Monash University – 5 years Medical Science and Medicine Bachelor

Monash University 5 year medicine degree is for those who graduated from high school within 2 years but not yet started university.

Monash University 4 year graduate degree in medicine doesn’t require international students to take MCAT or GAMSAT!

International Application Deadlines

• ISAT registration deadline: mid April
• ISAT taking deadline: early May
• ISAT results: end of May
• Monash University Medicine application deadline: end of June
• Monash University Medicine Interviews: July
• Monash University Medicine Offers: August

Academic requirements (accounts for 33.3% for admission success)

Required subject: Chemistry & English

• ATAR 98
• A level AAA or A*AB in 2 years
• DSE 25
• UNSW Foundation 9.5
• Monash Foundation 90% average including 75% or above for Chemistry & English A and B 75% or above
• IB 39 points including Chemistry 5 in SL and 4 in HL &
  • 6 in English B / AB SL or
  • 5 in English A SL / English B HL or
  • 4 in English A HL
• Canada 60% Chemistry + 90-93% average + 60-70% English
  • USA： SAT 1420 + AP
• Singapore A level D in H2 Chemistry or Merit in H3 Chemistry + 15 points* in 1 sitting
  • B in O level English / H1 Literature / H1 General Paper or
  • D in H2 Knowledge and Inquiry / Literature / English Language and Linguistics or
  • Merit in H3 Literature
  • *H1 A=2.5, B=2, C=1.5, D=1, E=0.5; H2 A=5, B=4, C=3, D=2, E=1; H3 Distinction receives 1 bonus point

English

• TOEFL 94 24 Writing; 19 Reading; 20 Listening and Speaking
• IELTS 7.0 no band lower than 6.5
• PTE 65 no band score lower than 58

ISAT requirements (accounts for 33.3% for admission success)

• 165 for each section
• 177 for both sections

4 year Graduate entry

• Academic requirements: Biomed degree 6 out of 7 & doesn’t require MCAT or GAMSAT
• Admission formula 40% academics + 60% interview

a. Where is it going to take place?

The clinical placement will be conducted in clinical settings in hospitals and practices across metropolitan Melbourne and rural Victoria:

• Monash Medical Centre
• Dandenong Hospital
• Casey Hospital
• Moorabbin Hospital
• Kingston Centre
• The Alfred
• Sandringham Hospital
• Caulfield Hospital
• Cabrini Hospital
• Peninsula Health
• Box Hill Hospital
• Maroondah Hospital
• Angliss Hospital
• Peter James Centre
• Wantirna Health
• Bendigo Health
• Mildura Base Public Hospital
• West Gippsland Hospital (Warragul)
• Bairnsdale Regional Health Service (Bairnsdale)
• Central Gippsland Health (Sale)
• Latrobe Regional Health (Traralgon)
• Gippsland Southern Health Service (Leongatha)
• South Gippsland Hospital (Foster)
• Bass Coast Health (Wonthaggi)

b. What is Monash Medical Centre like?

• Monash Medical Centre is a major teaching and research hospital providing a comprehensive range of specialist surgical, medical, allied health, mental health and palliative care services.
• Monash Medical Centre provides care for 1.2 million residents in south-east Melbourne, Australia, as well as statewide tertiary support for complex women’s, neonatal, and paediatric care.
• Apart from pioneering IVF research and welcoming the world’s first in-vitro twins in the 1980s, Monash Medical Centre has also performed Australia’s first successful in-utero surgery in 2008.

c. How is clinical placement going to be for the students?

The clinical placement will take place from Year 3 to Year 5 with its own focus as below:

• Year 3
  • integrated medicine, surgery and pathophysiology
• Year 4
  • core clinical rotations of children's health, general practice, psychological medicine and women's health
• Year 5
  • facilitating the transition into the medical workplace as a trainee intern
  • six clinical rotation including aged care, emergency medicine, medicine, scholarly intensive project, specialty and surgery

For the graduate students, the clinical placement will take place from Year 2 to Year 4.

d. What is the course structure?

