Blogs

9th May 2022
How to choose an Irish Medical School
In Ireland there are five medical schools that you can apply to as an undergraduate student: University College Dublin (UCD) Trinity College Dublin (TCD) Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) University College Cork (UCC) National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG) As there are 10 spaces on your CAO application you can apply for all Irish medical scho ...
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6th April 2022
ATTENTION PARENTS: 5 Ways to help your Son or Daughter get into Medicine
Great things never come easy. Medicine is an incredibly rewarding, secure, well paid and respected profession in Ireland. It is also the hardest course to get into. Furthermore, the final years of secondary school are a stressful and demanding time for your son or daughter, and the need to sit HPAT places additional pressure on them during this time. Thankfully there are ways ...
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5th April 2022
Prerequisites for studying medicine in Ireland
The five universities that offer medicine all have a minimum requirement of 480 points from the same sitting of the Leaving Certificate or equivalent. They also have minimum subject requirements, so it is essential to consider this when deciding which Leaving Certificate subjects to choose. Some medicine courses are five years long and some are six. The six-year courses have a pre-med ...
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21st March 2022
How to Prepare for the HPAT in 5th Year
So you’re in 5th year and you’re thinking about pursuing a career in medicine. You’ve been getting great grades and you have the people skills to become a doctor, so there should be no problem getting in. Then you find out about the HPAT. You hear that it can be a major obstruction to your journey, and only a select few are able to succeed in HPAT. You hear about all the peop ...
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19th February 2022
A Student’s Experience Sitting HPAT Online 2022 (Plus Some Tips!)
I just sat HPAT 2022 online – and what a relief to have it over with! Overall it was as I expected with no major surprises, having done practice exams on MedEntry’s online platform. Check in process The check in process was similar to what was outlined in the ProctorU video emailed to us by ACER. I logged into the ProctorU site, and when the countdown reached 0, I was able to start the sessi ...
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16th February 2022
HPAT Nutrition
Napoleon Bonaparte once famously said “an army marches on its stomach”, and that is as relevant for HPAT as it was for the French Armies that Bonaparte commanded. Making sure you put the right things into your body in the lead up to HPAT is vital to making sure that you perform well on the day of the test. I’m sure you are well aware of what a quality diet consists, so in this post I’ll serve ...
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8th February 2022
Top Tips for Non-Verbal Reasoning
Students often find non-verbal reasoning questions the most difficult initially, especially if they have never encountered them before. Here are a few tips to help tackle these questions from an experienced HPAT tutor. Tip 1: Keep it Simple Non-verbal reasoning questions will require you to find the most simple and logical answer. It may feel like the questions are out to trick you, and ...
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6th February 2022
Five Tips to Improve Your Score in Interpersonal Understanding Questions
To some lucky people it comes easy, but for many this is the section with some of the most difficult questions in the exam. Whether you are just starting your HPAT preparation or are deep in your practice so far, the following tips from an experienced tutor who scored highly in this section should help you maximize your score: Firstly, read the introductory text included in the passage. This ...
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4th February 2022
3 tips to improve your score in Logical Reasoning and Problem Solving questions
Looking for some tips on how to improve your score in Logical reasoning and Problem solving? Terrified by long passages with scientific jargon and perplexing puzzles? Worried about running out of time? Remember the following advice and you’ll be well on your way to maximising your score. 1. Read the question stem first This construct can often be time-consuming due to lengthy passages tha ...
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28th January 2022
HPAT PHOBIA Don’t get Scared, Stay Motivated!
Does the thought of HPAT day make you cringe and consider hiding in your room? That's how I felt in the weeks that led up to HPAT. Being a student in my final year of high school I had rarely been in a position where I was sitting an exam which was so important for determining my future career pathway. Sure I had been through many school exams and academic competitions, but I felt that no t ...
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