GAMSAT 2018

Anita Blow · 19-05-2018 9:48am

Congrats to all for getting your scores!
I'm a GEM graduate and thought I'd pop in when I saw results were out. The road ahead is tough but you won't regret a second of it. In fact the GEMS in the course were the only ones who never had any regrets, as we had the benefit of pursuing other paths first.

Relax and enjoy your couple of weeks off for the Summer and more importantly enjoy medical school it's an amazing experience

futuremedic777 · 19-05-2018 10:01am

Anita Blow wrote: »

Congrats to all for getting your scores!
I'm a GEM graduate and thought I'd pop in when I saw results were out. The road ahead is tough but you won't regret a second of it. In fact the GEMS in the course were the only ones who never had any regrets, as we had the benefit of pursuing other paths first.

Relax and enjoy your couple of weeks off for the Summer and more importantly enjoy medical school it's an amazing experience

Oh it's great to see a GEM graduate on here, so many questions to ask

I hope you have time to answer them
Do you think GAMSAT prepares students for the course or is it pointless?
Which Med School did you go to?
How interesting was your curriculum?
And what is your specific path in your medical career?

futuremedic777 · 19-05-2018 10:04am

brendanwalsh wrote: »

Congrats to all

I'd start looking at your usmles as soon as you start the course. Make your exit plan swift!

I plan on studying in the UK after medschool, which means I would be preparing for the SJT and OSCE exams. Do Irish schools cater to students perusing the UK programme? And would it be good to apply for usmles also?

Anita Blow · 19-05-2018 10:16am

futuremedic777 wrote: »

Oh it's great to see a GEM graduate on here, so many questions to ask I hope you have time to answer them
Do you think GAMSAT prepares students for the course or is it pointless?
Which Med School did you go to?
How interesting was your curriculum?
And what is your specific path in your medical career?

I think GAMSAT is appropriate. The science section ensures a minimum standard and the other sections ensure you're well-rounded over-all.

I went to UCD and the curriculum was fairly good. Unsure about other colleges but UCD would examine you in a particular module at the end of that module which meant that your clinical years didn't come down to some big single final exam which certainly took the pressure off.

futuremedic777 wrote: »

I plan on studying in the UK after medschool, which means I would be preparing for the SJT and OSCE exams. Do Irish schools cater to students perusing the UK programme? And would it be good to apply for usmles also?

This is a common consideration but it may change during your time in medical school. I have a few friends working in the NHS now and both pay and working conditions are worse than here. They are 3 years out of college and earning less than an intern earns here for at least 30% more working hours.

futuremedic777 · 19-05-2018 10:33am

Anita Blow wrote: »

This is a common consideration but it may change during your time in medical school. I have a few friends working in the NHS now and both pay and working conditions are worse than here. They are 3 years out of college and earning less than an intern earns here for at least 30% more working hours.

Oh gosh that's atrocious ! The only reason Im considering the UK is simply because I'm from the uk, my whole life, family and friends are here, so the attachment might outweigh the conditions, I also hope it changes by the time I'm done.
Although if it's beneficial for me to stay in Ireland I'll consider it, or even the US or Canada, I just hope the options are easily available to me once I start.
So what I'm getting from you is that some of your classmates had a clear access to the NHS route? Along with Ireland, Australia,Canada and the US?

Anita Blow · 19-05-2018 10:41am

NHS is grand to get into. I'm not sure the route directly from college but I'm aware it involves doing the SJT. Alternatively you can complete intern year and then get your GMC number and apply for a training post there.

Australia is fine, you just need to do an interview like a normal job.

Canada is a no-go. It's extremely difficult for even Canadians studying abroad to get a spot. But for a fellowship down the line it's possible.

US you will need to do the USMLEs which is a significant task. In total costs >5k at least to complete it. But if going to the States at some point is your wish then it's good to sit it sooner rather than later as it is a prerequisite for practicing there.

e1994 · 19-05-2018 10:45am

Anita Blow wrote: »

I think GAMSAT is appropriate. The science section ensures a minimum standard and the other sections ensure you're well-rounded over-all.

I went to UCD and the curriculum was fairly good. Unsure about other colleges but UCD would examine you in a particular module at the end of that module which meant that your clinical years didn't come down to some big single final exam which certainly took the pressure off.

This is a common consideration but it may change during your time in medical school. I have a few friends working in the NHS now and both pay and working conditions are worse than here. They are 3 years out of college and earning less than an intern earns here for at least 30% more working hours.

