GAMSAT 2017

GrabTheCREAM · 07-09-2017 12:35pm

Celestial12 wrote: »

Nope, haven't done the practice questions yet. Going to do them this weekend along with the other ACER papers. Going through the Des material first. I have 3 more Des Section III tests to do, and two section I tests. I've also been using Examkrackers for section I, their tests seem to be a lot easier... Not sure how reliable my scores there are!

Best of luck!

This score predictor is supposed to be fairly accurate: https://timon.fearthecow.net/gamsat/

I’ve been using this too, for the first Des test (I think it’s the older version than u have) I got around 57, 50 and 55 or something for s1,2,3. Not too happy w it but should be just enough to get into med school..

Celestial12 · 07-09-2017 10:11pm

GrabTheCREAM wrote: »

I’ve been using this too, for the first Des test (I think it’s the older version than u have) I got around 57, 50 and 55 or something for s1,2,3. Not too happy w it but should be just enough to get into med school..

All you need is a score that will get you in. All going well, a few years down the line it's not something you'll be thinking about (what score you got). Getting in is all that matters. I'm not too happy with my scores either though. Hoping for an improvement over the next few days!

Finishing the Des tests tomorrow, then going to do the red and blue ACER papers on Saturday. Sunday the green paper, and finally the purple paper on Monday. I scored well on the ACER online essay submission, but don't really trust it. I think section II is the one you can rely on the least as you may get difficult topics on the day. Glad I have the safety net of the March sitting if Wednesday doesn't go well.

ilovesmecounty · 09-09-2017 1:42pm

Hi everyone,

Working through some papers here and I've realised my weak point is graph and figure analysis. I think the combination of big long intro pieces and then graphs throw me a little bit. It's a place I could pick up marks if I could improve on that. Does anyone know of any good videos that talk through tips and tricks? Or have any tips you'd like to pass on? We're on the home run now!

Celestial12 · 09-09-2017 6:21pm

ilovesmecounty wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Working through some papers here and I've realised my weak point is graph and figure analysis. I think the combination of big long intro pieces and then graphs throw me a little bit. It's a place I could pick up marks if I could improve on that. Does anyone know of any good videos that talk through tips and tricks? Or have any tips you'd like to pass on? We're on the home run now!

I don't really have any tips, I find them hit and miss. I score well sometimes, but not always.

How are you feeling about the exam? I did the new written communication test they have today, and got 65-67. Still not sure how that section is going to go on the day. I'm not feeling confident about the exam to be honest.

ilovesmecounty · 09-09-2017 6:48pm

My feeling is I'm glad nobody will ever know my section III score! Section I and II (judging on some tests I've done and using past papers) can score anything between 50-60 for I, and 65-75 for II. I've only done one full Section III as I was trying to learn as I went along and only scored 22 out of 110. By March, I know that will improve because I didn't really focus on those sections at all, as I was so behind on science. I had to learn what an atom was! So I'm not expecting anything out of Wednesday but experience. I feel each wrong answer is a new revelation for me, but maths really are my weak point so I'm going in on the backfoot as sometimes the amount of figures really flummox me. It really is the first test in my life in which I can't rely on my ability to remember loads of information.

GrabTheCREAM · 09-09-2017 6:57pm

How did everyone get on in the green ACER paper? I just finished S1 and 2 there got 38/75 (50 score) and I judged myself strictly as getting around 54 in S2 so overall not too happy haha

Celestial12 wrote: »

I don't really have any tips, I find them hit and miss. I score well sometimes, but not always.

How are you feeling about the exam? I did the new written communication test they have today, and got 65-67. Still not sure how that section is going to go on the day. I'm not feeling confident about the exam to be honest.

I bought the both at once, not sure if they made a new one but I think the Task B was about boredom? My essays weren't thaat great but got around 55 I think.. Same result as you for the first one i think it was around 69-75

Celestial12 · 09-09-2017 8:51pm

ilovesmecounty wrote: »

My feeling is I'm glad nobody will ever know my section III score! Section I and II (judging on some tests I've done and using past papers) can score anything between 50-60 for I, and 65-75 for II. I've only done one full Section III as I was trying to learn as I went along and only scored 22 out of 110. By March, I know that will improve because I didn't really focus on those sections at all, as I was so behind on science. I had to learn what an atom was! So I'm not expecting anything out of Wednesday but experience. I feel each wrong answer is a new revelation for me, but maths really are my weak point so I'm going in on the backfoot as sometimes the amount of figures really flummox me. It really is the first test in my life in which I can't rely on my ability to remember loads of information.

