i did not miss it.....this was discuss in another thread some time ago....hence i wait and see if you would do some research yourself....

to simplify this, remember the a levels is a grading system, and atar is a ranking system....

assume a gaussian curve distribution for the cohort of students.....

assume students in uk are about the same as oz (and they probably are!).....the performance, intelligence, effort are about the same.....

when assessed, they are given different ways of expressing their performance....

in a levels, they are given grades....with little information about their relative performance.....

in oz year 12, they are given both, and the relative performance, or atar rank is the main result used for uni entry...

we know that 18% of a levels students get 3a.....ie, anyone with at least 3a will be amongst the top 18%, or atar 82 and above....

we know that 4% of students get 3a*, ie anyone with 3a* is ranked the top 4%, or atar 96 and above...

extrapolate between these 2, and you get an idea (very rough of course) where in the relative ranking you are....

don't bring in factors like content of the courses, obviously a levels has a wider/deeper content than year 12.....

remember, when uni select students, they want the best available....therefore ranking is what they want.....and they also need presumed knowledge (or requisite knowledge), hence may specify requirement eg, completion of, or minimum grades in requisite subjects.....

and for most courses, other than the basic presumed knowledge, the rest will be taught in the course itself.....having cover some topics in a levels makes it a bit easier in uni, but once the rest catches up, everybody is the same.....

This post has been edited by limeuu: Oct 4 2012, 05:49 PM

wrong logic....the gaussian curve is not dependent on numbers of subjects studied.....in fact, the bigger the numbers, the more the curve will approximate.....

it's not about beating how many other students.....it's about where you stand/what grade you will get, if one student from one system goes to sit for another system's exam....

the guy who beats 95% of his cohort of 50,000, will also beat 95% of another cohort of 100,000, if the 2 curves are similar.....ie, relative rank is independent of numbers, if the curves are the same......

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Added on October 4, 2012, 6:11 pmlet me express it another way......how would you express the a level result of aaa, in atar format?.....ie, how many students is the result aaa better than?.....given the fact that 18% of students get aaa or BETTER......

This post has been edited by limeuu: Oct 4 2012, 06:11 PM

australia has always been more liberal towards the a levels, as only international students use this for entry, and they are quite keen to take in full fees paying students......

but they are starting to realise the ease in which people gets aaa, and revising their requirements.....until 2 years ago, there was no a*, and there was no way to differentiate which aaa is the better ones.....when 18% of students have that result.....surely someone in the top 1% is NOT the same as someone in the 82%ile, but both have the same result......how to tell them apart?......

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Added on October 4, 2012, 6:25 pmthere is no pass or fail in the umat/isat tests....but you have failed to meet the unis cut off requirements.....

and i thought csu and griffith are graduate entry?.....

This post has been edited by limeuu: Oct 4 2012, 06:25 PM

leed and nottingham comes immediately to mind.....

of course share lah!.....

relative is staying in a 4 bed room house, contract for 12 months, but with 11 months rental (apparently this is the norm for student accommodation, maybe something to do with the fact that the typical academic year is only 9 months, so the house is usually empty during hols).....which comes to about 200 quid a week.....one room is small, so lower rental....utilities add another 20-30 pounds a month.....

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Added on October 4, 2012, 6:47 pmthe griffith undergraduate provision entry pathway is in response to and similar to uq's 'double degree' programme.....

not sure about griffith, but uq's double degree entry minimum is op1 and atar 99......not any easier than meeting umat cutoffs.....

This post has been edited by limeuu: Oct 4 2012, 06:47 PM

glasgow will be more expensive....

if you intend to travel around uk, and can plan 3-4 months ahead, i recommend travelodge chain, many 19 quid rooms in many cities and towns.....and during sales, even 15 quid only.....

there are specific entry dates, which depends on the respective unis.....so if the 'connection' is not 'good', some may have to wait for up to 10 months.....

you are joining an existing cohort of students at the pms, in the clinical years, and the timetable will be different from the rest of the uni.....and some have specific introduction programmes prior to commencement.....

time has changed.....there was a time not too long ago, when people are desparately trying to get aussie pms.....now it is uk ones....

there is no guarantee.....but if you are in the upper 1/2 of the cohort, you almost certainly will get one of the 14 uk pms you list as the top 14 in the matching ranking.....

at least there are 14, and the majority of pms slots.....the aussie places are very few now....and with the strength of the aud, and the possibility of not getting a houseman job at graduation, i suspect oz is not popular at all now.....i know at least one student trying to change a match to unsw to a uk uni.....an unheard of thing in the past....

in which case, you are

1: guaranteed NOT to get a match to oz/nz....(nz will be out by your time)...

