What we know is, after using z-score on the interview cohort (to standardise the scales between ATAR UMAT Interview) UNSW adds each applicant's three z-scores together to give a final ranking score, and the top 1/3rd are successful for a place.
Since you are studying Advanced Maths, can you help figure out a way to estimate the required interview score (relative to the interview cohort) to be in the top third overall, for certain ATAR/UMAT combos like top in one bottom in the other, or median in both, or one top + one median etc? Thanks
It's probably within my abilities but of course to infer results we're going to need actual data.
Under realistic assumptions (i.e. no excessive outliers) z-scores take between -3 and 3. The sum of three z-scores is therefore between -9 and 9. If it's true that just the sum of z-scores are used, then an applicant who has achieved a cumulative z-score of between 3 and 9 will be accepted in.
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Given a set of data, the z-score of an observation x is
where mu denotes the mean, and sigma denotes the standard deviation.
We may, of course, use this formula to our advantage with the statement given above. We should have the following data obtained to deduce the required performance in the interview
- Mean and standard deviation of each of the following. (Variance can be used to replace standard deviation.)
- ATARs of students applying to take medicine
- UMAT scores
- Interview scores
Then, given an observed value for ATARs and UMAT scores, i.e. the actual score the candidate received, we can deduce the interview score necessary.
Edit: This model is quite limited in what it has to offer. I will address some limitations after I complete a course review I'm writing up.