Gamsat 2013

demure · 17-03-2013 3:39pm

Well I will keep my fingers crossed for us, Hypnos!
Let's kick ass this Saturday though, even a point in a difference could make it a whole lot easier for us!
On a positive note, the overall (gradmed, mature and ordinary) number of applicants to Medicine dropped by 7% from last year, that's according to the news on Today fm a week ago..
Best of luck studying!!!

Hypnos · 24-03-2013 12:08am

That was a fun exam

Opinions anyone?

JordanKelly1 · 24-03-2013 12:20am

Hypnos wrote: »

That was a fun exam Opinions anyone?

What did you make of it? I thought it wasn't the hardest but the section 3 was and I come from a science background!:0 but I fell asleep a lot in the exam lolz

chips365 · 24-03-2013 9:41am

section 1 was hard to call, a lot of poems. Section 2 in my opinion was fine but i wasnt prepared for it and i knew that going in. I hadn't read a whole lot but i know ill be sitting it again. Section 3 left me stunned. I actually have zero confidence in the answers i choose. I'm pretty happy I sat it just for a feel of what the exam is like. Plan for next time: do more practice papers, focus on science!

Hypnos · 24-03-2013 3:05pm

Having a chemistry background Section 3 was such a lovely sight to behold. So much chemistry on the exam and I couldn't have expected more chem. It completely saved my ass when it came to timing. I knew a good few of the chem answers without even having to read the text associated with it (e.g NMR, naming, stereochem and Org Chem) So I was lucky there. Section 2 went ok. Last time I sat the GAMSAT I got a 71 in section 2. I doubt I got that much this time but I still expect a decent score from that. Section 1, I can never tell. It's a hit and miss type of section to me. I just don't have any feelings towards it. I like the cartoons in it.

Anyways managed to almost finish section 3 this time around. Was left 8 questions short with 3 mins to go, so had to the old random selection for them. Chips whats your background in?
It's so difficult to tell how you did in the exam because your score is based on how others did. I'm just hoping it went well enough for a 60, I just find it hard to be confident with such an ambiguous exam :S

NeuroCat · 24-03-2013 5:04pm

Having a biochemistry background really didn't help me much with section 3. I have a feeling it was absolutely tragic.

Section 2: I feel the structure of my essays may let me down, the content was decent but the boredom topic may have made for a rather boring essay...

Section 1: As always, it's a hit and miss section, wont know until I get the result I fear!

JordanKelly1 · 24-03-2013 5:08pm

NeuroCat wrote: »

Having a biochemistry background really didn't help me much with section 3. I have a feeling it was absolutely tragic.

Section 2: I feel the structure of my essays may let me down, the content was decent but the boredom topic may have made for a rather boring essay...

Section 1: As always, it's a hit and miss section, wont know until I get the result I fear!

Hi! Studying biochemistry aswell and sounds like your paper went the same as me. Section 3 was dodgey enough ..way too much O chemistry!

NeuroCat · 24-03-2013 5:13pm

JordanKelly1 wrote: »

Hi! Studying biochemistry aswell and sounds like your paper went the same as me. Section 3 was dodgey enough ..way too much O chemistry!

I didn't actually do any extra study for section 3 though, I didn't even get a chance to do a practice paper lol. My thesis took over my life in the past 12 weeks

So it really wont surprise me if I do terribly in it.

chips365 · 24-03-2013 5:25pm

Hypnos wrote: »

Having a chemistry background Section 3 was such a lovely sight to behold. So much chemistry on the exam and I couldn't have expected more chem. It completely saved my ass when it came to timing. I knew a good few of the chem answers without even having to read the text associated with it (e.g NMR, naming, stereochem and Org Chem) So I was lucky there. Section 2 went ok. Last time I sat the GAMSAT I got a 71 in section 2. I doubt I got that much this time but I still expect a decent score from that. Section 1, I can never tell. It's a hit and miss type of section to me. I just don't have any feelings towards it. I like the cartoons in it.