Is that 50-60 out of 75 for section I? They're good scores if so! The highest I've managed for section I was 54/75. Definitely don't think I'll get a score like that in the exam. Section III isn't easy even for people who have a science background, so I understand you must be finding it tough. I'm doing much worse than I thought I would. Definitely going to spend my time more efficiently if I have to do the March exam.

Is there any section of section III you find easier than the others? Most people find biology easier for example. Might be worth going through a test tomorrow answering only the biology questions, and then assigning one letter to your other answers (they say to go with B or C. just stick with the same one throughout and you have to get some right). See if it improves the score you get. I'm doing this for the physics section, I'm not attempting it as I haven't covered any of the concepts.

GrabTheCREAM wrote: »

How did everyone get on in the green ACER paper? I just finished S1 and 2 there got 38/75 (50 score) and I judged myself strictly as getting around 54 in S2 so overall not too happy haha

I bought the both at once, not sure if they made a new one but I think the Task B was about boredom? My essays weren't thaat great but got around 55 I think.. Same result as you for the first one i think it was around 69-75

When I did the first one, the second one wasn't available! I got 73-84 for the essays that were about humour and space exploration. Then the one today was government and boredom. Not really sure how they score it. I've also written all my samples essays on my laptop, so I'm going to handwrite the ones tomorrow as it might feel odd writing one out on the day. You can't edit as easily! Does anyone know if you can write the essays in pencil?

Doing the green paper tomorrow, and the purple on Monday. I did the blue and red today. Got 22/30 and 26/35 for section I in them. I thought the scores would be worse though, because I thought they were hard enough. My section III scores were terrible! :eek:

GrabTheCREAM · 09-09-2017 8:55pm

Celestial12 wrote: »

When I did the first one, the second one wasn't available! I got 73-84 for the essays that were about humour and space exploration. Then the one today was government and boredom. Not really sure how they score it. I've also written all my samples essays on my laptop, so I'm going to handwrite the ones tomorrow as it might feel odd writing one out on the day. You can't edit as easily! Does anyone know if you can write the essays in pencil?

Doing the green paper tomorrow, and the purple on Monday. I did the blue and red today. Got 22/30 and 26/35 for section I in them. I thought the scores would be worse though, because I thought they were hard enough. My section III scores were terrible! :eek:

Ah okay, fair enough. Is there a specific place to get the acer papers? I found the green book online but couldnt find a pdf or anything of the purple one or any other..

Lets just hope we're all at the same level for S3 on wednesday so its not marked down too much haha

Celestial12 · 09-09-2017 9:03pm

I have most of the available resources, notes etc in PDF.

GrabTheCREAM wrote: »

Ah okay, fair enough. Is there a specific place to get the acer papers? I found the green book online but couldnt find a pdf or anything of the purple one or any other..

Lets just hope we're all at the same level for S3 on wednesday so its not marked down too much haha

Lol hopefully! The des papers have a histogram at the back for section III, and I think 54-56 was the raw score that would put you bang in the middle. That test was taken by the people who did their course though - so you'd imagine they're better prepared than most! Really difficult to predict how it's going to go.

ilovesmecounty · 09-09-2017 9:09pm

Celestial12 wrote: »

Is that 50-60 out of 75 for section I? They're good scores if so! The highest I've managed for section I was 54/75. Definitely don't think I'll get a score like that in the exam. Section III isn't easy even for people who have a science background, so I understand you must be finding it tough. I'm doing much worse than I thought I would. Definitely going to spend my time more efficiently if I have to do the March exam.

Is there any section of section III you find easier than the others? Most people find biology easier for example. Might be worth going through a test tomorrow answering only the biology questions, and then assigning one letter to your other answers (they say to go with B or C. just stick with the same one throughout and you have to get some right). See if it improves the score you get. I'm doing this for the physics section, I'm not attempting it as I haven't covered any of the concepts.

