GAMSAT What are best revision books?

**franger** · 12-07-2007, 12:48 AM

I have little money and am wondering what are the best books that are inexpensive. I am doing a biomedical science degree though i still think i will need some books on the science aspects.

**Russ-SGUL** · 12-07-2007, 01:03 AM

Get A-level chemistry and organic chemistry books from your public library.

**montreux** · 12-07-2007, 10:05 PM

Originally Posted by franger

I have little money and am wondering what are the best books that are inexpensive. I am doing a biomedical science degree though i still think i will need some books on the science aspects.

Organic Chemistry for Dummies is really good but you may not need that given your background. You could try looking on Amazon to see if anyone is selling it - or any of the other books anyone recommends - second hand if your library doesn't have them/can't order them in.

**Trepe** · 16-07-2007, 01:45 PM

These books have had good reviews on here -

http://www.gamsatreview.com

http://www.mygamsat.com

They are both cheaper than the Australian options such as Ozimed if you are on a budget.

**Arch_Angel** · 16-07-2007, 02:44 PM

The Griffith's GAMSAT Review is excellent. It teaches technique rather than actual knowledge though so by itself it won't be sufficient.

It has lots of info on stuff like the procedure for the test date etc.

Can't speak for the other one but I have got GAMSAT GURU and DES O'NEIL and intend to do a full review of all the materials I got, being able to compare them as I had 4 different sets of stuff, once I've done the actual exam.

But for now let me say that Des O'neil seems to go way over the top, but everything is there that you need (notes are a bit dry and sciency so prob bot good for arts graduates) and the GAMSAT GURU is kind of useful in parts but has spelling and punctuation mistakes that really matter and you can actually see the authors "Apathy curve" as you work through the books. For example the Chemistry one starts out explaining everything in great detail and kind of wanes from there on, but by the time you get half way through the physics one the initial format of illustrative questions then GAMSAT questions then full work throughs of the GAMSAT questions seems to have been scrapped and replaced with only GAMSAT questions then most of them have very poor work throughs that really only will be followable if you got the question right and knew what you were doing in the first place.

However, it's not a totally bad source, and probably worth it if you can get it for less than £30. Just don't rely on it too much.

At the moment I'm doing GURU then filling in what it either misses out or omits completely with the DES O'NEIL.

Nik

**henyansk** · 31-07-2007, 04:34 PM

Originally Posted by franger

I have little money and am wondering what are the best books that are inexpensive. I am doing a biomedical science degree though i still think i will need some books on the science aspects.

Franger I have the Gamsat Guru course as described here by Arch_Angel. I paid about £200 online for what seems to be a lazily written piece of junk (and unbelievably, when it turned up i found that it was a photocopy!!).

please don't spend any of your hard-earned cash on this. if you feel you could make any minimal use of it you can have it, and i will gladly post it to you (assuming the postage doesn't cost a fortun - where are you based/).

if this is of any interest to you just let me know (my email address is anna.a.henry@aib.ie)

**Arch_Angel** · 31-07-2007, 04:42 PM

Have a look at my thread in the GAMSAT section for a venomous review of the physics book. It brought my p$%s to a boil the other day and I decided to lash out. I shall be doing more after the actual GAMSAT exam.

**henyansk** · 31-07-2007, 05:17 PM

Ugh, glad I'm not the only one. It's such a pile of crap.

As an arts graduate I found it very difficult to judge the level of scientific knowledge required (how could I - the only way to even get the first idea is to collect past papers at £50 each!!), so I felt I had to buy a book specific to GAMSAT or how would I cover the right ground without wasting time on irrelevant areas. I perservered with this gem for a while but it became clear it was no help at all. If you know the stuff you don't need the books, but if you don't know the stuff the books are absolutely no help whatsoever.

So what we need is a syllabus, then we can cover the content ourselves. But oh no - ACER don't publish a syllabus and their own taught course costs the same as a year at medical school, so we poor fools have to resort to paying for this kind of cowboy rubbish. GAMSAT is supposed to promote equality of opportunity for scientists and artists alike with its problem-solving exam, but that's such a joke because you really do need a decent amount of scientific knowledge to be able to do the questions - but there's no way of finding out what's required witout buying all the appallingly priced official materials. It's such a total scam I can't believe UK universities have endorsed it. Grrrr.

In the end I sacked it off and did chemistry a-level (and incidentally I now think I'd murder the GAMSAT, had I needed to sit it for next year - every section seems to be chemistry in disguise) and somehow managed to get a place at my first choice anyway (Newcastle GEP) for next month. But the whole experience just hacked me off. It's a great way to make loads of money from people who feel they don't have any choice - otherwise there would surely be no reason not to publish a basic syllabus outline. Or if not at least they could have the good manners not to harp on about how there's no specific knowledge required really - just verbal and numerical reasoning, oh please.

Er oops didn't mean for this to be such a rant! In short: Gamsat Guru not very good. Avoid paying lots of money for it!

**Arch_Angel** · 31-07-2007, 05:53 PM

I think, if people will support me, that I'll write a review and ask if to be put on sticky once the GAMSAT is over. I've got lots of material so I can compare each source. Try and get a boycott going for this rubbish. Like I said before, it quite clearly says that it's not a replacement for a text book and doesn't pretend to be as in depth, but then it throws words and concepts at you that it's never mentioned before. I think it's quite clear it's written as sort of a refresher and is totally inadequate when it comes to actually learning most of the stuff.

Again, I'm mainly talking about the science ones here, the essay writing ones I have yet to tackle.