Dan's Journey
Dan's Path to the University of Melbourne MD
Dan's story isn't a straight line — and that's exactly what makes him such an effective tutor.
After graduating high school, Dan achieved a 99.85 ATAR and went straight into a Bachelor of Pre Medical Science at Griffith University. Competing with the brightest students in QLD while studying all day at 19 was genuinely taxing — and Dan made a courageous decision to change course.
Dan completed a Bachelor of Economics at the University of Queensland and then worked at Queensland Health for several years as a health economist. Despite gaining rare insight into the healthcare system, the role didn't feel meaningful enough — so he decided to return to medicine.
With a low economics GPA and no clear path back to medicine, Dan spent a year lecturing at Sichuan University in China while planning his next move. He decided on an accelerated Bachelor of Psychology — completing it in 2 years by taking 5 courses per semester and every summer semester.
Dan graduated with a 6.94 real GPA and 6.99 GEMSAS GPA. He sat the GAMSAT in his final year — largely unprepared, not wanting to risk his GPA — and scored 73/81/62. Happy with the result given he hadn't touched science in 9 years, he sat again in September with serious preparation and scored 75/83/79. He was offered CSP first-round at both University of Melbourne and University of Sydney.
Dan is now in the clinical years of the MD at University of Melbourne, spending his free time tutoring students across all aspects of medical entrance. He's been tutoring CASPer and MMI for over 3 years, with success rates consistently in the 90%+ range. Every year he looks forward to the big day of offers — when students blow up his phone with screams (and tears) of joy.