Anyways managed to almost finish section 3 this time around. Was left 8 questions short with 3 mins to go, so had to the old random selection for them. Chips whats your background in?
It's so difficult to tell how you did in the exam because your score is based on how others did. I'm just hoping it went well enough for a 60, I just find it hard to be confident with such an ambiguous exam :S

I'm a nurse but also have a background in Arts and Psychology. Section 1 to me was ok but as you said its hard to call. The essays i managed to write something but never in a million years would have been prepared for task b. For the science I have the knowledge but what let me down is not doing the practice papers and actually taking the time to work through the questions so when i opened section 3 i wasted time reading the entire passage instead of just been able to skim through it for the relevant information. How many times have you sat the exam and do you mind if i ask you what score you got? A 71 in section 2 is very good so im guessing you must have done pretty ok on your last sitting!

Hypnos · 24-03-2013 6:17pm

NeuroCat wrote: »

Having a biochemistry background really didn't help me much with section 3. I have a feeling it was absolutely tragic.

Section 2: I feel the structure of my essays may let me down, the content was decent but the boredom topic may have made for a rather boring essay...

The boredom topic surprised me a little. It was quite difficult to make boredom sound interesting. The big government went a lot better for me.
I do recall very little biochem on the exam. The Beer Lambert law, but to be honest it doesn't come up much at all. I don't remember more than 2-3 biochem questions in the last exam either. I have all the ACER practise papers and there is very little biochem in it.

Hypnos · 24-03-2013 6:39pm

chips365 wrote: »

I'm a nurse but also have a background in Arts and Psychology. Section 1 to me was ok but as you said its hard to call. The essays i managed to write something but never in a million years would have been prepared for task b. For the science I have the knowledge but what let me down is not doing the practice papers and actually taking the time to work through the questions so when i opened section 3 i wasted time reading the entire passage instead of just been able to skim through it for the relevant information. How many times have you sat the exam and do you mind if i ask you what score you got? A 71 in section 2 is very good so im guessing you must have done pretty ok on your last sitting!

Goes like this:

Attempt 1: (When I was a 3rd Year) - March 2012

S1: 52 S2: 58 S3: 61 Overall: 58

Attempt 2: (Just started 4th year) - Sept 2012

S1: 49 S2: 71 S3: 54 Overall: 57

Everything would have been fine had the S3 in Sept not been so God Damn difficult. I was also pretty tired, sick and I had a bad headache over those couple days so my second attempt really let me down. There was also so much more Physics/Bio/Phys Chem in the September exam and that wasn't too great. My strongest field is O. Chem so there was too little of it to save me in the exam and I was majorly stuck for time on the second attempt because I just couldn't think because my cold was making my sleepy and tired. Ended up falling behind by around 21 questions and just had to randomly pick an answer. A shame but hopefully this time everything went better....

Really hoping I got the 60 I'm looking for this time around. I'm sure I didn't get over 70 on S2 this time but I'm cautiously confident that I got more than 54 on S3

S1 is just impossible for me to predict.

WoolahUrma · 24-03-2013 6:58pm

How many sat in Dublin? How many places are available in Limerick? I found section 3 horrendous, 1 and 2 seemed, emphasis on seemed, ok, but I do have a psychology background.

Hypnos · 24-03-2013 7:17pm

WoolahUrma wrote: »

How many sat in Dublin? How many places are available in Limerick? I found section 3 horrendous, 1 and 2 seemed, emphasis on seemed, ok, but I do have a psychology background.

Doesn't really matter how many people sat it in Dublin. Your score depends on all the people who sat it. There are test centers in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, London and other UK cities (Yeh for the Irish Gamsat :P) We have to go over there if we want to sit the UK one. They get to stay there.
An approximate figure to the amount of people yesterday was 400-500 in Dublin. I know the exam hall was packed and there are a few other board rooms so I think that's it.

The only number that's available is that every year 10-12K people sit it in total. So I'd say for the UK one per year is half of that 6K. So some rough maths now. So you can imagine 6,000 people sat it yesterday in the Irish and Australian GAMSAT. Since we're not compared results wise to the Aussies, I'd say around 3,500 of us sat it yesterday (Ireland and UK test centers) for the Irish Gamsat.

