| Pretty good compilation for future GAMSAT peeps. Love the initiative that PagingDr is taking. |
| From my experience the GAMSAT is all about speed. Practice everything timed and aim to increase your speed. The questions themselves are relatively easy. Your ability to solve them within the time frame is what is tested. In addition I think its important to complete an entire section in one sitting. This will allow you to judge whether its better to skip or persist with a harder question. The goal is to attempt as many questions as you can within the time frame. This was very obvious in the gamsat that I sat. At about two thirds of the way through the science section, the questions got much harder. However the last 10 of 15 questions were extremely easy. So those that skipped the hand full of hard questions would have most likely gotten more right than those that persisted in completing the hard questions, but then not finishing the exam. |
| I think I actually did quite a bit of work for gamsat. I decided that I didnt want to be in the position where I hadnt done enough and missed the cut, so I made sure I put in the effort to get a good score. Having said that I know its not that easy for everyone. But I definitely think that if you really want to get into med, then you have to give yourself the best chance by being serious about gamsat prep. I really think it is only the freakiest of the freaks who can go into this exam with little to no prep and ace it. It seems there is a very wide range of approaches to hardly looking at a practice paper to doing multiple hours a day for months and months. I personally started in January and did about 6 hours a week on average. From my perspective with a science background, I think spending less time on going over the actual content and more time on questions is definitly the best way to go. Also make sure you spend enough time on essay practice, dont avoid it because its what you hate the most (if you're anything like me!)or vice versa if you're an artsy type who loves essays but avoids looking at an organic chem structure at all costs :) Doing questions timed is vital. My overall suggestions to anyone approaching this beast would be to a) get enough of a grounding in the basic sciences so you understand the questions. whether thats revision or learning from scratch. Only do this until you have a basic grasp, knowing the material will only help you so much. b)For section 1 and 3 the best thing to do is practice MCQs. gather as many gamsat style mcq questions as you can (des oniell book, medprep, acer books and all the others) and start doing them early and often. first untimed and looking up notes etc if you need to. Use it as teaching material, then timed with no looking at notes and then going over it afterwards c) practice essays- I still dont have a good way of doing this, I only just scraped through section 2 with a 58. So I don't have good advice here! Other than timing is critical, i ran way out of time on my second essay because I went way over on the first. d) do full practice exams, timed without notes, without distractions. by halfway through section 3 on the actual day you will hardly be able to concentrate and feel like going to sleep. if you have put yourself through this before, you will train yourself and know what to expect. e) try and find a balance between doing nothing and avoiding every mention of gamsat and becoming obsessed with it! Good luck to the next lot! Its tough but rewarding when you make it through!! :) |
| Survey was short and fab!! |
| Great survey, hope it helps |
| - the survey does not ask no. of weeks spent in study - love work that khan academy is doing but stay away for GAMSAT. He makes things simple, however, If you read it from text book then your mind will be better prepared to answer questions. ofcourse, use him if you cant figure it on your own. |
| I realise this is a just a small, simple survey, but a bit more explanation of the fields might be useful? Eg the first question asks us to rate the level of English language proficiency needed to use a resource... but how would I know that? I don't think any of the resources I used (including the Paging Dr forum) require particularly complex English, but then I wouldn't, would I, being a native speaker? Likewise the level of science knowledge - eg, when I first got the ACER practice booklets my level of science knowledge was best described as 'distant secondary' - but I was still able to use them effectively to understand my knowledge gaps. Whereas to actually complete them with a reasonable level of success (ie around 50% or up), I think tertiary level (for chemistry at least, if not so much bio or physics) science is required. Anyway, sorry for nitpicking, compiling a handy 'wisdom of years past' cheat's guide is a good idea, it's great of you to take the time to do it. |
| For me, key relevance in passing Sections 1/2 of the GAMSAT layed in previous life experience - particularly in situations when dealing with the pressure of information overload in a time constrained environment. Age can also be a factor in dealing with these types of perceived/real pressures. Ta for getting the survey up and running - I know how daunting the prospect of GAMSAT can be, so the more information out there allowing prospective docs to make an informed decision the better. |
| This year, I will focus on time management and probably buy a preparation course. |
| Did not ask if I got in or in which year. 2011 is the year i finish my mbbs :) |
| I didn't find any single source was great. MedPrep was probably the most rounded and a good entry point for most people. The advantage of having access to so many resources (bought second hand, I'm not make of money) was that if any one was lacking in a given area then I could always find more information in another. I wouldn't like to have relied on just one. |
| Just relax and do your best. |
| There was the option to choose private tutor and/text books as learning materials for the first two sections of gamsat surveyed but not for section three, seems inconsistent...? Otherwise very clear. Good survey, easy to understand. |
