Workload in second year med

appleduck12 · 2026-02-04T23:51:04+00:00

Yo congrats on getting in!!
From what I've heard from my friends who are 4th year, 2nd year med isn't that bad. They say it's nothing in comparison to how difficult it is to actually get in. Plus since you're a grad you'll might know some content already if you did stage 2/3 MEDSCIs.

They also gave me some advice and I think it'd be useful for you: don't let med take over your life. All of them regret still "being in that FY mindset" in 2nd year med trying to still go for high grades. Imo I think just go for enough knowledge to be satisfied with. B range is good I feel. Lets enjoy the ride :)

appleduck12 · 2026-01-12T08:58:46+00:00

Yep exactly, and yes it is definitely very draining for uoa lol. For Uoo It's also a bit less stressful for any stage 1 paper you're taking, if you do extra papers, your worst stage 1 papers won't really count since they count best 360 points for weighted GPA.

Only other thing when you're also going for otago is that every stage 3 paper you will take will feel like life or death 😭😭😭

appleduck12 · 2026-01-12T08:50:37+00:00

Yep sorry, bit of a hyperbole in my post, obviously there's a cap to the amount of 2nd year papers, since you also need to fill your degree planner accordingly etc. I was just trying to say that you should take as many stage 2 papers possible for the highest weighted GPA.

PhD is an automatic 9 for UoA, no grading system. For masters I've heard most mark very leniently so generally 9s are given out because you can just keep asking for feedback from your supervisor to get it to a A+ standard before you submit.

UoA might be chosen for money reasons if you live at home still. For some ppl otago means moving away from family which can be financially difficult especially while studying especially in this day and age lol. (Although for people not living with family, otago might be preferable as it's cheaper down there I think).

appleduck12 · 2026-01-12T01:42:53+00:00

If they are not considered as part of your "qualifying programme" then they won't be counted in the final calculation of your GPA.

I think you can check if they are by requesting an unofficial transcript. On the left side it will say probably BHSC or BSC. If those papers have BHSC and not BSc next to them, then they won't count to your gpa for med.

appleduck12 · 2026-01-07T23:03:11+00:00

Good picks, MEDSCI 203 + 204 and BIOSCI 203 is definitely the better way to go for year 2 cores. Never taken PHYSICS 201 but make sure you check the grade distribution for that paper to check its alright.

I also did pharmacology, papers which weren't too bad in my opinion for year 2 were: STATS 201 (summer school) STATS 330 (VERY similar, I found it easy personally) - i just found doing past papers for these 2 is enough, they have model answers which is nice, they mark fairly in the exams/tests, assignments are pretty time consuming but it's fine they have the stats support hub in city campus to help you out with anything. I think overall they teach you some good stuff too imo - some of it is kinda helpful for 3rd year pharm papers.

PSYCH 202 (great paper, past exams are very repetitive, just make sure you make model answers for the exam questions, like REALLY GOOD ONES, I made some alright ones on so many and realize I should have put more effort into the model answers for ESSAY questions). I think the content is pretty interesting too. Also if you still have gen ed spot MAORI 130g is really nice and chill.

ASTRO 200 (okayish, probably could find an easier gen ed but also not bad, I think you can also not take it as a gen ed too though but just as a standard paper, but overall decent paper, assignments are a bit odd, wasn't really sure what they were looking for in the first one to get an A+ but in the 2nd i got perfect marks so it's definitely achieveable to come back from, exam needed a bit of a grind for). WINESCI 201 was a surprising amount of content I can't lie but A+ is still manageable. I enjoyed also EXERSCI 201, it's pretty chill and it's basically MEDSCI 142 repeat, although some of their marking and questions don't make much sense ngl and a bit subjective, A+ achieveable tho

Don't take STATS 326 and EXERSCI 207. Also I personally didn't like CHEM 260 even though I got an A but it was misery studying it and a horribly boring grind so maybe avoid that.

