Are you searching for how to get into Australian medical school?
Have you finally hit the decision button to study Medicine in Australia and you want to know the processes to become a Doctor? Then you’re in the right place!
In this Australian medical school guide, you’d get to know all the steps to become a medical doctor.
You’d learn the different processes for both undergraduates and postgraduates as well as the requirements to meet up to before gaining admission into Medicine in Australia.
And that’s not all; you’d also get some tips on how to suceed in medical school in Australia as well as extra things to consider along your journey!
If you’re in for this, then jump on the hair immediately!
What Are Medical Schools?
Medical schools are like training centers for Doctors. It’s an institution thats equipped with everything needed to nurture graduates from high school into professional health care practioners.
In Medical School, you’d learn all the sciences concerning the human body as well as its anatomy, physiology, pathology, and other areas concerning Medicine!
How To Get Into Medical School In Australia
Getting into an Australian medical school involves numerous processes and requirements. There are two broad pathways to get in; undergraduate or postgraduate.
The undergraduate pathway is for students who want to get started on how to get into Australian medical school after high school, while postgraduates are for graduates who’ve done a bachelors degree.
The different ways to get into Medicine through each of the pathways are explained as you read on.
How to Apply For Undergraduate Medical Studies In Australia
To get into medical school as an undergraduate, you will need the following requirements:
- UCAT ANZ
- High school exam results
- Interview Perfomance (depending on the school you choose)
UCAT – 1st Way on How to get into Australian medical school
The University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT), is an examination that medical aspirants take in order to get admission into medical science in Australia and New Zealand.
It’s one of the three major requirements that’s used for several universities in Australia and its goal is to select the top students who show academic and intellectual prowess into medical schools in the country.
The UCAT runs for two hours and it’s a computer- based red trust screens the mental capacities of students with respect to the practice of medicine and surgery.
There are five separate subtests, each with a certain number of questions with all of them in mcq format.
What’s the significance of UCAT?
If there were just a few students applying for medicine in Australia, extra screenings won’t have been out in place. However, due to the large demand for medicine and Dentistry, UCAT was developed to sort out students.
It aims to check whether medical aspirants possess the desirable qualities expected from a healthcare practioner. Such qualities includes problem solving and reasoning skills.
What is the format of UCAT? How to get into Australian medical school
The UCAT is a 2 hours test which have a total of 233 questions split into these subtests:
- Quantitative reasoning- 36 questions
- Verbal reasoning – 44 questions
- Abstract reasoning- 55 questions
- Decision making- 29 questions
- Situational judgement- 69 questions
How long is UCAT?
The University Clinical aptitude test runs for 2 hours and there’s five minutes for instructions and one minute before each subtest.
How much is UCAT?
The amount you need to pay to write UCAT in Australia and New Zealand is $305. However, if you register late, it’ll be an extra $85 while applying to write the examination from outside Australia and New Zealand will cost $380.
When is the Next UCAT?
The UCAT ANZ 2021 test will take place from July 1st to 11th August, 2021.
What Is the Ideal UCAT Score to Target For Medicine in Australia?
The four subtests in UCAT is scored using a scale between 300-900. This makes the total obtainable score range to be between 1200-3600.
According to Medentry, most students who’ve taken the UCAT score somewhere along 500 to 700 in each subjects.
Therefore, if you want to get started on how to get into Australian medical school, you should aim for 90% which is around 2900 especially if your GPA or ATAR is low.
As a medical aspirant, you should be super careful about the subjects you study in high school; ensuring that they’re in line with the medical school requirements.
Obviously, studying subjects with background in sciences are super helpful in medical school, but such subjects are are not always required by universities.
Each university has a unique requirement for getting Medicine in Australia. For example, the University of Sydney requires mathematics in high school while for some, they don’t. Whatever the case be, ensure to find out the subject requirement for your school of choice.
Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR)
The Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) is a system used to ranking aspirants vying for admission in tertiary institutions in Australia. Medical schools may require you to reach a minimum ATAR before gaining admission to study Medicine.
