Keith Garraway, of University of Otago property services,
unfolds one of nearly 760 tables to be used for a
large-scale health sciences admission test being held at
the Lion Foundation Arena, in Dunedin, today. Photo by
Gerard O'Brien.
More than 700 students will sit an
Australian-administered undergraduate medicine and health
sciences admission test in Dunedin today.
University of Otago property services staff were busy
yesterday preparing more than 700 tables at the Lion
Foundation Arena for the test.
All applicants in dentistry, medical laboratory science,
medicine, and physiotherapy at the University of Otago must
sit the test to be eligible for admission to these
professional programmes.
Today's test involves a major international logistical
exercise, with large numbers of intending health science
students also sitting at Auckland University and at 12
universities in Australia.
The test comprises three sections: logical reasoning and
problem solving; understanding people; and non-verbal
reasoning.
Administered by the Australian Council for Educational
Research in Australia and New Zealand, the test helps select
students for entry into certain health science courses
throughout New Zealand and Australia.
This approach is one of several measures designed to include
a wider range of skills - including understanding of people,
and communication ability - and not just academic prowess, in
selecting tomorrow's doctors, dentists and other health
professionals.
The test was first used at Otago University for medical entry
in 2003, and was then used by intending Otago dentistry
students for the first time the following year.
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