GAMSAT 2014?

pharmacrunch

Thanks guys !

letsdothis

pharmacrunch wrote: »

Can I ask two questions, hopefully someone who has sat this before will know:

1) Do we get "rough work" paper during the exam to use ?

2) Is a periodic table provided for the science portion of the exam?

Thanks!

Just in relation to the periodic table - as others said, you are given the information provided, but like all other science on the paper, the more you know about the topic, the less given information you will have to digest as new info and the faster you will be able to answer the question - with GAMSAT this is absolutely key. You will benefit from knowing properties of the main elements, particularly with organic chemistry you should know about Carbon, Hydroxen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, etc., you should be able to identify which are the Halogens, you should have an idea of how electronegativity changes on the periodic table and be able to visualise the periodic table and where, for instance, Carbon is in relation to Fluorine. In short again, knowledge = speed.

letsdothis

Anyone else waiting for results? Since the calender page turned to November, I've been increasingly conscious of the fact the results aren't too far away. Best estimates would say Friday week is the day.

just-joe

Yup, waiting. Very difficult to know how it will go. Any guesses yourself?

The silly thing is it might be more of a problem if I get a good result, cos then I'd have to figure out how the hell to pay for it.

pharmacrunch

just-joe wrote: »

cos then I'd have to figure out how the hell to pay for it.

I called to a bank today to talk options (probably getting a little ahead of myself as I haven't sat it yet) - long story short I found out there arent alot of options!

Scary stuff!

letsdothis

just-joe wrote: »

Yup, waiting. Very difficult to know how it will go. Any guesses yourself?

The silly thing is it might be more of a problem if I get a good result, cos then I'd have to figure out how the hell to pay for it.

My predictions are somewhere between 40-60! Yourself?

Confused1987

Hi guys,

Right i'm sure this question has been asked numerous times before so please bear with me.

I am studying full time now and am thankfully not having any issues with the written section and the Humanities & Social Sciences.

However with the actual science section I am really struggling to know where to start? I can understand doing the practice questions is ideal but I feel I will be leaving a lot of content out then. I have Org Chem as a second language, for dummies and a few leaving cert books which are great but don't know where to start and where to leave out so as to not waste a few hours/days, this is my main worry.

Just wondering can anyone shed any light on this? How did people approach this from say step 1? Has anyone from a non science background previously taken 1 to 1 grinds for science to bring them up to speed or something along those lines?

Cheers!!

letsdothis

Confused1987 wrote: »

Hi guys,

Right i'm sure this question has been asked numerous times before so please bear with me.

I am studying full time now and am thankfully not having any issues with the written section and the Humanities & Social Sciences.

However with the actual science section I am really struggling to know where to start? I can understand doing the practice questions is ideal but I feel I will be leaving a lot of content out then. I have Org Chem as a second language, for dummies and a few leaving cert books which are great but don't know where to start and where to leave out so as to not waste a few hours/days, this is my main worry.

Just wondering can anyone shed any light on this? How did people approach this from say step 1? Has anyone from a non science background previously taken 1 to 1 grinds for science to bring them up to speed or something along those lines?

Cheers!!

Where to start is the most difficult part of your GAMSAT prep. As I've said in a previous post, you won't know until you sit a full sample paper whether or not you have covered enough, too much. Most of GAMSAT science is about having a general overview of the topic and being able to quickly take information on the day and make fast, confident decisions from the answer choices. Most of the information you need to answer the questions is actually provided but the more you know about a particular topic, the faster you will be able to answer the questions on the day. Speed is everything with GAMSAT.


Where to start?
A good place to start is reading over the many old threads on here on the topic and getting a feel for it that way. I would start with Chemistry or Physics and then moving on to the other of the two, then Organic Chemistry. If you look at the paging dr forums, there are post-mortem threads on previous GAMSATs and you will get a very good idea of what kind of questions come up each year. I bought the Griffith's GAMSAT guide because I wasn't sure where to start but in hindsight it was overpriced and unnecessary.

I'm quoting myself from other threads here:

Start with a leaving cert text and work through that - either Chemistry or Physics. Research online for necessary topics to cover and skip the stuff in those books that's not relevant. In physical chemistry, the most important stuff for GAMSAT are properties of phases of chemicals, bonding, acids & bases, redox, colligative properties and thermodynamics, etc. A good bit of the Chemistry LC course is experiments - you can skip all that. Where you go beyond LC material is up to you but get the basics covered first.

Can be a bit tough with physics picking topics because lot of them tend to build on each other. To begin with you need basics like vectors and scalars, displacement, velocity, acceleration, etc. Some of the most important areas are Mechanics, Force, Work, Energy (Kinetic, Potential, etc), Torque, Waves, Radioactive Decay (crosses over with physical chem), Lenses, Electric Fields, Current Electricity and Circuits.

