Hi,
I'm currently in year 9 and I'm looking to be a plastic surgeon in the future. I'm planning on doing the Bachelor of Medical Science and Doctor of Medicine degree at Monash uni through direct entry. I understand that it's a very competitive degree with over 2000 students applying for it every year so I was wondering what I should be doing now in preparation for VCE exams, UCAT and the interview.

The VCE subjects that I am planning to take are, English, methods, specialist, bio, chem, and health and human development. Let me know if I should change them.

Additionally, I have heard of institutions such as Medview and MedEntry that help students with UCAT and interview preparation I know that they are quite expensive, so I wanted to know if they are worth investing in and if they actually help during the preparation process. Please let me know if there are better institutions to aid in preparation.

Thanks, Leela.

    leela heyyy have you heard of medify? Ive heard that its affordable but do check for yourself cuz im not sure. Also, i am also interested in a similar area ( surgeon but not plastic), and im also in year nine so its kinda a similar situation here. As to when one should should ucat prep, i went to the monash open day and asked the people, and they said anywhere from end of year 10 to the mid of yr 11 just to avoid stress in yr 12. But i also know people starting to prepare from next year, but in reality there is no point starting really early as you might trail off, so id say mid year 10? As for VCE, are you doing early vce next year? if you are, then prolly just looking over the curriculum of the subjects that youre doing and giving yourself a slight headstart for next year ( thats what im doing) cuz you cant really prepare for VCE yr 12 exams now so yeah. ik prolly i gave you some useless advice, but i tried my best : )

        cshar I'm doing unit 1 of health and human development next year what about you?
        As for UCAT prep I'll probably start midway through next year as well.

            leela I would probably try to do early methods ( if I get selected for it) and VCE chemistry

                what is more important for medicine? Bio or chem, or is it one of the maths? Ik english is a prerequisite tho

                10 days later

                leela Current Y11 student, keen in medicine as welll!!!! I will suggest in Year 10 next year, try doing a VCE biology or chem or methods in advance (if your school allow to do so, if not, do it outside school , perhaps Distance Education / Victorian Virtual School?)

                You have more say than me 🙂) on what kind of thing that you like to explore in these topics. There are lots of free and good quality resources online for self-exploring for interests. (I benefit the most from Libretexts when searching concepts in textbook) Even if you don't enrol in those classes in advance, you can still go on your own pace. Self-learning is a required skill for a future med student like you🙂)

                However, one important thing to note is that, try to engage in as much as different activites as you can. Year 9 is such a great time to learn about things in life (sports, arts, music, or getting a part-time job )other than just studying. What I heard from a number of current medical students on Open Day at Monash and UniMelb, is that they all enjoy their life entering med school. Make friends, engage with people and communities in real life. All will help you become a better version of yourself, and eventually a doctor that you want to be.

                Interviews are just all about your personality and the feeling that you bring into the person about you. You need to be trueful, and act like a doctor that you would expect when you see your GP.

                Start UCAT prep next year perhaps?>>>>

                Go to open days at Monash? Ask the students about this, they have better answers for this.

                Good luck

                    Definitely agree that the best thing you can do is getting well-rounded through extra-curriculars!

                    Don't recommend bio or HHD unless you love it, won't really help you in med school.

                    Medify generally have the most reasonable prices, but way too early to think about UCAT yet! Don't worry until year 11 at the earliest.

                    VCE 2021: 99.90 ATAR
                    Monash Medical School Class of 2026
                    RAW 50 MM & SM Exam Prep Resources

                      James385 What about medview, are they better that medify?

                        Also, is taking VCE chem or bio in year 10 more beneficial or taking VCE Math methods in year 10 more beneficial

                        I haven't used MedView, so can't comment on that. About subject selection, just do your best / favourite subject early! Ultimately doesn't make too much a difference

                        VCE 2021: 99.90 ATAR
                        Monash Medical School Class of 2026
                        RAW 50 MM & SM Exam Prep Resources

                        PikaPika At my school, in year 10 they offer 'enrichment courses' for science subjects (bio and chem if you choose to do physics you have to do vce unit 2 physics) and they are supposed to prepare you for unit 3/4 subjects in yr 11 without actually completing the official unit 1/2 subjects. I'm doing bio enrichment next year so then I can do unit 3/4 in yr 11 but I've heard that many universities don't like when students complete unit 3/4 subjects without doing until 1/2 because they miss out on the fundamentals?? Do you know more about this?

                            James385 Oh ok. I only chose HHD because my teacher said it was one of the easier subjects and I might do bio, chem, maths methods,spesh and english which is already quite a huge workload so I'm doing HHD as like a 'filler' subject. Do you have other recommendations on what I should do? Also since you are a monash med student, during your high school years what did you do differently in terms of preparation for exams, UCAT, interviews and all that?