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Any advice appreciated-GAMSAT 2014

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Comments

  • #32
    Confused1987
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 79 ✭✭Confused1987


    I understand completely about the money and saving for this, but to be honest I will be leaving the job I am in regardless and would much prefer to give it 100% of my attention for 4 months or so and hopefully try secure a spot for next September as opposed to having to possibly re-sit in September. I understand entirely that to some people this may seem ludicrous, just dont wanna waste any more time!!

    Anyone else sitting it in 2014 based around the Dublin area?


  • #33
    letsdothis
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 230 ✭✭letsdothis


    Confused1987 wrote: »
    I understand completely about the money and saving for this, but to be honest I will be leaving the job I am in regardless and would much prefer to give it 100% of my attention for 4 months or so and hopefully try secure a spot for next September as opposed to having to possibly re-sit in September. I understand entirely that to some people this may seem ludicrous, just dont wanna waste any more time!!

    Anyone else sitting it in 2014 based around the Dublin area?

    I'm just jealous that you can leave work so far in advance :p


  • #34
    Confused1987
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 79 ✭✭Confused1987


    letsdothis wrote: »
    I'm just jealous that you can leave work so far in advance :p

    Haha, well I think it will be a matter of taking four months off work and then finding something, hopefully back in the hospital to tide me over and praying very hard!

    How are you feeling about the impending exam? Can I ask what notes, books etc you have gone for?

    I will set up a thread for the 2013/2014 sitters over the weekend!!


  • #35
    lawlesp4
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 28 ✭lawlesp4


    Hey I've been keeping up to date with any useful information regarding GAMSAT on this forum and what I've found is that a lot of people come from non-science backgrounds and their advice regarding Section 3 preparation is extremely helpful but so far I'm struggling to source advice for Section 1 and 2 preparation. I come from a strong science background but I know I have a lot review prior to the exam but I find the prep for the first two sections is more vague, is their anyone out their who sat GAMSAT successfully coming from a science background who can give me a brief guide to studying for sections 1 and 2? I would really appreciate it.


  • #36
    shivika
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1 ✭shivika


    Hi,
    for section 2 (essays), you need to have a good vocabulary and also a good sense of building situations and framing them up in good words. Two essays are given which you need to complete in an hour so practicing under time constraints will help you strengthen your efficiency of writing well framed essays.


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  • #37
    hazelbarrett
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6 ✭hazelbarrett


    Hey guys, I´ve been reading the thread and theres some good advice here. I´m in the same boat as a lot of people. I have no science background, not even leaving certificate. I plan to sit the GAMSAT in Ireland in 2015. I`m travelling at the minute and won`t be able to start my preparation until about June 2014. Can anyone recommend any short term beginner science courses or tutoring in the Dublin area? Or what have others in my situation done in the past? Has anyone did the GAMSAT preparation courses, are they worth while or just a money racket?

    Any advice would be really appreciated,
    thanks everyone :):D:o


  • #38
    letsdothis
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 230 ✭✭letsdothis


    hazelbarrett wrote: »
    Hey guys, I´ve been reading the thread and theres some good advice here. I´m in the same boat as a lot of people. I have no science background, not even leaving certificate. I plan to sit the GAMSAT in Ireland in 2015. I`m travelling at the minute and won`t be able to start my preparation until about June 2014. Can anyone recommend any short term beginner science courses or tutoring in the Dublin area? Or what have others in my situation done in the past? Has anyone did the GAMSAT preparation courses, are they worth while or just a money racket?

    Any advice would be really appreciated,
    thanks everyone :):D:o

    I was in the same position - only a bad junior cert science behind me. The most difficult thing about GAMSAT is knowing where to start and how high a level to pitch you study. It's only when you get around to doing a full GAMSAT sample science paper do you realise this for sure! Most of the science requirement is fairly basic and I managed to cover it in about 3 months from scratch. I would advise you to get a start on basic science now if you can - even if it's just a couple of hours a week to start off. Also, you should be aiming to sit the UK GAMSAT in Sept 2014. Best case you will you will get the result you need then, worst case it will be a trail run for March 2015.

    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.

    For this slow reintro to science, use online resources such as Khan Academy. If you have trouble understanding any concepts or need to immerse yourself in a topic through a medium other than a text book, KA is great for that too.

    Good luck :)


  • #39
    Somalion
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 67 ✭✭Somalion


    http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056957075 Made this post on my whole experience with the GAMSAT. Hopefully it'll be of some use. :)


  • #40
    nomoreexams
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 168 ✭✭nomoreexams


    Hey Somalion, which did you pick in the end RCSI or UCD?


