GAMSAT 2016 (2017 entry)

@puddleduck I dont think we are allowed to mention the themes for the essays (remember hearing it when they were reading things through before the exam), so just delete them. How did you find sec 1 and 3?

Thanks! Last year everyone was posting loads of questions on here, but better safe than sorry!

1 was bloody difficult, and it was all I could do to just work through section 3 as logically as possible... didn't finish in time so had to totally guess 10 answers :/

Yeah I saw that too, which is why this year I paid extra attention to see if we could or not

Oh god I literally had lost the will to live by the end of sec 3, was just sat there with a numb brain :'( Dread to even think of May...and the money wasted :'(

Qs I remember:

Alkanes melting points
Toxic/Flammable triangle
Amino acids/codons
Amino acids charges
Stupid tidal/breathing rate diagram
Conjugated bonds
Chromosomes/crossing over
Genetics/allele
Perfume

Qs I remember:

Alkanes melting points
Toxic/Flammable triangle
Amino acids/codons
Amino acids charges
Stupid tidal/breathing rate diagram
Conjugated bonds
Chromosomes/crossing over
Genetics/allele
Perfume

eg. log rules is a must.

haha I struggled for time on section 3, had to guess about 20Qs, if i was lucky I could skim the passage and some questions and attempt a rough guess but yeah, first time doing a full exam (only did section 1 two days before the exam under timed conditions) so timing is something to work on. I unfortunately didn't have much time to study but felt this exam wasn't too bad partly cause I have no knowledge at all. Maybe its just GAMSAT Ireland? But it felt more reading, interpretation and problem solving rather than pure knowledge. Quite a lot of biology and physics questions, didn't feel there was too many chem Qs and they seemed a wee bit similar? But who knows I haven't done proper chem in years with my anat phys degree >.<

Section 2 was a nightmare! The standard pros and cons argument really ruined me in part A because I could barely come up with a plausible con for that one haha and part B I felt like I was just rambling. Section 1 I can't really remember, felt some of the cartoons weren't great imo, and some passages were so text heavy it really just demoralized me after reading several of them. Same for section 3, kept my timing good for first half of it then second half I collapsed, far too much reading shut my brain off, it was like sludge! Didn't help I couldn't sleep properly and had to commute just outside of London :O

Not sure what to recommend tbh, practice reading quick would be very helpful, I'm no good with essays but having experience in planning essays quickly and structuring them in your head would be a good start since your so limited in time! Having a plan to stick to would make things more efficient! Section 3 well learning formulas and basic maths principles eg. log rules is a must.

When you say Alkane boiling points, what do you mean? Do you mean remembering the principle of it (ie boiling point increases as the carbon chain length increases) or remembering actual values, such as the boiling point of propane etc?


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I did both this year. It's definitely tough but doable if you plan your time carefully.

Hi Natha_Lite,

How much time did you allocate to UKCAT compared to GAMSAT roughly?
I have a lot going on this year - part time masters, full time work as a clinical scientist, summer uni exams and additional part time work. Not sure if it would be wise to do both the exams this year. I did the GAMSAT last year so I know what that exam is like and the effort I need to put into it but I have no idea how much effort is needed to score a 700 in the UKCAT. Thanks

I've done both (not in the same year!) and I found that revising for the UKCAT is pretty difficult- all you can really do is go through practice questions. The verbal reasoning section of UKCAT is similar to GAMSAT section 1, so you can double up revision there. I don't think it's impossible to do both in the same year at all, especially if you book your UKCAT for earlier in the year so that you can focus on GAMSAT afterwards