| one of the first questions regarding language and prep materials was a bit confusing, maybe because i am hungover. the preparation i have described was sufficient to pass, but for me to get a better score in 2012 i have already began to study/take it way more seriously. |
| A section for what we did on the day rather than just what we did to prep is probably a useful inclusion. |
| Wow the survey is quite short. It is generally quite solid though I think. The thing about what level of science though; I think it would be better to have year 10 science and year 12 science as options, rather than the options of "primary school" and "secondary school" science. There's hardly any science learnt in primary school, while I think it's in the curricula to do science at least to year 10 nowadays. And year 10 science knowledge is a lot more than primary school, whereas year 12 is a lot more than year 10. Also maybe there can be a place to say how much each section improved or decreased by; +1 point is hardly anything (well it could be the difference between place/interview or not, but well within the bounds of random variation/luck even for the non-essay sections), while +10 points for example is a lot, but both would be technically increases. |
| It did not let me know where the information was going after I had entered it. For profit? not for profit? Where will it be posted? More subjective questions should be included - tips for gamsat and what you someone would recommend to others. It included some nice quantitative measures. It should have included some geographical locator, questions about where a person applied and where they got in. |
| GREAT WORK! |
| Top-notch survey. Possibly add in a question about overall time spent studying alongside the time spent per week question. Speaking of which, 3-4 months. I would say about 3 months of regular study is ideal. Insufficient preparation with less time and burnout with more. |
| Perhaps include scores for individual sections. Eg. I got 71 overall but did very averagely on humanities (63) and well in science (78).As such my comments about science study should probably carry more weight than those for the humanities section. |
| The rating scales were a bit weird in this survey... traditionally, Likert scales have an odd number of options ranging from negative on the left to positive on the right, e.g.: (1) Very Dissatisfied (2) Dissatisfied (3) Neither dissatisfied nor satisfied (4) Satisfied (5) Very satisfied. |
| Work hard and good luck |
| It's a horrible hard exam - especially for arts undergrads but it's doable! |
| You could put a "n/a" field in most of the questions |
| asking whether or not the person being surveyed was a successful applicant. It may be nice for you to know whether the information people provide is coming from people who sat the gamsat and successfully made it into med school. I wouldnt want to waste my time with tips from a person who has perpetually failed and never been interviewed. |
| It would be useful to know some demographics such as location. I felt pretty isolated being 5 hours away from a city. It may be helpful for prospective students to know the most effective ways to prepare for gamsat if you have no access to courses. I would be really interested to know how where people live affects how they choose to study. |
| There really is a lot of resources out there. Many of which can be found online. There really is no need to spend hundreds/thousands of dollars for programs because it may provide a false sense of security. Do not neglect the essay component. I hated it. I never was very good at essay writing, but it is an important component and I have come to realise how important it is once you are in medicine. If you must, try and spend your money on packages that provide abundant practice questions. This is probably the most important aspect in the preparation. You need to get use to the style of questions asked. Some prep materials (can't remember which), merely provide some theories on how to do well in each section without many practice questions. IMO, this is not worth the money and you will probably gain nothing out of it. Des, although expensive, does provide ample of questions in a style similar to the gamsat. |
| Decent survey that was concise when needed to be. Enjoyed the fact that it did not take all night ot fill in. |
| I can't say that I would not recommend the ACER booklets. Even though they are harder than the exam, they make you expect a high standard from yourself. The workbook for General Chemistry for Dummies has a lot of errors, but someone with basic understanding should be able to figure out why their answer doesn't match the answers in the book (e.g. the book answer involves Fe instead of O, and the question was about O). |
| Great survey. Covers all the main areas in GAMSAT preparation. |
| The survey was stupid. It assumes people should study and prepare for te gamsat. In the end if you can't pass the two English sections without prep you have no business doctoring. If you can't pass the science section the you did an easy undergrad and have no education. |
| I probably can only give my advice for the science section as the other 2 sections were woeful... But then again, I should have studied for it. |
| Good survey - how come theres no interview prep questions? that would be helpful i think! - if you need info i used the Des O'Neil interview prep course-really good for practicing "rehearsed" answers. |
| Having friends who are doing the gamsat with you, can really motivate you to do the preparation. For S11- talk to each other about issues, as well as talking to other people. |
| Spend more than three weeks studying! :) |
| First page asking about resources used, 4th or so question down there was no option to select "undergrad textbook" for preparation on S3 - which is what I used the most. |
| Just to note - where it asks in the first section what resources we used for S1, 2 and 3 - there isn't a spot to tick 'undergrad textbooks' for the S3 question. Other than that, great! |
| For the questions at the top of this page there should be a "have not previously sat" option when asking for previous GAMSAT score. As not all have. |
