This practice question is taken from the Australian Law Schools Entrance Test (ASLET), also administered by ACER. Their information PDF for test-takers contains a selection of useful GAMSAT-style questions, one of which I have reproduced here. You will notice the extremely long passages used for these questions; however, you do get to answer a heap of questions from them!
Questions 22 –29
In 1996, a leading academic journal of cultural studies, Social Text , published an article by a physicist named Alan Sokal. The article attacked the sciences for their ‘authoritarianism and elitism’ and argued, amongst other things, that physical concepts (ssuch as gravity) were essentially ‘social constructs ’. Subsequently, Sokal revealed in a rival journal that the article had been a hoax. In the following two passages Sokal and the editors of Social Text justify their actions.
Passage 1: Alan Sokal
Why did I do it? While my method was satirical, my motivation is utterly serious. What concerns me is the proliferation, not just of nonsense and sloppy thinking per se, but of a particular kind of nonsense and sloppy thinking: one that denies the existence of objective realities, or (when challenged) admits their existence but downplays their practical relevance. At its best, a journal like Social Text raises important questions that no scientist should ignore – questions, for example,about how corporate and government funding influence scientific work. Unfortunately, epistemic relativism does little to further the discussion of these matters. Social Text’s acceptance of my article exemplifies the intellectual arrogance of Theory – meaning postmodernist literary theory – carried to its logical extreme.No wonder they didn ’t bother to consult a physicist. If all is discourse and ‘text’, then knowledge of the real world is superfluous; even physics becomes just another branch of Cultural Studies. If, moreover, all is rhetoric and ‘language games ’, then internal logical consistency is superfluous too: a patina of theoretical sophistication serves equally well. Incomprehensibility becomes a virtue; allusions, metaphors and puns substitute for evidence and logic. My own article is, if anything, an extremely modest example of this well-established genre.
Passage 2: The editors of Social Text
Obviously,we now regret having published Sokal ’s article, and apologize to our readers, and to those in the science studies or cultural studies communities who might feel their work has been disparaged as a result of this affair. From the first, we considered Sokal’s unsolicited article to be a little hokey. It is not every day we receive a dense philosophical tract from a professional physicist. Not knowing the author or his work, we engaged in some speculation about his intentions, and concluded that this article was the earnest attempt of a professional scientist to seek some kind of affirmation from postmodern philosophy for developments in his field. His adventures in Postmodern Land were not really our cup of tea. Sokal ’s article would have been regarded as somewhat outdated if it had come from a humanist or social scientist. As the work of a natural scientist it was unusual, and, we thought, plausibly symptomatic of how someone like Sokal might approach the field of postmodern epistemology, i.e. awkwardly but assertively trying to capture the ‘feel ’ of the professional language of this field, while relying upon an armada of footnotes to ease his sense of vulnerability. In other words, we read it more as an act of good faith of the sort that might be worth encouraging than as a set of arguments with which we agreed. On those grounds, the editors considered it of interest to readers as a ‘document’ of that time-honoured tradition in which modern physicists have discovered harmonic resonances with their own reasoning in the field of philosophy and metaphysics.What is the likely result of Sokal’s behaviour for non-scientific journals? Less well-known authors who submit unsolicited articles to journals like ours may now come under needless suspicion, and the openness of intellectual inquiry that Social Text has played its role in fostering will be curtailed.
22. Sokal’s method may be described as satirical because it involved
a) insincere imitation.
b) humour and innuendo.
c) unfair and deceptive means.
d) unfavourable analysis and criticism.
23. The term ‘epistemic’ refers to our knowledge of things rather than to the nature of the things themselves.
Accordingly, the phrase ‘epistemic relativism’, as used in Passage 1, most likely refers to
the idea that
a) knowledge is objective and eternal.
b) all knowledge is subjective and equally valid.
c) all knowledge is approximate and provisional.
d) knowledge is determined and controlled by political interests.
24. For Sokal, the logical extreme of postmodernist literary theory involves the notion that
a) reality defies language.
b) language distorts reality.
c) language has no meaning.
d) language constitutes reality.
25. The editors attribute their decision to publish Sokal’s article to
a) their intent to embarrass the author.
b) an inexplicable lapse in their judgement.
c) their professional openness and impartiality.
d) their desire to avoid criticism for not publishing it.
