Des O'Neills and ACER books & Courses

Corrin Baker · Regular Joined: 27 Aug 2009 Posts: 11 Location: Adelaide

Here is advice from someone who has tutored students in Chemistry for the GAMSAT for the last four years, and has seen both successful and unsuccessful candiates.

(I would first like to declare my involvement in the Chemistry Bridging Course, Adelaide, advertised on this forum, which you can find more information about in the Marketplace section.)

All of the students I taught owned copies of Des O'Neills books, and many had attended the three day Science Revision course.

I think these MCQ Books are great, they have a great range of questions covering all areas of the test.

However, you really need to have some sort of background to be able to tackle these questions, they are designed to really practice using the science knowledge you already have, in the style of the MCQ's used in the GAMSAT.

Many people make the comment that the GAMSAT Science questions simply test problem solving skills and do not require any science background. However with only a few minutes to answer each question, it becomes merely a guessing game without a solid science background of the concepts being tested.

I am currently completing a PhD in Chemistry (organic&inorganic) and this combined with years of teaching at the University means I have come to see that the capacity of students with minimal science background is limited.

Many of my students have also attended Des O'Neills three day Science Revision Course, and stated it was way over their heads, and that they would have really liked to have had Chemistry Tutoring beforehand to receive maximum benefit.

I would welcome feedback on this opinion/advice, either post a reply or feel free to contact me by email:

corrin.baker@adelaide.edu.au