Have you considered studying medicine in Australia as a New Zealander?
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Are you currently in high school in New Zealand and aiming for medicine? You should consider Australia and increase your chances by up to 500x!
In New Zealand, there are two universities that offer medicine - Auckland and Otago and only Otago offer dentistry here in New Zealand.
Looking to Australia is a viable option with a large list of benefits. Australia gives you the opportunity to apply to more medical schools and significantly increases your chances.
Keep reading to find out why more MedView students are considering Australia over New Zealand and why you should too…
Benefits of Applying to Medicine in Australia
We encourage all our New Zealand students to consider applying to medical school in Australia, so our team have put together a list of the benefits based on what we tell our own students.
- Your degree is shorter! In Australia, universities accept students ***directly ***from high school into medical school, whereas at Auckland or Otago you must ***complete one year of pre-med ***before entering medical school. Applying directly from high school makes your degree one year shorter, saving you money, stress and competition as well as the uncertainty of if you will be offered a place given how small the medical school cohort is in New Zealand.
- Entry requirements are less stressful! To get into Australian medical schools you need your high school grades to convert to an ATAR. For medicine, you need a 99 ATAR to be very competitive. If you’re studying the NCEA curriculum Australian medical schools only take your best 90 credits. To achieve a 99 ATAR you need 90 excellence credits. (For reference 80 excellence credits, is an excellence endorsement). In New Zealand on the other hand, you need to be scoring an A+ or 99% on all your assignments, tests and exams in first-year pre-med to be considered for medical school.
- Global Recognised! Most medical schools in Australia rank higher in the QS World University Rankings than New Zealand Medical Schools do. For example, ANU is ranked 27th in the world, UMelb is 37th, USyd is 38th, UNSW is 43rd and UQ is 47th. Whereas Auckland is 85th and Otago is 194th! Check this video out on the top Medical Schools in Australia.
- Higher chances! In Australia, there are 15 medical schools you can apply to, whereas in New Zealand there are just 2, therefore your chance of success is so much higher.
- You’re a domestic student! New Zealander citizens are considered domestic students in Australia rather than international students so you only have to pay domestic fees, which will be a smaller debt and given it is one year shorter it actually works out cheaper than studying medicine in New Zealand.
- Placement and Work opportunities! As a New Zealander in Australia, you have offered the same opportunities Australian citizens are once the degree is completed and you’re offered placements or permanent positions across Australia. The best part about a medical degree from Australia is that it is valid in both Australia and New Zealand, so you can come back to New Zealand for work if you wish.
Applying to Australian Medical Schools as a New Zealander
When you apply to medicine in Australia as a New Zealander the entry requirements are the same as Australian citizens which means you are favoured over international students. We’ve outlined the steps you need to take to ensure your application to medical schools in Australia is competitive and successful.
- Subject Selection - leading up to your final year of high school it is important you are taking subjects that are pre-requisites for entry. These subjects include English, Chemistry & Mathematics (either Calculus or Statistics). Not all medical schools require these subjects, however, it is important to take all three so your chances of being accepted are higher.
- ATAR - Australia Tertiary Admissions Rank - every student in Australia is assigned an ATAR upon finishing high school which is basically a grade of how well you performed against everyone else in your cohort in the country. It sounds scary but you can calculate your ATAR yourself or request it from NZQA as a reference. When you apply to Australian medical schools you must submit your National Student Number and the admissions centre will give you your final ATAR result. Here is our general rule of thumb when it comes to converting your grades to an ATAR:
ATAR Conversion
- UCAT exam - Just like in first-year pre-med in New Zealand, you will need to sit the UCAT exam, however this time you sit it in your final year of high school. Check out this blog for more information on the UCAT.
- Actually applying - to apply to medical schools in Australia you apply through the Tertiary Admissions Centres for each state and they send your application to all medical schools in that state rather than you applying individually to each university. Two universities you must apply directly to - Bond which is private & Tasmania because it is the only university in Tasmania. Each state has its own body that you must apply to:
Tertiary Admissions Centres
- Interview - you will be offered one interview per state you apply to, so technically you could be offered 6 interviews. The interview is your chance to show the university who you are as a person, as up until this point you’ve just been a number on a page to them. Interview offers are released in December and interviews are done in January and Feburary. Check out this blog for more insights into the Interview
Here at MedView, we encourage all our New Zealand students to apply to Australia and use New Zealand as their backup option. If you’d like to speak to MedView more about how Australia could be the right option for you, book a consultation with an Academic Advisor below.
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The UCAT
The UCAT, or the University Clinical Aptitude Test is the medical school admission test required for many universities in Australia and New Zealand. The UCAT is designed to assess applicants for the aptitude, attitudes and beliefs required of a doctor. In order to defeat the UCAT - we should understand what it is. First off, it’s a two hour computer based exam. There are 5 separately timed subtests - Verbal Reasoning, Decision Making, Quantitative Reasoning, Abstract Reasoning and Situational Judgement. In this blog we break down each of the sections and offer guidance on how to prepare for this important exam.