26. The editors’ justification of their decision to publish Sokal’s article reveals that they were unduly influenced by
a) the author’s reputation.
b) the presumed motivation of the author.
c) their elitist and guarded approach to their discipline.
d) their own tastes and preferences in scholarly writing.
27. The phrase ‘needless suspicion’ may be judged unintentionally ironic because
a) such a claim is easily made in hindsight.
b) the editors are unlikely to be sincere in making the claim.
c) the editors were, if anything, too suspicious of Sokal’s article.
d) such suspicion would appear to be normally warranted and necessary.
28. The justification offered by the editors for publishing Sokal’s article is best described as
a) assured and persuasive.
b)condescending and contradictory.
c) arrogant but fundamentally sound.
d) unnecessarily humble and apologetic.
29. Which of the following is the most significant conclusion that can plausibly be drawn from the ‘Sokal Affair ’ in the
light of the two passages?
a) It shows that scientists do not fully comprehend postmodern literary theory.
b) It suggests that the editors of Social Text did not really understand Sokal’s article.
c) It shows that the editors of Social Text have little understanding of scientific principles.
d) It raises doubts about the quality of thought characteristic of postmodern literary theory.
Section III Syllabus - Physics Part 1
Section III is the largest component of your marks, but can also be a daunting task to study. ACER lists the standard level of knowledge as approximately first-year university biology and chemistry, and good year 12 or first year uni physics. I think that even the chemistry and biology could be considered the equivalent of a solid year 12 program like the International Baccalaureate. I'll write a series of articles breaking down the most important concepts in Section III, with links to relevant resources, and link the lot once I'm done.
Don't forget that the Physics questions make up perhaps a quarter of section III of the GAMSAT, and in terms of your score it may not be worth your time to study physics in-depth if you can get better return elsewhere.
- Make sure that you are comfortable with natural laws - gravity, entropy, conservation of momentum and Newton's laws.
- Make sure that your maths skills are up to par and that you can read complex graphs and rearrange equations.
- Memorisation of equations is useful but not required; the only two I have found useful to memorise are f=ma and v=ir. Both are simple, easy to remember and easy to use, but can be applied to many GAMSAT questions.
Units and Scientific Notation
Know the standard units used for weight, distance, time and more. The units on each side of an equation will be the same, just as the number of atoms in a chemical equation will be the same. Also know the common prefixes for these units.
Many GAMSAT questions will use scientific notation for very large or very small quantities.
Quantities can be either scalars or vectors. Scalar quantities just have an amount, such as mass or speed or time; vector quantities also include a direction, such as displacement, velocity, and force. Vector quantities, such as forces, can still be added if they have different directions using trigonometry. The scalar quantity can be used as the length of the line representing the vector and the direction as the angle of the line. When adding two vectors, draw them as two lines of a triangle; the third line will be the resultant vector, or what you would get if you combined the two forces or displacements.
All objects have mass - mass being the amount of matter present in the object while weight is a measure of how much a gravitational force affects that matter. So an astronaut will always have mass, but her weight will vary depending on the astronaut's location: normal on Earth, light on the Moon, and negligible (weightless) in space.
A mass of one kilogram will accelerate at one meter a second when acted upon with a force of one newton. This is about a tenth of the force caused by Earth's gravitational pull, which varies by as much as .5% depending on location, and correspondingly higher acceleration of 9.8ms-2.
As an aside: What weighs more, a pound of lead or a pound of feathers? They weigh the same, however they have different densities. When placed in water, the upwards force on the material is proportional to the volume of water displaced, so the lower density of feathers mean they will float while lead will sink. On the other hand, a pound of gold weighs less than a pound of lead, because precious metals like gold are still measured on the troy weight system.
Newton's laws of motion describe how objects move. The first law is the law of inertia, and states that an object with no forces acting upon it will remain either still or moving in a straight line at a constant speed.
The second law describes f=ma; that the force on an object is proportional to both it's mass and it's acceleration - pushing a small car is a lot easier than pushing a truck at the same acceleration. The third law is often paraphrased as "To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." This can be seen in low-friction systems such as on ice rinks, where exacting a force by pushing the wall will cause a reactive force pushing you out into the centre of the rink.
All objects have inertia or momentum - momentum is equal to mass times velocity. Momentum is conserved eg in collisions between billard balls or in executive toys.
