Tonight's agenda

What is the GAMSAT

What its composed of (the sections)
Section I
Section II
Section III
General Tips
Checklist
Q& A session.

GAMSAT 2012
Graduate Australian Medical Students
Admissions test.
Entry into Medicine, Dentistry and more.

24th March 2012

ONCE a year! (unless you do UK)

What it is composed of
Section 1-Reasoning in the Humanities
and
Social Sciences
Section 2- Written Communication
Section 3- Reasoning in Biological and
Physical Sciences

Section I
-Encompasses high order verbal reasoning: empathy, process
written, visual and graphical information.

Preparation

New York Times (if you look at the back of GAMSAT books you
will see a bibliography)
Wide reading history, philosophy, literature, journal articles
Download MCAT 101 passages
TED
Practice, practice, practice

Section I
Timing

100 mins + 10 mins perusal

Which means100 mins for 55 questions (not including
perusal)
Approx 1 minute 48 seconds/question!
This is why reading speed and processing is critical!

Section I
Resources that I used and found great!
Prep material
1) Examkrackers101 Passages in MCAT Verbal Reasoning
2) Des O neil practise questions
3) Mention those that didnt help.

For legality sake, I am not endorsing that one is better than the other, just for my personally some were!

Section II
WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
*Funeral music begins to play*

Section II
So what the hell do I write?

1. For argumentative essays. Topics may include: War, education, poverty,

democracy, censorship (2010) and affirmative action (2011).

2.How do I come up with points for something like censorship?

(spend 2 mins coming up with points)

3. Think of examples from:

History (Nazis)
Literature (1984)
Recent times (SOPA Stop Online Piracy Act and Wikileaks)

4. Try to have a spectrum of ideas in this case, the positives and negatives
of censorship
Its important to consider both sides of the argument (shows insight)
HOWEVER dont let this detract from the strength of your point

Section II
So what the hell do I write?

For discursive essays topics include: Love, Friendship, Integrity, Happiness

(2011),
The great thing about this essay is you can approach it however you want
as long as it covers the quotes and themes.
This is where you can show flair
Diary entry, short story (Sarah)

Section II
Practice!

If you are not a natural writer then practice is key

Go to google type in quotes you will find websites of quotes
categorized into topics/themes
Pick a topic then pick 5 quotes from that topic
PLAN your essay

The main point of this exercise is to be able to structure and plan your
essay.
Fleshes your ideas out
If you are a crap writer, then structure and coherence in your writing
will be your only friend (Sarah will talk on this)
Doing 5 minute exercises/topic gives an added advantage of covering a
wide range of topics so theres a good chance you will go into the exam
with a pre-planned essay in your mind

Section II
Preparation

Start a topics book where you put all the plans for topics you have
previously covered
In this book add something along the lines of these topics
Historical figures (Gandhi, Mandela, Newton)
Personal reflection about family, love, happiness, friendships,
fluffy feel good etc
Recent events (Labor infighting, SOPA/PIPA)
Aesops Fables
Combined with your Topic Exercises this will get you ready for
section II AND section I (because of all your wide reading)

Firstly
You do not have to be Charles Dickens or
Tolstoy to do well in this, nor do you need to
read every Dickens or Tolstoy.
And dont try to be!
Its all about STRUCTURE, STRUCTURE,
STRUCTURE (and a little about creativity,
and application of current affairs knowledge)

STRUCTURE
Introduction You have a good intro, youre
half way there!
Theses/topic sentence
Introduce each point of your augment
State what your conclusion will be.
Body
Three paragraphs with distinct ideas.
Remember to start with a topic sentence
Conclusion
Restate your arguments, sum up and maybe
give your own opinion if its relevant

Whether we know it or like it, politics is

fundamental to everything
Hypothesis: politics is fundamental to
EVERYTHING
Para 1: fundamental in interpersonal
relationships
Para 2: In the workplace
Para 3: In government
And why? Human desire for power.

Introduction
In the 21st century, we as the people of a
developed and western country are governed on
every level by a seemingly inescapable web of
bureaucracy and politics. However, at the heart and
soul of every community, politics define the outcome
and the progress of society; this occurs regardless if
one disagrees with, or is ignorant of this process.
Politics, the activity of determining governance and
power within a community, is rife within the country as
a democracy, within the workplace and even within
groups of friends socially interacting, purely as the
result of the innate human desire to acquire power and
be in the position to make change.

Your turn! 4minute plans!

Section II
Timing
So you have 30 minutes per
essay to write with 5 mins
perusal!
Make sure to leave 3-4 minutes
at the end to proof read!

Resources for Section II

Books/articles/newspapers
The Art of War- Sun Tzu
The Australian
The meaning of things- A.C Grayling
TIME magazine (not heaps, its biased)
http://www.quotegarden.com/
www.3quarksdaily.com/

Quotegarden

Section III

Timing
What you should do
Topics to cover
Mathematics ( oh dear!!!)
No calculator!!

