Student Aiming for a Career in Science and Medicine

[nacho-man]

Ok guys I am a new here; i only came across this forum because i googled a question which i didnt understand. Anyways i thought this forum would be really good for me so now this is what i need help with.
I am in Year 8 and going to Year 9 in the new year.
My dream Jobs are
Cardiac Surgeon, Specialist in the Eye and Astrophysicist.
I live in Australia, Victoria.
And for all of those jobs i need to be very strong in mathematics and science.
And at the moment i really don't think i will get my dream job at this rate
so please tell me what i should do to become strong in these areas.
Especially maths and physics..
Thanks - Nacho

 

[enricfemi]

i think the best answer is take your time, which seems abundant in your case.

best wishes

 

[nacho-man]

take my time with what, i need to no

 

[Winzer]

Well, what do you think you can do to better yourself?
If it is more practice in both areas, then do it on your own time- its all about motivation/desire. Ask your teachers what you need more work on.

Furthermore, you are pretty young and you have plenty of time to decide your course of action; take your time, and you will realize what you want to do. You will have plenty of other courses to take that you might like too.

Honestly, Cardiac Surgeon, Specialist in the Eye and Astrophysicist are all fields that are apart from each other. I am not saying it's impossible but do some heavy research in these majors and look at their compatablilities, look at the course requirements for each one.

 

[nacho-man]

thank you; the both of you.
yes i understand that the three of them are very different from each other but i don't plan to become all three, there are just there as my goals.
I am young no doubt but time is not abundant.
You see there is a very different system in Australia and i do believe this is an american forums site.
What happens in australia is, when u go to year 10, your exams begin and go throughout to year 12.
You pick a few subjects eg physics, maths methods, math specialist e.t.c and you are tested on those subjects throughout the years.
In the end of year 12 you will be given back your score
aka V.C.E score. for cardiac surgeon and specialist in the eye i need a score of 99.35
for physicist i need around 95+ and that is not easy to get..
so basically all i have is a year before my tests begin.
but the guidance you gave me was very helpful and i am considering the things you have said

 

[whitay]

Bachlor in Science in Australia, at any university, is never hard to get into so I doubt the VCE score will be 95+. Maybe direct at the University of Victoria. Yes medicine is a hard program to get into in Australia, however I have heard of people getting in with much lower grades than that stated, well in Queensland at least. But most popular for students these days, my mother works in a University, is that students obtain Bachlor degrees and then after that apply to study Medicine and If i choose the route of medicine I would most surely do this because of what one would gain.

Also 99.35 is straight As, even more. I am unfortunately not familiar with the VCE system because I live in Queensland and was on the QCS (I think) at the time. But I know that from QCS we had a state wide exam taken on the same day as everyone else and it went for 3days and we were tested on random material that required a year 10 level knowledge of maths and science, basically an IQ test. This test held bearing, not as you as an individual but on the school and its ranking within the state and this ranking within the state determined the allocated bell-curve basically that your school received. Therefore you could be the top student in your school but everyone scored badly on the QCS test and your school received a poor ranking on the QCS, which meant that if it was very bad and you had straight As then chances of you getting an Overall Position of 1 were less (out of 25, 1 being the best). Is this so with the VCE system? Also it was said that our subjects were not weighted, but unfortunately they are because also they have another system caused Field Positions (I think) and it was basically a critera from A-D (I think) and produced a sequence based upon the subjects you took and some universities use this sequence.

 

[nacho-man]

being in year 9 and not have started VCE i am not to sure
BUT i know that the score you get doesn't matter on what school u go to it is how well you do on the test
yes 95+ isn't need for the degree you were talkiing about but it would give me a much more wider range of jobs so i could basically get anything i wanted and it would make me proud aswell

 

[Despondent]

The VCE is different to the system in Queensland.

A brief outline of VCE in year 12:

I'm sure you'll be given info by your school on how the ENTER is calculated from your subject scores so I'll skip over that.

- Each raw subject score is out of 50 and is assigned to you based on your external exam score and your (moderated - that is, the adjusted score based on your school's performance in the external exams) internal score.

- Schools set assessments (SACs) for students. The raw scores assigned by the schools essentially mean nothing. What the aforementioned scores are used for is the (internal) ranking of students. There are some fine details but the most important aspect of internal assessment is that the higher you rank amongst the students in your school, the more benefit you will gain from the external exam marks achieved by your school.

- There are external statewide exams which make up at least 50% of your mark for any subject. They test you on how well you can apply the material that you have studied throughout the year. That is, the assessments are based on substance rather than a general knowledge test that a year 8 student could nail.

As for your math abilities don't worry too much about that. I don't know about other countries, but academic abilities aren't really valued in non academic positions in Australia so I wouldn't worry about job competency if I were you. You'd be suprised at the lack of academically inclined people gaining positions in jobs typically associated with a high ENTER.

In terms of VCE assessments, again you don't need to stress out about a lack of math competency at this point. Just keep on working at it. Besides, in recent years they've dumbed down the methods and specialist exams. So as long as you work hard from now on you'll make up sufficient ground to do well in your maths subjects by the time you get to year 12.

 

[nacho-man]

ah ok but i still think i need to be strong in it because in recent years the i have entered in maths competitions and let's just say..they weren't very good and i think that's an indication of either silly mistakes, lazzyness, or just bad at maths overall..
So that's why i need to no what to do about this problem.

 

[Despondent]

Maths competitions like the AMC are not indicative of mathematical aptitude. Many people who have done extremely well in such competitions say that their results are due to them having done some work outside of the normal syllabus to help prepare for them.

At this stage of your academic life, a much better indicator of whether you will do well in high school or uni maths is whether or not you're doing well in your school work (this excludes competitions). If you're not doing so well in your school work then ask yourself why that is. At the very least, start by considering the obvious things like whether or not you have put sufficient time into understanding the things you have been taught in school, or whether you have worked through enough problems.

 

[nacho-man]

ok well guys just one more question
if I am not doing well in mathematic competitions but am doing ok in school
(government school) it doesn't mean that I am bad at maths?
what are mathematics exams in year 11 and 12 like?
im hoping to go for maths methods and specialists maths

 

[paniurelis]

Mathematics competition usually require a preparation in the form of solving A LOT of competition type problems. So, if you are not doing well in competition, it only means you didn't do your training.
For example, if you would work on competition problems two hours per day for a year, yours results would be much better :-)
When I was in school, there was a friend of mine, who later won the bronze, silver medals in IMO - International Math Olympiad, and many other prizes..So, he was solving problems for a 8-10 hours each day, and started at the age of 10 or 11, don't remember the details now.
Don't forget, the brain is like a muscle, if you train it - it grows and becomes stronger i.e. smarter.