For Premeds - A summary of all the GAMSAT resources I used in my journey to medical school

If you're going to play this game you need to know the rules:

Here is what I want you to do first, click the link to the GAMSAT website: https://gamsat.acer.org here you will find all the information you possibly need to know about this exam - the registration information, ticket cost, test centre locations, the dates for the March and September exams, what to expect, how long each section goes for etc.

Now I need you to download yourself a copy of the FREE Information Booklet: https://gamsat.acer.org/files/GAMSAT_Info_Booklet_2020.pdf this is absolutely CRITICAL - the BARE MINIMUM in what you need to read and commit to memory about the exam you are about to undertake. I can not tell you the amount of questions I get (even from people who have sat this exam more than once already) that could be so easily be answered by carefully reading the up to date information booklet!!! THIS IS IMPORTANT! Don't be disadvantaged in this exam because you don't have a clue whats going on - get ahead of some of your competition and READ THIS BOOKLET!

The GAMSAT: welcome to hell

The GrAduate Medical School Admissions Test is not like any test you have ever taken before. Unlike high school exams or university exams this test is not testing you on what you know, its testing you on how you think. Doctors need to be able to use the information they are presented with on a daily basis, filter out any of the useless stuff, and make a quick educated decision on what to do to save their patient, especially in an emergency or under pressure. This involves a lot of problem solving and pattern recognition which is what this exam will be testing you on. Because of this, using methods that help us all to exceed in university exams such as rote learning, and cramming and memorising every word of every slide and every equation possible; these strategies don't always equate to a great GAMSAT score.

You will need to prepare yourself to be uncomfortable and dive into new study methods you haven't ever tried before, which can be scary, I know! But many of us will tell you based on experience that the price for staying in your study comfort zone might just be an acceptance letter! After 7 years of applications and over 10 GAMSAT attempts I can tell you for sure, that for those of us who struggle in this exam, this is what DOES NOT WORK:

1. Rote learning for section 3 (the science section) - I spent years reading and learning every biology, physics and chemistry textbook I could get my hands on, I used khan academy, I used more youtube videos than I can remember. Using the learning style we use for other tests IS NOT RELIABLE! Even though I am a qualified scientist with a near perfect GPA, overloaded and took almost every class my university offered in science and received a scholarship for my honours degree at the University of Melbourne based on how well I did in my Biomedical Science degree... I STILL SUCKED AT THE SCIENCE SECTION! This isn't the case for everybody of course, but if you are a science student and you suck at section three, welcome to the club there is a LOT of us! Don't be discouraged, just be open to new study methods!!

2. Spending a lot of money on a prep course and relying on it to spoon feed you to the perfect score - The GAMSAT is like a smoothie, you only get out what you put in! You don't need to spend a fortune on prep materials, in fact many medical students would argue, that, other than the ticket price you don't have to spend a cent to succeed. You just need to formulate a plan that works for you and be consistent, dedicated and hard working! If you prefer a prep course for guidance and you have the spare cash, thats awesome, but at the end of the day only YOU can get you into medical school, nobody else can do the work for you!

3. Listening to the advice of other people - contradictory, as you're reading this... but be aware that one persons method for success might not be the right one for you. For example some students prefer to play to their strengths and focus on the section or parts of a section they are really good at to get them their highest score possible. While other prefer to find their weaknesses and work on those until they become a strength to boost their mark. You need to find a method that works for you, and like many of us out there, this might mean taking the test quite a few times until you get it right - and thats awesome - good on you! You got this!

So what is the GAMSAT and whats out there to help us conquer it?

The GAMSAT is a long as hell test day. Depending on which test centre you attend, you might be there for 7-12 hours. This all depends on how many people are enrolled at your test centre, every person is signed in and seated individually... if theres 10,000 people at your test centre thats going to take a LONG time at the start of the day and again at lunch time, which eats up your time and energy!

PRO TIP: get there on time, but be the last to enter the room. Sit outside and chill out, listen to music, meditate, whatever... just do not enter that room early and be stuck sitting at your wobbly table for an hour under test conditions getting more and more anxious while everybody else is being signed in... its the worst!