2: almost guaranteed to get a uk match, as there are few places in ireland/canada.....

have you thought about what happens after you graduate....since you are an aussie citizen?....uk degrees are not automatically recognised in oz....

i thought so.....you have not thought it out carefully....

it is unsure if uk will face a shortage of f1/2 places, at the moment all can be accommodated, but in the future, it may happen like in oz....

even if you get fy done, there is no guarantee you can stay on after that for postgraduate training...the specialist training matching can be quirky....under current tier2 visa rules, if you miss out the first round, you may not be eligible for the visa the next cycle.....as it is dependant on having set minimum income in uk the preceeding year.....

australia does NOT automatically recognise uk degrees, but as srlee has indicated, you can get provisional registration under the competent authority pathway......

uk postgraduate qualification is also not automatically recognised, and the respective australiasian colleges have extra requirements for such people.....including re-examination....

i will be blunt here, and suggest perhaps a reason is inability to get direct entry into undergraduate oz med school....

don't worry, there is no shame in that, oz med schools is one of the most difficult to get in, and many aussies (pr and citizens) have taken your path before....

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Added on October 9, 2012, 12:20 pmit is NOT as simple as that....

people forget that 'practice' is work....and there are laws about who can work where....

these immigration laws are the one that will determine where you can work...and studying in that country does not mean you will automatically have right to stay on and work.....

This post has been edited by limeuu: Oct 9 2012, 12:20 PM

you are an australian citizen, and therefore CANNOT be matched to oz/nz.....and with any of the degrees from the other pms, you CANNOT do housemanship in oz...

you can work in msia, but as a foreigner (non-msian), you will face restrictions.....it is likely that by the time you graduate, there will not be enough housemanship positions for msian graduates (local and overseas), let alone foreigners....

does not apply to srlee, who is an australian citizen, and hence cannot be matched to oz/nz.....hence will NOT graduate from an aussie med school.....that list applies to graduates from oz med schools...the last category apply to those img who have passed the amc qualifying exam.....

once you are accepted into a pms programme (either the undergraduate or graduate entry), you WILL get a match....IF you pass ALL the tests, exams, assessments.....they will NOT prevent you from a match.....

if you fail some, you may need to repeat some exams, repeat semester(s).....and may be excluded from matching to some unis (which requires a clear pass all the way)...or may be asked to downgrade into the local programme....or be asked to leave the programme completely....

so the trick is to stay ahead of the pack....note that on average, 20-30% of a cohort will fail and drop from the cohort.....usually at eos2.....

'from australia' i suppose means you are either an aussie citizen or pr....which means you CANNOT match to oz....which also means you have failed to get direct entry into oz undergraduate med school.....

if the intention is to go back to work in oz, it will not be smooth sailing, but not impossible.....if you get stuck in imu, you can still sit for the amc qualifying exam.....to uk, you can use the competent authority pathway....you cannot match to canada or us, as you are not msian.....

if you are referring to the uk a levels, there is no such result as '70+'....it's given in band grades from a* to e.....

the umat/isat/ukcat/bmat are NOT iq tests....they are tests of logical and critical thinking, and of thinking speed....many high iq/academically excellent people do badly in this sort of tests....and it is exactly this, that the med schools want...to select out those with strong critical thinking skills from amongst the thousands of 'high iq' applicants.....

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Added on October 22, 2012, 8:43 pmyou have not done that at all, just confused people more....

what 'tertiary entrance exam' are you referring to?......

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Added on October 22, 2012, 8:47 pmyou are mistaken.....

as a non-eu citizen, there poses considerable problems with staying on in uk beyond the fy.....

and even for an aussie citizen, the process is the same as anyone else with a degree not recognised by amc....being a citizen makes no difference, other than you have the right to enter and stay in oz anytime.....

This post has been edited by limeuu: Oct 22 2012, 08:47 PM

most people here are well aware of the education systems in the common countries people go for education....you are NOT confusing anyone by saying oz year 12, ATAR ranks (it's no more TER), TEE/SACE/VCE etc....but you are confusing people by calling the oz year 12 you did 'a levels'......

the ATAR rank is NOT related to the actual raw marks you get....it's a relative ranking, and the raw marks insulting in say, your ATAR of 98.9 will fluctuate from year to year, depending on the difficulty of the exam and overall performance of all students....

the issue of staying on to work in the uk is one based on eligibility to stay on and work using the tier 2 visa....you are well advised to research a bit on what this means before jumping in.....

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Added on October 23, 2012, 12:29 amdifferent tests will have different emphasis on different aspects.....

but it is obviously NOT just an iq rest.....and the test is conducted in a high pressure setting, with limited time, to compel students to think fast.....candidates who are slow thinkers (they will still come to the same correct answer eventually, with time) often do badly, even when they are high academic achievers.....aong could be one of them, explaining why he did poorly in umat....

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Added on October 23, 2012, 12:33 amwhich would then mean that even if you got stuck in the imu local programme, it should not be a problem sitting and passing the amc exam then?......so what's the issue?.....

This post has been edited by limeuu: Oct 23 2012, 12:33 AM

both are true......not opinions and rumours.....

note that the spore a levels is a different exam from uk/cie.....with different grading system....it's a lot more difficult to get a's than the 28% in the uk a levels...