| Get out while you can! I wish I didn't get into med. |
| Thanks for putting this all together - it's fantastically helpful! |
| The Des O'Niel courses are quite expensive, and if you're the sort of person that doesn't need their hand held in a lecture-type environment, try and source second-hand books as they are a lot cheaper. I do, however, recommend the writing course. |
| Good survey. |
| I would recommend a bit of study every day. |
| The best way for me to prepare was to find practice exams and do these under timed conditions and then ruthlessly examine what I got wrong and identify exactly what caused the mistakes. This way I was able to lift my performance in a short space of time and did very well (71). I admit that my previous experience as a public servant helped me in interpreting complex material quickly (Sec 1) and in writing prose (Sec 2). |
| I can't stress a good multi-choice strategy enough. |
| I just took the gamay without much prep tio see how I went. It turned out a science degree and a knowledge of contemporary issues really was all I needed. I'm sure that more study could only have improved my results. |
| Very concise survey - very nice to complete and what a lovely layout! |
| Examkrackers is spelt incorrectly. |
| Des O'Neil helped me with my science section but didn't seem to help with my section 1. I think I may have emphasised science more in my study plan but I felt Des' section 1 questions not very good. Des' essay section was crap, not good feedback at all. However, I did get a reasonable essay mark of 63 (increased from 55), but I think this was mainly due to me copying 'good example' essays from des' course. (I simply applied a similar structure to different problem but with similar conclusions. Another strategy that helped me a lot with it all was timing. I bought a watch with an inbuilt stop watch. This helped me keep track of questions and when I should be moving on. |
| This survy can make the GAMSAT more competitive surely, for more candidates will be able to work with similar resources and similar technques, yet it also can reduce unfairness of some candidates getting access to know some precious studying pathways, therefore it can be good or bad to individuals. |
| Great survey in helping others preparing for Gamsat. Happy to have participated! |
| Lovely survey and quite easy to fill in. It might be nice to have the basic Q for each section in bold or otherwise standing out from other background info at the start. Great work! |
| too much writing |
| Nada. Wunderbunny is GRrrrrreat! Ha ha , I wonder if you will actually read this. :))) (smile with a double chin) |
| I am curious how this data will be collated and displayed. |
| Perhaps have a question about strategies people used while doing the test. I think that changing my strategy after my first attempt made a significant contribution to the improvement in my score |
| Bloody brilliant stuff. Keep up the good work chaps. Always good to have statistics on this sort of thing. |
| Neat and concise survey. Good one. |
| The second page of the survey was a bit confusing when you had all the prep courses down on the right and the english and science levels on top. I wasn't sure how I was suppose to answer that section |
| Stress less. :) |
| love your work guys! if it wasn’t for my inability to log on due to my computers cookie allergy (and i have tried every combination and permutation possible in adjusting my cookies settings,) i would contribute more. |
| Very comprehensive in terms of GAMSAT prep materials. I didn't miss anything I'd used on this list. |
| When it comes to section 2, practice as many as you can! I freaked out and was saved by the fact that I had written answers on similar themes before. |
| A very good survey, probably works better if people tried several preparing materials listed above, so they can compare. Much less relevant if someone did not use any preparation material at all. |
| One of the questions regarding level of satisfaction for various section 3 prep materials is missing the option 'undergraduate/textbooks'. Something that may be particularly helpful for non-science candidates is textbook and/or online resources recommendations from previous candidates. |
| Thank you so much for all you do with pagingdr. It is a wonderful resource and to seek further info to assist others with Gamsatis just great. I honestly think the best bit of advice I got was after obviously doing a lot of preparation, take the week off beforeGamsat. All of it. No study. See movies and relax. The Gamsat, as so may had said, is not about recall its about ability to think and for that you need a rested mind. At least that worked for me. |
| This survey didn't go into much detail about previous studies which is a critical factor in GAMSAT. Despite my preperation, on the day I tended to fall back on my strengths (humanites background) despite doing science study to prepare. Unless you know the material really well it is difficult to answer in the time allowed. Luckily since it's multiple choice you can luck out with some educated guesses. I think a key area of prep for GAMSAT that is neglected is test taking strategies associated with MCQs (skim reading, educated guessing, pacing yourself, knowing when to go fast or go slow. |
| Survey makes sense. Probably add high school / uni subjects as options for areas that made GAMSAT section achievement possible (if it turns out that many, like me, relied on previous school knowledge). |
| My recommendation is to not underestimate any of the 3 Sections. As English is my second language I struggle a lot to stand out in the second section. Still I reckon that it would be a mistake for anybody to focus just on the third Section. Another recommendation is to do a lot of practice. Just reading theory is not enough as GAMSAT test is about reasoning and solving problems. |