Can I just ask why you picked ucd over rcsi?

Anita Blow · 19-05-2018 11:04am

The Mater and Vincents are probably the best Dublin hospitals and easiest to get to.

futuremedic777 · 19-05-2018 11:05am

Anita Blow wrote: »

NHS is grand to get into. I'm not sure the route directly from college but I'm aware it involves doing the SJT. Alternatively you can complete intern year and then get your GMC number and apply for a training post there.

Australia is fine, you just need to do an interview like a normal job.

Canada is a no-go. It's extremely difficult for even Canadians studying abroad to get a spot. But for a fellowship down the line it's possible.

US you will need to do the USMLEs which is a significant task. In total costs >5k at least to complete it. But if going to the States at some point is your wish then it's good to sit it sooner rather than later as it is a prerequisite for practicing there.

Thank you so much for all this information, it's very helpful, I prefer to plan way ahead of time simply to avoid being lost and ignorant.
So wow Canada is a no-go zone till I'm specialised.
Did you take the USMLEs? And was spending that much worth it? $5k?? wtf? LOL

Anita Blow · 19-05-2018 11:09am

I didn't sit them. Practicing in the states isn't something I'm interested in!

futuremedic777 · 19-05-2018 11:16am

Anita Blow wrote: »

I didn't sit them. Practicing in the states isn't something I'm interested in!

After hearing about that price, I'm also dis-interested lool

GrabTheCREAM · 19-05-2018 12:47pm

Is it €5k for actually sitting the exam or for the materials? Because I know UCD fund the USMLE training anyway, as long as you tell them your result after

futuremedic777 · 19-05-2018 12:54pm

GrabTheCREAM wrote: »

Is it €5k for actually sitting the exam or for the materials? Because I know UCD fund the USMLE training anyway, as long as you tell them your result after

If that's the case then i might pick UCD over the other Unis, just for the open options

GrabTheCREAM · 19-05-2018 12:56pm

futuremedic777 wrote: »

If that's the case then i might pick UCD over the other Unis, just for the open options

I think the other universities provide USMLE training as well, from what I've researched anyway

Also, does anyone know for internships do you have to do your internship in a hospital linked to your college or can you, for example, study at UCC then intern at St. Vincents or something?

Celestial12 · 19-05-2018 2:00pm

I didn't know that UCD funded USMLE, good to know. It's also my first choice.

Anita, can you tell us about the opportunities abroad? I remember them talking about opportunities to Philadelphia after second or third year but it wasn't clear to me if that was an a long standing connection. Sounded good.

GrabTheCREAM wrote: »

I think the other universities provide USMLE training as well, from what I've researched anyway

Also, does anyone know for internships do you have to do your internship in a hospital linked to your college or can you, for example, study at UCC then intern at St. Vincents or something?

In the past you had to do it in a hospital linked to your university, but in recent years (not sure how long) you're ranked based on your class ranking and are allocated a place based on that after filling out your order of preference - I think it's a CAO type system.

That could change by the time we finish though.

futuremedic777 · 19-05-2018 3:33pm

I'm also planning on taking my Medical Elective in Cambridge,UK so I could be close to home during that period

Limk88 · 19-05-2018 4:10pm

indiep wrote: »

Anyone sitting on 56 worried UL might jump up?

I’m sitting on 55 and worried it will jump - i rang UL and the CAO yesterday for advice regarding handing in my work notice but they weren’t giving anything away regarding what they think the GAMSAT score will be... at 56 think you are safe enough! Congrats on the score!!!

Pierre_Robin · 19-05-2018 4:11pm

GrabTheCREAM wrote: »

Also, does anyone know for internships do you have to do your internship in a hospital linked to your college or can you, for example, study at UCC then intern at St. Vincents or something?

Nah it's all centralised now. It's based on your centile rank in your class. I went to Vinnies as a UCD grad, and had plenty of people from other colleges there.

brendanwalsh · 19-05-2018 5:52pm

GrabTheCREAM wrote: »

I think the other universities provide USMLE training as well, from what I've researched anyway

Also, does anyone know for internships do you have to do your internship in a hospital linked to your college or can you, for example, study at UCC then intern at St. Vincents or something?

As Pierre Robin says, you can go anywhere. However from a career advancement point of view, if you want to get on the spr schemes you need to be in the big training hospitals in dublin where there is a very big unwritten bias towards the trainees there.

