Queens ABS

[96er]

I was looking through the Method of Selection page on the Queens website had a few questions about the following paragraph about the ABS: 

The Admissions Committee reviews all of the submitted sketch components; Employment, Extra-Curricular Activities, Volunteer Activities, Awards and Accomplishments, Research and Other. Each component when evaluated is weighted equally. Submissions are assessed based on the quality of the listed items and the characteristics they represent (not the number of items listed).

1. "Each component when evaluated is weighted equally" - does this mean that the 'Other' component is just as important as any other component? (excuse the pun) If so, isn't that a bit odd?

2. If each component is weighted equally, should we enter a (roughly) equal number of items for each component? (e.g ~4-5 items for each of the 6 categories)

3. For "quality of the listed items", which is more important, total length (e.g x years) or number of hours? Is summer better than academic year or vice versa? Are items with a higher/more recent level of education better?

4. Does "characteristics they represent" refer specifically to the CanMED roles or is it more broad?

5. If the number of items are not assessed but the quality of each item is, would we be penalized for including items of lower quality along with higher quality items? In other words, would it be better to list only 2 'high' quality items rather than those same 2 high quality items along with 3 lower quality items? If so, wouldn't we be sacrificing the 'well-roundedness' of our application?

[helicase]

On 9/6/2018 at 5:06 AM, 96er said:

I was looking through the Method of Selection page on the Queens website had a few questions about the following paragraph about the ABS: 

The Admissions Committee reviews all of the submitted sketch components; Employment, Extra-Curricular Activities, Volunteer Activities, Awards and Accomplishments, Research and Other. Each component when evaluated is weighted equally. Submissions are assessed based on the quality of the listed items and the characteristics they represent (not the number of items listed).

1. "Each component when evaluated is weighted equally" - does this mean that the 'Other' component is just as important as any other component? (excuse the pun) If so, isn't that a bit odd?

2. If each component is weighted equally, should we enter a (roughly) equal number of items for each component? (e.g ~4-5 items for each of the 6 categories)

3. For "quality of the listed items", which is more important, total length (e.g x years) or number of hours? Is summer better than academic year or vice versa? Are items with a higher/more recent level of education better?

4. Does "characteristics they represent" refer specifically to the CanMED roles or is it more broad?

5. If the number of items are not assessed but the quality of each item is, would we be penalized for including items of lower quality along with higher quality items? In other words, would it be better to list only 2 'high' quality items rather than those same 2 high quality items along with 3 lower quality items? If so, wouldn't we be sacrificing the 'well-roundedness' of our application?

You are probably overthinking this. Think about who you are and the activities you're displaying and how they represent the qualities that you want to display as representative of yourself as a future doctor.