It’s been years since I prepped for medical school in Australia, and there had been a lot of changes in terms of medical programs in Australia. This page is a work-in-progress as I update bits and pieces whenever I have time (and remember things that I have left out), but I thought it would be useful for would-be medical students to plan and prep for their application to medical school in Australia.
The entrance exams
Regardless of your resident status (domestic vs. international), you’ll have to sit an entrance exam (except for Bond University in Queensland – and perhaps a few others that I am not aware of) to get considered for admission to medical school in Australia. The difference lies in the options you have. If you are a domestic applicant, you can only take the GAMSAT (or UMAT if you are applying for a direct undergraduate entry). However, if you are an international applicant, you have the option of taking the MCAT as well.
I took a year to prep for the MCAT exams. It involved studying the triple sciences – Biology, Chemistry and Physics, at a Year 1 University level, as well as having some English language skills to write short passages. I am not sure if this has changed, but it’s worthwhile to check out the MCAT official page.
I was a bit luckier in that I had a friend who majored in Physics to tutor me in the subject. I totally suck at Organic Chemistry and it took a long time for me to catch up with it. There are preparatory books specialising in MCAT, but these books generally cost a bomb. Do look a lookout in eBay, Amazon or Carousell for students selling off their MCAT preparatory books though – the subjects do not change much in content and getting past year books may be worth it.
There are also MCAT preparatory courses. In all honesty, the only usefulness I found in them is having someone to answer questions that you may have during your own preparation. Generally, you have to be self-motivated because these are usually cram courses and do not really instil concepts in you. I am a strong proponent of learning first concepts, but there are others who can make do with cheat formulas. Also, these courses are generally expensive, so I am not sure if it is worth signing up for these courses, or just having individual subject tutors to answer your questions. It is important to look for reputable cram course centers rather than finding one that is cheap. That said, expensive courses do not always equate to good quality, so you have to do a bit of review searching and asking around before signing up for one.
The interview(s)
Some medical schools have no interviews (but I think that’s progressively being scrapped now) while others have one or more rounds of interviews. From the limited number of interviews I have attended, I find that they seldom ask you about your basic sciences (which is already tested in the entrance exams) but rather, the interviews try to find out more about you as a person and how you think.
There really isn’t a way to prepare for interviews, as per se, but I do find that knowing the 4 basic ethical principles do help with answering scenario-based questions – often popular in what is known as multiple-mini interviews (MMIs). These 4 basic ethical principles are autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice. It might sound straight forward, but it’s important to go through a few scenario questions surrounding ethical principles to fully grasp the concepts.
They do ask general questions, like what you think of having Wifi routers all over the city to provide Wifi accessiblity, and what the health problems surrounding this may be. Importantly, they want to know what you think of it and how you justify your thoughts. So it’s really a lot about your thought processes, rather than whether you are answering with a model answer. In fact, giving model answers without justifications often mark you down.
The selection process
Different universities have different selection criteria, and it also depends on whether you are applying as an undergraduate student or a postgraduate student. Either way, the difference really lies in whether you are taking the UMAT (undergraduate entry) or the GAMSAT/MCAT (postgraduate entry). With postgraduate entry medicine, they may take into consideration your undergraduate GPA – and even then, this is used differently across different universities.
For some universities, they take into consideration a combination of your GAMSAT/MCAT score and your GPA before granting you an interview. In other universities, they only take into consideration your GAMSAT/MCAT scores and only use your GPA as a tie-breaker. There are possibly other combinations, but I reckon these are the 2 main ways in which universities consider your GPA and GAMSAT/MCAT score.
Some applications do ask if time spent volunteering is considered into the selection process. In all honesty, I do not have an answer, but the universities that I applied to did not consider my volunteer work in their selection processes. However, I am sure there are some universities (such as those in Singapore), that consider your volunteer work in your application. As such, it is important to read up on the selection criteria for the universities that you are applying to.
Updates
I’ll continue to update this page whenever I have time, and I’ll note in this section the areas that had been updated. If you have any questions regarding application to medical school, do feel free to contact me through the blog’s “Contact” page. Meanwhile, all the best in your application for medical school!
2019/04/26: New: The entrance exams, The interview(s), The selection process