Verbal Reasoning
Verbal Reasoning is meant to assess your ability to read something and draw appropriate conclusions. You can see why this would be important to a doctor - you’re part of a multidisciplinary team and will have to communicate effectively. In addition, doctors have to keep current with new research and draw reasonable conclusions from published findings. Decision making involves 11 text excerpts with 4 questions each, meaning this section has 44 questions in 21 minutes - that means an average of 29 seconds per question. That doesn’t even take reading the stem into account!
Decision Making
Decision Making is essentially data interpretation from graphs, tables, text and charts. You don’t need to have background knowledge on any subject, because part of what they’re testing is your ability to understand new information. Can you think of a time a doctor might have to do the same? This section has 29 questions in 31 minutes - an average of 64 seconds per question. Compare the timing of section to verbal reasoning, it’s more than double. Consider the length of time per question as an indication of how much the test writers want you to analyse.
Quantitative Reasoning
Quantitative Reasoning is a straightforward mathematics section - there are nine scenarios each with four questions. You’ll have access to an on screen calculator - which is functional but pretty clunky! You’ll have to strike a balance between using mental maths to be quick, and keeping your wits about you, and staying accurate. This section has 36 questions in 24 minutes - an average of 40 seconds per question. It’s not a lot of time to question your maths abilities!
Abstract Reasoning
Abstract Reasoning is used to evaluate your ability to locate patterns and understand logic, separate from your language abilities. If you’ve seen the guides online with pictures asking you to find a pattern - that’s abstract reasoning. This section is sometimes hard for students to grasp, because it’s such a different set of skills. It’s also probably the biggest struggle with time management. This section has 55 questions in 13 minutes - that’s only 14 seconds per question. Don’t even think about going into this section unprepared!
Situational Judgement
Situational Judgement assesses your judgement and character in different situations - the situations are usually clinical or education based. Either situations you’ve likely been in, or a situation you could be involved in future. Then you’ll have to evaluate the appropriateness, importance or consequences of the situation. It’s one way for universities to evaluate the characteristics that are important for future doctors! Situational Judgement has 69 questions in 26 minutes - an average of 25 seconds per question.
With so much to do - how can I set myself up for success?
Prepare
This sounds like a no brainer, but preparation is the most important thing you can do if you want to succeed on the UCAT. Going over questions is one thing but the most effective thing you can do is to practice under exam conditions. That means doing computer based exams - so when you get to test day, you know what to expect. Luckily MedView has a bank of questions.
Identify Your Strengths and Weaknesses
Time is a precious resource when you’re preparing for medical school admissions - you have to continue doing well in your studies, prepare yourself for an interview, and master a new exam. There’s not infinite time - so you have to learn how to study smarter, not just harder. So many students waste their time by continuing to drill skills that they’ve already mastered. It’s important to identify the weak points that need more TLC.
Learn Skills
Each type of question requires a specific psychometric approach to understand and answer so quickly. Skills and strategies to identify the problem and solve the challenging question are essential for success. MedView has a range of 1:1 tutoring, group workshops, practice exams and questions alongside our spiral learning curriculum to help students develop the skills necessary to succeed in time conditions. Our UCAT students are 5x more likely to receive an interview offer.
Sitting full-length practice exams under simulated conditions is the most effective preparation for developing UCAT skills. As this will familiarise yourself with the extreme time pressures, as well as allowing you to practise concentrating on psychometric skills for two hours. It is also important to practice using the computer-based platform that will be used when you sit UCAT as well.
Seek Help
Find friends that have taken the test before and ask for their experience. Better yet, schedule a free Academic Assessment with MedView today! When you start your journey as a MedView student, you are allocated an Education Coordinator who has experience helping hundreds of students get into med school. They’ll help you stay on track with your goals, offer you support, and help you succeed on your path to medical school.
Next Steps
The UCAT is an important exam that is key to medical school admission for undergraduates. We recommend starting your UCAT preparation early and integrating it into your study load to give yourself the best opportunity to succeed. If you’d like to learn more about the UCAT or how to get into Medical School, check out our free eBooks and blogs!
- What is the UCAT?
- How Universities use your UCAT Results
- A Quick Guide to Australia Medicine eBook
- A Quick Guide to New Zealand Medicine eBook
- How to Prepare for the UCAT
- What UCAT scores will get me into med?
MedView offers a range of UCAT preparation courses as well as personalised 1:1 tutoring with our expert team. If you would like to know more about the UCAT and how MedView can help, get in touch today.
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What can you do before the year starts?
Before the year starts, it is vital that you understand that the journey to becoming a doctor is a long and arduous process. Medicine is a life-long commitment whose pathway extends beyond the 6 years of study. It includes a progression from a house officer to a registrar, and application onto training schemes if you opt for the surgical pathway.
