Suggested reading for Gamsat 2016?

Unladenswallow

Hi guys, i recently took the gamsat back in march but i preformed quite poorly in section 3, coming out with an overall score of 48, which to be realistic is not good enough to get in anywhere.

I'm going to try again in September, and again in march, but i am a little stumped as to the kinds of materials that people are using to prepare. Ive seen some people suggest the Gamsat Gold Standard and Des O'Neill notes though the opinions on their usefulness are divided to say the least.

Any input would be very greatly appreciated.

Anita Blow

I found GAMSAT Gold Standard on it's own quite useless. It doesn't go into near enough detail or explain any concepts well enough. It's somewhat useful as a general guide to focus your study and use Khan Academy or other university online notes for more detail.
The best material I found was the MCAT sciences books, particularly for Chemistry and Physics.

With regards to Section 2, I didn't use any notes. Read up on some core topics like health, education, ageing, freedom, death etc. and have some quotes ready to go for each and different arguments for each topic. I don't necessarily think you have to do the "introduction, argument for, argument against, conclusion" formula because I think they see through that recipe.

Unladenswallow

Thanks for the information. As regards section 1 do you have any suggestions for reading materials for practicing? I performed reasonably well in section one but i suppose a bit of practice might not be of any harm.

sReq | uTeK

Unladenswallow wrote: »

Thanks for the information. As regards section 1 do you have any suggestions for reading materials for practicing? I performed reasonably well in section one but i suppose a bit of practice might not be of any harm.

PM me. I have everything you'll need with the exception of section 2 to pass the exam, free of charge.

Regarding section 2 have a pre,-defined set of topics. And read the thread below outlining what Griffiths suggests you do for this section

Anita Blow

Unladenswallow wrote: »

Thanks for the information. As regards section 1 do you have any suggestions for reading materials for practicing? I performed reasonably well in section one but i suppose a bit of practice might not be of any harm.

MCAT 101 Passages in Verbal Reasoning book I found to be quite good!

gaffer93

Unladenswallow wrote: »

Hi guys, i recently took the gamsat back in march but i preformed quite poorly in section 3, coming out with an overall score of 48, which to be realistic is not good enough to get in anywhere.

I'm going to try again in September, and again in march, but i am a little stumped as to the kinds of materials that people are using to prepare. Ive seen some people suggest the Gamsat Gold Standard and Des O'Neill notes though the opinions on their usefulness are divided to say the least.

Any input would be very greatly appreciated.

Gold standard isn't too bad but I found Khan academy and the MCAT books described above to be brilliant and properly helped me to understand the sciences. While it is important to understand and learn certain concepts ( the Gold standard is generally good for knowing what to memorize or to just understand), the best practice for section 3 is actually doing questions. While there is a lack of practice tests out there, doing the ACER tests under strict timing and analysing the answers and how to approach questions (Gold standard put up solutions on youtube) really helps in preparing you for the day.

For section 2 I looked around for people who had previously performed well on the section in order to see what a brilliant essay looks like. Pick a common structure to your essays and stick with it. I generally had a brief introduction to the topic where I explained the aspect of the topic I was discussing and my viewpoint on it. I then discussed why I had this opinion, backing up my points with real-life examples and also examined counterpoints to my opinion in another paragraph. ultimately I tied up my points/argument in the conclusion. I usually stuck to my original thesis but pointed out when certain counter-arguments may be applicable in some cases.

For essay A and B I used AC Grayling's book " The Meaning Of Things" to help formulate opinions on certain topics that could come up in the essays. It also helps to read opinion pieces in good newspapers or to just read these papers to see common themes that could come up (these are generally broad like war, love, society, law, youth, etc) and to derive real life examples to use in the essay. Once I had narrowed down all of the topics that I thought might come up I learned a quote for each topic as this really impresses markers.

For section 1, I read either a poem, humanities article, short story, chart/statistics or a piece of a play every day and I attempted to analyse this as if I was answering questions on it. Again doing sample questions/tests under timed conditions is the best preparation and these can be found in Kaplans MCAT 101 book which has similar styled questions to GAMSAT section 1. I always analysed why I got a question wrong so that I could keep this in mind the next time I was completing a test.

The biggest thing for any section is to practice exam questions under timed conditions. At the end of the day this is the only thing that matters in the actual test rather than doing some of the extra stuff. I think Ozimed sell ten GAMSAT practice tests too but I don't know how good or accurate these are. Sorry for the long-winded reply (most of which you didn't ask for :P ) but hope it helps.

Anita Blow

The Ozimed tests are fairly good for practicing your timing and getting use to the structure of the paper. I think they're slightly easier than GAMSAT though!

Unladenswallow

gaffer93 wrote: »

Gold standard isn't too bad but I found Khan academy and the MCAT books described above to be brilliant and properly helped me to understand the sciences. While it is important to understand and learn certain concepts ( the Gold standard is generally good for knowing what to memorize or to just understand), the best practice for section 3 is actually doing questions. While there is a lack of practice tests out there, doing the ACER tests under strict timing and analysing the answers and how to approach questions (Gold standard put up solutions on youtube) really helps in preparing you for the day.