The length of stay can also be impacted by how smoothly the test day goes, there have been multiple years where things have gone wrong with the exam and applicants have had to sit under exam conditions in their seat waiting for hours for problems to be resolved - good to be aware of this possibility but hopefully it won't happen to you!

Also good to be aware that the test centres can be extremely hot or extremely cold or go from one to the other as they often have poor ventilation - wear layers. There is also little prevention for outside noise, a few years in a row in Melbourne you have been able to hear car races, another year there was a marching band practicing right outside that you could watch from the windows... studying for the exam in a noisy environment from time to time can help you learn to shut off external noises on the day!

Here's the exam set up from the GAMSAT website: https://gamsat.acer.org

All up you should have 5.5 hours of exam time. You also have a 1 hour lunch break between section 2 and section 3 - yes thats the ONLY break you will have all day!

STUDY RESOURCES:

The first thing you want to get your hands on are the ACER Practice booklets: https://gamsat.acer.org/prepare/preparation-materials

These booklets are the CLOSET thing available to the real exam. Unfortunately they are a most accurate representation of where the exam was at about 10 years ago now, in terms of difficulty. Many students complain about the shock they get after acing the practice material and finding the practice tests so easy (not me I find them challenging) then walking out of the exam wondering what hit them. Picture reasonably similar sorts of questions as given to you in the practice exam except more challenging and with MUCH heavier weighting on your problem solving and pattern recognition than any actual science material you may have learned prior to walking in.

These booklets are online so you have immediate access, back in my day they were still in print so I was sent a hard copy of each book. Because they are now PDF's however I am aware that their are free illegally circulating copies of these booklets on the internet if you hunt around - if you're as financially challenged as I am, this is a good option!

But what do you do with these booklets once you have them?

Their is an order in which you're supposed to take them:

1. The orange Practice Questions booklet - FREE with your admission ticket or $27

2. The blue Sample Questions booklet - $27

3. Practice Test 1 - $45

4. Practice Test 2 - $45

5. Practice Test 3 - $45

6. Online Written Communication Practice Test 1 - $15 (not illegally available)

7. Online Written Communication Practice Test 2 - $15 (not illegally available)

The first two tests are not full length they are shorter version to ease you into the exam. The three practice exams are full length exams similar to what you will see on the day. IT IS IMPORTANT you do these questions under timed conditions. Many of us would recommend using these booklets to sit down and do the exams under test like conditions. Time yourself according to test day time limits. Only take a one hour lunch break like you will on the real day. And then take two or three days afterward reviewing and going over every answers and working out exactly why you got them wrong and why you got them right - more on this to come below!

You can do the written communication tests anytime you want - you can type or hand write your response to the prompts provided and send it in to be graded almost instantly by the automated ACER marking system. From experience with my real test results this automated marking system is accurate to what I got during an actual exam. More recommendations below!

Section One: Reasoning in Humanities and Social Science

This section has changed a lot over the years. It's main goal is to find material you wouldn't have read before (unless you've done the GAMSAT and noticed how many repeated questions there are every year) so nobody has the upper hand in interpreting it prior to game day. This material has ranged from pieces written in English pentameter, puzzles similar to that found on the UMAT exam, poetry, articles on history etc. the past 3 or so years I sat the GAMSAT I saw the article slowly shift towards having a very medical theme. Pieces about the show House and analysing the way the cast and directors view the script and House's character and trying o interpret how the audience views him. Pieces about a woman who needed surgery and was required to have a balloon inserted under her scalp and inflated on intervals to stretch the underlying skin in preparation and how this impacted upon her life.

In this section you are required to read and interpret a piece of writing that can be up to a page and a half long and then answer the following questions about it. This might sounds pretty straight forward or like something you have done before, but its not.

Many students hate this section as it is really difficult to prepare for or improve your score in (difficult but not impossible). This section is said to test your empathy skills - I think it helped me to remember that at times: to put my feet in the writers shoes, the characters shoes and the audiences shoes when ever I was reading a piece and feel what the piece delivers from each and every view point. This allowed me to get most of the practice questions write and get a decent score in this section year after year.