The 5-year course develops through theme studies including Theme 1- Personal and Professional Development, Theme 2 - Society, Population, Health and Illness, Theme 3 - Scientific Basis of Clinical Practice and Theme 4 - Clinical Skills. The focus of each year is as follows:

• Year 1 – Year 2
  • Foundation in Basic Sciences (Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Pharmacology, Social Sciences, Population Sciences)
  • Clinical Skills
  • Community Engagement
  • Early Clinical Placements
• Year 3
  • Foundation in Clinical Medicine (Medicine, Surgery, Pathology, Population Health)
• Year 4
  • Integration and Teams (General Practice, Children’s Health, Women’s Health, Medicine of the Mind)
• Year 5
  • Preparing for Practice (Medicine, Surgery, Emergency Medicine, Aged Care, Specialty, Elective Patient Safety)

e. What is the teaching style in Monash University?

The following teaching methods are adopted in the course:

• Lectures
• Small Group Sessions
• Tutorial Groups
• Discussions
• Problem-based Learning
• Core-based Learning Sessions
• Clinical Placement

f. Can the students study for an intercalated degree at Monash University?

Monash University offers Bachelor of Medical Science (Honours) as a one year degree for medical students and graduates and it will take place between Year 3 and Year 4.

• This accounts for 33.3% for admission success

The interview will take the format of Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) and it will be held online via Zoom. Each station will take 10 minutes in total and the interviewees will have 2 minutes reading time with a scenario and will then be interviewed for 8 minutes with a 'circuit’ taking 70-80 minutes to complete, factoring in time for pre-briefing and debriefing sessions. The MMI consists of six sequential interview 'stations' focusing on an interviewee’s:

• advocacy
• collaboration
• critical thinking
• empathy
• ethical reasoning
• motivation
• resilience

General/Personal Statement Station

1. Why do you want to study medicine?
2. Why would you like to study at Monash University?
3. What do you bring to Monash in terms of student life and participation?
4. What happens if you don’t like life at Monash?
5. What happens if you run into difficulty?
6. What are your plans if you don’t get into Monash?
7. What events have occurred in your life that have changed your view of the world?
8. What other career paths have you considered? What interested you about those careers?
9. Have you had any experiences with health professionals? What was done well? What wasn’t done well?

Motivation and Insight into Medicine

1. What do you think will be your greatest challenge in completing medical school or learning how to be a doctor?
2. In your view, what is the most pressing problem facing medicine today?
3. What you can do to be a good doctor?
4. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
5. What qualities should a good doctor have? Provide justification and examples
6. What do you regard as positive and negative aspects of the medical profession? Give examples where possible.
7. What are the barriers to health care for people living in isolation/migrants?
8. What is the role of research in medicine? Provide examples of medical research and its impact
9. How can personal beliefs affect the care of patients?
10. What exposure have you had to the medical profession?
11. What do you think you will like most about medicine?
12. What do you think you will like least about medicine?
13. List several qualities that you feel are the most important to being a good medical student.
14. What kinds of experiences have you had in the medical field?

Ethical Dilemmas

1. You’re a medical student and have noticed that your “clinical” professor has been appearing to class the past few times smelling of alcohol. What do you do? After confronting her, she says it was just that one time (she had lunch with a friend) and she would not do it again. But several days later, she appears in class smelling of alcohol again. What action would you now take?
2. A man has been responsible for taking care of his wife who is in a vegetative state for six years after a car accident. She can breathe on her own but that is the extent of her abilities. He requests that her feeding tube is removed. As her physician, what action would you take in this scenario? Why?
3. A student is working in a clinic where the office double books aboriginal patients. The student asks their reasoning and the receptionist replies that “Those people never show up for their appointments.” How would you deal with this situation?
4. You are in a class when the professor shows a video of a patient-doctor interaction. It is apparent from the film that the patient does not know she is being filmed and tells the doctor a number of personal concerns. What would be your response to this? What issues are raised with this situation?
5. Mrs Jones has signed a donor card indicating that she is willing to donate her body to science without notifying her husband and son. She gets into an accident and it is determined she is brain dead. The family doctor, who is on call that afternoon, reviews the chart and determines that she would be perfect for medical students to practice the removal of organs for transplantation purposes. The doctor then talks to the family to discuss the procedure and to confirm their consent. They both oppose the procedure and refuse to allow the doctor to move forward. The doctor points out that Mrs Jones could be helping hundreds of people by educating the medical students and that technically consent has already been provided. The husband understands how beneficial the educational experience is but is too emotional to allow them to continue. The son, a medical student, refuses because he knows the bodies are not treated with dignity. If you were the doctor, how would you proceed? Why?
6. You are spending your evening as a medical student in the hospital. It is late and you see a member of the staff duck into the supply closet with an empty bag and reappear in a few minutes with it appearing full. You have heard other staff members discussing that supplies are missing on a regular basis that cannot be accounted for. After observing the actions of the other staff member, what do you do?
7. You are a second-year student shadowing a doctor in the O.R. Once the patient, an obese female has been given general anaesthetic and the procedure is underway the doctors start to make comments about her weight and call her names that you find inappropriate but most of all unprofessional. Do you talk to the doctor about his comments or do you keep your opinion to yourself? Why?
8. You are working on a group project with 5 other students. One of the students doesn’t show up for meetings or if they do show up – they are late and leave early. They have put no effort into the group project but show up on the day of the presentation and try to take credit for the project. What do you do in this situation?
9. You are at a bus stop in front of a cafe when you notice a woman pushing a pram, carrying a child, and holding onto the hand of another child. Two more children are running around the bus stop making a ruckus. She loses her temper and smacks one of them. What do you do? Would your decision change if you knew she isn’t the child’s parent?
10. Discuss a controversial area of medicine; what view best represents yours and why?