For section 2 I looked around for people who had previously performed well on the section in order to see what a brilliant essay looks like. Pick a common structure to your essays and stick with it. I generally had a brief introduction to the topic where I explained the aspect of the topic I was discussing and my viewpoint on it. I then discussed why I had this opinion, backing up my points with real-life examples and also examined counterpoints to my opinion in another paragraph. ultimately I tied up my points/argument in the conclusion. I usually stuck to my original thesis but pointed out when certain counter-arguments may be applicable in some cases.

For essay A and B I used AC Grayling's book " The Meaning Of Things" to help formulate opinions on certain topics that could come up in the essays. It also helps to read opinion pieces in good newspapers or to just read these papers to see common themes that could come up (these are generally broad like war, love, society, law, youth, etc) and to derive real life examples to use in the essay. Once I had narrowed down all of the topics that I thought might come up I learned a quote for each topic as this really impresses markers.

For section 1, I read either a poem, humanities article, short story, chart/statistics or a piece of a play every day and I attempted to analyse this as if I was answering questions on it. Again doing sample questions/tests under timed conditions is the best preparation and these can be found in Kaplans MCAT 101 book which has similar styled questions to GAMSAT section 1. I always analysed why I got a question wrong so that I could keep this in mind the next time I was completing a test.

The biggest thing for any section is to practice exam questions under timed conditions. At the end of the day this is the only thing that matters in the actual test rather than doing some of the extra stuff. I think Ozimed sell ten GAMSAT practice tests too but I don't know how good or accurate these are. Sorry for the long-winded reply (most of which you didn't ask for :P ) but hope it helps.

Thank you , that is really helpful, ill try to implement this. Buzzed to get going now! (well not really XD)

jumpinship

I only seriously started studying for the GAMSAT about 2weeks before the exam as I was working full time. (I should probably add that I have a strong science background so I wasn't exactly starting from scratch!) I didn't buy any of the studying materials but instead I:

- watched all of 'The Medical Method' youtube videos relating to the GAMSAT. I strongly recommend taking a look at these. I followed most of his suggestions (particularly the random quote generator website he suggests for preparing for section 2)
- used khan academy to revise my science.
- read as many opinion pieces as I could.

In the test I also tried to obey strict timing whereby in section 1 I spent no longer than 20minutes for every 15 questions and in section 3 30 minutes for 20 questions. I decided if a question was taking a long time to work through I should just guess, mark it and maybe return to it at the end. By doing this I didn't miss out on easy questions that I was able to quickly answer near the end of the test.

GeneralC

Is the gold standard worth a purchase?

For guys and gal who have studied using online sources, did you print the material off?

gaffer93

GeneralC wrote: »

Is the gold standard worth a purchase?

For guys and gal who have studied using online sources, did you print the material off?

Yes and no for the gold standard. A lot of the science knowledge doesn't go into too much depth or it's not explained very well. But in saying that some of the online resources that come with it are good ie sample quizzes, videos, sample essays, etc. Also, particularly for the science section, it is a good indicator of what topics to cover so you can go do your own independent study on a topic you feel that the gold standard didn't cover in much detail or that you don't fully understand. Khan academy videos are usually the best for fully understanding the science concepts.

Casper001

Hey Guys,

I sat the GAMSAT for the second time last year and improved my score dramatically by using the Des O' Neill GAMSAT notes. I'm starting Medicine in September so I'm selling the notes. PM me for details.

Materials provided include:

- Des O'Neill Home Study Preparation Course (Biology, Chemistry, Physics)

-Des O'Neill Essay Course

- Sample Essays and Titles

- Des O'Neill Prognostic Preparation Test

- Des O'Neill Sample Exams and Practice Q's

- Additional Practice Test

- ACER Practice Tests

- MCAT Verbal Reasoning Book

I hold Des O’Neill’s practice materials in the highest regard. These books were by far the most valuable study aids I had and are remarkably similar to the questions you will face in the GAMSAT.

sReq | uTeK

Casper001 wrote: »

Hey Guys,

I sat the GAMSAT for the second time last year and improved my score dramatically by using the Des O' Neill GAMSAT notes. I'm starting Medicine in September so I'm selling the notes. PM me for details.

Materials provided include:

- Des O'Neill Home Study Preparation Course (Biology, Chemistry, Physics)

-Des O'Neill Essay Course

- Sample Essays and Titles

- Des O'Neill Prognostic Preparation Test

- Des O'Neill Sample Exams and Practice Q's

- Additional Practice Test

- ACER Practice Tests

- MCAT Verbal Reasoning Book

I hold Des O’Neill’s practice materials in the highest regard. These books were by far the most valuable study aids I had and are remarkably similar to the questions you will face in the GAMSAT.

There is a sticky for this ?????

Casper001

sReq | uTeK wrote: »

There is a sticky for this ?????

Hey what do you mean?

meganob

Sorry If this seems like a stupid question,but is the GAMSAT only taken if you are studying abroad? And how does it differ to the host?
Thanks a million!

Anita Blow

GAMSAT is taken by all those looking to enter Graduate-Entry Medicine, except for North American students who sit the MCAT instead. The HPAT is for undergraduate entry and assumes no prior knowledge and has no prescribed course content to cover. The GAMSAT however requires Chemistry & Biology up to 1st year university standard and Physics up to Leaving Cert standard, as well as having an essay to complete and a verbal reasoning section.