Celestial12 · 19-05-2018 9:31pm

futuremedic777 wrote: »

I'm also planning on taking my Medical Elective in Cambridge,UK so I could be close to home during that period

Why are you doing GEM in Ireland? It's more expensive here than in the U.K. Do you intend on doing intern year here or moving back to the U.K. to do it there?

Pierre_Robin · 19-05-2018 11:36pm

brendanwalsh wrote: »

As Pierre Robin says, you can go anywhere. However from a career advancement point of view, if you want to get on the spr schemes you need to be in the big training hospitals in dublin where there is a very big unwritten bias towards the trainees there.

Going on my post history I don't agree with Brendan much, but he has a point here. Bigger hospitals will give you a chance to network with people who run the schemes in your field of choice.

futuremedic777 · 19-05-2018 11:52pm

Celestial12 wrote: »

futuremedic777 wrote: »

I'm also planning on taking my Medical Elective in Cambridge,UK so I could be close to home during that period

Why are you doing GEM in Ireland? It's more expensive here than in the U.K. Do you intend on doing intern year here or moving back to the U.K. to do it there?

Good question, it's a whole different game-ball over here, its even rare to have british students applying to ireland because the route is unknown. (I'll prefer to keep it to myself so the application pool doesn't get tough)
As a graduate I had an option between applying for the 5/6 year course or the graduate-entry.
The 5/6year course was out of the question for me, I won't recieve funding since im a graduate.
And Unfortunately the GEM schools in the UK are so competitive and limited, we are restricted to apply to 4 medical schools each year out of about 14 GEM schools.
Furthermore, only a 6 British Medical schools do the gamsat and they all have a cut off score from 63-68 and that's just to get an interview! (this is because of the limited places + tuition is paid for by the NHS)

Most UK Medical schools have another examination called the UKCAT test, with an even HARDER cut off score equivalent to gamsat
(i.e The average UKCAT score is about 600-610 overall, you can get an interview with a 620 overall when applying for the 5/6 year course, but you'll need a whopping 700-740 score to just get an interview to a GEMS, so that's approx a gamsat score of 75...imagine that)
So I attempted this test, twice, the highest overall score I achieved was 650, not enough for Graduate-entry and i got a denied from all my offers.
Plus the spaces in each medical schools are extremely limited, on average about 30-40 places each for GEM, while the 5/6 year course are normally triple the places.
So you see my journey has been saved by having Ireland as an option rather than attempting UK next year. When it comes to affordable tuition, Irish GEMS > UK 5/6year course

brendanwalsh · 19-05-2018 11:53pm

Another thing guys. If you didn't get a score good enough for an Irish university, keep your eyes on the new North West GEMS course in derry. This will be a much cheaper option for Irish students with fees of only 5k per year. Lot of spaces too so Gamsat entry scores should be lower.

https://www.ulster.ac.uk/faculties/life-and-health-sciences/graduate-entry-medical-school

Anita Blow · 20-05-2018 10:02am

GrabTheCREAM wrote: »

Is it €5k for actually sitting the exam or for the materials? Because I know UCD fund the USMLE training anyway, as long as you tell them your result after

I never heard that during my time in UCD. USMLE 'training' by the colleges simply involves a few extra classes in the run up to the exam. It's nothing significant.

The USMLE itself costs 5-10k and as far as I'm aware it's closer to 10k. That's for exam costs, travel costs (you have to sit step 2/3 in the States) and materials.

Anita Blow · 20-05-2018 10:06am

Celestial12 wrote: »

I didn't know that UCD funded USMLE, good to know. It's also my first choice.

Anita, can you tell us about the opportunities abroad? I remember them talking about opportunities to Philadelphia after second or third year but it wasn't clear to me if that was an a long standing connection. Sounded good.

UCD (and RCSI) have partnerships with various universities abroad and offer partially funded electives. Generally they will pay for the cost of the elective itself and you pay for travel, accommodation. Some electives also included a 2 grand stipend to cover these costs. It's a competition and is based on your GPA.

Can't really remember where the universities were but it was New York, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Kansas, Rhode Island and then some European countries. In general though US electives require someone to sit the USMLE

Pierre_Robin · 20-05-2018 10:14am

Anita Blow wrote: »

I never heard that during my time in UCD. USMLE 'training' by the colleges simply involves a few extra classes in the run up to the exam. It's nothing significant.

Same. They ran a Kaplan test exam if I remember. UCD made it sound like they were doing it to help, but once they had the scores and thus your likelihood of doing well on the actual exam they started pestering people about postponing the exam so as not to worsen the university's stats. They didn't offer any further tuition or anything at that point.

