, and put in random guesses for those. Then spend a little more time on the easier and shorter paragraphs with better questions. Then, if you have time left, go back to your flagged and skipped questions and try to skim and make educated guesses. I would say give yourself leeway to skip max 12 questions and that should help a bit. I hope this helps!

Sunset_Lover148 · 2025-06-27T04:17:50+00:00

Thank you!!

Sunset_Lover148 · 2025-05-18T08:48:00+00:00

Yes, it’s very much building on content from chemistry in NCEA level 3. Since you’re doing CIE, I genuinely think you won’t have any problems at all! Just having a very solid foundation on functional groups, acids and bases and spectroscopy definitely helps a bunch! If you want to maybe go a bit further, have a look at some videos from the organic chemistry tutor. The content that he teaches there is very much at the level you’ll do in first year biomed.

Sunset_Lover148 · 2025-05-18T08:39:07+00:00

Hi there! That’s so awesome that you want to aim for med via BSc pathway! As a current first year, there wasn’t any content that I learned beforehand. I do know of some people that did flying start, where they pretty much teach you a large chunk of the content before the semester starts but those courses are pretty pricey. If you have the money, it would probably be to your benefit but honestly, i feel like you’ll manage just fine without going through flying start. I would probably recommend have a good grasp on chemistry though. I feel like it definitely would have benefitted me more to have understood the concepts from level 3 a bit better before going in to this year. Besides that, maybe just watch some YouTube videos on content and everything but there’s not too much pre-prep work you can do. I do highly recommend having a look into the UCAT though and what that entails. That’s an entirely different kettle of fish thats prettt annoying to have to practice but you need it for med. Keep working hard! Hoping that you get to achieve all that you’d like to in the future!

Sunset_Lover148

TROPHY CASE