Prioritisation Tasks

1. You have two patients requiring a heart transplant, both equally suited to the organ which has become available. Patient 1 is a 25-year-old man who smokes 3 packets of cigarettes a day. Patient 2 is a 50-year-old woman who has always looked after her body, has three children in their late teens/early twenties and husband. Both patients are in urgent need of a transplant and will subsequently die if they do not get one. Who would you choose to give the organ donation to?
2. Two patients need a liver transplant, but there is only one liver available at the time. Tell the interviewer how you would decide between:
   1. A 64-year old retired politician who happens to be an alcoholic, or
   2. A 26-year old mother of three who is reliant on state welfare support.
3. You are part of a committee to decide where the money for health care in Geelong is spent. It is your turn to inform the committee of your opinion on what you think is the single most important area requiring funding. What is your response?

Medical/Science Topics

1. You head out bushwalking with a friend and your brother. You have only been bushwalking once before, and this would be your younger brother’s first time out in the bush. After wandering off the path for 30 minutes, your friend falls and breaks her leg. You are lost. No one knows you have gone bushwalking. What do you do? What would you bring with you if you were going bushwalking?
2. You are the owner of a famous restaurant in New York, selling cheesecake and cannoli. One day, the government issues a policy, restricting the amount of fat in food served in restaurants. This directly affects your signature dishes. What action would you take?
3. Why there is a shortage of doctors in rural areas?
4. What the social determinants of health are and why a disparity in health outcomes?
5. List three issues that confront medicine today. Of the three, which is the most important and why?
6. What most recent advances in medicine have occurred that you believe will have the greatest impact on how you will practice medicine?
7. You are a medical student, and a specialist asks you to perform an abdominal exam on an already under the anaesthetic patient. You are aware she did not consent to this, but the specialist will be examining your abilities. What would you do?
8. Using IVF to predetermine the sex of your baby is allowed in some places but not in Victoria. Do you think it should be allowed?

Communication Stations

1. You’re part of a school trip to New Zealand and your group ends up sharing the one and only available room in the entire town. One of the girls in the group has personal issues about sharing a room with the opposite gender. How do you resolve this issue? Later, her father calls to ask about the situation.
2. You watch a movie with the lead actor smoking several times during the movie. When you come out of the theatre, your friends have a debate on whether smoking should be censored in movies. Discuss your thoughts with one of your friends.
3. Your grandmother is living alone and has recently been in poor health. Your mother wants her to move into an assisted living community (i.e., old folks’ home). Your grandmother wants to live in the home she was raised in and has spent her entire life in. Discuss the matter further with your grandmother.
4. You’re a medical student and have noticed that your “clinical” professor has been appearing in class the past few times smelling of alcohol. What do you do? After confronting her, she says it was just that one time (she had lunch with a friend) and she would not do it again. But several days later, she appears in class smelling of alcohol again. What action would you now take?
5. You have two patients requiring a heart transplant, both equally suited to the organ which has become available. Patient 1 is a 25-year-old man who smokes 3 packets of cigarettes a day. Patient 2 is a 50-year-old woman who has always looked after her body, has three children in their late teens/early twenties and husband. Both patients are in urgent need of a transplant and will subsequently die if they do not get one. Who would you choose to give the organ donation to?
6. You’re part of a school trip to New Zealand and your group ends up sharing the one and only available room in the entire town. One of the girls in the group has personal issues about sharing a room with the opposite gender. How do you resolve this issue? Later, her father calls to ask about the situation.