I didn't sit the test exam and remember getting almost daily calls from the school office trying to convince me to.

Waste of $$$ on my part. Thank God I only did Step 1.

brendanwalsh · 20-05-2018 10:33am

Pierre_Robin wrote: »

Same. They ran a Kaplan test exam if I remember. UCD made it sound like they were doing it to help, but once they had the scores and thus your likelihood of doing well on the actual exam they started pestering people about postponing the exam so as not to worsen the university's stats. They didn't offer any further tuition or anything at that point.

I didn't sit the test exam and remember getting almost daily calls from the school office trying to convince me to.

Waste of $$$ on my part. Thank God I only did Step 1.

Might be no harm to finish them out to keep your fellowship options open

santino · 20-05-2018 4:14pm

medgirl18 wrote: »

It says somewhere on the CAO website that gamsat will communicate all the March 2018 scores to the cao but if you're using a result from a previous date then you must send that in yourself Same here, can't wait to sleep properly tonight!!

I totally forgot about this. I think I do have my CAO number linked to Acer though. What about a much earlier sitting, will the results for that be on CAO's records??

medgirl18 · 20-05-2018 4:35pm

santino wrote: »

I totally forgot about this. I think I do have my CAO number linked to Acer though. What about a much earlier sitting, will the results for that be on CAO's records??

Here's the PDF with all the details. You've to send a copy of your older results (as long as they aren't from before Sept 2016) to cao by post before July 1st. You have plenty of time

http://www2.cao.ie/downloads/documents/2018/GraduateEntryMedicine2018.pdf

e1994 · 20-05-2018 10:06pm

I was just looking at the fees there for UCD and unfortunately they seem to have gone up by 1500.. I wonder will the others have similar increases?

Rainbowdash1 · 20-05-2018 10:19pm

Up to what from what? ****.

e1994 · 20-05-2018 10:30pm

Rainbowdash1 wrote: »

Up to what from what? ****.

€14,931 to €16,500

GrabTheCREAM · 21-05-2018 3:26am

Anita Blow wrote: »

I never heard that during my time in UCD. USMLE 'training' by the colleges simply involves a few extra classes in the run up to the exam. It's nothing significant.

The USMLE itself costs 5-10k and as far as I'm aware it's closer to 10k. That's for exam costs, travel costs (you have to sit step 2/3 in the States) and materials.

I’m just saying what they told us at the grad med talk day at UCD back in november or so, I think someone asked if UCD provides USMLE classes and that’s what they said. Something to do with weekend or evening classes for USMLE

Rainbowdash1 · 21-05-2018 8:06am

I didn't realise we weren't allowed curse on here. And the word I used is certainly not the worst 4 letter word!

Celestial12 · 21-05-2018 12:14pm

futuremedic777 wrote: »

Good question, it's a whole different game-ball over here, its even rare to have british students applying to ireland because the route is unknown. (I'll prefer to keep it to myself so the application pool doesn't get tough)
As a graduate I had an option between applying for the 5/6 year course or the graduate-entry.
The 5/6year course was out of the question for me, I won't recieve funding since im a graduate.
And Unfortunately the GEM schools in the UK are so competitive and limited, we are restricted to apply to 4 medical schools each year out of about 14 GEM schools.
Furthermore, only a 6 British Medical schools do the gamsat and they all have a cut off score from 63-68 and that's just to get an interview! (this is because of the limited places + tuition is paid for by the NHS)

Most UK Medical schools have another examination called the UKCAT test, with an even HARDER cut off score equivalent to gamsat
(i.e The average UKCAT score is about 600-610 overall, you can get an interview with a 620 overall when applying for the 5/6 year course, but you'll need a whopping 700-740 score to just get an interview to a GEMS, so that's approx a gamsat score of 75...imagine that)
So I attempted this test, twice, the highest overall score I achieved was 650, not enough for Graduate-entry and i got a denied from all my offers.
Plus the spaces in each medical schools are extremely limited, on average about 30-40 places each for GEM, while the 5/6 year course are normally triple the places.
So you see my journey has been saved by having Ireland as an option rather than attempting UK next year. When it comes to affordable tuition, Irish GEMS > UK 5/6year course

Best of luck with your application here! You might be better off doing your intern year here and then heading back to the U.K. for further training if that's what you want. In Ireland they only guarantee internship spaces for E.U. citizens who completed their med school degrees in Ireland. An Irish person who studied abroad may not get a place for example, same for a North American studying here. As you intend on starting this year you should be fine and classified as EU through your degree as you will have started before Brexit. Do you have any Irish family connections?