Another pro-tip for this section is to READ! Read every day, read a broad range of materials, read something you love. JUST READ. Even if the only thing you read is Harry Potter this will still be advantageous to you as with every moment you are reading you are improving your reading skills. To be able to speed read in this exam is of HUGE advantage. The more you read, the faster you will be able to read, the better you will be equip for this exam in every section.

Preparation material I found useful for Section One was:

• Literally any reading material! Most of the resource recommendations for section two (below) are useful for section one simultaneously. If you want to read long Facebook and Instagram posts, Harry Potter, Dolly magazine... this all actually helps increase your speed reading - but if this is your strategy take it one step further and practice summarising each paragraph to yourself as if you need to explain everything you are reading to a younger sibling at the end of it. Make sure if that sibling asks you "but why?" about the authors standpoint, the characters standpoint or the audiences standpoint, you will be able to answer them!

• The resources for section two below also help for section one

Section Two: Written Communication

Section two requires you to write two essays in one hour based on two sets of given prompts on a series of topics (examples of which are listed below).

These essays will be marked with the understanding they are obviously not going to be perfect considering they were thought of and written roughly within the space of 30 minutes each roughly. They mark you based on the depth of your ideas and your communication skills. It is extremely important for future doctors to have good communication skills, thus Australia has decided to keep their essay section despite the recent disappearance of this section in the American MCAT.

Please find the below list of example topics I have seen either on test day or in the ACER practice materials:

Writing Task A

Writing style:

• persuasive

• argumentative

Theme:

• socio-cultural

• philosophical

• political

Topics:

• affirmative action

• censorship

• democracy

• education

• human nature

• intelligence

• meritocracy

• politics

• space exploration

• wealth

Writing Task B

Writing style:

• reflective

• discursive/argumentative

Theme:

• interpersonal/personal

• social

Topics:

• conformity

• family

• friendship

• humor

• love

• marriage

• self-confidence

• self-discovery

• wisdom

• youth

• hatred

• pets

How to improve your section two score?

Find a group of other premedical students who are aiming to sit the GAMSAT as well and form an essay marking group. You can do this either by finding peers at uni or heading to the Paging Dr forum https://www.pagingdr.net/forum/index.php

This forum can be a very negative and toxic place for many premeds, please take the negativity with a grain of salt as during such a competitive and stressful time some students are not very nice to each other and not everything written on this forum is always true or can be exaggerated - don't let anything said on this forum effect you self-confidence!

Despite its shortcomings, this forum is an AMAZING free resources gifted to us all by those who came before us to help us succeed from many of their trials and errors!

Here you can find others to form GAMSAT study groups with, interview preparation groups, a thread on just about any question you could possibly have about medical school applications and beyond, Past GAMSAT questions, past Med School Interview questions... its is amazing!

The best parts of making an essay marking group is that 1. its FREE and 2. you actually learn a hell of a lot more than you would think about writing essays when you are marking them! Plus not only do you walk in on test day with all your own ideas you also now have all of those you've learned from your friends as well!

You also want to take advantage of ACERS online written communication tests as suggested above for $15 each to see how your essays will be marked roughly on the day - these are on average very accurate to how you will score on test day!

I'm also keen to mark essays for $10 an essay (one essay includes any/all its rewrites after advice has been given). If you're interested just email me or chat to me on insta x

Preparation material I found useful for Section Two was:

• TED TALKS! There is a Ted Talk on every topic you can possibly imagine! For those of you who don't particularly like reading articles all day and like to spice things up with a video or two to keep you interested, you're going to LOVE Ted Talks. Their super interesting, they have unique perspectives on any issue you can search to help give your essays the edge they need AND ITS FREE! Here is a link to the list I recommend in particular, it really helped me with so many essays on the GAMSAT and helped me get the score that eventually got me into medical school and I hope you love it as much as I do: https://www.ted.com/playlists/171/the_most_popular_talks_of_all

• The well known book 'The Meaning of Things' by A.C Grayling is highly recommended for section two it gives you essay examples of the highest quality on most of the essay topics: https://www.bookdepository.com/Meaning-Things-C-Grayling/9780753813591 You may find a second hand copy from past medical students on eBay or Gumtree as well! If you enjoy this read you might enjoy some of the authors other books in your GAMSAT preparation as well: https://www.bookdepository.com/author/A-C-Grayling

