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GAMSAT 2010...for discussion of all things related to this exam.

12357…17

Comments

  • #122
    etymon
    Closed Accounts Posts: 467 ✭✭etymon


    can't believe only less than 2 weeks to go - got a 57 last year with six weeks' study, now done about six months and feel no more prepared - possibly one of those exams you can only do so well in... hmmm.... I will be glad when acids and bases refer to house music and not fecking flying H's :(


  • #123
    Malbec
    Closed Accounts Posts: 26 ✭Malbec


    I'm starting to feel sick with the thoughts of it!

    Some days I think I'm prepared, others not so much.


  • #124
    Finnbob
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4 ✭Finnbob


    Hi guys,

    I'm sitting GAMSAT next year. I'm looking to get my hands on the Gradmed sample questions. The more questions the merrier!!

    If there's anyone who would like to sell them to me, I would love to hear from you. Just post a reply to this message and I'll get in touch.

    Thanks

    Finnbob :D


  • #125
    Malbec
    Closed Accounts Posts: 26 ✭Malbec


    2 days away......

    What's everyone's plan for the last 2 days?

    I'm going to spend the day today studying and just a bit tomorrow and an early night.


    EEEEeeekkk, scared!


  • #126
    Biologic
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 383 ✭✭Biologic


    Wow, I've never been nervous about exams but I'm petrified about GAMSAT. Some days I do sample questions and nail them all, others I get them all wrong. On the up-side, I haven't had a pint in 3 weeks.


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  • #127
    gem2010
    Closed Accounts Posts: 38 ✭gem2010


    Biologic wrote: »
    Wow, I've never been nervous about exams but I'm petrified about GAMSAT. Some days I do sample questions and nail them all, others I get them all wrong. On the up-side, I haven't had a pint in 3 weeks.

    I'm sorry... upside? :)

    Gah, this is going to be terrible isn't it. Oh well! Best of luck peoples! :)


  • #128
    Malbec
    Closed Accounts Posts: 26 ✭Malbec


    Except for a sneaky gin a few nights ago, I'm the same.

    Looking forward to getting it out of the way but I've done it before so I know what to expect!


  • #129
    Biologic
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 383 ✭✭Biologic


    I think one of my biggest mistakes was buying Des O'Neill's notes. The amount of material in the book is intimidating to say the least and I've bearly made a dent it in. I'd much rather live in ignorance. Does anyone actually feel comfortable that they know all the SIII formulae etc they need to know?


  • #130
    amacachi
    Closed Accounts Posts: 23,315 ✭✭✭✭amacachi


    It'll be a few years til I'm doing this but I can't really find out what kind of prior knowledge is needed for the exam. I initially though it was like the HPAT but from reading this thread it seems otherwise.


  • #131
    etymon
    Closed Accounts Posts: 467 ✭✭etymon


    well I certainly haven't been foregoing nights out so now I'm feeling nervous!
    not learning any formulae, just point-blank refusing to, any physics will have to come with pointers if I'm going to bother!
    wasn't stressed AT ALL last year but beginning to think it will be hard to improve SIII too much.
    Last year though I only made it as far as hydrocarbons and alcohols in orgo... now I have actually ventured onto carbonyls... which might get me some extra points ;)
    not doing much tomorrow bar flicking through notes as no point trying to cram now and only confuse myself...

    good luck all!

    p.s. did anyone else think the full-length ACER test was WAY easier than the two half-tests?


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  • #132
    Malbec
    Closed Accounts Posts: 26 ✭Malbec


    I certainly don't know all the S3 formulae but they give most of them anyway.

    I'm really afraid they're going to throw something awful at us for S2. That is the section I fear most, even more than S3 (and I don't have a science background).

    Anybody got any tips for S2?


  • #133
    Biologic
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 383 ✭✭Biologic


    I've really been neglecting SII so I'll be relying on my leaving cert essay format to get me through. The one in Des' notes recommended loads of extras (societal chance, moral reflection...) but I found myself going way over time trying to integrate them.
    I found the practice test alot easier too. I suppose it doesn't matter how tough the test is because it's marked on percentiles anyway. Anyone do a prep course? I was looking at the one in Dublin city but it cost ~2k. No thanks.