As for how many places Limerick has, it's 120 I think* (someone correct me if I'm wrong). I do know that Limerick has the most places and I would expect the points for it will be 54, since they dropped to 53 by the second round last year.

WoolahUrma · 24-03-2013 7:34pm

Thanks for that Hypnos, here's hoping anyway, when do we get the results?

Hypnos · 24-03-2013 7:50pm

Ah it varies from year to year. They never really tell you or notify you. They just say 6-8weeks. I promise you it won't be 6 weeks anyway. You just get an email that magical morning and your heart goes from 60-180 and your blood pressure varies

ehm last year 2012 they were released around May 21st. Could have been the 24th. They said Mid-May and it ended up being a week later.

chips365 · 24-03-2013 7:52pm

Hypnos wrote: »

Goes like this:

Attempt 1: (When I was a 3rd Year) - March 2012

S1: 52 S2: 58 S3: 61 Overall: 58

Attempt 2: (Just started 4th year) - Sept 2012

S1: 49 S2: 71 S3: 54 Overall: 57

Everything would have been fine had the S3 in Sept not been so God Damn difficult. I was also pretty tired, sick and I had a bad headache over those couple days so my second attempt really let me down. There was also so much more Physics/Bio/Phys Chem in the September exam and that wasn't too great. My strongest field is O. Chem so there was too little of it to save me in the exam and I was majorly stuck for time on the second attempt because I just couldn't think because my cold was making my sleepy and tired. Ended up falling behind by around 21 questions and just had to randomly pick an answer. A shame but hopefully this time everything went better....

Really hoping I got the 60 I'm looking for this time around. I'm sure I didn't get over 70 on S2 this time but I'm cautiously confident that I got more than 54 on S3 S1 is just impossible for me to predict.

Mate they are great scores, you have UL under your belt from your first attempt! And UL accepted on 52 last year, my mate got 52 and got an offer. cant remember on which round but basically a few people had to turn down the offers because they simply cannot get the money to fund the course and I think that problem is going to be reflected again in the entry points this year... either that of the positions for international students is going to increase!

chips365 · 24-03-2013 7:56pm

WoolahUrma wrote: »

How many sat in Dublin? How many places are available in Limerick? I found section 3 horrendous, 1 and 2 seemed, emphasis on seemed, ok, but I do have a psychology background.

couldn't agree with you more, i have a psychology background aswell, and the trinity sciences for nursing and i found s3 absolute hell. If (and i probably will) have to repeat the gamsat, im focusing more on s1 and s2. Didnt find them too bad but i underestimated the amount of work needed for them so going to put more time into them. Only about 55 in limerick sat it!

Hypnos · 24-03-2013 8:00pm

chips365 wrote: »

Mate they are great scores, you have UL under your belt from your first attempt! And UL accepted on 52 last year, my mate got 52 and got an offer. cant remember on which round but basically a few people had to turn down the offers because they simply cannot get the money to fund the course and I think that problem is going to be reflected again in the entry points this year... either that of the positions for international students is going to increase!

Maybe, but unfortunately I don't have the means or the finances to go to Cork or UL. It has to be Dublin unfortunately

Had I the money for Cork or UL I wouldn't have even sat it again after the first time. The points are down because the 100K loan doesn't exist anymore. So that means a lot of people can't do it. The loan barely covers the fees now

IEMedAp · 24-03-2013 8:28pm

Hello all. Been reading the thread with interest. I am in the relatively fortunate position of already having taken GAMSAT (Sep 2011) and I will be using that score in my application. I forget my score but I think it was S1: 66 - S2: 73 - S3: 59.

I was absolutely convinced I had failed Section 3. Just remember you are scored both in relation to your cohort and previous cohorts. A high score means you have done relatively well - it does not necessarily mean you did well in absolute terms. You can do relatively badly (in terms of number of questions answered correctly) but still get a decent score (on the basis that others did far worse). I would say I was guessing approximately 50-60% of the answers for Section 3.

I think my score would get me an offer for all of the medical schools, unless the ask suddenly rises, which it might. I am not based in Ireland. I think this excludes me from virtually all loans, so I am not sure what my options will be, but once I have the offer(s) I shall start worrying about that.

