GAMSAT question

[lytesnsyrens]

I have a quick question regarding study material for the GAMSAT. I have the ExamKrackers MCAT study books and am wondering if they will prepare me for the GAMSAT. I really would rather not put out a boatload of money on prep material if I can use what I have. Any suggestions?

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[3Xhelix]

I sat the MCAT and GAMSAT and I would say that if you're ready for the MCAT, the GAMSAT won't give you any problems.

 

[Steely Dan]

I don't know how much money a 'boatload' is, but if you're serious about GAMSAT, I would recommend purchasing the ACER test prep materials; their not so expensive that you would consider them 'overboard' if you know what I mean.

MCAT will prepare you for GAMSAT, but the style of questions are different between the two tests. The ACER booklets will show you in what way. And the ACER practice test is handy to have because you can reherse a full GAMSAT before you get into the room. The room can be very intimidating.

 

[lytesnsyrens]

I don't know how much money a 'boatload' is, but if you're serious about GAMSAT, I would recommend purchasing the ACER test prep materials; their not so expensive that you would consider them 'overboard' if you know what I mean.

MCAT will prepare you for GAMSAT, but the style of questions are different between the two tests. The ACER booklets will show you in what way. And the ACER practice test is handy to have because you can reherse a full GAMSAT before you get into the room. The room can be very intimidating.

Thanks! Do I have to order those through ACER or is it something I can pick up at Borders or another text book store?

 

[Steely Dan]

It's something you have to order through ACER. Occasionally you will find people selling their old ones. That's alright, because ACER has never changed the sample questions, so practice tests from three years ago are the same as the ones you would get this year (actually, I haven't seen the ones from this year, so I can't make that claim; but previous history leads me to believe they will be the same).

I don't know if you have registered for GAMSAT, but on the registration form there is an option to have the practice tests sent out to you. Just tick the box, spend the money, and wait by the letter box. Good luck with your studies.

 

[Ezekiel20]

Unfortunatley I don't think there is very much you can do to prepare for GAMSAT.

You should still see the practice questions so you know what to expect, but unless you are hopeless with basic sciences, there isn't much you can do.

The first two sections of the GAMSAT test your language skills.


The first part will be comprehension, where they give you a poem, a news article or an excerpt from a book. They will give you MCQs on "what is the intention of the author in the lines 15-18?". Basically like highschool English exams.

The second part is where you must write two short essays in one hour. Each one should be about 1.5-2 pages. They will set a theme and give you (for example) quotes from various famous people. You can choose one or all of the quotes and do an expository writing piece. The year I sat it, the questions for the two essays were social welfare, and violence in sport.

Understandably, it is difficult to improve your comprehension and writing skills in a short period of time, unless you do not even know the basic format of an essay (e.g. intro, body with arguments and supporting evidence etc, and conclusion). But I doubt this applies to anyone here.

The third part (science MCQs) is where you can do some limited preparation, for example if you are a history major and haven't taken science subjects since highschool. You are expected to be 'familiar' with 1st year level chem/bio and 12th grade physics. In most questions, you are given a bunch of information, and you can work out the answer from it. Of course it helps if you are familiar with the background info already. It is the logical reasoning process they are testing for, and not whether or not you know a scientific fact.

GAMSAT is not a terribly difficult exam, particularly because they do not set high cut-offs. It is merely a tool to screen out those who are bad, not to select those that are exceptionally good.

GAMSAT was brought in due to the fact that in the old days when the UAI (basically like your SAT scores) was the only thing that mattered, there were a lot of students getting in with quite poor English despite having near-perfect scores in maths, physics, chem etc.

 

[lytesnsyrens]

Thanks guys. You have been a lot of help. For now, I guess I will just continue using my MCAT study books and then have the practice tests sent to me. Thanks for all your help.

 

[nicko18]

Unfortunatley I don't think there is very much you can do to prepare for GAMSAT.

You should still see the practice questions so you know what to expect, but unless you are hopeless with basic sciences, there isn't much you can do.

I think the ACER past questions helped me immensely. It just served as a guide as what to brush up on. It was a bit of a wake-up call to revise organic chemistry, and that there wasn't much physics in the science part of the test (which was my major unfortunately). I think if I hadn't gone over the questions I would have taken their advice that background knowledge is not essential. There are many many questions where it is essential to have background knowledge in order to finish the paper in time.

The past questions for the humanities section help you pace yourself, and you can work out patterns of correct choices. What I mean by that is the first answer that popped into my head was rarely the correct one, there was often an underlying message that had to be picked up to get the right answer.

The essay questions weren't that much help, just forced me to practice writing them i guess.

GAMSAT is not a terribly difficult exam, particularly because they do not set high cut-offs. It is merely a tool to screen out those who are bad, not to select those that are exceptionally good.

GAMSAT was brought in due to the fact that in the old days when the UAI (basically like your SAT scores) was the only thing that mattered, there were a lot of students getting in with quite poor English despite having near-perfect scores in maths, physics, chem etc.

Too true. A lot are surprised to hear that 2/3rds of the paper is basically an English exam. Not only do you have to speak English fluently to stand a chance, you have to pick up on hidden meanings and idiosyncracies that are just not apparent to some of those with 99.6 UAI's you mention. There were a few bringing English-Cantonese dictionaries into the exam.. it's not an exam you can expect to pass with a translation dictionary.