Through the minimum mark differs from schools to schools, your goals should be to work super hard and clinch a high ATAR- this will ease your application process. However, if you don’t have a high ATAR, don’t give up; they’re numerous pathways to get Medicine in Australia.
How to Study Postgraduate Medicine in Australia
As a postgraduate who’ve passed through a first degree, there’s more opportunity on how to get into Australian medical school. However, they’re numerous factors that determine your application eligibility.
Requirements to Study postgraduate Medicine in Australia
- Bachelors degree
- GAMSAT
- Interview Perfomance
The first and obvious requirement to study postgraduate medicine in Australia that you must have finished at least a bachelors degree.
The good news here’s is that the course you study doesn’t have to be related to medicine; hence it allows aspirants get a wide scope of knowledge.
However, it’s advisable to study health related courses because some universities give bonus points for clinical experience.
Furthermore, and most importantly, majority of universities in Australia do not need ore-requisite medical studies.
Therefore, you may decide to go for undergraduate studies in other fields to broaden your knowledge scope. Of course yes, they’re benefits and disadvantages of choosing related courses as explained below:
Benefits of Getting A Bachelor’s Degree In Related Heath Courses
Getting a bachelors degree or studying subjects related to medicine are not a necessity for gaining admission into medical school. However, there are some benefits to this as outline below:
1. Prepares you better
Having a background knowledge on science courses before medical school in Australia will likely get you more prepared for your beginning months as a postgraduate a medical student.
Due to the pressing need for medical students to leave lecture haplts into hospitals, it would help if you have a residual knowledge on science courses like biology and chemistry, to go through the tough scademic challenges.
2. Relieves Pressure
Medical school arrives with lots of information and knowledge that you must learn and remember under a short period. For new students, the process may be a challenging one but for students with a good own siege in medical related sciences, you’d get less pressure and become better.
However, adding a science courses comes with some cons-in some situations, they may lower your GPA and further reduce your competitive ability. Furthermore, since your GPA during bachelors degrees affect your medical school application, then it’s advisable to leave science course that may reduce it.
GAMSAT – How to get into Australian medical school
The GAMSAT is a compulsory examination for any looking for how to get into Australian medical school as a postgraduate. Lots of students get scared of this exam due to the hurdles faced in passing it with high scores.
You’d get to write 5 and a half hours of MCQs and essays on subjects in sciences and humanities. There are bacically three sections of tests in GAMSAT:
- Reasoning in humanities – 47 questions
- Written communication and Reading – 5 minutes for reading and 60 for writing.
- Reasoning in biological and physical sciences – 75 questions
Due to the plenty population of medical aspirants, GAMSAT is a very competitive exam. Most medical schools require a minimum of 50 GPA and 50 score in the exam.
List of schools that accept GAMSAT in Australia
- University of Sydney
- University of Wollongong
- Macquarie university
- University of Notre Dame Sydney
- Australian National university
- University of Queensland
- Griffith University
- Finders University
- Deakin university
- University of Melbourne
- University of Western Australia
- University of Notre Dame Freemantle
Portfolio
Asides from GPA and GAMSAT, some universities in Australia requires postgraudate applicants to setup a Portofolio confusing their unique experiences telling their interest in Medicine.
Example of Universities that fall into this category includes the University of Wollongong and Notre Dame. As a result, you should get more experienced, diverse backgrounds in leadership, volunteering, sports, etc.
Interview – How to get into Australian medical school
After the universities have received the medical school applications, they call students for interview and the final admission chances will depend on how well your perform.
Like other admission processes, each university has their unique strategy to handle interviews. Some schools like the University of Wollongong requests for extra screening aptitude test.
What Are Medical Schools Looking For?
There are different criteria used by universities in Australia for admission into medical school. And a good knowledge of them will help your admission process and yes, give you an advantage.
For example, some schools accustom more percentage score to GAMSAT than GPA in their aggregate ranking score. So if you have a higher GAMSAT than GPA, applying for these schools would be your best bet!
GEMSAS is an organization that regulates the admission processes of postgraduate medical aspirants. They provide medical application guides each year which shows the admission criteria and everything to know about the years system.
As a good aspirant aiming to get started on how to get into Australian medical school, you need to go through and understand the GEMSAS carefully.
