For Otago HSFY 2027
Get comfortable with physics, chemistry and the foundations of health science. Short lessons, practice and support, at your own pace.
School exams first. Summer can wait until you finish.
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Summer programme: NZ$699See plans
Water meets the membrane on both sides. Look at which parts of each phospholipid face the water, and which parts face one another.
View full-size diagramA closer look at the phospholipid bilayer. Simplified diagram, not to scale.
Illustration by Mariana Ruiz (LadyofHats), labels removed by Masur.
Public domain. Image unchanged.
Access opens 16 November 2026. Start after your last school exam and learn at your own pace until 28 February 2027.
Get a head start on the semester one papers with realistic exam-style questions. Tutors will teach you how to solve them and explain the concepts as you go.
Tutors give you exam-style questions that put the concepts into context.
Follow a tutor’s explanation, step by step, to understand how to reach the answer.
Use the walkthroughs and interactive explanations to understand why the method works.
Choose a paper and explore the modules you’ll work through over Summer.
Counts show the lectures these topics draw from. Some lectures contribute to more than one module.
Build your maths foundations, then connect motion, matter, energy and light to biological problems.
9 modulesHow to prepare for PHSI 191 over summer ↗
Tutors will walk you through realistic physics exam-style questions, explaining how to choose an approach and work through the calculations.
Modules in this paper
Units, graphs, algebra, ratios, trigonometry, vector components, scientific notation and logarithms.
Rearrange an equation, substitute values and check the units and sign of your answer.
Displacement, acceleration and projectiles; force diagrams, friction, drag, circular motion, torque and equilibrium.
Draw a force diagram and use Newton’s laws to justify the resulting motion.
Work, kinetic and potential energy, conservation, power, efficiency, momentum, impulse and collisions.
Choose an energy or momentum model and explain what is conserved in a collision.
Spring forces and energy, simple harmonic motion, wave propagation, interference and standing waves.
Use a wave pattern to identify nodes and connect wavelength with frequency.
Density, deformation, pressure, buoyancy, surface tension, fluid flow, viscosity, diffusion and osmosis.
Calculate pressure or flow and state which assumptions make your model appropriate.
Temperature, gases, phase changes, calorimetry, humidity, heat transfer and energy use in the body.
Choose the right heat calculation for a temperature change or a phase change.
Charge, electric fields, potential, capacitors, current, resistance, circuit laws and charging circuits.
Use circuit laws to calculate current and potential difference across connected components.
Reflection, refraction, lenses, mirrors, the eye, corrective lenses, interference, diffraction and resolution.
Use a ray diagram and lens equation to explain image position and size.
Atomic energy levels, photons, nuclear decay, half-life, radiation interactions, dose and medical imaging.
Calculate radioactive decay and explain how radiation interacts with tissue in an imaging example.
The goal is to recognise the concept, choose a method and explain your answer when the question looks unfamiliar. Summer will give you a structured place to practise that process.
Start with symbols and moles, then connect reactions, molecular structure and biological chemistry.
11 modulesHow to prepare for CHEM 191 over summer ↗
Tutors will teach you how to solve realistic chemistry exam-style questions, explaining the calculations and chemical reasoning step by step.
Modules in this paper
Symbols, formulae, units, equation balancing, moles, molar mass, limiting reactants, concentration, dilution and logarithms.
Use a balanced equation to identify the limiting reactant and calculate the product amount.
Hydrogen bonding, solubility, electrolytes, reaction quotients, equilibrium calculations, changing mixtures and precipitation.
Compare the reaction quotient with the equilibrium constant to predict how a mixture changes.
Conjugate pairs, pH, strong and weak acids, buffers, titration curves and molecular ionisation.
Choose an acid-base model and calculate pH from the information in the question.
Heat, enthalpy, Hess’s law, entropy, Gibbs energy, temperature, reaction coupling and equilibrium constants.
Use Gibbs energy to judge reaction direction under the stated conditions.
Rate laws, initial rates, first-order reactions, half-life, reaction mechanisms, activation energy and temperature.
Infer a rate law from experimental data and explain how temperature affects the rate.
