GAMSAT and MCAT

The Graduate Australian Medical School Admissions Test and the Medical College Admissions Test are the two tests available to international students wanting to apply for entrance to an Australian GEMP (graduate entry medical program). I will try to go over both very briefly, covering my thoughts on both, the preparation, and actual test day.

There is a much more thorough forum dedicated to the GAMSAT on the Paging Dr forums that covers all the different sections, as well as prep courses and organization of study groups in your area.

http://pagingdr.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=gamsat

For this page, I’ll be breaking it down into GAMSAT and MCAT for easier reference.

The GAMSAT is broken down into 3 sections:

• Section I: Reasoning in the Humanities and Social Sciences
• Section II: Essay Writing
• Section III: Reasoning in the Physical and Biological Sciences

The sections are as the titles suggest, covering humanities, sciences and essay writing. Having come from an arts degree, I found myself not needing to study for either section one or two, considering how I’ve been writing essays for the past 4 years of my life. I don’t really believe that the humanities and social sciences can be studied for.

The keyword is “reasoning.”

They don’t expect you to have extensive knowledge about the social sciences, but rather your ability to reason with the given information. How much information can you infer, interpret and apply within the short span of time given for each question? The science section is more or less the same. However, some basic scientific knowledge is required. It is best, really, to study for this section hardest, given that most weight is given to this section.

Overall Score = (1 x Section I + 1 x Section II + 2 x Section III) / 4

There really isn’t a set syllabus for Section III of the GAMSAT. The ACER guide says it’s right up to grade 12 physics, year 1 biology and year 1 chemistry. What I did (since I never did any science aside from the odd elective in my undergrad degree) was to simply go through the entire med prep book.

There are a few recommended preparation packages you can get:

1. Medprep
2. Ozimed
3. ACER practice tests

These are a few that I used in my preparation for the GAMSAT. Of course, there are other courses out there as well, and some dedicated for preparation of the MCAT (such as the Kaplan MCAT book). But I used these to study for both tests. My thoughts on the various courses:

 

Medprep
I bought Medprep off another person on the internet for a price a good third one would pay when buying off the site. To be honest, I’m not sure if I got ripped off, or if the print is just crummy. There are loads of typographical mistakes, and even the front cover title is cut off mid way. But once you get through all that dodgy-ness it IS 1000 pages of pure science stuff. More than enough to get you started. Med prep goes through all three sections of the GAMSAT, spending the most amount of pages on the sciences. It covers all the basic (and some not so basic) topics in the sciences.

Pros:

• Goes through all the material from all sections
• Section quizzes after each topic to refresh what you’ve learnt

Cons:

• Crappy printing
• You don’t know what is useful and what is not

 

Ozimed
Okay, so Ozimed I bought from the official site. I figured that buying the last option (something about until test 10) would give me 10 Ozimed papers to practice. But in actuality, it was only tests 6 to 10, a whole lot less than I thought there would be. Ozimed is, quite simply, stacks of practice papers. The questions are rather similar in style and pacing to the actual GAMSAT paper and these helped me a whole lot in figuring out how long I would take to complete the paper. However, Ozimed papers, I found, were easier than the actual paper sections.

Pros:

• Good mock paper
• Good morale booster

Cons:

• Pricey for the number of papers you get
• Too easy

 

ACER
These refer to the official papers issued by ACER to help candidates prepare for the GAMSAT. It consists of three books you can get off their site when you sign up or after. Nice print on fancy paper. But not much.

Pros:

• Pretty accurate mock paper
• Good quality print

Cons:

• There is only 1 full mock paper in print

I took more than half of my final year to study for the GAMSAT (that amounts to about 6 months), and considering I only studied Section III, I think I took a tad long. Others have taken much less time to study, some even just winging it and getting in, though I must stress these are few and far between. Preparation is the best thing you can do for yourself.

GAMSAT results are valid for 2 years from the date of sitting. So if you take the test next year, you will be eligible for the 2011 and 2012 intake with your score. Scores are sent directly to the schools via the GMAC website. Or if you are applying directly to the schools, simply quote your candidate number for them to retrieve your score from the system.

 

Sitting for the test

Coming from Singapore, tests are commonplace and really nothing much to be afraid of. The GAMSAT is administered in cities all around the world. The regional hub for Southeast Asia happens to be RELC Singapore, so don’t be surprised to see many candidates in the hall. The room itself isn’t very big, but it is comfortably air conditioned, the toilets relatively clean, and the carpeting rather comfy under my feet.

Things to remember to bring:

1. Water bottle
2. Some sweets
3. Pencils and related sharpening/graphite devices
4. Pens that work
5. Photo identification
6. GAMSAT ticket (they’ll send you an email to print it)
7. Money for lunch
8. Non-programmable calculator (scientific is ok. Graphing is not)

The GAMSAT is a 5.5 hour paper inclusive of a lunch break. It’s a real marathon, so timing yourself properly while doing the practice tests is really good training for this stretch. The first two sections are separated only by a short toilet break. The second and third by the lunch break. If you start to feel yourself getting tired, pop a bit of candy, drink some water and shake it off. There is hardly any time to stop during the test.

There are several places in the RELC to have lunch. There is a cafe as well as a Chinese restaurant somewhere in the building. Always great to try to socialize and make friends along the way. You’ll never know who you’ll come across again. Chatting also relieves a little of the stress and helps you to relax. Excellent!

Parking is available in the open carpark. As far as I know, it is free for hotel guests. But my parents and I just hurried out of the place, so I’m not entirely sure if we paid for any time we left the car there.