Some schools like the Monarch and Finders university however, have separate systems for moderating admission processes.
6 Steps To Become a Medical Doctor in Australia
Here’s a step-by-step guide summary to get into medical school and become a doctor in Australia;
1. Have Strong Passion for Medicine
Caring for the healthcare of others can sometimes be a burden but should be something that comes naturally if you want to be a Doctor. The first step on this journey is to access your drive for this path and check that you really want to use you skills to help sick patients.
Are you willing to sacrifice your sleep, time, energy and effort in the learning process? Will you be committed to save lives of sick patients whenever it’s up to your duty? These are some questions to use to access yourself.
As a medical aspirant you can also engage in ifnromarional interviews with medical editors and learn more clinical experience. With this, you can determine the ideal lifestyle of being a health practitioner and find out if it’s the thing for you!
2. Get into High school and Get Good Grades
The journey to becoming a medical doctor in Australia all starts with getting into college and being enthusiastic about being the best of yourself and getting good grades! Yes; you should work super hard to ace your exams because your grades are a major factor that determines if you get into medical school or not.
3. Do the Pre-requisite Subjects
Don’t just hop into senior school. As a medical aspirants, make research of the pre-requisite subjects for medicine like Biology, Chemistry, and the different related courses. Ensure you compete the pre-requisite subjects either in high school or undergraduate studies as it may be difficult after graduation.
4. Partake in Volunteering Activities
Some medical schools access applicants to check whether they’ve got experiences that points their enthusiasm towards medicine.
How do you hope to impresss if you’ve got no experience?
So get engaged, participate in numerous volunteering activities in school, take up leadership positions and show that you’re able to do things to help you.
It could be at a hospital in your neighborhood, and or some office time with your family Doctor or medical researcher. Whatever it is, partake in projects that’ll boost your experiences as related to medicine.
5. Write Ace the UCAT or GAMSAT
There are two major pathways by which you can study Medicine in Australia- undergraduate and postgraduate. The UCAT is for the former while the GAMSAT is for the latter. Whatever direction you’re going through, you’ll need to write the examinations and score very high as it increases your admission chances.
6. Select the Best Medical School Schools
What may be described as the best medical schools in Australia may be different from what’s ideal for you. There are a plethora of factors to consider before selection that makes the tag a unique one.
However, the most common ones is to put the cost in mind, distance from your location, size, reputation as well as May other as well as any other criteria that meets your interest!
4 Tips to Excelling in Medical School
1. Be serious – How to get into Australian medical school
While it’s quite a thing of joy to raise up shoulders, full of excitement that you’ve gotten into medical school in Australia, you need to put your heads down and get on your boots immediately.
Medical school is a tough ride. It’s not difficult; the concepts are majorly easy to understand and comprehend with normal reading. But the problem is the amount of work you’d need to gulp under a short time! Yes that’s the issue: time!
So you need to get serious with your studies as soon as possible and start studying well in medical school.
2. Learn through different methods
You might have been confined to one reading method while in high school, but in medical school, there are a plethora of techniques to try out. If you’re a slow reader, you could use videos as they quicken the speed of your comprehension.
Mnemonics are also a great way and a good recommendation for anyone irrespective of the reading style. You could also try teaching your friends or engaging in group discussions. Whichever one it is, be flexible enough to try out what works for you.
3. Join AMSA
The Australian medical students association is a great way to set yourself up for success in medical school. Join it and connect with your senior colleagues, learn more about your training from those who’ve been there and emulate good habits.
4. Get in tough with past questions
Quizzes are like shortcuts into knowing the important stuff about any subjects. And when you have past questions from your school? That’ll be better!
You’d now be able to understand how the examinations will come and the area you need to direct your attention on. So if you want to do well in medical school, get previous questions and study them.
Conclusion on How to get into Australian Medical School
Alas! We’ve come to this detailed guide on how to get into Australian medical school. From here, you’ve known the requirements to study medicine in Australia and other things to check.
Becoming a doctor is a fulfilling role, but the processes might be tiring. Getting into school shouldn’t also be which is why we’ve written this guide on how to get into Australian medical school.
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