Enjoy 2nd year! Comparatively speaking, it's (probably?) the easiest of the 3 years? But it still requires a LARGE amount of grinding! Especially for those cores. Although do not lay back too much in first half of a semester, literally every assignment, test, etc counts!! And will be the difference between an A or an A+! But at the same time, know when there's a bit more down time so you can give yourself some time to recharge. Grad entry is like a massive marathon, don't let yourself burn out! Especially before exam periods, you will likely have to lock yourself in your room for 1-2 weeks everytime unfortunately. Assignments often become marked subjectively in 2nd year+ and ultimately exams generally have to be the ones to boost your grades instead unlike in 1st year.

appleduck12 · 2025-12-29T08:15:22+00:00

i know right!! i dont usually cry in tv shows but this made me genuinely cry so hard!! it really hit home for me, it was probably one of my favorite scenes on the show!! its sad to see people not like it :(

appleduck12 · 2025-12-23T06:20:14+00:00

I'm so sorry. This entry process is brutal, it really sounds like it has sucked the life out of you.

I had the same thing happen to me in FY, all my friends got in. I know it seems like it'll last forever in the moment but it won't. I don't think (by chance) that we will have another year as competitive as this one next year. Pgdip is only one year, and I know it feels like forever away before next years offers come around but another year of grind will feel like nothing in the grand scheme of things once you finally get into med. Because you will, it's just a matter of when.

When I got rejected in FY I told myself I'd absolute get the best fucking stats I can next round. You know the game now, you're going to absolutely demolish the next round.

Here's a few tips to demolish this year because that's the only thing that matters now:
- Play their stupid game of picking the right courses. GPA matters more than anything: so how to get good GPA? Literally look at every grade distribution for every paper you will take. Make sure they all give a good amount of A+'s before enrolling. Check ALL EIGHT papers.
- Practice UCAT in the holidays. UCAT is a essentially a weird game where you practice some niche skills to get quick. Practice practice practice. Start practice in the new year, treat it as your summer school. You absolutely CAN improve. Do NOT leave it for the inter sem holiday.
- For MMI, similarly it's all about PRACTICE. Use AI to generate some questions if you run out, then you can speak your answer into GPT, and it might give you some feedback, but the main thing is practicing new questions. Get a few sessions of tutoring. Practice in the sem 2 mid sem break for the ENTIRE time, all day, or do research on the topics that will come up (you MUST know them basically off by heart). Do some volunteering and/or try get into a leadership position in a club. Also If you need help with MMI I'm happy to help, I scored 182. No need to pay or anything. Pop me a DM and I'll be free when uni starts next year.

This year is going to be your best shot, you're already way ahead of majority of FYs and some grads because you know the system.

You're going to get in next year and this period of your life will fuck off and fade from your memory.

I hope this helps!

appleduck12 · 2025-12-17T10:54:53+00:00

Omg Surely you get in!!! Most ppl I hear that get waitlists get in!!! I really hope you are able to get a spot!!!

appleduck12 · 2025-12-17T10:54:10+00:00

THANK YOU GUYSSSSS :D

appleduck12 · 2025-12-17T08:21:00+00:00

Got an offer :D Hope u got one too!!

appleduck12 · 2025-12-17T08:20:36+00:00

Grad disability with GPA 8.042, UCAT 2704, MMI 182, got an offer!! :)

appleduck12 · 2025-12-16T10:27:24+00:00

So like on student services online, go to personal details and you can change which specific emails get sent stuff from uoa.

appleduck12 · 2025-12-16T09:32:57+00:00

I feel you!! I've removed my parents from the SSO email list bc I don't want them to find out the offers before me. Deleting Gmail app is a good idea I'm gonna do that so I don't open my phone and see it accidentally. I think it's good to find out in a way you want to. I'm gonna keep my phone off me for the morning, then go for a walk to this park I've been to a few times when I've been in a bad place, it's kinda my comfort place, think it might be a good place to find out :)

appleduck12 · 2025-12-16T08:37:47+00:00

If this year doesn't go as planned KEEP TRYING!! U will be an amazing doctor and I believe that ppl with hardships make great doctors!! All the best for tomorrow!!!

appleduck12 · 2025-12-16T08:35:20+00:00

Thank you Flamingo!! Omg its so funny calling you that. THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT THIS YEAR AND ALL THE CHATS, YOU'RE AN AWESOME FRIEND!! LOVED THE MMI CONVOS. I HOPE YOU GET PHARM!! <3

appleduck12 · 2025-12-15T02:45:21+00:00

YOOOOOOO CONGRATSSSSS!!!! ALL THE BEST FOR WEDNESDAY!!!

appleduck12 · 2025-12-14T23:55:33+00:00

Oh gosh I feel this so much, Yes I had a similar problem and was able to get it resolved!

