Gamsat Science for Arts Grads

[MedisMark?]

Hello

I'm an arts grad and before gamsat my last science study was 9 years ago in A Level Biology. I managed to scrape through the Gamsat science section with a 54 just recently and now have an interview at St Georges - so I thought I'd share some tips with any fellow arts grads out there terrified at the thought of Gamsat science...

Chemistry: For basic GCSE refresher and a bit more, I started with Barron's Review Course Series 'Let's Review: Chemistry The Physical Setting.' It's an American book aimed at 16-18 year olds and really easy to grasp.

Then I moved to Ramsden's A Level Chemistry book but found it to be insufferably dry and too full of facts and not enough explanation of concepts behind the facts, so I switched to "Chemistry: The Central Science", by Brown, LeMay and Bursten - another US book aimed at 1st year college students - excellent explanation of concepts - particularly in thermochemistry, kinetics, equilibria, acids and bases, which are all key.

I also used Ramsden's Calculations for A Level Chemistry, but not a lot.

Finally, because there is so much organic chemistry, I bought (I kid you not) Organic Chemistry for Dummies and it is brilliant! Does exactly what it says on the tin.

For Biology I covered all the animal biology from "Biology" 2nd Edition by Mike Boyle and Kathryn Senior from the Collins Advanced Science Series. Nice and easy book to understand tho it may not quite be detailed enough for some of the more complex questions at Gamsat.

Then on physics I didn't overdo it, since it is only 20% of the science section. So I used Barron's Review Course Series 'Let's Review: Physics." Again,a yank book but really gets to grips with forces, vectors and basic electricity and light geometrics that you'll be asked about.

I got the gamsat sample papers from Acer and did one immediately last March to see how I did and got about 36 on the science. From there on I got the sample papers from Ozimed and used them to practice answering the questions under time pressure. By the time the Gamsat swung around I was scoring anything from 45-65 in the science and I scraped by on the day with 54.

That's a lot of work for a 54 in science (I tend to need to study hard to do well and am annoyingly not a genius) but I am interviewing for St Georges in a few weeks so it was worth it.

I didn't do any study for section one other than the sample papers. And to spruce up my essays I signed up to the essay writing component of Des O'Neil - not the cheapest but you get great Gamsat-specific feedback on your prose, which may help especially if you've been away from academia for a few years.

Hopefully there are some useful pointers there for any non science grads looking to pass the Gamsat. And I managed to do it in my spare time while having a very demanding full time job, so its not that bad. And if you're going to pay 180 quid for a test, you'd better give it 100%, eh?

Good luck. Start now...

MM

[welly]

I'd like to add...

Despite being a science graduate - my science has been rather rusty for the last 6 or 7 years. So I ummed and arghed about doing A level Chemistry again (got an E last time - blush).

But instead bought:
Revise AS Chemistry in a week and Revise A2 Chemistry in a week. they were only about £7 each and combined with my very out of date A-level Chemsitry book - seemed to do me fine.

Welly

[youngster]

I'd like to add...

Despite being a science graduate - my science has been rather rusty for the last 6 or 7 years. So I ummed and arghed about doing A level Chemistry again (got an E last time - blush).

But instead bought:
Revise AS Chemistry in a week and Revise A2 Chemistry in a week. they were only about £7 each and combined with my very out of date A-level Chemsitry book - seemed to do me fine.

Welly

Yes! I didn't do any of those ludicrously priced gradmed courses or whatever they were, I just bought AS/A2 Chemistry, Biology and Physics revision guides and did loads of A level papers before I started getting my head around the Gamsat-style of questioning. And a bit of A Level maths, though nothing too in depth. (I'm an arts graduate too, but it wasn't too horrific, honest! I did some refresher gsce level reading before I started studying too... which was embarrassing but kind of worthwhile for the SIMPLE things...)

And despite the fact I really should have got my highest mark in verbal reasoning, I got 88% in section 3! So it is possible!

[lawyertodoctor]

MediCMark, thanks for the advice, excellent stuff.

I'm gonna give the GAMSAT a shot in January 2007 with a view to trying to get onto a GEP in London. Like you, I have an arts background so I know it aint gonna be easy.

Re: the dreaded Section III, I've yet to get my head down and actually start learning stuff, I was hoping there'd be some definitive syllabus for the exam so that I could try to cover the science topics one by one. Was that your Wikipedia post? That's the closest thing I've yet seen to a syllabus.

Maybe I'm asking too much, but it seems a bit strange revising for any exam without an understanding of the confines of the syllabus. I can't learn everything but if I only learn certain topics, and other science topics come up, I'll be in trouble! Is there an official guide to what you need to know.

Anyways, thanks to you and others for these threads, these are great in the absence of free help!

[MedisMark?]

MediCMark, thanks for the advice, excellent stuff.

I'm gonna give the GAMSAT a shot in January 2007 with a view to trying to get onto a GEP in London. Like you, I have an arts background so I know it aint gonna be easy.

