Passed the Government Scholarship to Study Abroad Exam / Medicine and Health Group [Preparing from a Different Field]

I was very lucky to pass the 2024 (ROC year 113) Government Scholarship to Study Abroad exam. You can find exam write-ups and tips for this field online,

but there probably aren't many people like me who come from a completely different field and still got through the interview and landed an offer from their dream school✨

📍Background

Group and field applied for: Medicine and Health / Public Health

Bachelor's: Department of Early Childhood and Family Education

I was pretty anxious while preparing, but I decided to give it a shot anyway. I'm really glad I made the right call, and I was surprised to pass on my first try! (It really felt like paying 1,000 dollars for a lottery ticket)

⚠️Every subject is different⚠️

⚠️What follows is just my personal experience & takeaways⚠️

The details change from year to year, so check the official guidelines on the website for the clearest picture!

ℹ️Things to note

Remember to register and pay online on time~ You need scores from specific language tests to register!

The final admission score is: written exam 60% + interview 40% ➜ Written exam: two subject exams at 40% each + essay 20%

My total written exam score was 13 points above the minimum cutoff (super grateful my health policy score was pretty high, it saved my average❤️‍🔥). So make the most of the written exam! Use your strongest subject to pull up your average!

ℹ️Written exam prep (the required subjects may change each year)

The subjects I took were: Epidemiology + Health Policy

Besides the subjects, there's also a Chinese writing exam (I didn't prepare for the writing specifically, just think of it like the essay on a school entrance exam)

I started preparing seriously in July, and the written exam was in early October. Once I settled on my subjects, I started with epidemiology, because I hadn't taken that course at school yet and it was completely new to me...

📍Epidemiology

Step 1: Compile the past ten years of epidemiology exam questions (at least get a sense of the subject's overall structure and key points)

Step 2: Ask upperclassmen for their course notes and textbooks

Step 3: Find reference books you like at the library and read them

Step 4: Study, make your own notes, and practice answering questions. Practice answers are really important because they show whether you've actually learned the material. I had AI check the answers I wrote.

But! You still have to judge its replies yourself, you can't trust them completely. So for harder questions I'd double-check in the books or ask professors in my department. I also uploaded my digital notes to GPT and had it write questions from them so I could practice and make sure the material stuck.

Also, I strongly recommend practicing by hand, because the exam is all essay questions! Messy or sloppy handwriting leaves a bad impression on the graders. Practicing a lot also keeps you from forgetting how to write certain characters~

📍Health Policy

Step 1: Compile the past ten years of exam questions (to understand what the questions tend to cover)

Step 2: Find reference books you like at the library and read them

Step 3: Study, make your own notes, and practice answering questions

Health policy is extremely broad and very open-ended. I rarely found reference books at the library dedicated to health policy, and my department didn't have a course on it either...

So I started from past exam questions here too! Then you can look at information from the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Health Promotion Administration for policies or regulations that changed in recent years, plus the hot topics of that year. Again, I strongly recommend practicing by hand and writing as much as you can. Don't give up on questions you don't know or leave them blank. Even if you don't know, try answering anyway!

📍Key points & takeaways

Know the past exam answers well + organize notes for review + find a study method that suits you and spend time memorizing over and over

During the exam, manage your time so you have enough to think through each question. Bullet points help you present your answers clearly

Of course I still ran into questions I didn't know, but I'd do my best to come up with something related

For every subject (including the writing exam) I wrote until the very last minute and never handed in early

ℹ️Interview prep

After the exam, candidates must check the results on the website themselves on time. Once you know you've made the interview, you can start preparing the documents!

Prepare the following in order:

📌Interview information form

It has a fixed format; follow that year's Ministry of Education rules.

You also list your experience on it. Make sure you know why each item matters and how it helps, because the committee asks questions based on what you submit. If you can tell a complete story about how these experiences support you and laid your foundation, it's a big plus!

📌Study abroad research proposal

I used the proposal I had written when I contacted professors abroad, 5 pages in total. My topic was completely new, and it tied closely to "my own research experience" and "the group I applied for." You can build your ideas from those two elements~ Writing the proposal takes the most time! But since this is research you'll actually be doing, reading the literature and figuring out your direction helps you too.

📌Drafting interview answers

After uploading the documents, I started practicing interview answers, including my self-introduction, research motivation, research contribution and so on. You can ask ChatGPT for suggestions and imagine every question you might get asked, then prepare and practice from all angles. I got into both college and grad school through recommendation-based admissions, so I have a lot of interview experience😆 Being nervous is inevitable, but you'll definitely get better with practice!

📍Interview day

Double-check which required documents to bring before you go

If you're still in a master's program, bring your bachelor's diploma

You can sign an affidavit and submit the diploma later, but remember to deliver it in person for review before the deadline!

📌3-minute self-introduction

📌The committee member in the middle started the questions: explain why the research matters, how it will help Taiwan in the future, whether there's related research in Taiwan, the methodology, whether you've found your data sources, why the UK... and so on

I had prepared for all of this, so my answers were pretty complete and went smoothly~ If you can explain "why you want to do this" and "what you found along the way," the committee can be more confident you're really suited to research and didn't just make it up for the application

I also told the committee which schools' professors I had already contacted by email and which departments and fields I'd found doing related research (showing I'd been actively doing my homework). The committee smiled and praised me for being well prepared!

➜ So if you're already in touch with professors abroad, be sure to mention it. If not, I'd recommend doing it

📌Thoughts after the interview

I was lucky that it went smoothly. There were no particularly tough or pointed questions; they asked based on my documents and followed up on my answers. It felt more like 3 senior colleagues wanting to learn about my experience and abilities. Smiling and staying calm is really important! I'm grateful the interview went so smoothly and pleasantly that I walked out smiling☺️