  • #134
    etymon
    Closed Accounts Posts: 467 ✭✭etymon


    this is going to sound stupid but does anyone know what 'ln' on a calculator does? keeps coming up in questions and haven't a notion. Google says :'ln' means log to the base 'e' which is called natural logarithms. It is mostly used in calculus.' obviously I don't understand this!
    again I presume if it comes up in a given formula i can just type it in and hope for the best ;)


  • #135
    amacachi
    Closed Accounts Posts: 23,315 ✭✭✭✭amacachi


    etymon wrote: »
    this is going to sound stupid but does anyone know what 'ln' on a calculator does? keeps coming up in questions and haven't a notion. Google says :'ln' means log to the base 'e' which is called natural logarithms. It is mostly used in calculus.' obviously I don't understand this!
    again I presume if it comes up in a given formula i can just type it in and hope for the best ;)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_(mathematical_constant)

    ln is the Log of a number to the base e, and e is roughly 2.718, though that's almost irrelevant for most uses.


  • #136
    Malbec
    Closed Accounts Posts: 26 ✭Malbec


    etymon wrote: »
    I presume if it comes up in a given formula i can just type it in and hope for the best ;)

    That's exactly it, as far as I know.


  • #137
    moncai
    Closed Accounts Posts: 67 ✭✭moncai


    Best of luck to you all tomorrow.
    At least we know it'll go well for 15% of us :P


  • #138
    Malbec
    Closed Accounts Posts: 26 ✭Malbec


    etymon wrote: »
    did anyone else think the full-length ACER test was WAY easier than the two half-tests?

    Yeah you're not the only one thinking that. Did semi-OK in the long one and brutal in the others.
    Hopefully the test difficulty is similar to that of the long test.

    Best of Luck everyone.

    Stay calm & try get early night tonight ;)


  • #139
    allsaintssue
    Closed Accounts Posts: 119 ✭✭allsaintssue


    I've been up since 6 am studying last night and have finally crashed and ended up taking a break...but I wanted to come online and wish anyone else doing gamsat tomorrow the best of luck!
    MCQ's...Remember the right answer is already on the page;)

    See you on the other side!
    Suze.x


  • #140
    moncai
    Closed Accounts Posts: 67 ✭✭moncai


    If you're sitting the exam tomorrow and you're reading this... you should probably go to sleep.


  • #141
    vinylqueen
    Closed Accounts Posts: 34 ✭vinylqueen


    best of luck guys :) this time tomorrow it'll all be over & you should have a well-deserved pint in your hands. or a pillow. or both.


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  • #142
    moncai
    Closed Accounts Posts: 67 ✭✭moncai


    Well how'd you guys find it?
    I thought section I and II were tougher than i expected and that suprisingly section III was easier to get my head around! I still only got to look at questions in section III up to around 94 or so i guessed the last 16...

    Anyway at least it's over.

    Anyone else think section I was longer than normal??


  • #143
    eagle_&_bear
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 328 ✭✭eagle_&_bear


    hey everyone, well done on getting through it. There was a huge crowd of people at RCSI this morning- a good sign i suppose given the climate we are in.

    So, my take on gamsat 2010 sitting it for the first time.

    From the outset, the actual exam is markably harder than the practice papers. that being said, Section 1 wasn't too bad but some of the prose pieces were long but I found I got through it with about 3minutes to spare at the end so I thought time management was ok

    Section 2 wasn't too bad, essays worked well (I hope)

    and as for Section 3: I could of swore the paper was entitled physical and biological - a good 60% of the paper was chemistry (organic). While it was still manageable I thought there would of been more biological questions. That's just my slant on it. The section was do-able but it was tough. I dont think I could say it was a breeze, it required alot of thinking. again I had about 5 minutes left at the end.

    Always hard to call non-academic exams but I think it went ok (and yes I know this sentence is going to come back and bite me in the ass in May/June ) :)

    How did everyone else get on? Any thoughts on the day?