For biology, it isn't really necessary to study any topic as such - a basic familiarity with cells (types, makeup, cell transport, reproduction/division) and genetics (including punnett squares and genetic crosses, Hardy-Weinberg, etc) would be useful as would a general overview of systems such as Respiratory, Cardiovascular etc. Many questions involve complicated metabolic pathways. This is an area I didn't put enough work into for September and if I'm to repeat in March it will be a major focus for me - although I'm not quite sure where I will get content for this.

For organic chemistry, 2nd language and dummies (including the workbook) are all you need. Just work your way through these books completely. You will need to start with Nomenclature and be able to identify the major functional groups. This alone will get you through quite a lot of OC questions on GAMSAT! After that, you need go through some of the major functional groups in more detail, reaction mechanisms, isomers, symmetry, etc. As I said, go through the books for organic chemistry and you can't go wrong. There's a lot of work in them but once you have gone through them and know them, you are ready to GAMSAT questions - no further knowledge required.

Good luck!

Rc11

Hey, I just checked the acer website and it says late November, do you reckon it could be Friday 22nd or Friday 29th? Are they definitely released on a Friday?

letsdothis

Rc11 wrote: »

Hey, I just checked the acer website and it says late November, do you reckon it could be Friday 22nd or Friday 29th? Are they definitely released on a Friday?

No. Previous years have had them on Wednesay, Thursday and Saturday. By Friday 22nd is most likely based on length of time from exam to results based on previous times. Could be any day now! I'm now checking email for it every morning since last Friday.

Rc11

Oh wow so they could be before Friday! Fingers crossed it's sooner rather than later it's seems so long since we sat the exam, thanks and best of luck!

letsdothis

Rc11 wrote: »

Oh wow so they could be before Friday! Fingers crossed it's sooner rather than later it's seems so long since we sat the exam, thanks and best of luck!

Feels like a long time ago, last week or so especially has been dragging!

If the length of time in days was exactly the same as last year's, tomorrow would be the day :eek:

Best of luck to you too!

letsdothis

Results are out. Got 63, in complete shock!

Rc11

Well done that's amazing....I got 53, ul is my first choice but I'm not sure ul would stay at 53 again next year so il have to do it again in Marck I reckon!

letsdothis

Rc11 wrote: »

Well done that's amazing....I got 53, ul is my first choice but I'm not sure ul would stay at 53 again next year so il have to do it again in Marck I reckon!

Well done! Wasn't UL cut off 52 in the end last year? It's a tough one, you're probably there but for peace of mind a second go might be in order. UL is my first choice also. Open day this Thursday night

just-joe

got 65, 65, 51 = 58 well shocled with that, especially considering i thought my written was fairly dodgy, but science went ok!?

So that was ok for everywhere last year but definitely not well clear... I don't know if I can relax or not?!

Lub

Congratulations everyone! This GAMSAT was my second attempt and I managed a 55 this time which I'm actually thrilled with, considering I got a 48 last March! I was hoping for Cork, but UL would be wonderful too!

To those who may be a bit disappointed with your scores (especially those from a non-science background like myself), don't be too disheartened, a lot of us have been in your shoes and the GAMSAT is just a big unpredictable mess. If you really want it, you can do it. I remember checking this thread last March and feeling crap about myself when I saw what everyone else scored, but I got over that and went back to the drawing board. (I know my score isn't great so I'm not trying to sound like a GAMSAT God here, all I'm saying is I know the feeling, and you can achieve the score you want.)

beardedmaster

Would anyone be able to post up the Percentile Curve from the UK GAMSAT this year?

Here's the curve from the exam in Ireland in March -


To those who got what they wanted, first attempt, third/fourth, whatever - congratulations!
To those who didn't, it doesn't make a bit of difference how many times you have to do it, once you get it the end result will be the same, so try not to be too disheartened.

Lub

Here you go Beard:

dropping_bombs

Congratulations everyone on your results!

Do you folks have any general tips on studying for this in March? I'm in full time education at the moment so I'll have to juggle college with GAMSAT study, if any of ye did that too is there any specific tips that you would say are vital?

Confused1987

Well done everyone....great results being posted so far! Seriously regretting not sitting September now!!!

beardedmaster

Thanks Lub.

The curve is fairly shifted over to the right on the UK one - had I gotten the same score in the UK test as I did in the one I did in March, I'd be ~10 percentiles lower.
The higher standard must be to do with sample size, I'm sure. It's interesting how the higher percentiles change more between the tests than the lower ones though.

letsdothis

Well done to the others posting scores! Everyone is there or there abouts with a place, which is fantastic.