Celestial12 · 21-05-2018 12:19pm

e1994 wrote: »

€14,931 to €16,500

That's a big increase! Could be near 20 by the time we finish.

It would be nice if the HSE would support students like the NHS do in the UK.

Hopefulgem2018 · 21-05-2018 12:26pm

Celestial12 wrote: »

That's a big increase! Could be near 20 by the time we finish.

It would be nice if the HSE would support students like the NHS do in the UK.

I presume once you start though your fees are capped at the initial year’s fees for the full four years? Does anyone know if this is the case? I know that’s usually the case for undergrad/postgrad degrees! It’s definitely a surprise that UCD’s jumped up by that much, I wonder will UL’s follow suit...

GrabTheCREAM · 21-05-2018 12:29pm

Hopefulgem2018 wrote: »

I presume once you start though your fees are capped at the initial year’s fees for the full four years? Does anyone know if this is the case? I know that’s usually the case for undergrad/postgrad degrees! It’s definitely a surprise that UCD’s jumped up by that much, I wonder will UL’s follow suit...

You can check on UCD's website for the fees for all courses starting in 2018/19 and it says that GEM is now €16,500

Celestial12 · 21-05-2018 12:37pm

Hopefulgem2018 wrote: »

I presume once you start though your fees are capped at the initial year’s fees for the full four years? Does anyone know if this is the case? I know that’s usually the case for undergrad/postgrad degrees! It’s definitely a surprise that UCD’s jumped up by that much, I wonder will UL’s follow suit...

I don't think they're capped. I read through some of the old threads on this board, and someone in year 2 would say something along the lines of "fees are 12.8k this year but will be increasing to 13.5k next year". Fees have been steadily increasing.

Celestial12 · 21-05-2018 12:45pm

UCC is staying at €14,580 for 2018/2019, just checked their page. RCSI was €16,940 last year, not sure if they'll increase this year.

e1994 · 21-05-2018 1:07pm

I wonder would a loan for UCD take into account the increase in fees?

Hopefulgem2018 · 21-05-2018 1:25pm

Celestial12 wrote: »

I don't think they're capped. I read through some of the old threads on this board, and someone in year 2 would say something along the lines of "fees are 12.8k this year but will be increasing to 13.5k next year". Fees have been steadily increasing.

Thanks for this info. Good to know so we can factor in some inflation then when budgeting for the next few years!

ilovesmecounty · 21-05-2018 2:37pm

Just got a notification from the CAO telling me they have my Gamsat score, and I just checked and it's there. You should be able to see it in the My Application section of the website.
And also, fees aren't capped. Chances are, you'll be paying a much bigger whack in four years time than you'll be giving away in August!

e1994 · 22-05-2018 2:09pm

Does anyone know is it just bank of Ireland that are offering the GEM loan at the minute?

Anita Blow · 22-05-2018 2:35pm

Yes it's only BOI.

Beariski01 · 22-05-2018 6:01pm

I'd advise getting in contact with BOI early on with regards to the GEM loan. I contacted them in June and they looked over my application and told me what documents to get together so I had time to get it all sorted and my application was ready to go when the offers came out in August.

They required a suitable guarantor to sign with me (from what I understand this is common practice) and I had to get the documentation to show the finance of my guarantor to demonstrate their ability to repay on my behalf if I was unable to meet repayments. I have heard of a few people that were not able to secure the loan and had to drop out as a result so its best to get the process started early!

Congrats on the GAMSAT results by the way

Rainbowdash1 · 22-05-2018 6:03pm

Does guarantor have to be a parent?

Beariski01 · 22-05-2018 6:05pm

Mine happened to be but I don't know if its a stipulation. I'd say any close family member would probably be ok but the guy I was dealing with in the college BOI branch was really helpful and they'd probably be able to tell you straight away. I'd just give them a ring if I was you

Rainbowdash1 · 22-05-2018 6:08pm

Ok thanks. I thought I saw something about parental guarantor.

Beariski01 · 22-05-2018 6:16pm

Rainbowdash1 wrote: »

Ok thanks. I thought I saw something about parental guarantor.

Sorry I can't really remember to be honest but they were quite tough in terms of the documentation required and were unsure if my guarantor was suitable but I managed to get approved by the skin of my teeth in the end!

GAMSAT 2018

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