WoolahUrma · 24-03-2013 9:53pm

Thanks again Hypnos, I assume that it'll be a few days before I stop trying to figure out the various permutations of how I might have done. The wait is going to be worse then the exam itself. Back to what chip was saying there, I studied pretty hard for the last couple of months and I got the sense that the effort put in might not correlate well to my result. I know its as much an iq test as anything else but in the practice tests I saw an improvement in my performance. in the actual test the questions my timing went off and the questions seemed more difficult. Did you all notice this? You'll have to take my word for it when I say that I didn't suffer from any anxiety during the test.

demure · 24-03-2013 10:12pm

I am still getting over the difficulty of Section III this year.
Like some of you, I am a Psych grad too, and I have to say I found this year's SI a little easier than September's. This, however, maybe due to the good night sleep I managed to get this time, relative to not getting a wink of it the time before!
I would not say my essays will be better than September's; I managed to get a decent 75 then, not sure can I top this with somewhat limited views I offered on governments. Just don't have any

Boredom, on the other hand, I thoroughly enjoyed!
SIII. I would rather repress the experience. I found it horrifically complex. In contrast to September, there was not too much biology to it, or things you could simply 'figure out'; it was loaded with Org Chem and, surprisingly, there were a lot of questions on spectroscopy. It would be fair to say a quarter of my answers were based on pure guess work.
Fingers crossed we did better than we think all!

Hypnos · 24-03-2013 10:20pm

WoolahUrma wrote: »

Thanks again Hypnos, I assume that it'll be a few days before I stop trying to figure out the various permutations of how I might have done. The wait is going to be worse then the exam itself. Back to what chip was saying there, I studied pretty hard for the last couple of months and I got the sense that the effort put in might not correlate well to my result. I know its as much an iq test as anything else but in the practice tests I saw an improvement in my performance. in the actual test the questions my timing went off and the questions seemed more difficult. Did you all notice this? You'll have to take my word for it when I say that I didn't suffer from any anxiety during the test.

Yeh I'm guilt of thinking about how I got on too. I'd have to disagree about the IQ test. I don't think it's an IQ test at all. If you did the HPAT by any chance, the last part of the HPAT (the patterns etc); that was an IQ test, no one had an inherent advantage. GAMSAT has a good proportion to do with how well you can express yourself (S2), understand social science (S1). To make it worse they give you time stress to see how you cope under stressful conditions and how well you problem solve and process information under the pressure of time. If you know the answer without even having to look for it in the information test, then it's hardly an IQ test since you have that knowledge. I think it's partially testing your knowledge and how quick can you think on your feet. ACER says the standard of the science section is University level so it's not really and IQ test if you can learn some topics in the sciences. I do agree that it's not really a test you can just study for, but practice is the best thing you can do for it. Besides IQ's don't change if you study topics in the sciences whereas GAMSAT scores do. And playing chess and solving rubik's cubes won't help with your GAMSAT score but I'm sure it will boost your IQ

WoolahUrma · 24-03-2013 11:10pm

I guess I was trying to say that learning by rote is not very useful for the test and topics revised tend to be twisted around in new and interesting ways to test your ability to problem solve.

Hypnos · 24-03-2013 11:23pm

WoolahUrma wrote: »

I guess I was trying to say that learning by rote is not very useful for the test and topics revised tend to be twisted around in new and interesting ways to test your ability to problem solve.

Yeh that's pretty much it

IEMedAp · 25-03-2013 9:34am

WoolahUrma wrote: »

I guess I was trying to say that learning by rote is not very useful for the test and topics revised tend to be twisted around in new and interesting ways to test your ability to problem solve.

I did virtually no preparation for the science section, except some practice papers and a bit (and I mean a bit!) of Organic Chemistry reading.

It is possible, on the basis of logic and reason, with a basic grasp of chemistry, to pass Section 3. My only hope of doing well in the round was to nail Section 1 and 2. I can well imagine some scientifically minded sorts will be the opposite.

I do not think learning by rote will be much use either.