Curves are interesting - I thought Gamsat results were done in such as way for consistent scores across years/sittings?

I'll definitely do a more comprehensive advice post now that I can more legitimately do so. Short answer - LOTS of work as a Gamsat Virgin / (almost) science Virgin.

Pollipop

Did it for the first time and got 54. Feel like I.could have done better so im gonna sit it again in march. Does anyone recommend any form of study? Such as group or studying alone??

stephenlane80

Congrats to everyone who got results today. I got 55 after taking a practice test in London. With some science study hopefully I can bring it up in March.

DoctorDre

Lub wrote: »

Congratulations everyone! This GAMSAT was my second attempt and I managed a 55 this time which I'm actually thrilled with, considering I got a 48 last March! I was hoping for Cork, but UL would be wonderful too!

Well done Lub! Hope you don't mind me asking what you did differently the second time to get such an increase in your score?

TiredLawGrad

Hello all,

Congrats to those who are happy with their GAMSAT results, since I would like to attend any college in Dublin, I doubt a score of 56 will suffice.

March 13: 50, 54, 42 [47 overall]

Sep 13: 57, 77, 44 [56 overall]

March 2014 - ONE LAST GO, but how do I tackle 'the curse of section 3'? Any ideas will be well received.

letsdothis

TiredLawGrad wrote: »

Hello all,

Congrats to those who are happy with their GAMSAT results, since I would like to attend any college in Dublin, I doubt a score of 56 will suffice.

March 13: 50, 54, 42 [47 overall]

Sep 13: 57, 77, 44 [56 overall]

March 2014 - ONE LAST GO, but how do I tackle 'the curse of section 3'? Any ideas will be well received.

Well done, a big increase - you might share some tips on how you achieved that massive S2 increase for those sitting in March!

What's your science background? What did you do for section 3 both times?

Also, are you going to do GEM if you don't get a Dublin college??

TiredLawGrad

letsdothis wrote: »

Well done, a big increase - you might share some tips on how you achieved that massive S2 increase for those sitting in March!

What's your science background? What did you do for section 3 both times?

Also, are you going to do GEM if you don't get a Dublin college??

Confused1987, I do not have sufficient posts to send messages.
Letsdothis has just asked similar question and I will just post my reply here.

Hello Confused1987

I graduated from DIT with a Business & Law degree (4 years), then did one more year to get a Bachelor of Laws, LLB. I also have a Masters in Law from GCD.

When I first did it in March, because of work commitments, I didn't do much preparation neither did I have sufficient preparation materials. I studied the GOLD STANDARD book (which is useless for s 3) at home for a month, at times with my house mates making music in the background. I thought I put in enough work, evidently with a score of 47, I thought wrong.

For the September exams, I went a step further by doing some mock exams online (Dr. Bloggs materials), the results weren't great. I prepared for over two and a half months, this time, I studied in my local library.

I am not very keen on reading books, I just forced myself to, in preparation for section 1. I must have had enough having read lots of case law in college.

I bought a book called 'The meaning of things' by AC Grayling. While I do not agree with all he says in it, that book practically became my bible. I got it for under 11 eur in Hodges & Figgis; this will help in section 2. And as I can waffle for long about nothing section 2 didn't pose too much difficulty; nevertheless I was shocked at a 77. But seriously, essays have to be structured. For Part A & B, I used the 'thesis, antithesis and Synthesis rule', I disregarded the general belief that part B should be emotional. I just argued.

In my leaving cert. days, I did physics, chemistry and biology, all at higher level. That was in 2004. It is misleading to think knowing phy chem bio at leaving cert level is sufficient. Well my poor performance in section 3 is evidence of this. The ACER questions themselves are insufficient. I will have to give in to some tuition, a recommendation which I have long refused, as it is expensive. There is a book called the Griffiths GAMSAT review which I heard is good and I intend to buy. My science background (which I wouldn't put much claim to) is inferior to GAMSAT's section 3.

I wish you luck when you write the exam and hope I have been able to help.

Letsdothis GEM is what I want to do and hopefully March 2014 will produce better result for UCD or RCSI.

Confused1987

Cheers for the advice!

With regard to the Griffith's GAMSAT review it is not aimed at the science section as such, it is more of a rounded approach on how to attack the exam as opposed to anything too specific and there is certainly very little scientific information, not sure if this is what you would be looking for!

As per letsdothis post I am starting from scratch with LC science, get a good base and then crack on with the more intricate information! There are tonnes of LC and English GCSE books available on Amazon for very very cheap, well worth investing in!