Sydney: how did you go 2010?

ashtool · Regular Joined: 26 Mar 2009 Posts: 22 Location: Sydney CBD

So, it was my first time at GAMSAT (non-science background, 6 weeks prep).

Section I
Difficult, but doable. I didn't have time to complete all the questions, so I guessed "C" for about the remaining 20% of questions.

Section II
Okay... Topics were a bit boring! Pumped out three pages on each.

Section III
Mayday! I answered about 55% of questions, guessed "C" for the rest. Didn't even attempt the org chemistry stuff. Even things I felt I knew drained too much time out of me Smile

So all in all, I think I will be back next year.

PS: it is crazy how many people sit GAMSAT!! At least a thousand? During section II I needed to go to the bathroom so bad, I had a backache and couldn't concertrate!

tsardoz · Rookie Joined: 11 Nov 2009 Posts: 3

I was in Sydney at Redfern too. The number there was insane! I'd guess a couple of thousand? Were there 2 Sydney exam centres?

I found section 1 very hard and made the beginners mistake of taking too long on the questions to make sure I had them right. About 2/3 of the way through I looked at the clock and was still only half way. Then I panicked. If I had managed my time better I could have added at least another 10 marks. I just hope others struggled with this too so I can get 50 ...

Section 2 I was worried about but I managed to write (hopefully) coherent essays and managed my time properly.

Section 3 I managed my time well until I got bogged down on some organic chem questions towards the end. Finished all units except the last one. It was pretty tough but doable.

raina101 · Rookie Joined: 19 Mar 2010 Posts: 2

SECTION 1

I found it much harder than expected!! I managed to narrow most down to 2 possible answers and jsut guessed from there... Still, managed to finish with about 2 mins to go

SECTION 2

the topics were fairly broad and okay, but given the time, I didn't write as well as I probably could have.......

SECTION 3

Easier than I thought it would be.... but still really hard to tell. I JUST managed to finish with about 30 seconds to go !!

129west81st · Regular Joined: 15 Oct 2009 Posts: 27

Yeah someone in front of me said she counted the number of rows & people in each row and came up with 2600, plus the fact that there was another venue at UTS as well as Australian Technology Park. PLUS, other states. All for 1500 spots in med schools. Crazy!!

I'm non-science background, studied for 6 months, sections I and II were okay - no surprises really, but my second essay was garbage as I totally rushed through it after going way overtime for the first.

Section III - hmmm. I think i realised that no matter how well you know a topic, you can still get the answers wrong in this exam - the questions are presented to you in such a roundabout, confusing way, and you only have time to go read - process - go *BOOM* that's the answer - and run with it. no time to check or think about anything. If scaling is really kind to me i might *just* be okay, but i struggled massively.

ozzyaaron · Rookie Joined: 16 Mar 2010 Posts: 6

Holy hell with your numbers guys! I'm in Perth and I reckon there were 400 people though I'm not sure.

I thought Section 3 was harder than I was expecting I had to guess 10 questions there. The other two sections though were pretty good, I finished Section 1 with about 10 minutes and finished the essays with about 20 minutes spare.

Sec 3 really was a doozy for me Razz

129west81st · Regular Joined: 15 Oct 2009 Posts: 27

Whoa , you finished the essays with 20 mins spare?! out of 60 mins?! hahah dude you must have the writing speed of a robot. how many pages did you write?

ozzyaaron · Rookie Joined: 16 Mar 2010 Posts: 6

I wrote about 2-3 pages for each essay. I planned out what I wanted to say and just hammered it out as fast as I could. I read them afterwards and was pretty happy after a couple of changes. The girl next to me finished about the same time ...