gamsat query

hi
regarding sec 3 of gamsat, are we expected to calculate things?? use calculators etc or it more based on theory??
also sec 1 of gamsat,,,would it be comparable to sec2 of umat?

thanks

Hi,

I'm not too familiar with section 3 but from what I know I suspect there would be some calculations involved e.g. as knowledge of year 12 physics is required there may well be some calculations there. Not sure about section 1 of GAMSAT, it may have more parallels to section 1 of UMAT?

You will find a lot of info regarding all of this and probably more knowledgeable responses on PagingDr as that focuses on grad med.

Welcome to Paging Dr forum for graduate entry medicine in Australia

PgDr is a good place to start and they might be able to help you more than us.

Edit kash beat me

Originally Posted by farmers

hi
regarding sec 3 of gamsat, are we expected to calculate things?? use calculators etc or it more based on theory??
also sec 1 of gamsat,,,would it be comparable to sec2 of umat?

thanks

Yes you are expected to calculate things and estimate calculations however there is a calcuator ban in 2012 for gamsat. it is important to have fundametal knowlegde of chem/phx/biology BUT they kinda cover most of theory in the stimulus material which sufficiently revives your knowledge if you have recently revised it. but what they are really judging is the APPLICATION of your concepts onto questions. so no point memorising much mainly focus on understanding.

Yes I personally found section 1 of gamsat a mixture of S1 and S2 of umat.

Ugh Calculator ban that sucks.

I don't know but because they can ask virtually anything in the GAMSAT do you think it would be worthwhile going over concepts like Spectroscopy for Chemistry? I mean they could provide information about how it works and is used in the stimulus material but it could potentially be challenging for someone with a non-science background to decipher unless they were really intuitive or did some study on Spectroscopy before?

Originally Posted by bobby190

Yes you are expected to calculate things and estimate calculations however there is a calcuator ban in 2012 for gamsat. it is important to have fundametal knowlegde of chem/phx/biology BUT they kinda cover most of theory in the stimulus material which sufficiently revives your knowledge if you have recently revised it. but what they are really judging is the APPLICATION of your concepts onto questions. so no point memorising much mainly focus on understanding.

Yes I personally found section 1 of gamsat a mixture of S1 and S2 of umat.

Originally Posted by Tupac4life

Ugh Calculator ban that sucks.

I don't know but because they can ask virtually anything in the GAMSAT do you think it would be worthwhile going over concepts like Spectroscopy for Chemistry? I mean they could provide information about how it works and is used in the stimulus material but it could potentially be challenging for someone with a non-science background to decipher unless they were really intuitive or did some study on Spectroscopy before?

Hey sorry im not sure which specific which topics will be assessed. If in doubt always flick thru it. But I would seriously recommend having a practice run of the ACER booklets to see what kind of questions are there and how they ask it. It will give you a good heads up on how study and maybe even what kind of questions are farfetched, Will help you study smarter.

Hi tupac, i would definetly go over every chemistry topic like spectroscopy where just as you mentioned, having just read over it and having prior knowledge can really boost your confidence if you are lucky enough to come across it on the test. When studying chemistry i would place greater emphasis on organic chem though (not so much naming the species but more stereoisomers/enantiomers/ biochem such as fat chains etc) From memory, the number of calculation questions on the test of section 3 were quite few and the numbers were easily divisible/manageable (most numbers given ended in a 5 or a 10). The real difficulty in section 3 is interpreting and analyzing the graphs where nearly 50% of the gamsat test last yr involved some type of graph.

Out of curiosity do they ask much on Plant Biochemistry and Plant Physiology [Transport]? I've covered it at high school when doing A levels in Biology. Oh yeah and I heard I have to learn some extra organic chemistry like hemiacetals and acetals...

Originally Posted by Br0nzy1s

Hi tupac, i would definetly go over every chemistry topic like spectroscopy where just as you mentioned, having just read over it and having prior knowledge can really boost your confidence if you are lucky enough to come across it on the test. When studying chemistry i would place greater emphasis on organic chem though (not so much naming the species but more stereoisomers/enantiomers/ biochem such as fat chains etc) From memory, the number of calculation questions on the test of section 3 were quite few and the numbers were easily divisible/manageable (most numbers given ended in a 5 or a 10). The real difficulty in section 3 is interpreting and analyzing the graphs where nearly 50% of the gamsat test last yr involved some type of graph.

Originally Posted by Tupac4life

Out of curiosity do they ask much on Plant Biochemistry and Plant Physiology [Transport]? I've covered it at high school when doing A levels in Biology. Oh yeah and I heard I have to learn some extra organic chemistry like hemiacetals and acetals...

Only going off what was on last years gamsat (march) there was nothing on plant biochemistry and plant physiology. As someone mentioned already mentioned make sure u cover radioactivity e.g half lifes etc (and all the necessay calculations) and isotopes e.g if 236 uranium loses an alpha particle whats left. Also make sure u get other people to read your practice essays, i never did cause my discursive/personal one's were always too corny :L

I don't know if I should go through it or not. I mean I still remember things like apoplast, tonoplast and symplast water transport pathways in plants and the various stages of Photosynthesis i.e Cyclic and Non-Cyclic Photophosphorylation the Calvin Cycle for C4, C3 and CAM plants as well as Reproduction in angiosperms.

Basic radioactivity is quite easy, radioactive decay equations, half life calculations I've already covered a few weeks ago when reviewing Physics material. However, do we have to understand in detail for more complex concepts: Mass Defect, Nuclear fusion and Nuclear fission.

I've heard from past GAMSAT candidates to learn and understand organic reactions so I've pretty much gone through organic reactions by drawing up mind maps over and over again including the mechanisms required.*

Having said this I'm doing GAMSAT in a year's time so I might as well focus more heavily on Section 1 and Section 2 throughout the year.

Originally Posted by Br0nzy1s

Only going off what was on last years gamsat (march) there was nothing on plant biochemistry and plant physiology. As someone mentioned already mentioned make sure u cover radioactivity e.g half lifes etc (and all the necessay calculations) and isotopes e.g if 236 uranium loses an alpha particle whats left. Also make sure u get other people to read your practice essays, i never did cause my discursive/personal one's were always too corny :L