• Another book I found really helpful for my essay preparation and inspiration was '50 Big Idea's You Really Should Know' by Ben Dupre: https://www.bookdepository.com/50-Big-Ideas-You-Really-Need-Know-Ben-Dupré/9781847249869?ref=grid-view&qid=1577103756491&sr=1-3 Similar set up to The Meaning of Things with short sharp to the point essays on interesting topics which really gives you a lot to brain storm and wrote about in your exam. This book also helps with some abstract passages in section one that pop up from time to time as you've got some understanding of a range of broad topics you can rely on. Again if you enjoy this read Ben wrote a number of other interesting books sure to help you improve your essays, the ethics book would be excellent for GAMSAT and medical school interviews! https://www.bookdepository.com/author/Ben-Dupré

• If you prefer youtube though you can go past Crash Course: https://www.youtube.com/user/crashcourse this youtube channel has videos on all things science t help with section 3 but they also have a lot of videos about world history that I found particularly helpful to use as references to in my essays. Having a broad world understanding is great for a doctor because they are able to relate to more of their patients, particularly being in a multicultural country like Australia, its good to understand the history and heritage of other cultures from around the world and good to demonstrate this quality in your essays. This might help you stand out among other essays as well!

• The Economist is a great way to keep up to date with world affairs you probably won't hear in detail about on the news: https://subscription.economist.com/DA/PPC/baunewyear/FY1920?gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=Cj0KCQiA6IHwBRCJARIsALNjViV2gLoDW_wSdnE9S6aR5FW8ojbTgtHBt1R5FYqund3pHMjSRH3ziHMaAoqyEALw_wcB it is a reasonably pricey subscription but if you're keen on reading something in a hard copy you can sign up for a few weeks and have a pile of interesting articles to get through that not only give you great content for your essays, keep you really informed about whats happening in the world from different perspectives but also demonstrates how to set up and structure a brilliant essay. You can also get a free email subscription which allows you to read 3 articles for free per week which is another great option for those on a tight budget or even for those who would only have time to read 3 articles a week anyway.

• Finding a newspaper that you can read online for free is becoming more difficult these days. but finding a newspaper you can keep up to date with especially the editorial section for inspiration for your Writing Task A esspecially - is great! I think this one is still free: https://www.smh.com.au

• There are heaps of website you can find olnine with great examples of essays to help you structure and come up with ideas for your own. I would recommend trying to correct the essays as you read them, how would you change it to make it better, or more youre own if you were writing its etc. 1. https://tetw.org/Greats#_=_ 2. https://www.ukessays.com/services/example-essays/ 3. http://www.futuredoctor.net/sample.shtml

• If you're going going to start from the absolute basics there are plenty of websites that can teach you what most GAMSAT courses will teach you, the difference between kinds of essays, how to structure them, examples of the different styles etc: 1. https://examples.yourdictionary.com/essay-examples.html 2. https://aso-resources.une.edu.au/academic-writing-course/sample-essay/ 3. https://www.fastweb.com/student-life/articles/essay-tips-7-tips-on-writing-an-effective-essay

• If youre looking for something to read to help increase your speed reading and get a bit of medical school inspiration at the same time I would recommend my favorite book ever 'When Breath Becomes Air' by Dr Paul Kalanithi: https://www.bookdepository.com/When-Breath-Becomes-Air-Paul-Kalanithi/9781784701994 his writing skills are absolutely phenomenal and the story is incredibly moving. Definitely worth a read at any chance you get.

• For practicing your essays you can find random quote generators online: 1. https://miniwebtool.com/random-quote-generator/ 2. https://www.frasersgamsat.com.au/gamsat-section-2-quote-generator/?utm_term=gamsat%20essays&utm_campaign=GAMSAT+General+%26+Resources&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_ver=3&hsa_kw=gamsat%20essays&hsa_ad=246769403007&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_cam=1025034697&hsa_grp=56939496411&hsa_src=g&hsa_acc=9543850510&hsa_tgt=kwd-546064913672&hsa_mt=b&gclid=Cj0KCQiA6IHwBRCJARIsALNjViVKcCMHS1C0CniEHt0UH6iOGP_N1zSBwqCOi4eg2BjhkjZ0tCpFj8caAtxkEALw_wcB you are able to just click a button and get a random quote and then start writing an essay about it to prepare you for anything they might surprise you with on the GAMSAT

