chocomilkenthusiast

  • Joined Feb 26, 2023
  • In Anyone gotten into JCU med?

    Vel1
    Hey VisVel,

    Again, these aspects are very vague but what you need to understand is that each aspect of the application process for JCU is like a slider. So the higher the ATAR is on that slider, the lower the other things you need on those sliders and vice versa. To be completely honest, a grade 10 program seems a little old but depending on what it is, it could be useful. I didn't have anything prior to grade 11 in my application but if your scholars' program is something based on incredible leadership activities then it would be useful. The other thing is that if you don't have anything else to write, obviously, you should write that down. You have to prioritise all your activities depending on their significance to leadership/service/rural experience and also their recency then write them on your application in that order.

    In terms of your ATAR, if you are rural, that could be enough. I've heard that JCU has implemented a bonus point system that gives you bonus points if you are rural for your ATAR (@chocomilkenthusiast). The best thing to do is to call them directly or look on their website for previous year results.

    If I recall correctly, you can either type or handwrite. I actually completely hand wrote mine since I thought I could write it smaller while maintaining the readability of it. If you are handwriting it, ensure you do two things: type the paragraphs up in a Word doc prior to writing it down (so there are no mistakes and you can see the word count) and secondly, ensure you do your best handwriting for the application (for legibility and impression). But feel free to choose whatever you are more comfortable with.

    Finally, usually, when they don't say anything, it just means that you have to pass methods and that's it. For example, JCU specifically mentions you only have to get a C (pass) in English, Methods and Chemistry to satisfy their subject entry requirements.

    That's all good and hope this helps!

    • PP
    • In Is it worth the stress of taking 6 atar subjects? Which ones do I choose?

      oat Hi! I'm in year 11 (in WA as well) and I started the year with 6 ATAR subjects (english literature, maths methods, chemistry, human bio, french SL, and music). I went into the year thinking that I would drop either french or music for year 12, but I'm halfway through the year and am dropping Human Bio for a study period (I am doing AMEB music exams, which count towards credits for your WACE, so some schools allow students who do them to have a study period instead of doing another subject).

      Although I love human biology (I'm hoping to get into medicine), I found that ATAR human bio is quite difficult compared to year 10 (the extended responses are harder to get marks in, there is a lot more content and you need to know all of it). It ended up as my second-worst subject for this semester, so it wouldn't be counted towards my ATAR anyway. It is a very content heavy subject, and I definitely underestimated how hard it would be. I find chemistry relatively easy, but I enjoy it so that probably helps (I definitely don't study it every day though).

      As @chocomilkenthusiast said, chemistry is probably going to open more pathways than human bio. If you need human bio for a pre-requisite there are usually bridging courses or extra units you can do in uni (eg pharmacology at UWA), but it's a lot harder to catch up on chemistry in uni (for example, chemistry is a pre-requisite for medicine at Curtin but human bio isn't, and I don't think there are bridging courses for chemistry for this degree).

      As for the workload of doing 6 ATAR, I found it not too bad until exams, and then I found it very overwhelming and hard to manage.

      If you think you could try to do 6 ATAR in year 11 (even if you treat one as a 'general' subject and don't put much effort in), I would recommend that, as you can try all the subjects out and see which one you want to drop after doing them, as your choice might change (like mine did). Even if you end up dropping one after a week/term/semester, I think at least trying all of them would be beneficial. If you can't/don't want to do that though, I would probably drop human bio (or chemistry if you are sure that you won't need it for uni). Definitely keep doing HASS subjects, it seems like you really enjoy them. Just curious, if you do 5 ATAR, what would you do for a 6th subject? You could always do Human Bio general (I've heard it's a lot easier, and I regret not choosing it). I would also recommend seeing if you are eligible for a study period in year 11 (some schools won't offer them to year 11s unless they have external influencing factors like high level sports, music, illness, etc), as having a study period would definitely lighten your load.

      Sorry for the long response, I'm a lit student lol. Hope this helps 🙂

      • In Anyone gotten into JCU med?

        Hey @chocomilkenthusiast,

        Great question and this is one of the things that many people don't know for sure because it's so subjective. But I just want to note that I'm not in JCU med because I ended up getting a higher preference but I did get into the interview stage which is selected from the written application. So, I am happy to take a look over your written application once you've completed it!
        If there are any tips I could give:

        • DO NOT be cliche in your application.
        • Write actual real-life experiences and not generalised situations.
        • This is obvious but avoid grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and try to write neatly.

        This is the process I took:

        1. I printed out the form in colour and made that one my official copy.
        2. I got my signature very early from my principal on the official form so I didn't have to worry about that later and because of the UCAT and the holidays etc., I just got that out of the way.
        3. Write the actual application questions in a Word doc so you don't have any errors in your responses.
        4. Then take another copy of the form and practise writing your responses from the Word doc into the given lines. Ensure not to go over the line amount because I don't know what happens if you do 😅 .
        5. Once you are confident that there are no mistakes in your responses (get it checked by people too) and that it fits within the line count in your official form, then proceed to write it into your official form.

        I know this might seem a bit like paranoia but I did end up getting an interview and no one else in my school did. People tend to believe that the interview offer and thus the medicine offer is easy to get but actually, it is incredibly difficult so please don't underestimate it.

        Hope this helps!

        • PP
        • In Is it worth the stress of taking 6 atar subjects? Which ones do I choose?

          oat
          Hey! I am also in WA, in year 12 now. I am doing chem, bio, methods, spec, lit and Japanese SL.

          One thing I would recommend is taking as much subjects as you want, try it for a bit in year 11 and dropping it if you don't like it or if it is too much. That way you won't be regretting any decisions later on. That was my plan with spec, and I ended up keeping it! But, check with your school beforehand, because each school varies with their subject changing times and stuff.

          I agree with @chocomilkenthusiast in that Chem is definitely a more useful subject in terms of the range of pathways it gives. Yes it does require effort, but as I said you could give it a try and see how it goes. With HASS subjects, it is right to do subjects that you like not how it gets scaled, BUT a good balance between them both will maximise your marks. HASS subjects tend to scale down, so I would say do them only if you really really enjoy it and if you are good at it (which I think you are).

          I don't know if what I said was any help, but feel free to ask any questions 🙂