Oxidation states, half-equations, electrochemical cells, electrode potentials, membrane potentials, metal ions and biological electron transfer.
Balance a redox reaction and use electrode potentials to judge its direction.
Orbitals, Lewis structures, formal charge, resonance, molecular shape, functional groups, isomers and stereochemistry.
Draw a Lewis structure and justify formal charges, molecular shape or an isomer assignment.
Electron movement, nucleophiles, bases, leaving groups, substitution, elimination and addition reactions of alkenes.
Follow electron movement to predict a product and justify the reaction mechanism.
Alcohols, amines, carbonyl reactions, imines, acetals, sugar rings, reducing sugars, glycosidic bonds and polysaccharides.
Read a sugar structure and identify whether it has a reducing end.
Carboxylic acid derivatives, esters, lipids, amino acid charge, peptides, protein structure and protease action.
Determine an amino acid’s charge at a stated pH and explain your reasoning.
Aromatic rings, heterocycles, nucleosides, nucleotides, phosphate bonds, base pairing and nucleic-acid stability.
Use molecular structure to explain base pairing and the stability of a nucleic acid.
The goal is to recognise the concept, choose a method and explain your answer when the question looks unfamiliar. Summer will give you a structured place to practise that process.
Connect anatomy with movement, nerve signals, hormones and immune defence, and learn to interpret biomedical data.
9 modulesHow to prepare for HUBS 191 over summer ↗
Tutors will give you realistic HUBS exam-style questions and teach you how to solve them, explaining the concepts and reasoning behind each answer.
Modules in this paper
The four basic tissues, homeostasis, feedback, anatomical position, body planes and joint movements.
Identify tissue from its features and describe a movement using precise anatomical terms.
Skeletal organisation, bone cells, remodelling, growth, connective tissues, joint types and movement.
Use joint structure to explain which movements are possible and which are restricted.
Osmosis, membrane potentials, muscle contraction, force, fibre types, levers, muscle actions, stance and gait.
Trace muscle activation to contraction and explain a change in force or movement.
Samples, bias, variation, variable types, summary statistics, standard error, graphs, confidence intervals and null models.
Interpret a confidence interval and identify a source of bias in a biomedical study.
Nervous system organisation, neurons, glia, autonomic control, membrane channels, action potentials and synapses.
Explain how changes at the membrane trigger or prevent an action potential.
Spinal structures, peripheral nerves, protective layers, cerebrospinal fluid, brain regions and sensory and motor pathways.
Use a pathway diagram to locate where damage could cause a stated deficit.
Sensory receptors, adaptation, stimulus coding, movement planning, muscle activation and stretch and withdrawal reflexes.
Trace a reflex pathway and predict how changing one part affects the response.
Hormone action, pituitary control, growth, thyroid function, calcium, stress responses, glucose regulation and diabetes mechanisms.
Use a feedback loop to predict how hormone levels respond to a disturbance.
Barriers, immune cells, inflammation, complement, antigen presentation, antibodies, memory, tolerance, allergy and vaccination.
Explain which immune cells and mechanisms respond to a stated infection or vaccination.
The goal is to recognise the concept, choose a method and explain your answer when the question looks unfamiliar. Summer will give you a structured place to practise that process.
Follow life from cells and molecules to inheritance, genomes, microbes and infection.
11 modulesHow to prepare for CELS 191 over summer ↗
Tutors will walk you through realistic cell biology exam-style questions, showing how to use the concepts to work out the answer.
Modules in this paper
Living systems, natural selection, evolutionary trees, cell types, carbohydrates, proteins, lipids and nucleic acids.
Compare cell features and use them to justify a classification or evolutionary relationship.
Membranes, diffusion, osmosis, active transport, compartments, protein trafficking, endocytosis, exocytosis and cellular recycling.
Predict how water or a solute moves when membrane conditions change.
Cytoskeleton, cell junctions, extracellular matrix, plant walls, turgor, nuclear pores, ribosomes and DNA packing.
Connect a damaged cell structure with the function most likely to be affected.