WoolahUrma · 25-03-2013 11:24am

IEMedAp wrote: »

I did virtually no preparation for the science section, except some practice papers and a bit (and I mean a bit!) of Organic Chemistry reading.

It is possible, on the basis of logic and reason, with a basic grasp of chemistry, to pass Section 3. My only hope of doing well in the round was to nail Section 1 and 2. I can well imagine some scientifically minded sorts will be the opposite.

I do not think learning by rote will be much use either.

Couldn't agree more. I did quite a bit of study over the past couple of months and I still felt like I let myself down a little in the third section but like you say, I was always going to be leaning on 1 and 2 anyway.

After the exam everyone that looked so nervous before hand was very eager to talk which was kind of endearing. By and large, the science people didnt like sections 1 and 2, and the Humanities people gave out about section 3. I am just hoping that it was a relatively difficult one so the score won't look too bad.

I think we're all in that boat.

chips365 · 25-03-2013 1:06pm

Hypnos wrote: »

Maybe, but unfortunately I don't have the means or the finances to go to Cork or UL. It has to be Dublin unfortunately Had I the money for Cork or UL I wouldn't have even sat it again after the first time. The points are down because the 100K loan doesn't exist anymore. So that means a lot of people can't do it. The loan barely covers the fees now

Ah thats sucks, Dublin for you so! You probably have secured a place anyway so thats something! I really don't know how people are funding the course themselves. It really is overly expensive. Thing is I have worked with the students from UL on the wards when they come out on clinical placement and I have to say that the majority of them find it a nightmare to get the money and the fee's are higher for them. One girl was a 3rd year and she didnt know if she could finance her final year. It's a lot of pressure and they tell me its next to impossible to work part time.

Hypnos · 25-03-2013 2:09pm

My problem is only in S1 really. I just have no idea how I do in it. It seems so random. I think that S2 is the easiest. It's 1 hour and I don't have problems when it comes to writing essays. I actually find S3 more difficult regardless of the background in chem. S3 is the places where I look for high marks though. I did a couple of weeks practice in Physics there before the exam and it helped a reasonable amount since I managed to get some of the answers out for Physics. Some people are naturally talented and are able to deal with S3 without a background but I couldn't imagine doing well in it myself without a chemistry background. It also helps time wise. Anyways its a long wait now and hope everyone gets what they want in the end

WoolahUrma · 25-03-2013 3:48pm

Hypnos wrote: »

My problem is only in S1 really. I just have no idea how I do in it. It seems so random. I think that S2 is the easiest. It's 1 hour and I don't have problems when it comes to writing essays. I actually find S3 more difficult regardless of the background in chem. S3 is the places where I look for high marks though. I did a couple of weeks practice in Physics there before the exam and it helped a reasonable amount since I managed to get some of the answers out for Physics. Some people are naturally talented and are able to deal with S3 without a background but I couldn't imagine doing well in it myself without a chemistry background. It also helps time wise. Anyways its a long wait now and hope everyone gets what they want in the end

I have the same problem in s3. In practice tests I would feel like I would have had the answers nailed only to find that I had missed out on something that should have been plain to see.

If you have a lot of experience in reading dense material then s1 is easier. I would imagine that if you have a background in English lit or law that that would be the best prep but as anything that I have read has said, it's very difficult to practice for s1, outside of timing concerns. More so then s3 it often seems to be the best answer rather than the right one which can be very frustrating during the exam.

Hypnos · 25-03-2013 10:05pm

WoolahUrma wrote: »

I have the same problem in s3. In practice tests I would feel like I would have had the answers nailed only to find that I had missed out on something that should have been plain to see.

If you have a lot of experience in reading dense material then s1 is easier. I would imagine that if you have a background in English lit or law that that would be the best prep but as anything that I have read has said, it's very difficult to practice for s1, outside of timing concerns. More so then s3 it often seems to be the best answer rather than the right one which can be very frustrating during the exam.

It's all over now anyways but for some reason I've been thinking about it all day and I just keep doing different possibilities; where I went wrong and what's the best/worst case scenario (results wise)...

Gamsat 2013

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