An impulse is the change in a force over time. Because the change can be the same, a long, slow push can cause as much impulse as a short, hard push - so the change in momentum is proportional to both force and time. Modelling and Newton's laws contains some good information on modelling
The f=ma equations can also be used to calculate projectile motion, such as the physics standards of bullets or cannons fired into the air (don't forget they come down with the same force they went up with, and shooting bullets into the air leads to deaths every year)
The equation f=ma leads to a range of motion equations that can be used in more detail, however these can be derived.
Displacement, speed, velocity and acceleration can all be graphed over time - like cost and inflation, these are derivatives, and care should be taken with constants and signs.
Don't forget that the Physics questions make up perhaps a quarter of section III of the GAMSAT, and in terms of your score it may not be worth your time to study physics in-depth if you can get better return elsewhere.
- Make sure that you are comfortable with natural laws - gravity, entropy, conservation of momentum and Newton's laws.
- Make sure that your maths skills are up to par and that you can read complex graphs and rearrange equations.
- Memorisation of equations is useful but not required; the only two I have found useful to memorise are f=ma and v=ir. Both are simple, easy to remember and easy to use, but can be applied to many GAMSAT questions.
Units and Scientific Notation
Know the standard units used for weight, distance, time and more. The units on each side of an equation will be the same, just as the number of atoms in a chemical equation will be the same. Also know the common prefixes for these units.
Many GAMSAT questions will use scientific notation for very large or very small quantities.
Quantities can be either scalars or vectors. Scalar quantities just have an amount, such as mass or speed or time; vector quantities also include a direction, such as displacement, velocity, and force. Vector quantities, such as forces, can still be added if they have different directions using trigonometry. The scalar quantity can be used as the length of the line representing the vector and the direction as the angle of the line. When adding two vectors, draw them as two lines of a triangle; the third line will be the resultant vector, or what you would get if you combined the two forces or displacements.
All objects have mass - mass being the amount of matter present in the object while weight is a measure of how much a gravitational force affects that matter. So an astronaut will always have mass, but her weight will vary depending on the astronaut's location: normal on Earth, light on the Moon, and negligible (weightless) in space.
A mass of one kilogram will accelerate at one meter a second when acted upon with a force of one newton. This is about a tenth of the force caused by Earth's gravitational pull, which varies by as much as .5% depending on location, and correspondingly higher acceleration of 9.8ms-2.
As an aside: What weighs more, a pound of lead or a pound of feathers? They weigh the same, however they have different densities. When placed in water, the upwards force on the material is proportional to the volume of water displaced, so the lower density of feathers mean they will float while lead will sink. On the other hand, a pound of gold weighs less than a pound of lead, because precious metals like gold are still measured on the troy weight system.
Newton's laws of motion describe how objects move. The first law is the law of inertia, and states that an object with no forces acting upon it will remain either still or moving in a straight line at a constant speed.
The second law describes f=ma; that the force on an object is proportional to both it's mass and it's acceleration - pushing a small car is a lot easier than pushing a truck at the same acceleration. The third law is often paraphrased as "To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." This can be seen in low-friction systems such as on ice rinks, where exacting a force by pushing the wall will cause a reactive force pushing you out into the centre of the rink.
All objects have inertia or momentum - momentum is equal to mass times velocity. Momentum is conserved eg in collisions between billard balls or in executive toys.
An impulse is the change in a force over time. Because the change can be the same, a long, slow push can cause as much impulse as a short, hard push - so the change in momentum is proportional to both force and time. Modelling and Newton's laws contains some good information on modelling
The f=ma equations can also be used to calculate projectile motion, such as the physics standards of bullets or cannons fired into the air (don't forget they come down with the same force they went up with, and shooting bullets into the air leads to deaths every year)
The equation f=ma leads to a range of motion equations that can be used in more detail, however these can be derived.
Displacement, speed, velocity and acceleration can all be graphed over time - like cost and inflation, these are derivatives, and care should be taken with constants and signs.
Best study methods for organic chemistry and anatomy
Those of you brushing up on the GAMSAT may be interested in a recent Ask Metafilter question on the best ways to study these complex subjects.