  • #41
    Somalion
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 67 ✭✭Somalion


    nomoreexams wrote: »
    Hey Somalion, which did you pick in the end RCSI or UCD?

    Well I'm in 4th year of my current degree so have nothing set in stone yet however I'm almost positive that it'll be UCD for me next year :)


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  • #42
    nomoreexams
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 168 ✭✭nomoreexams


    Good decision :D


  • #43
    Confused1987
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 79 ✭✭Confused1987


    Did you go to the GEM open evening in UCD last night? It was very good, good insight into the entire course etc.

    I have been looking into the Gradmed courses in January, has anyone here enrolled or sat this course before? I am hearing very mixed reviews and for the price I want to be sure that it will be worth it!!


  • #44
    pharmacrunch
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 58 ✭✭pharmacrunch


    Confused1987 wrote: »
    Did you go to the GEM open evening in UCD last night? It was very good, good insight into the entire course etc.

    Missed the UCD open night as I had to work :( Was gutted, I was really hoping to make it there to get a feel for the course!

    Its a shame they have it on so early on in the year, I would have thought they would have one after March-ish before the CAO final deadline is met.


  • #45
    nomoreexams
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 168 ✭✭nomoreexams


    I'm sure if you rang the admissions office they'd get someone to show you around and give you some info.


  • #46
    lawlesp4
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 28 ✭lawlesp4


    Hey Everyone,

    I have been studying on/off for the last 3 months for GAMSAT 2014 in Dublin and I am just starting to really crack down in my study and I was just wondering if there were any people interested in setting up a relatively small study group in the coming weeks? I just graduated from DCU with a 2.1 in Analytical Science so I am pretty familiar with chemistry/biology and have done physics and maths in first year. I hope to set up a diverse group so that we can contribute to different aspects of the exam based on our degrees/strengths.

    Phil.


  • #47
    IrishSkyBoxer
    Closed Accounts Posts: 269 ✭✭IrishSkyBoxer


    The best advice anyone can give you is a reality check.

    If you think you want to work in the hospital eventually, don't bother doing gradmed unless you are willing to emigrate. The hospital training schemes are black holes. You will most likely never make consultancy staying in this country. Your will to live will also be decimated if you do start a training scheme here, as evidenced daily in the hospitals. Poor SHOs,Regs,SPRs who are at their wit's end with the system.

    If you are late twenties or have kids starting the degree, then I probably wouldn't bother doing it either.

    If you want to do GP or psych then lash ahead, you won't have to emigrate, but how much money you will make from GP in the future is very questionable. The 6 figure salaries are a thing of the past I'd guess. The system will become more like the UK in a few years, businessmen in charge of primary care centres employing GPs for 50k a year and being on your case if you spend longer than 8 minutes with a patient.

    The ideals I had of medicine were eroded slowly over the past four years. There is no glamour, or even respect working as a doctor in this country. You are a paper pusher and nothing more. It's been a financial black hole too over this period. You will most likely never repay the loan working in this country.

    If I knew what I knew now, I'm not 100% sure I would have pursued gradmed. There are easier ways of making a living.

    If you pursue gradmed in spite of the warnings, the next best piece of advice anyone can offer is to do your USMLE and do residency in the US.


  • #48
    Confused1987
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 79 ✭✭Confused1987


    Any interest in setting up that study group in the near future if it has not already been done?


  • #49
    FairytaleGirl
    Closed Accounts Posts: 663 ✭✭✭FairytaleGirl


    IrishSkyBoxer wrote: »
    The best advice anyone can give you is a reality check.

    If you are late twenties or have kids starting the degree, then I probably wouldn't bother doing it either.

    Reasons for this??
    IrishSkyBoxer wrote: »
    If I knew what I knew now, I'm not 100% sure I would have pursued gradmed. There are easier ways of making a living. .

    For some people (like myself) its not about 'making a living' its about wanting to be a doctor for all the other reasons than money. If you take a job for the 'lifestyle' you think it will afford you, its a cert you wont be happy.


  • #50
    Biologic
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 383 ✭✭Biologic


    FairytaleGirl wrote: »
    For some people (like myself) its not about 'making a living' its about wanting to be a doctor for all the other reasons than money. If you take a job for the 'lifestyle' you think it will afford you, its a cert you wont be happy.

    This is fatally naive. Please try and gain a more realistic understanding of the job before doing medicine. You're overestimating the daily satisfaction of medicine and underestimating the importance of financial and social stability. You may love it as many do, and I hope you do, but your post suggests you're going into it ignorant of the realities. I mean, you put the word lifestyle in inverted commas. Come on.