Re: the dreaded Section III, I've yet to get my head down and actually start learning stuff, I was hoping there'd be some definitive syllabus for the exam so that I could try to cover the science topics one by one. Was that your Wikipedia post? That's the closest thing I've yet seen to a syllabus.

Maybe I'm asking too much, but it seems a bit strange revising for any exam without an understanding of the confines of the syllabus. I can't learn everything but if I only learn certain topics, and other science topics come up, I'll be in trouble! Is there an official guide to what you need to know.

Anyways, thanks to you and others for these threads, these are great in the absence of free help!

Yes. you are aslking far too much!! There is no such thing as a specification, so you have to hit and hope. Fortunately, previous candidates and some 'experts' who sit the exam for this very purpose, have identified frequent topics and there are some unofficial specs knocking about. Des O'Neill does a course and supplies a basic spec (although he suggests stuff like photosynthesis, I think, which I don't reckon has ever come up). The stuff on that wikipedia site is the best thrown-together version you'll get for free.

If you sign up to the Des O'Neill essay course, which I would recommend, you get a copy of his 'spec' for free. Other than that, just look through all the relevant books and find the chapters with the titles related to the topics on the gamsat. Also if you get the ozimed papers, they claim to tackle every topic you need to know, so you can spot any holes in your knowledge as you work through them and get some times-exam practice in at the same time.

All a bit ambiguous, I'm afraid....

[lawyertodoctor]

Thanks MediCMark,

I better stop moaning and get started... lots to do! Well done on your GEP place. Have you got any GAMSAT papers for sale?

If there are other arts graduates out there who wanna chat about the dreaded GAMSAT in 2007, let me know. I live just outside of London so maybe we could meet for some brain storming sessions.

Cheers

[MedisMark?]

Thanks MediCMark,

I better stop moaning and get started... lots to do! Well done on your GEP place. Have you got any GAMSAT papers for sale?

If there are other arts graduates out there who wanna chat about the dreaded GAMSAT in 2007, let me know. I live just outside of London so maybe we could meet for some brain storming sessions.

Cheers

I'm afriad all mine were defaced by my scrawls / desperate attempts to figure out what on earth the question was about.

Deffo get some from somewhere tho - knowledge is only half the battle... the other half is being able to turn around the questions and spit out answers quickly over a prolonged period without turning to goo.

Thanks for the congrats

[lawyertodoctor]

Ok, thanks anyway, I'll get some new books and try to pick up some past papers and get cracking.

One other thing, I know that work experience is a must for applying to SGUL, I've got some voluntary hospital work lined up (just 3 hours a week at the mo but this will be for the long term) and a stint at a GP surgery (maybe 2 weeks).. Is this going to be enough? I know that you were doing a full time job whilst applying to the GEP and I'm a solicitor at the mo, not sure I can squeeze much more in!

Cheers

[aspirant doc]

I'd suggest two weeks in a GP surgery could be better spent with a few days in the surgery and the rest of the time in hospitals getting a really good look at he full spectrum of medicine - surgery, specialities, rehab etc etc.

Another way of looking at it is that you need to have done enough by the time you send your UCAS application to show you are serious/have genuinely thought about it and learnt from it so that you survive the PS chop; then you have between then and interviews to do more to give you plenty to talk about in interview.

3 hours a week is a lot more than a lot of folk who have been offered places. Quality and what you learn from it is more important than quantity.

It is possible to go for a crafty approach here - I mentioned 3 or 4 things I had learnt from my work experience/vol work in my UCAS PS, deliberately reasonably eyecatching stuff so that they would ask me about them in interview, and I was able to predict reasonably well what sort of things they'd ask in interview about wexp/vol work.

I take your point about time; I've been in a full time job this last year and doing all this wexp stuff and applying. I did a lot of wexp as individual days at weekends at times that suited me.

One other thing to consider, it's worth keeping a record of what you saw/what you learnt from it/what insights you gained/when you saw a situation that your current skills are suited to etc. It sounds geeky but I did this at the end of each day and it gave me a good list of things so that when they said "tell me about a time in your work experience when you XYZ", you've got a good answer ready to go.

good luck.

[MedicMark?]

Ok, thanks anyway, I'll get some new books and try to pick up some past papers and get cracking.

One other thing, I know that work experience is a must for applying to SGUL, I've got some voluntary hospital work lined up (just 3 hours a week at the mo but this will be for the long term) and a stint at a GP surgery (maybe 2 weeks).. Is this going to be enough? I know that you were doing a full time job whilst applying to the GEP and I'm a solicitor at the mo, not sure I can squeeze much more in!

Cheers

This is about the same amount as I had (I did mine on friday nights)., Just make sure you get stuck in and really try and take something away from it... look at how the staff communicate with the patients - what works what does not. Get an idea, as much as poss, about what it feels like to be a patient; and pick up some other basic doc/nurse-patient interaction....