Yeah Section I and II are going ok for me, I work with words for a living though, so I'd want to be doing well. Plus, I wrote a thesis last year and that really helped my vocabulary. It's amazing how quickly you lose skills if you don't use them. I'm pretty decent at biology, but the way the questions are phrased really throw me. I could explain Mendelian genetics to anyone, but through me a graph/table and information that's not needed and clogging my headspace and I lose it! I also decided that physics was going to be a guessing exercise. Though it looks like it all will be now. I've spent the past 3 hours watching youtube videos, trying to absorb pH information. Sigh.

Celestial12 · 09-09-2017 9:33pm

ilovesmecounty wrote: »

Yeah Section I and II are going ok for me, I work with words for a living though, so I'd want to be doing well. Plus, I wrote a thesis last year and that really helped my vocabulary. It's amazing how quickly you lose skills if you don't use them. I'm pretty decent at biology, but the way the questions are phrased really throw me. I could explain Mendelian genetics to anyone, but through me a graph/table and information that's not needed and clogging my headspace and I lose it! I also decided that physics was going to be a guessing exercise. Though it looks like it all will be now. I've spent the past 3 hours watching youtube videos, trying to absorb pH information. Sigh.

I definitely agree that you can lose skills quickly. I used to be quite good at chemistry, but haven't been able to pick it up again as easily as I thought. I'm quite bad at it now to say the least! :P I should have started practicing questions for section III sooner than I did.

Some of the biology questions can be tough, I agree. Generally I tend to score quite well in them, but in one of the ACER papers today I thought the biology questions were quite difficult. At least the results are out in November, so that's plenty of time to prepare for the March exam.

Celestial12 · 10-09-2017 6:24pm

I did the green ACER practice paper today and got 44/75 for section I and 58/110 for section III. Going to do the purple one tomorrow, not looking forward to it as it's supposed to be harder!

It's looking like I'm going to score in the 50's, I just hope it's on the right side of 55. How's everyone else feeling about Wednesday?

GrabTheCREAM · 10-09-2017 6:27pm

Celestial12 wrote: »

I did the green ACER practice paper today and got 44/75 for section I and 58/110 for section III. Going to do the purple one tomorrow, not looking forward to it as it's supposed to be harder!

It's looking like I'm going to score in the 50's, I just hope it's on the right side of 55. How's everyone else feeling about Wednesday?

Nice! I got around 38/75 for S1 in that which I'm not tooo keen about but got 54/110 in S3 which is grand by my standards i guess haha, confident I could possibly get into UL or UCC first time though!

Celestial12 · 10-09-2017 7:27pm

GrabTheCREAM wrote: »

Nice! I got around 38/75 for S1 in that which I'm not tooo keen about but got 54/110 in S3 which is grand by my standards i guess haha, confident I could possibly get into UL or UCC first time though!

I flew through section I! Had 20 mins to spare at the end. Some of the passages were quite short though, could get longer ones on the day. In general the passages in the Des tests were longer so I never finished his tests as fast. Going to go through the solutions later and hopefully gain some insight!

I'm hoping for UL or UCC too! More than happy to go to UL if that's the only one I get into. I'm in UCC now, so I know what the campus etc is like. I'm going to go to the UL med open day next month.

ilovesmecounty · 10-09-2017 8:14pm

Wow you guys! I'm just annoyed I didn't start studying sooner. I had to spend so much time just to get up to speed before I could even understand the questions. I'm at the stage now where at least I know what they're asking me to do, so hopefully by March I'll be able to take a proper stab at it. Actually, I'm much more annoyed that my educational reawakening happened so late in life!

GrabTheCREAM · 10-09-2017 9:07pm

Celestial12 wrote: »

I flew through section I! Had 20 mins to spare at the end. Some of the passages were quite short though, could get longer ones on the day. In general the passages in the Des tests were longer so I never finished his tests as fast. Going to go through the solutions later and hopefully gain some insight!

I'm hoping for UL or UCC too! More than happy to go to UL if that's the only one I get into. I'm in UCC now, so I know what the campus etc is like. I'm going to go to the UL med open day next month.

Yeah I had loads of time to spare at the end of S1 and even S3 was a little surprised.