  • #51
    IrishSkyBoxer
    Closed Accounts Posts: 269 ✭✭IrishSkyBoxer


    FairytaleGirl wrote: »
    Reasons for this??



    For some people (like myself) its not about 'making a living' its about wanting to be a doctor for all the other reasons than money. If you take a job for the 'lifestyle' you think it will afford you, its a cert you wont be happy.

    I think that almost everyone in my class started off like you - idealistic, with dreams of 'saving the world', and thinking they were going to be cardiothoracic surgeons and that life would be just as exciting as the life of Meredith Grey et al.

    Unfortunately the reality is a little different. Medicine is just a job. 50 % of any class goes on to become GPs, probably because they can't hack the insanity of the hospital and try to escape asap. If you stay in Ireland to do hospital medicine or surgery, expect to forgo a life for the best part of a decade with no promise of a pot at the end of the rainbow, or even a consultancy post.

    You might think now that medicine is a higher calling.

    You most likely won't think this at the end of your degree, or the end of your intern.

    You most likely won't think this when you are close to 100k in debt and are looking at an intern contract of 30k per year.

    Or you may be like the thousands of other people before you who believe that medicine is a calling but that working in the hospital in Ireland just isn't feasible to having any sort of quality of life.


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  • #52
    Flange/Flanders
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 444 ✭✭Flange/Flanders


    IrishSkyBoxer wrote: »
    I think that almost everyone in my class started off like you - idealistic, with dreams of 'saving the world', and thinking they were going to be cardiothoracic surgeons and that life would be just as exciting as the life of Meredith Grey et al.

    Unfortunately the reality is a little different. Medicine is just a job. 50 % of any class goes on to become GPs, probably because they can't hack the insanity of the hospital and try to escape asap. If you stay in Ireland to do hospital medicine or surgery, expect to forgo a life for the best part of a decade with no promise of a pot at the end of the rainbow, or even a consultancy post.

    You might think now that medicine is a higher calling.

    You most likely won't think this at the end of your degree, or the end of your intern.

    You most likely won't think this when you are close to 100k in debt and are looking at an intern contract of 30k per year.

    Or you may be like the thousands of other people before you who believe that medicine is a calling but that working in the hospital in Ireland just isn't feasible to having any sort of quality of life.

    @irishskyboxer, hope you dont mind me asking, where did you go to med school?!


  • #53
    Junoon
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22 ✭Junoon


    hi guys ,

    i am very disappointed with my march 2014 results ...feeling a lot negative at the moment.

    becoming a doctor is my ultimate aim but the GAMSAT didn't work out me earlier also.

    This was my my second attempt at it.

    First I wrote GAMSAT was back in march 2012.

    The scores on two occasions were

    March 2012 Dublin 54,54,44

    March 2014 Dublin 53,38,48

    What you guys think? should i repeat ?

    will be happy to receive your thoughts...

    This time i am really sad because of my sec 2 scores....i never thought that it will go down like this ...

    i need serious improvements in that area and this time the topic was too general which made it worse for my chances

    thanks in advance guys and congrats for those got it thru this time


  • #54
    Cymini Sectores
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 117 ✭✭Cymini Sectores


    Junoon wrote: »
    hi guys ,

    i am very disappointed with my march 2014 results ...feeling a lot negative at the moment.

    becoming a doctor is my ultimate aim but the GAMSAT didn't work out me earlier also.

    This was my my second attempt at it.

    First I wrote GAMSAT was back in march 2012.

    The scores on two occasions were

    March 2012 Dublin 54,54,44

    March 2014 Dublin 53,38,48

    What you guys think? should i repeat ?

    will be happy to receive your thoughts...

    This time i am really sad because of my sec 2 scores....i never thought that it will go down like this ...

    i need serious improvements in that area and this time the topic was too general which made it worse for my chances

    thanks in advance guys and congrats for those got it thru this time

    Hi Junoon,

    Do the UK one in September. You only need AC Grayling Meaning of things + watch the news to excel in section 2. In addition, write two essays everyday from now till September. Attempt to write them in 50 mins.

    If you have the time I'd recommend Oxford book of essays by John Gross. If you'd like to go even further, read the Enquirer by William Godwin(freely available online). Above all it's the writing of 2 timed essays everyday that will help you improve.

    Edit
    Obviously you have to plan your essays. Your style of writing matters too. I think it's better to argue in both parts A & B, this is where thesis/anti-thesis/synthesis comes into play. Many in this forum have expounded on this writing style.


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