ATP, cellular respiration, proton gradients, ATP synthase, photosynthetic light reactions and carbon fixation.
Trace energy transfer and predict how disrupting a proton gradient affects ATP production.
DNA structure, transcription, RNA processing, the genetic code, translation, DNA replication and repair.
Read a sequence and connect a DNA change to its possible effect on a protein.
Chromosome sets, the cell cycle, mitosis, meiosis, genetic variation, chromosome abnormalities and X-inactivation.
Track chromosomes through division and explain how an abnormal distribution could arise.
Genetic crosses, probability, dominance, environmental effects, linked genes, allele frequencies, drift and selection.
Use a genetic cross or allele frequencies to calculate a stated inheritance probability.
Reference genomes, genetic variation, comparative genomics, ancient DNA, mutation effects, pedigrees and disease risk.
Use a pedigree and variant evidence to evaluate an explanation for inherited disease.
Gene experiments, transgenesis, gene editing, gene therapy, cell differentiation, stem cells, PCR and genetic tests.
Choose a genetic method and explain what its result can establish.
Bacterial structure, Gram staining, survival, growth, metabolism, microbial communities, research methods and the microbiome.
Interpret a growth curve and use cell features to distinguish bacterial groups.
Viruses, replication, bacterial gene transfer, phages, infection, toxins, antibiotic targets, resistance and pathogen evolution.
Explain why an antibiotic targets a bacterium and how resistance can spread.
The goal is to recognise the concept, choose a method and explain your answer when the question looks unfamiliar. Summer will give you a structured place to practise that process.
Active recall, spaced repetition and a weekly study rhythm.
Study at your own pace. Tutors walk you through realistic exam-style questions.
Short lessons, practice questions and worked answers, together on Cutline Summer.
Pick up a lesson when it suits you. Work through the material at your own pace.
Tutors explain the method behind exam-style questions. Ask for help when you get stuck.
Enrolled students get platform access from 16 November 2026 to 28 February 2027.
Cutline is built by Otago medicine and dentistry students who sat these papers themselves.
800+ HSFY students helped in 2026
Join the waitlist now. You can decide on a plan later.
For studying at your own pace
NZ$699GST included.
Self-paced. Open enrolment, no selection.
or $233 + $233 + $233: on purchase, then thirty and sixty days later. This pays for the full programme.
Full refund within seven days of paying.
For extra structure and check-ins
NZ$1,199GST included.
Optional mentoring: everything in Summer, plus a small group and a person checking in.
50 places in the first release, chosen on suitability from your application.
Mentoring sessions are held in English.
or $400 + $400 + $399: on purchase, then thirty and sixty days later. This pays for the full programme.
Full refund within seven days of paying.
Initial mentoring offers expire 9 November 2026.
Access opens 16 November 2026. Start after your last school exam and learn at your own pace until 28 February 2027.
No. The beginner routes start from zero. If you did take them, the faster route starts at HSFY level.
Yes. Summer is self-paced inside the access window, so you choose when you study, and the weekly Q&A is optional. Mentoring adds six weekly sessions, so answer the availability question before choosing it.
Your questions answered on the platform and a weekly Q&A, on both plans. Mentoring adds the small-group sessions and two check-ins.
Summer if you study well on your own. Summer + Mentoring if you want a small group and a person checking in. Pick "help me choose" on the form and we will suggest one.
The first application round closes 25 October 2026. Offers and enrolment open 2 November 2026. Access runs 16 November 2026 to 28 February 2027.
Yes. Full refund within seven days of paying. After that, email us and we will talk it through.
No. The six small-group sessions and the two check-ins are in English. The learning platform, explanations and the free guides are available in English and Chinese.
No. Cutline Summer is its own programme with its own access window, ending 28 February 2027. The in-year app is a separate subscription you decide on once HSFY starts.
No. Cutline operates independently and is not affiliated with, employed by, or endorsed by the University of Otago.
A look at the papers, entry pathways and what HSFY is like. Confirm your email and download your copy on the next page.
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Cutline operates independently and is not affiliated with, employed by, or endorsed by the University of Otago.