• Listening to the radio or TV and going away and writing an essay on what ever it was they happened to be talking about can be useful as well

Section Three: Reasoning in Biological and Physical Sciences

I strategically underlined the word REASONING to point out that this is NOT a science exam. this is a REASONING exam using scientific passages. Many passages will require absolutely no prior scientific knowledge what so ever to solve. EVERY passage will give you ALL of the information necessary to find the correct answer write there on the page.

Studies show that scientists actually make the WORST doctors. Professions like Engineering and Nursing actually make the BEST doctors. So how does ACER design a test that stops giving such a huge advantage to those who have studied a science degree and start making it an even playing field to allow more well suited nurses and engineers into medicine? It focuses its science section on problem solving and pattern recognition!!! NOT SCIENCE.

Yes learning science will help you on the GAMSAT. Science, especially organic chemistry, can be like reading a second language. Having a solid foundation in biology, physics and chemistry is important - but even for we scientist this often is not enough.

THIS TEST DOES NOT CARE WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW WALKING IN - IT ONLY CARES ABOUT HOW YOU THINK - because thats how you make a great doctor, find the students who can cope under pressure (give them more questions then there is actually time to complete, at the end of a 5 or so hour day given them the hardest part of the exam, fill the room with thousands of other anxiety filled super intelligent students as competition), who rely on their honed mental gymnastic skills (problem solving and pattern recognition).

So how do you improve your mental gymnastics?

For many of us we don't have a problem rote learning things, we are smart and intuitive, many of us have absolutely aced our science degree up until this point - but then why are we not getting marks in section 3? Because we dont have the thinking style required to work out the answers in these particular exam. Some people have had previous experiences or just naturally have the style of thinking that makes them excel in the GAMSAT with little preparation. For those of us who don't we need to work on it - the only way to improve your problem solving and pattern recognition is to throw yourself into practice questions!

You are going to need to do as many practice questions as humanly possible during your preparation. You're going to feel very temped to start your study, maybe even do 50% or more of you're preparation for section 3 by reading textbooks and learning foundation material - this is your comfort zone, the method thats done you well for every exam up till now... and if this is your first time doing science at all then yes youre going to want to build a strong foundation in science. but you want to do 90% practice questions 10% background study.

Trust me when I say the GAMSAT can not be improved by textbooks, I have 5 years of average scores to show that it doesn't. The more effort and time I put into my study the more upset I was when my results didn't reflect it.

Jumping right into doing practice questions under timed conditons feels uncomfortable, and you feel like you have no idea what you are doing, you get a hell of a lot of questions wrong in the process - but you learn 10x more from a mistake than from getting something right the first time. You will gradually pick up your problems solving and pattern recognition skills through this process which is what is going to improve the crap out of your section 3 score.

Using the ACER booklets you want to do all of the practice questions under timed conditions. I would spend a day doing the booklets as if it was the real test under test conditions, eat the same lunch I would eat on the day take the same hour lunch break etc. and then spend the next two or three days going over every single questions to find out where you went wrong and where you went right. The making very brief notes on the experience that you can review often.

To help you with marking how you've gone in the science section The Gold Standard has a series of free youtube videos that explains how to get to the right answer in every question.

https://www.gamsat-prep.com/GAMSAT-videos/#scienceReview they also have some free science videos for your revision that are pretty helpful and fast to run through.

Keep in mind the practice questions are much easier to get through with rote leaning and may convince you that that really is the ticket to a great score - but be aware the real test these days is quite a bit different and a lot harder than any of the current practice material depicts. Take all of the practice questions with a pinch of salt in terms of difficulty and skills required to do well on the real exam.

Should you really want to go through the basics - put a limit on it. make sure its not the main part of your revision, otherwise if you feel like it needs to be your priority you will need to start your revision months and months in advance.

some Youtube channels that can help you quickly brush up on your science skills include:

1. Khan Academy: https://www.khanacademy.org/profile/kaid_64246175790460868458747/courses

2. Crash Course: https://www.youtube.com/user/crashcourse

3. Ninja Nerd Science: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6QYFutt9cluQ3uSM963_KQ

When you run out of practice questions and finish your acer booklets what can you do?

