Undergraduate or Postgraduate Medicine?

If your ultimate aim is to get into medicine and become a doctor, you have two main options on how to get there. It is difficult to decide which option is for you, given that this is the first time you have to make such a big decision with life-altering ramifications. So how do you know which one is best for you? Is it all just about what marks you get or is there something more that’s important to also consider? Obviously everyone has their own answer, but let’s try and look at both pathways and the differences.
 

Undergraduate Medicine
Seen by many as the pinnacle of VCE® Exam achievement if entry is attained. As someone who has taken this path, let me tell you it’s not at all as hard as everyone makes seem, nor is it elitist and exclusive. Unfortunately yes the cut off marks are very high but as long as you have a passion and interest for medicine, you will fit right in. That being said, there are a few qualities that might make your time easier, and generally this is what they screen for in interviews and the UCAT. The first and foremost thing is maturity: a course lasting 5 years might seem like a long time but what this means is that by the time you are 23 or 24 you will be making life or death decisions for all of your patients. Now in light of that, 5 years doesn’t seem long enough to prepare! That’s why maturity is something that isn’t taught, it’s expected from day one, from your lecturers and your fellow students. The second most important thing that the majority of undergrads posses is passion. The medical degree is a tough 5 years with rigorous assessments and difficult exams, without a passion and enjoyment for what you are studying, your time will be a struggle. While there are many other qualities that undergrads will posses these are, in my opinion, the most important 2.

Post-Graduate Medicine
This is often seen as the pinnacle of university achievement with many students studying a whole variety of courses all aiming to get one of these elusive post-graduate places. At Monash, during third year the undergrad and postgrad cohorts are combined, so while I am not a  post-grad myself I have met many. Now the first thing I have heard is how hard the competition is for post-grads, some say even worse than undergrad, purely because of the lower number of places available and of course the GAMSAT® Exam. Again, while I can’t exactly comment on the qualities necessary to survive an postgraduate degree, the GAMSAT® Exam and pre-clinical postgrad (clinical postgrad is the same as clinical undergrad)- what I can tell you is the qualities that I have seen in all of the post-grads I have met. Maturity and passion seem to be a given for all of them, I mean, to have done an undergrad and still want to do another degree? It’s got to be there. But aside from this, the biggest thing I have noticed in post-grads is their pure determination and attention to detail. In hindsight these qualities make sense, without them you can’t expect to maintain a high enough GPA or ace the GAMSAT® Exam.
 

In conclusion...
Now that we have talked a bit about both, it’s up to you to think what you can do. Most people will try for undergrad and if they fail, continue to try for post-grad. Considering how competitive both pathways are, it certainly seems like a good idea to put the odds on your sides by increasing your number of attempts and start trying to gain access to the undergraduate course first. You can always try again for GAMSAT® Exam if that fails. But you have to remember that either path you take there are certain personal qualities without which your university life may be very difficult.

One last thing I will mention, not to seem discouraging, is that the biomedical undergraduate degree does not offer many employment opportunities aside from post-grad med and academia, now consider the number of people doing biomed and the number of places for post-grad med, you do the math...

So how do you improve your chances? We will talk about that in upcoming blogs and there should be some information around in other blogs as well. In my opinion the key is preparation. Not just for the UMAT® Exam (for which it is vitally important), for which a good UMAT® Exam training course can be vital. But also for your studies and early career will entail. If you can, try to attend one of the many events organised by Unis or UMAT® Exam preparation course providers in order to talk to current students and doctors.

In the meantime, Happy Studying!