The vast majority of people who apply for medicine, do not have a clear picture of what they want to do in the future. This uncertainty is not something to worry about now – you have plenty of time to figure out exactly what you want to do. There is something in medicine for everyone. If you are still uncertain about the medical pathway beyond the 6 years of study, I would recommend doing further research.
Another thing you can do over the summer break is to identify your motivation to become a doctor. If it’s for the money, you may not be in the correct profession - it will be at least 10-12 years until you start earning the big bucks that all doctors are known for! If you have an inherent nature to help people and seek to make our society healthier, then you are on the right track.
Once your head is in the right place, enjoy your summer! The year will belong, and you will have to make social sacrifices to make your studies a priority. Make the most of the time you have by seeing friends and family, as you will inevitably see less of them throughout the year. You are likely to experience burnout sometime during the year, so optimising your rest now is important.
The single most effective way to distance yourself from your competitors is to start early and hard. After you have rested throughout December and into the new year, it is time to get started and get ahead. The Flying Start Course offered by MedView was my ticket to success. It is a highly intensive programme starting in late January that covers the first 6 weeks of content for the three core papers in the first semester. The advantages of this course are numerous:
- The most valuable aspect of Flying Start is the content covered. As the first semester contains 3 out of the 4 core papers, it is so important to get a good start. An early lapse within the first few weeks can completely derail your entire year. Being exposed to similar content ahead of time builds your confidence and gives you the opportunity to begin learning before others.
- There is a radically different teaching style from high school to university. Flying Start emulates the style you are accustomed to, while simultaneously teaching university material. This eases your transition and places students into a more comfortable and familiar environment.
- You can meet other motivated people. You may have heard the horror stories of people sabotaging each other, taking their notes and hiding their bags. While these are mostly exaggerated, there will still be those who resort to other measures to gain an advantage. The people doing Flying Start will be motivated just like you, and eager to get ahead. Working together and building these strong relationships before the year starts means that you have a better support group in place. I have met several bright individuals who were passionate and together, we were able to navigate the difficult year and succeed as a group!
MedView believes in a holistic approach to medical school admissions, meaning we surround the student with a team of experts to help develop their candidacy and skills in all three major pillars in their journey to medical school, and now it’s even more accessible with the MedView Hub App!
Over the last decade there’s been a mass adoption of smartphones and a shift in the way people behave online and communicate. Australians are spending more time online, often using multiple screens, and consuming vast amounts of content each day. And it’s only going up!
Recent figures show that almost eight out of ten Australians use social media, and 87% of them use their mobile phones to access it. Fifty-nine percent of Australians access social media everyday or most days, and over a third of people check social media more than five times per day.
We often go online to chat with friends and family, share photos, or be entertained by cat videos. But the very same platforms we use to socialise can also be used to gather knowledge that we can apply in our offline lives. One of the areas where users can reap the benefits is online communities. MedView prides themselves on finding the best tutor, strategist or consultant for each student whether they be in Australia, New Zealand or the United Kingdom and having an online community platform allows even more core benefits for our students in a shorter amount of time. Now students can access over 320 tutors, strategists and consultants and get answers to their Synapse questions, interact in exclusive workshops, and most importantly make friends. The meaningful relationships with other members of the community increases knowledge and collective wisdom.
The MedView Hub App is our own online community platform for students, parents, tutors, and alumni to create a network of opportunities to participate in smart, focused conversation on specific medical school admissions topics (unlike the Instagram and Facebook chatter).
Over the last decade there’s been a mass adoption of smartphones and a shift in the way people behave online and communicate. Australians are spending more time online, often using multiple screens, and consuming vast amounts of content each day. And it’s only going up!
Recent figures show that almost eight out of ten Australians use social media, and 87% of them use their mobile phones to access it. Fifty-nine percent of Australians access social media everyday or most days, and over a third of people check social media more than five times per day.
We often go online to chat with friends and family, share photos, or be entertained by cat videos. But the very same platforms we use to socialise can also be used to gather knowledge that we can apply in our offline lives. One of the areas where users can reap the benefits is online communities. MedView prides themselves on finding the best tutor, strategist or consultant for each student whether they be in Australia, New Zealand or the United Kingdom and having an online community platform allows even more core benefits for our students in a shorter amount of time. Now students can access over 320 tutors, strategists and consultants and get answers to their Synapse questions, interact in exclusive workshops, and most importantly make friends. The meaningful relationships with other members of the community increases knowledge and collective wisdom.
The MedView Hub App is our own online community platform for students, parents, tutors, and alumni to create a network of opportunities to participate in smart, focused conversation on specific medical school admissions topics (unlike the Instagram and Facebook chatter).
Find out more and begin your journey to medical school by speaking with a MedView Academic Advisor for free today!
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