GAMSAT Prep- Relative importance of the Science subjects?

[dr2008]

Hi there

Im just wondering what people's thoughts are on the difficulty of GAMSAT coming from a non science background?

Ive done biology at leaving certificate level in Ireland but am a complete novice in chemistry and physics. Is it possible to score well in the Gamsat by concentrating on the written communication, verbal reasoning section and the Leaving Certificate Biology course? ie Ignore the other two sciences as they seem like huge courses.

Thanks in advance!

[chris5656]

You probably need to learn some organic chemistry.

[lanita]

Unfortunately, the science section is double weighted. There's more on the marking here:
http://www.gamsat-ie.org/index.php?o...d=34&Itemid=79

But if you do super well in the verbal sections you'll be ok, I guess. Still, you're probably best off trying to learn at least a bit of the science in the next six weeks.

Good luck.

[Arch_Angel]

No.

It's specifically set up so that you cannot over compensate in one section. They do this by requiring a certain threshold score in each section (I think it's 55 in section 2 or 3 with at least 50 in the remaining sections - or something like that).

This means that you can't get a bad score on the science and make up for it on the others.

Or, at least that's the idea for nottingham and st. georges. Swansea work it a bit differently. I don't know about the others.

The physics is almost ignorable, but the chemistry you will need a solid grounding in. I suggest "Organic chem for dummies" and A level chemistry books. You need to take the organic chem a little further than A level (hence the dummies book) but for the rest you should be ok.

Remember, non science grads do better on the GAMSAT than science people.

Enjoy

[Winchester]

Hey,

Not sure what the best advice is here, but I did the GAMSAT with a pretty respectable science background and still found it tough. Its hard to say how much is knowledge based and how much is logic based but I think its a really bad idea to go in with no revision under your belt at all. Some people will tell you otherwise though - that it's all logic, and you don't really need to know anything. Not sure I believe that... if you don't know what an alkane or a redox reaction is you'll probably be screwed.

To be safe I'd do some organic chemistry and some common physics calculations. I used this place when I was revising for mine: http://www.s-cool.co.uk/default.asp. I'd buy the practice test too off the GAMSAT site and see how you do in the 3rd section. (Or buy it on the cheap from eBay). And practice writing essays! In the exam I handed in half a page of scrawled gibberish cos I'd had no practice.

Hope that helps!

[Arch_Angel]

I got my highest mark in the essays even though I'm a science student that's had no formal tutoring in how to write an essay. (My high school comrades were just about getting to grips with holding a pen when we left so in depth argumentative essay writing wasn't really our thing)

But it's all about practice (and organic chem for dummies)

[dr2008]

Hey

Thanks a million for the replies so quickly. They're very helpful.

I’ve had a quick look at the ACER papers already and although the exam doesn't seem as horrible as I initially feared, it's certainly not easy. I was a bit over whelmed by some of the science questions, hence my post earlier. I’ll probably try and get my hands on “Organic Chemistry For Dummies” and get studying. The hard part!

Anyway, thanks again. It’s good to find these things out early....

Good luck to the rest of you too...

[CatherineT]

The gamsat mark for Ireland ( at least last year) was calculated in the same way, but separate marks for each section were not specified - it was the overall mark that was the cut-off. Just thought you should know