[cactus_farmer]

To cut a long story short, I just got laid off from a finance job that I didn't like anyway, so have had an epiphany and decided to apply for medicine.

The date of the GAMSAT is 21st September - if I start revising now, would I have enough time?

I did biomed at uni (graduated 2010) and chemistry, and biology at A level in 2007 (no physics though) to give you an idea of my knowledge. I am confident I can knock out chemistry and especially biology quite quickly, but physics would be the hardest for me to get up to scratch on.

What is the standard GAMSAT prep material that people use? The 'Gold Standard' book?

And finally, how time intensive is the test - is it even more time intensive than the UKCAT? How does it compare to A-level time-intensiveness?

Thanks a lot in advance!!

[cactus_farmer]

...bump

[Sinatrafan]

Hi cactus_farmer,

I've sat the GAMSAT twice so I have a fair idea of what's entailed.

You sound like you're pretty set, what with having a biomed background. The science sections are by far the hardest and most important (they're double weighted on the scoring), so you are in a far better position than most of the non science grads.

I wouldn't worry about the physics too much, very little actually comes up in the exam and it is of a lower difficulty than the biology and chemistry. I think a good A-Level physics book should see you through that.

If you already have a background in chemistry and biology then the hardest thing will be first of all refreshing yourself, and then practicing as many questions as you can. The GAMSAT is very problem solving based rather than repetition of knowledge, so getting use to the questions is by far the most important factor. A lot of information is given in the questions themselves, which can help point you in the right direction.

I hear the Griffiths GAMSAT book is very popular, and of course the official practice papers you can buy are extremely useful. Aside from that, any good degree level text book should serve you well.

I'd say 3 months is a good prep time, and unless you are totally hopeless at reading and writing then section 1 and 2 need little preparation, aside from the reading a newspaper the night before.

I have to confess though that I found Section 1 and 2 very easy coming from a social science background, and that was the consensus among those I spoke with from that sort of background. On the contrary those from science backgrounds found section 1 and 2 hard, and the science straightforward. So take my advice about how little prep is needed for the first sections with a pinch of salt!

[cactus_farmer]

(Original post by Sinatrafan)
Hi cactus_farmer,

I've sat the GAMSAT twice so I have a fair idea of what's entailed.

You sound like you're pretty set, what with having a biomed background. The science sections are by far the hardest and most important (they're double weighted on the scoring), so you are in a far better position than most of the non science grads.

I wouldn't worry about the physics too much, very little actually comes up in the exam and it is of a lower difficulty than the biology and chemistry. I think a good A-Level physics book should see you through that.

If you already have a background in chemistry and biology then the hardest thing will be first of all refreshing yourself, and then practicing as many questions as you can. The GAMSAT is very problem solving based rather than repetition of knowledge, so getting use to the questions is by far the most important factor. A lot of information is given in the questions themselves, which can help point you in the right direction.

I hear the Griffiths GAMSAT book is very popular, and of course the official practice papers you can buy are extremely useful. Aside from that, any good degree level text book should serve you well.

I'd say 3 months is a good prep time, and unless you are totally hopeless at reading and writing then section 1 and 2 need little preparation, aside from the reading a newspaper the night before.

I have to confess though that I found Section 1 and 2 very easy coming from a social science background, and that was the consensus among those I spoke with from that sort of background. On the contrary those from science backgrounds found section 1 and 2 hard, and the science straightforward. So take my advice about how little prep is needed for the first sections with a pinch of salt!

Thanks a lot for the advice - were you successful?

How is the time-pressure in the GAMSAT? If you've done the UKCAT/A-levels, how does the time pressure compare to them?

Would you say a knowledge of A-level bio and chem (and not beyond A-level) is sufficient?

Do the essays require lots of background reading of various philosophical works (which, being from a social science background - you may have quoted?) - or are you just basically being tested on your ability to convey your own ideas rather than how widely you are read?

[Sinatrafan]

Hi cactus-farmer,

I actually got into a UKCAT university in the end!

Time wise the GAMSAT is fine. You can spend a lot of time reading the verbal reasoning sections trying to take in every complex sentence they throw at you, but as long as you read at a good pace you should be fine. Again, the essay writing is fine as long as you write at a fairly good pace and don't spend too much time planning. For section 3, you have more than enough time. Section 1 and 3 are multiple choice, so even if you do get a bit short on time a few random guesses never hurt anyone!

For the essays I literally just put forward a well constructed and two sided argument, making sure to take care with my grammar and spelling. The important thing to remember is that they don't care what you write because the topics are all totally random (I remember one about Celine Dion's music or something, and one about going to the moon), it's literally about how well you communicate i.e. the clarity of your thoughts and how well you can express them. So no quotes needed, just a nice, clear and balanced debate. I got 75+ at each attempt, so that way of going about it seemed to work well for me.

I would say the science is probably the higher end of A2. They say that they test you to first year degree level, but from my understand a lot of first year uni is a repeat of A level! As I mentioned, a lot of the information is given in the questions, so as long as you have a good basis of knowledge e.g. A Level, you can normally extrapolate the answer. But by all means try a first year degree level text book if you’re concerned; or just look at the practice questions and judge for yourself.

[cactus_farmer]

Does the GAMSAT ever 'run out' of exam places?

For example, I only want to book on August the 8th (deadline is 10th August) so I at least know if I stand a chance before wasting the £222.

However, if I leave it that late to book, will there be no spaces left to take the exam?

[Sinatrafan]

Hi Mate,

The short answer is no, I've never heard/had a case of not being able to get a place; that being said I've always booked late July. The only thing I do know/they do outline is that you may not get your first choice of location. So you will be able to sit the exam, but you may end up getting allocated to Shefield instead of London for example.

So worst case you may have to travel, but I've always got my choice of location so I think they're fairly accommodating.

[cactus_farmer]

With regard to the essay questions of the GAMSAT - would they ask you some highly technical things you've never studied in depth before and test your ability to intelligently guess what they're about?

For example, would they ask something like;

"Discuss the differences between Loop quantum gravity and string theory."...?

[Sinatrafan]

Hi Mate,

They will always be moral, philosophical or common sense type questions that don't require any pre-requisite knowledge.

[Dr. Cool]

Unless things have changes since I sat it, the essay section involves a bunch (5?) of quotes around a similar theme - you just have to construct a response to them. Meaning, there is no set question per se. For one of the essay sections, I spun the quotes into a first year economics essay that I'd essentially written before, gave it my own title and everything... In other words, it's all rather open ended!

[DexterM]

I'd say the only thing that it might be having a quick look over for S1 is poetry. I had no idea about how to interpret poetry so I had to put some effort into that before the exam, and it was pretty useful.