Section III
Timing
110 Questions, 180 minutes (including pers) = 1
minute 40ish per question.
Easier method
-10 questions= 15 minutes
20 questions= 30 mins
40 questions= 1 hour
Last year the there were 20 questions per column,
meant Each column = 30 minutes!
(Handy if you use the IRT
Technique> later)

Time elapsed

Number of
questions
completed

15

10

30

20

45

30

60

40

75

50

90

60

105

70

120

80

135

90

150

100

165

110

170

110

Section III
INORGANIC CHEMISTRY
Periodic trends
Basic equations (balancing, products, percentage yields)
VESPR model and molecule shapes
Bonding
RedOx reactions (oxidation numbers)
Gas laws (Boyle's, Charles', Dalton's, Graham's, Avagadro, ideal gases)
Roults law in solution chemistry
Colligative properties
Gibbs Free Energy and spontaneity
Reaction kinetics (rate, order, concentration, units of k)
Equilibirum (Le Chatelier)
Acids and Bases (pH, dissociation, buffers, neutralisation)

Section III
ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
Alkanes, Alkenes (reactions, tests)
Nomenclature
SN1, SN2 reactions
Grignard reagents
Alcohols (test for alcohols)
Carbonyls (basic reactions)
Carboxylic acids, Esters (basic reactions and tests)
Amines (properties, Hofmann degradation)
Aromatic rings (stability, resonance, SUBSTITUTION(o,m,p
and + or groups)

Amino acids
Stereoisomers (chirality, R and S configurations)

Section III
Biology
* Really this section is literally getting information from the stimulus*.
* Likely to be about a rat,fly, horse rather than human (how fun)
* Good idea to understand how flow charts work and how graphs can
work
This does use more visual stimuli and often large amounts of text!
Some common repetitions ( So do go over these)
Genetics and punnet squares
Flow chart diagrams with hormones- just learn how to interpret
Cardiovascular system (how it works, what happens when
something goes wrong)
Hibernation type questions

Section III

Section III
Physics
For

those that have done a physic course, best bet is to revise that.
others, do your best, it is a hard section!
Realise it is only 20% of the test! Most people will not finish at least 20% so if this is your
20%, really there is no large loss.
For

Some topics you could cover.. (Bold means I would cover these first).
Vectors
Kinematics (motion, velocity, acceleration)
Mechanics (Newtons laws, friction)
Energy (equations, momentum etc etc)
Elasticity
Electricity and Circuits (calculating resistance etc)
Electric and Magnetic fields
Radioactive decay (also in chemistry, half life, rate, stability)
Fluid dynamics (velocity and buoyancy)
Know some basic formula's if you can. Often they give you some but it can make it hard to
use them, often easier if you have your own formulas.

Section III
Resources
For organic chemistry: Use Organic chemistry by Mc Murry!!! (Great
book!)
Inorganic chemistry: EXAM CRACKERS IS AMAZING (Search Exam
crackers Inorganic chem). Des O neil is very complicated! I found Med prep
was easier to understand if you were weak in this. Exam crackers worked
best though
Physics: I used exam crackers physics and also revised my entire physics
course ( To be honest I only used a little bit of this in the test, the questions
had all the information I needed)
Biology: I personally didnt need to do any as my degree was full of this. I
would use Khan and a first year textbook. For anatomy and physiology=
Marieb Human anatomy and phys (really not required though!). For punnett
squares, http://anthro.palomar.edu/mendel/mendel_2.htm

Section III
Resources
http://www.khanacademy.org/ << Amazing x1000.
Practise exam questions from prep material and Acer.
There is NO substitution.
My technique: I studied all the above as a basis and then
did questions. I developed my problem solving
technique by doing more and more practise questions. If
there was a topic that I found hard to understand in the
test, I did some study on it so I knew it for next time,
should it arise!

General tips & advice

Do practice exams, do more than one, do it properly

Item response theory
Experiment with (legal) drugs
Stay at a hotel close to your exam venue visit your exam venue
Timing is essential (you will not finish the exam)
As hard as it is, get a good nights sleep! Stop studying science 2
days before hand and write a few essays and read some
newspapers/novels as a relaxation phase.
Dont compare yourself to others around you, it will put you off.
DONT think about past sections, keep moving forward!

General tips & advice

Try and practise with friends ( helped me)
Dont try and speed read if you dont take anything in
Be smart and do the questions you know you can do! This
doesnt mean pick and flick!!
Take a decent lunch! (low GI, apples ect)
Media block
Remember its not the end of the world
to not get in first time!!

Check list
Practised not using a calculator
Practised at least 4 essays of each type
Practised at least 1x full test (timed)
Read the newspaper and have an idea of recent events
Applied for early voting (state elections)
If in Brisbane, booked a place up there to stay
Covered the basics of chemistry, biology and physics (as listed
previously)
Had a flick through some scientific journals such as Scientific
American
Found a comfortable pen to use in SII
Have thought about the clothes I will wear on the day, I have a
jumper ready!
Experimented with drugs and stimulants before the day (sleeping
tablets, nodozs, Ginko)
I have ID (either a passport or drivers ID (NOT A PHOTOCOPY)

Some quotes to take home

Q & A session.

Ask what you want! If we run out of time,

we will hang around for questions after