Last year, one of our student followers contacted us asking for help. Misa told us that there was a big problem in the health science sector of public education. Not all students were getting equal accessibility to resources which help them enter Med School.
Each year, more than a thousand high schoolers enroll into the Biomedical Science program at the University of Auckland, with the hopes of entering the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB or Med), the Bachelor of Pharmacy, and the Bachelor of Optometry program the following year. To be granted acceptance into these programs, students must excel in the following standards:
The interview component comprises of 8 Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) stations. Each station has one interviewer and takes 8 minutes to complete. The interviewers include faculty staff members and invited members of the wider community.
The MMI assesses non-academic qualities that are important for those pursuing a healthcare career, including:
Excerpt from: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/fmhs/study-with-us/application-and-admission/entry-and-interview.html
After a grueling year-long process of uncertainty, only about half of the Biomedical students receive an offer. And that offer isn’t even for their selected programs, it’s just for the MMI. And only about half of that selection gets into Med.
All students want to be well prepared and equipped to do well in the interviews. But unfortunately, the university provides very limited resources to assist them and the only alternatives are with private tuition companies who charge at least $400 for a workshop.
The high cost barrier of these private services have created a landscape of inequality for more affluent students, having higher chances of being accepted into the medicine program and eventually being doctors.
But for a healthy public healthcare system, doctors should come from all types of socio-economic backgrounds, and not limited to just students who can afford extra tuition.
Misa asked us to help sponsor an event run by herself and her friends which provides free and accessible resources to help students pass their MMI. They all went through a similar experience of not being able to find additional resources to help them prepare for their MMI. They didn’t want students to fork out a large chunk of money into something that didn’t guarantee their acceptance into Med.
So together with Misa and her team, we ran a Free Mock MMI event. Where students can practice their interview techniques with senior Med students who’ve been through the same experience. Where students could receive a booklet with practice questions to take home to practice. Where students could attend and leave without needing to spend a single cent.
Last year, we helped 144 students. And this year, we’re proud to say that we helped give 160 students the opportunity to practice their interviews and increase their chance of entry, with a 96% satisfaction rate. And what surprised us the most was that 100% of students who attended a paid event, rated our free event better or on par!
Of course, the event definitely couldn’t have been done without help of the 80 volunteers, who gave up their Saturday to help their junior students. And our generous sponsors, the NZ Defence Force, Medisave, and Zambrero, for providing financial backing, gifts, and food for the volunteers.
We helped 160 students but even more missed out. We believe in open access to education so we’ve decided to make the Guide and Practice Questions by Ashleigh Brough & Míša Rektorysová, from the event, available digitally for free.
We want to help even more students next year so naturally, we’d want to make it even bigger and better. If you’d like to be part of Free Mock MMI 2019 get in touch with us and we’ll reach out to you when the time comes.
]]>1. First, we need to find out if you’re eligible or not.
Visit https://www.feesfree.govt.nz and enter your NSN (national student number, same as your NCEA login). Don’t worry if you don’t know yours, just click Don’t know your NSN or don’t have one? and you can find out how to get yours. If you went through the CIE or IB pathway in high school, you probably won’t have a NSN number, you can skip to Step 4.
2. Choose your study plan.
This part is quite self-explanatory.
Choose Provider-based study if you’re going to a university or a polytechnic (e.g. UoA, AUT, Media Design School, Unitec, etc).
Choose Industry-based training if you’re going to do work-based training or an apprenticeship (e.g. electrician, plumber, builder, etc).
3. See your eligibility!
4. Enroll with your education provider.
This step will vary depending on the provider of your choice. Every provider at some stage will ask you how you plan on paying for your education.
Note: Fees Free Study =/= Student Loan. You don’t need to apply for a loan with StudyLink.
Here’s an example for enrolling with the University of Auckland. Just select Eligible for Fees Free Study. In some providers, you might not get that option so just select the option which says Student Loan or StudyLink or something similar (even though you don’t need a student loan).
*Screenshot from the University of Auckland, Student Services Online Enrolment Cart. *
Screenshot from the Media Design School Apply website. You can find out your IRD number from Inland Revenue. If you know your login details there, you can usually find it on your online banking website.*
5. That’s it!
Sit back and relax cause you’ve just got your first year free! Your provider will get in touch with the Government and they’ll sort everything out for you. If you need more info, visit the FAQ at https://www.feesfree.govt.nz/faqs/.
Since you’re gonna be at uni this year, check out the Niesh app where you can get free exclusive student discounts at places like Better Burger, Gongcha, Habitual Fix, and more! Get it here!
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