I’m from UCD and I’d love to continue studying here but it’s Expensive to live in the south like I’m just managing haha and I like the approach UL has to the course anyway so we’ll see ðŸ˜ I’ll be there too, Never been to Limerick in my life though

GrabTheCREAM · 10-09-2017 11:15pm

ilovesmecounty wrote: »

Wow you guys! I'm just annoyed I didn't start studying sooner. I had to spend so much time just to get up to speed before I could even understand the questions. I'm at the stage now where at least I know what they're asking me to do, so hopefully by March I'll be able to take a proper stab at it. Actually, I'm much more annoyed that my educational reawakening happened so late in life!

Haha, dont worry bout it too much, i only started properly studying nearing end of august, the rest of my summer was spent in america "studying"

Celestial12 · 11-09-2017 10:08am

ilovesmecounty wrote: »

Wow you guys! I'm just annoyed I didn't start studying sooner. I had to spend so much time just to get up to speed before I could even understand the questions. I'm at the stage now where at least I know what they're asking me to do, so hopefully by March I'll be able to take a proper stab at it. Actually, I'm much more annoyed that my educational reawakening happened so late in life!

I read a post from a woman on Quora who started med school at 40! So it's never too late. She was 46 at the time and training to be an anaesthetist.

GrabTheCREAM wrote: »

Yeah I had loads of time to spare at the end of S1 and even S3 was a little surprised.

I’m from UCD and I’d love to continue studying here but it’s Expensive to live in the south like I’m just managing haha and I like the approach UL has to the course anyway so we’ll see ðŸ˜ I’ll be there too, Never been to Limerick in my life though

S3 I find comfortable because I mostly skip through the physics questions. I feel like the toughest section on the day is going to be sII, really hope I don't blank and can write something! At least we have 5 minutes before we have to start writing.

I haven't really been to Limerick either, but their system sounds good. You seem to have more independence. Would like to see how it works in reality though! PBL isn't for everyone. I've never been to UCD before so I'll be seeing the campus for the first time on Wednesday!

ilovesmecounty · 11-09-2017 10:34am

Celestial, are you in their Blackrock campus for the test? If so, you won't be in UCD proper... just in case you're frantically running around Belfield looking for the location. Unless I'm completely wrong, in which case disregard everything I just said here.
I've never studied at UCD, but I had a great experience in UL and got a first class MSc there so maybe I'm biased. I have no knowledge of their medical school but PBL seems to be a central part of the UL ethos, and I don't think that it's a coincidence that I got a first class through that method of learning.
Re section II, I know that it's easy for me to say that it's handy enough. Keep a method in mind. Even if you don't believe in your arguments, if you can back yourself up, you'll be fine. I've found with some practice essays I couldn't think of enough 'reason' for my belief/opinion, so I put myself into the shoes of a white man on low pay who voted for Trump, for example. I flipped my thinking and while I didn't like what I wrote, it got me through it!

GrabTheCREAM · 11-09-2017 10:52am

Yeah the main Belfield campus that has the gym etc. and UCD Blackrock campus where our exam is are in completely different places, so make sure you head to the blackrock one! the UCD campus is one thing thats making it hard to make the decision to leave though (although my results will dictate that), its one really big and beautiful campus

Edit:

Just finished the purple exam paper not too shocked with my result but also room for improvement...

44/75 for S1, 49/110 for S3 which I mostly guessed.. I strictly guesstimated around 55 for my S2 which would give me a score of 56 overall.

Celestial12 · 13-09-2017 7:00pm

How did everyone find the exam? I thought section III was nothing like the practice papers. Felt so rushed throughout it. Found the exam really hard overall. &#55357;&#56851;

ilovesmecounty · 13-09-2017 7:04pm

Celestial12 wrote: »

How did everyone find the exam? I thought section III was nothing like the practice papers. Felt so rushed throughout it. Found the exam really hard overall. ��

Oh my god, not that I had much experience, but I felt section 3 was a horror story. Even the genetics questions were nothing like I had prepared for. The pH stuff was insane. I also ran out of time and had to guess for 30% of the questions. I felt pretty good about 1, and about 1 of my essays. I had to waffle a bit for the second one about escapism and oppression. I'm exhausted after it. I refuse to learn any new information for at least a month!