| I think it's a lot about good time management and strategy going into the exam. I had already chosen what topics I was going to write my essays on (in a broad sense) before I entered the exam and just adapted them to the stimuli given - I got 70 for this section. I ensured that I answered every single question. I didn't waste time on questions I wouldn't have been able to figure out the answer to - I just used my best guestimate and moved on, and used that time on the questions I COULD figure out. I ate lots of really good food and made sure I didn't have to get up and pee during section three (you WON'T have time, so don't drink a redbull or something). I took a NoDoze at lunchtime and snuck in some jellybeans. And I did well and got a place at uni my first attempt. |
| I'm a new member in paging Dr forum. I sat GAMSAt in 2010 while I was doing Management course. I found Des O'Nill course is really good, however it assume some knowledge in science as I found the 3day of scince is just depressing as Ihaven't had organic science -no idea what's about. I commenced studing in January while working full time which was disastrous. Now i'm more focused on one thing at a time, working part time and trying to cramp as much as I can. However will do Des course again esp 4 sect 2& 3. This survery is broad and does not take in consideration the weakest area to improve on.For me science even I had Nursing degree but applied & organic-chem was just not there, leave alone physics and some biology I had but it was not very deep so in general I have to start from the begining as no science background. Hopefully this forum will help me to acheive more in next year GAMSAT result. |
| I believe that technique/strategy is really important, and that I haven't managed to master that yet! Getting the timing right is crucuial. |
| was fine... each question would have been on a different page so not to much scrolling was needed but all good very smart to ask ppl who got into med..we happy and don't care about gamsat anymore..but i'm sure ppl who have tried really hard and didn't get in...like my friend i studied with |
| A good survey, I hope my answers help. Thank you! |
| Although I can not be sure as I did not use any, when asked by others who are considering sitting GAMSAT I recommend they look at one of the preparations courses (usually suggest they check out Des O'Neil). I do not think my preparation was ideal and was limited by work and other commitments however I think my score would have been higher had I been more prepared. |
| Paging Dr forum has been a great resource for me. Thank you very much for keeping the forum alive! |
| Should include questions about interview preperation |
| Perhaps a question asking for results in individual sections would be helpful in determining which study methods benefit which sections :) |
| I recommend...what ever works for the individual!!! Applicants are all previous graduates, so should think about what worked/didnt work for them during their undergrad program re study/learning. I would suggest formulating a personal study plan 6 months prior to sitting GAMSAT - the ACER test books are a great guide as to what standard of questions to expect. Be organised and disciplined in your preparation and commit to preparation regularly for at least 3-6 months prior to sitting the exam! If people dont have time to do this, they should think again about applying for med school. Med students need to be focussed, disciplined and commit to regular study - regardless of outside work, family or social commitments! I found that having a good foundation of concepts, rather than specifics was useful. I was successful in getting into med school after one attempt at GAMSAT and WITHOUT spending lots of money on expensive courses, coaching or books. There are a plethora of free resources on the internet that I found were more than adequate for my preparation. Thanks PD-you were also a wonderful prep. resource! |
| I did my own study of first year chemistry and high school physics (which I had not done before) before my first attempt at the gamsat (section 1: 61, section 2: 80, section 3:48, overall:59) and found it did not help me at all. I did extremely little preparation for my second attempt aside from a few practice questions from acer. I got section 1: 65, section 2: 65, section 3: 76, overall: 68. I found the difference was simply being familiar with the exam and not as stressed. I have never done any preparation for the essay questions at all yet always score in the top few percentile. |
| #getamongstit Survey was great WB, I noted that I couldn't select undergrad textbooks in S3 materials, and general reading in S2 material. Top work :D |
| It is definitely a hard slog, there's no easy way out - particularly as a non-science. But it's important to keep sight of why you are doing it, and keep working hard. GAMSAT is a beast that can be tamed, and it's important to not be overwhelmed from the outset! |
| Great survey guys!! |
| A bit too ambiguous? I can't really attribute anything to one single thing. Perhaps if the question was about what resources you felt gave you the best gain, that would be a better way of phrasing it? |
| You asked for an average no. of hours per week spent preparing for GAMSAT, but not how many weeks. The numbers will be less helpful this way... Otherwise love your work WB ^_^ |
| A general feedback section for the various prep materials (as opposed to only the ones you think were bad) would be a good idea; although I didn't find Des to be bad, there were certainly some things that weren't ideal that would be worth mentioning. |
| Survey asked why I improved on S 2 but didn't ask my why I didn't improve for the other sections; thought that might be a helpful addition. |
| The question about which level the test prep resources are pitched at is confusing. |
| For me, I don't think more preparation would have made much of a difference (although the science section was difficult, even for a science student (KNOW YOUR CHEM AND PHYSICS)). The most important thing is to go in calm and work steadily. |
| I think that Part 1 of the GAMSAT can not really be "prepped" for in any course effectively. Just lots of reading and foundations from schooling. |
| Very simple to use, possibly specify how many times people have taken the GAMSAT explicitly, >1 is a little too broad. |