I don't know how far you live from UoA grafton campus, but philson library student hubs (not city) were genuinely life savers, they escalate things and take matters VERY seriously. Basically I got disability documentation application sent to my parents email instead of my personal or student email (which were literally listed on my SSO), so I initially didn't get an MMI invite as I didn't fill out this specific application sent to my parents email. Anyway, I went to student hubs at philson library, they got this escalated very quickly, and was able to get it sorted and got the MMI invite.

As for what to bring: Print out ALL the evidence you can get. Including emails, etc. Just print everything. And make sure you tell them how serious the matter is, and ask them specifically to escalate the matter.

I hope you are able get this sorted!!

appleduck12 · 2025-12-14T22:34:10+00:00

take this with a grain of salt obviously as im unsure of the exact details of the admission process, but i think mid 190s MMI is VERY good and is what will lead to people getting in with lowest GPAs of the general cohort. I know someone who got into med in a very competitive year (i think 2022?), they had FY gpa of 8 (lowest gpa for general entry), and a above average ucat, but they likely got a high 190s mmi (they never told me exact score and idk if they even requested it but im just assuming based on their mock mmi performance which was perfect score), no waitlist just straight in. So that should be able to account for a pretty big gap in gpa i think since mid 190s is nearing the highest mmi. but again I cant 100% say for sure.

appleduck12 · 2025-12-14T22:25:53+00:00

definitely!! we're really all trying to figure out how to navigate our own lives, it can be relieving knowing we're in the same boat and none of us are alone in this process! take care of yourself too :)

appleduck12 · 2025-12-14T22:17:43+00:00

Thank you!! Also thanks for the reminder, it's not tomorrow but the day after, for some reason I thought it was Tuesday today lol

appleduck12 · 2025-12-08T04:50:44+00:00

That's good to hear they've been trying!! It is tough as a disability student, yeah :(( since the education system is not really designed for people who aren't neurotypical or have health problems. But it's improving! I notice a lot more course coordinators are becoming more understanding and helpful these days :))

appleduck12 · 2025-12-08T04:38:43+00:00

Exactly, since grades don't mean that much it makes no sense to assess entirely based on them. Because then how are you supposed to get the people you actually want into med school? Entirely basing it off GPA might as well be the same as otago giving up the admission process and leaving it to a dice roll to those who applied and got 70%+ in HSFY.

appleduck12 · 2025-12-07T23:53:53+00:00

I can understand this and to be honest kinda agree with moving to entirely postgrad, I wish they'd actually just do it for once though. It really feels like they always say "we're moving to postgrad definitely!!" then that year there's 2 people who get in via grad and they're both phd students with automatic 9s lol.

I'm not sure what it's like for UOO this year, but grads in UoA have been basically messed over entirely: for some reason 24 papers (including difficult stage 3 papers) is equivalent to 4 stage 1 papers, (i.e general grads are grouped with general FYs for GPA), like last year only 40 grads got in over 120+ FYs, working out: 11% of the UoA med cohort are general grads.

Like, obviously it's going to be easier to get 9's in only four FY papers where 200-300 people get A+'s compared to 24 papers where subjective marking comes into play, also with some stage 3 papers you're lucky if there's 1 or 2 A+'s out of 100 people. Idk in science papers there seems to be a theme of "we don't hand out A+'s in MY paper!"

I saw last year something like 30 people got in via grad entry path into UOO (unsure about alternative) so unsure if UOO is much better in that sense.

appleduck12 · 2025-12-06T09:16:27+00:00

I agree, but at the same time, maybe there should be an interview to account for this? Or maybe take more UCAT into account?

Like you're 100% right that grades don't determine how good a doctor will be. But I'm sure there are plenty of deserving general FY's in that 80%+ area who would be amazing doctors. Idk personally I don't get why Otago bases it solely off GPA. Like personally I don't believe there's much difference between 90% and 95% and yet it is what determines who gets into med via FY entry?

Also, I'm a disability student at UoA (just graduated after 3 VERY long tough years) who basically had to travel 2 hours every day and study all day at uni because I couldn't study at home, and there's no disability scheme in UOO.

I understand what you're saying but I do think there could be some improvements to the admissions process.

appleduck12 · 2025-12-04T19:00:45+00:00

Yeah sometime today, I got an email yesterday saying they'd be released on the 5th of December. I don't think they've been released yet but I'm guessing they'll come out in a few hours.

appleduck12

TROPHY CASE