  • #144
    moncai
    Closed Accounts Posts: 67 ✭✭moncai


    eagle_&_bear wrote: »
    There was a huge crowd of people at RCSI this morning

    You thought so? I know it was harder to estimate numbers this year because of the scattering of exam halls compared to blackrock last year but it seemed to me there were less people around than last year.
    One important looking Aussie invigilator was commenting on the number of absentee's even from the registered number...
    Limerick seemed to have about 70 peeps according to a friend of mine there.

    I really dont know how the attendance affects the overall percentile of results, or even if it does at all.... but imagine if they included the non attendance candidates as 0 scores! That'd be pretty sweet...


  • #145
    etymon
    Closed Accounts Posts: 467 ✭✭etymon


    just my ten cents' worth...

    1. sitting the exam for a second time is definitely easier once you have a handle on the layout
    2. section 1 was a toughie which I was disappointed at as I usually do well in it - passages very long, question choices very ambiguous, one passage actually told you what a 'copse' was but then gave 'assiduously' or 'parsimonious' in the answer choices which I thought was hilarious!
    3. section 2 grand although the quotes were less controversial and more banal
    4. section 3 - ????? Last year came out thinking 'sure that was grand' and got a 40 something. This year - haven't a clue. Lots of radioactivity stuff which was just maths in disguise, lots of complicated graphs in the biology. Disagree about the orgo - thought the selection was too easy (this will also come back to bite me!) in the sense that you didn't have to read past alkenes to be able to do it... oh, sorry, you had to know how to draw a tertiary alcohol or something. Annoyed as I covered the whole course and it means everyone will probably get them right which leaves me with my dodgy graph interpretations to count on!!!

    anyway delighted it's over. Good luck everyone.


  • #146
    gem2010
    Closed Accounts Posts: 38 ✭gem2010


    Guys that was the longest day of my life !! Unreal tired by the time section three came along !

    I thought section 1 was tough, so much to read that I got lazy and then had to keep going back and reading it again,, a lot of guesses in that section.

    Section 2 I thought was nice. Although, haven't not written an essay since the LC, I was expecting it to go awful so you could just say, it wasn't awful.

    Section 3...ahh section 3... well the organic chem questions were lovely but that's my area. I'm pretty sure I arsed up all the graph questions and there were so many of them so... :(

    Guess we'll find out it May?

    Best of luck everyone!


  • #147
    paraguay99
    Closed Accounts Posts: 112 ✭✭paraguay99


    What were the graph questions about?


  • #148
    p_holmz
    Closed Accounts Posts: 15 ✭p_holmz


    Hi folks
    This is my first best ever! though I have been following this thread for months before I decided to take the gammy... Being my first time, I tought time was tight too. But was prepared for the shock so I didnt bother too much when I had to guess the last 20 in the science section. I hope I get sumtn out of it. Being in my final year of an art degree, I am prepared to sit it again in London if req.


  • #149
    Malbec
    Closed Accounts Posts: 26 ✭Malbec


    eagle_&_bear wrote: »
    and as for Section 3: I could of swore the paper was entitled physical and biological - a good 60% of the paper was chemistry (organic).

    Are you serious? Myself and anybody I know who took the test thought there was hardly any organic on it. There was a few alright but nowhere near as much as there usually is whch is a shame as it is my strongest area.

    Here's my take on the exam:

    Ran out of time for sections 1 & 3. Decided to try and get as many as possible answered good rather than fly through it.....don't think that that's a goo strategy though. I really hope I did enough. It's impossible to tell how you did, not like academic exams where you can tell if you did enough or not.

    Roll on May!!!!!!


  • #150
    eagle_&_bear
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 328 ✭✭eagle_&_bear


    In any event, it is good experience to sit 1 - if it didnt go well, I'm already looking at London 2010 (17th September) for 192 sterline (225euro) so no biggie if it didnt go well

    Its impossible to call it. Glad I did it but defo v tired afterwards


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  • #151
    Malbec
    Closed Accounts Posts: 26 ✭Malbec


    I've already done a trial run before so this one was my big one.

    Don't start thinking about September yet, you might have nailed it this time.

    If anybody is sitting it in the UK in Sept, I'd recommend Bristol. For the last two years, the exam was held in a hotel, means you can stay the night before in that hotel and just have to walk dowstairs that morning and can have lunch in your rm. It's also less than an hr away by air and a short transfer.


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