Celestial12 · 13-09-2017 7:14pm

ilovesmecounty wrote: »

Oh my god, not that I had much experience, but I felt section 3 was a horror story. Even the genetics questions were nothing like I had prepared for. The pH stuff was insane. I also ran out of time and had to guess for 30% of the questions. I felt pretty good about 1, and about 1 of my essays. I had to waffle a bit for the second one about escapism and oppression. I'm exhausted after it. I refuse to learn any new information for at least a month!

I don't even remember the question on pH! Most of it's a blur at this stage. I felt as though extra study would have made no difference. They've definitely switched the exam to be more reasoning based. No idea how I'll prepare if I have to sit it again. Feeling deflated!

ilovesmecounty · 13-09-2017 7:23pm

Celestial12 wrote: »

I don't even remember the question on pH! Most of it's a blur at this stage. I felt as though extra study would have made no difference. They've definitely switched the exam to be more reasoning based. No idea how I'll prepare if I have to sit it again. Feeling deflated!

Yeah but even the reasoning was harder than usual. Or so I felt. There was a question about birds and what looked like a simple line graph and I couldn't for the life of me understand it. Same as the triangle graph thing. It looked so simple yet my head couldn't deal with it. It's a balls that you can't take the paper with you. I'd love to get someone to talk me through it. My only consolation after it is that when the invigilator asked us to hold up our answer sheets I noticed we all had different answers! I took the last week off work and I don't feel all the work I did in that week made any difference to today's mark.

Celestial12 · 13-09-2017 7:41pm

ilovesmecounty wrote: »

Yeah but even the reasoning was harder than usual. Or so I felt. There was a question about birds and what looked like a simple line graph and I couldn't for the life of me understand it. Same as the triangle graph thing. It looked so simple yet my head couldn't deal with it. It's a balls that you can't take the paper with you. I'd love to get someone to talk me through it. My only consolation after it is that when the invigilator asked us to hold up our answer sheets I noticed we all had different answers! I took the last week off work and I don't feel all the work I did in that week made any difference to today's mark.

I thought it was difficult too. The format just felt completely different. I thought there was more units in SIII than normal, and each had less questions. There was a lot more reading than normal.
I found section I nice enough, but I'm not good at that section anyway, so probably won't sore well! I took a week off to prepare too. I've sat exams before that I thought were a disaster, but ended up doing well in them. Don't see that happening this time! I've no idea what score to expect.

ilovesmecounty · 13-09-2017 8:22pm

Me too. I really can't gauge it. It's impossible to even try since it's all percentile-based in the end anyway. We got through it, which is an achievement in itself. And there's always March. Now here's something I don't understand... will our results be 'collated' with next March's results since both exams would feed into the 2018 intake? Or will we know where we fall in the percentile when we get our results? It might help re-focus the study mind!

GrabTheCREAM · 13-09-2017 8:38pm

Really not too sure about how it went... section 1 was meh section 2 task b was a bit of bother and section 3 was just a rush throughout the whole thing..

Sure look, Don’t need to worry till November now

ilovesmecounty · 13-09-2017 8:44pm

That's it. We can't change anything. At best we might have a place, at worst, we'll be more experienced than most come March. If it's any consolation, I find the essay writing to be the easiest of the tasks but the second essay gave me a pain today as well. I really had to think and plan my waffle. I actually veered way off track, but hoping they'll see my 'abstract' thoughts!

Celestial12 · 14-09-2017 1:04pm

Yeah section III was definitely a rush. Heard lots of people say that, and people saying that they didn't feel extra study would have made a difference - I definitely agree. You needed to read the stimulus for most of the material, whereas in practice papers you could just get on with it and ignore it for certain questions.

Not going to think about it until November, I'll be too busy up until then. Does anyone know how many people were there? I was in row 3 or 4 (I already forget!) so didn't see what number they went up to on the other side of the room.

ilovesmecounty · 14-09-2017 1:07pm

I was slap bang in the middle of the 6th row and couldn't see who was behind me. I estimated approx 150 but my head was in such a state I wouldn't trust that number!! I'm drained today. It really wore me out.

GAMSAT 2017

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