The closest quality to the real thing still remains to be Des O'Niels practice question booklets - however, Des stopped selling his books a long time ago and now you can only get them on places like Gum Tree and eBay from past students who used them to get into medicine and dentistry.

I also really enjoyed the quality of questions from The Gold Standard (although there are mixed reviews some of my peers don't rate them as much as I do, as with most GAMSAT prep courses) https://www.gamsat-prep.com/free-GAMSAT-practice-test/

If you are going to do a course, I personally recommend The Gold Standard, they really helped me to improve my score, the team were absolutely lovely with me, Jeanne who marks the essays will be a life long friend after her years of supporting me on my journey to medical school. I also loved their textbook, although openly I admit that using the textbook wasn't a MASSIVE help to my score for the most part. The chapter on math for the GAMSAT was actually REALLY helpful for me who had forgotten a lot of fast math skills because it had been a long time science my high school math classes. https://www.gamsat-prep.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQiArozwBRDOARIsAHo2s7uCWIGYz_LXC9HYg9-9NAruJKetKq4gOv6I-EAm2i8LEPIKmpUbBhsaAvZdEALw_wcB

I now work for Frasers and I have to say their program is incredible, its just VERY expensive which I feel is unfair for students like myself who spend all of my savings on courses like this to get into medical school but if you can afford it or your parents are keen to chip in and help you out - this would probably be the course I would be doing if I was still trying to get to get in! https://www.frasersgamsat.com.au/frasers-gamsat-prep-course/?utm_term=gamsat%20courses&utm_campaign=GAMSAT+Value+Add+Packages&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_ver=3&hsa_kw=gamsat%20courses&hsa_ad=295142829965&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_cam=1378144933&hsa_grp=55951344238&hsa_src=g&hsa_acc=9543850510&hsa_tgt=kwd-340345587012&hsa_mt=p&gclid=Cj0KCQiArozwBRDOARIsAHo2s7seTyGCCwRICUcUoaK_lxtlFGJUR-aSSg0BOUt4xmheACltFXY5iZAaAu8zEALw_wcB

But do not feel like you HAVE to do a course to get in - you definitely do not! It is comforting if you like having a lot of structure and support while you study however!

You can also use material that American students use to prepare for the MCAT. Keep in mind the style of questions used in the MCAT are definitely similar to classic exams and are easy to get through with enough rote learning. Not nearly as problem solving and pattern recognition based as our GAMSAT questions.

The last thing that I would recommend for section 3 that surprised me in just how helpoful it was - riddles! I used to swap a riddle with a friend at work on our slower Sunday shifts and by the end of the day we both had to have solved them. This strangely helped me on the GAMSAT SO MUCH. Never did I think of doing riddles as a form of study, but they really helped me to think outside the box and to rely souly on what the question provides to solve it. Some of the tactics I learned to solve them actually popped upon the GAMSAT and I was SHOCKED. Would recommend finding a riddle buddy!

FREE resources from GAMSAT preparation courses:

Frasers: https://www.frasersgamsat.com.au/free-gamsat-preparation-resources/

The Gold Standard: https://www.gamsat-prep.com/GAMSAT-Free/

GradReady: https://gradready.com.au/free-gamsat-preparation-materials

METC Institute: https://www.metcinstitute.com/gamsat/

WISHING YOU SO MUCH LUCK!!!!

I have sat the GAMSAT over 10 times before finally being accepted into medical school.

There are many of us in medical school who have sat it 5+, 10+ times.

Don't become discouraged if after your first or second time sitting this mammoth exam, you don't get the score you were hoping for. You are definitely not alone. Countless studies have been done which show no correlation between performance on the GAMSAT or performance in medical school and how great you will be as a doctor.

A failed GAMSAT or rejection letter for your medical school application does NOT mean you won't be the most incredible doctor!

Remind yourself why you are doing this and keep going! we only fail when we stop trying. SO NEVER, EVER, EVER GIVE UP!!! If I can do it YOU can do it! xx