An organic chemistry teacher made an interesting point against memorising reaction patterns with flashcards:
Other useful tricks include
- Setting up a random revolving background image or wallpaper on your PC
- Breaking medical terminology into it's (Latin or Greek) word-roots to determine the meaning of the word, which will then more easily prompt your memory and understanding
- Using spaced repetition to vary how often you revisit material. One variation of this is the Leitner system where material is sorted based on the number of errors made in recall; other software implementations use a logarithmic drop-off in how frequently memorised material is presented.
An organic chemistry teacher made an interesting point against memorising reaction patterns with flashcards:
Organic chemistry is all about patterns. The question you see on an exam will look, at first glance, absolutely nothing like the example that you've studied, which is why the flash carders rarely do well. The trick to doing well is to learn the types of reactions, why they happen, and then seeing which of those apply to molecule/conditions in question. In most cases, a large molecule can be reduced down to a single functional group that's doing a very simple reaction, and the rest of it that's just along for the ride. Once you do that, there are usually a very narrow set of possibilities for a given problem.
Other useful tricks include
- Setting up a random revolving background image or wallpaper on your PC
- Breaking medical terminology into it's (Latin or Greek) word-roots to determine the meaning of the word, which will then more easily prompt your memory and understanding
- Using spaced repetition to vary how often you revisit material. One variation of this is the Leitner system where material is sorted based on the number of errors made in recall; other software implementations use a logarithmic drop-off in how frequently memorised material is presented.
Last minute GAMSAT 1 month study plan days 21-30
Days 1-10
Days 11-20
Days 21-30
Days 11-20
Days 21-30
- Day 21: Read up on multiple choice question formats and how these are used. In the GAMSAT, there is only one correct answer for each question, and incorrect questions are not penalised. While few know the inner workings of ACER, test questions have been notes on some papers - the questions that you get may not be the same questions that your fellow students get, and it's unlikely that these marks are used to calculate your score, but rather server to gather other information and 'test' the question for inclusion in next year's GAMSAT. In addition, harder questions may also be weighted more highly.
When answering multiple-choice questions, feel free to mark on the sheet any answers that you do not feel are correct. This can make it easier if you need to come back to the question. Other strategies can include choosing the middle answer from a range of numbers, an answer whose negative is also listed, options that are not absolute or that contain qualifiers, or the answer that looks best to you. See the NSW Board of Studies for online multiple-choice questions from various HSC subjects.
Interestingly, a study has recently shown that you are more than three times as likely to correct a wrong answer for a right one as a right answer for a wrong one.
- Day 22: Look up IUPAC naming. Create a model of a molecule from a name only:
- 3-ethyl-4-methylhexane
2-bromo-2-chloro-1,1,1,-trifluoroethane
4-oxobutanoic acid
2-methylbutane
Or try the molecule in the linked article: 18-bromo-12-butyl-11-chloro-4,8-diethyl-5-hydroxy-15-methoxytricos-6,13-dien-19-yne-3,9-dione
Then apply a reaction as per Day 5. What two molecules would come together through Fisher esterification to create your random molecule? What mechanism would you use to add a methyl group to the fourth carbon? What's your molecule's new name?
- Day 23: Take a full length practice test.
- Day 24: Recap on test.
- Day 25: Look over any weak points on the test. More specifically, reassure yourself about any weak points you feel you have - remind yourself how small a contribution each small subject makes to the overall GAMSAT. Diss those who spent all their time studying optics, and reassure yourself that poetry majors will not get paid well anyway.
- Day 26: Understand the principle of conservation: everything on both sides of an equation or equilibrium must balance, including atoms, electrons, and energy. This can be used as with Hess's law to calculate the change in energy from a reaction. If a reaction produces energy, then like a ball rolling downhill it will tend to go ahead; the Gibbs free energy change can be calculated to see in which direction an equibrium will move.
- Day 27: Read Ambrose Bierce's Devils's Dictionary. Explain to your cat or significant other why, exactly, each entry is funny. Consider the following extract; then because you can, model the socially important opioids. Then, consider the ethical implications of providing such drugs to drug-seeking patients. Would you give a placebo to such patients, if requested by their specialist doctor as in this case?.
OPIATE, n. An unlocked door in the prison of Identity. It leads into the jail yard.
- Day 28: Ohm's law: v=ir. One of two very simple physics equations that you should have memorised. V is the potential difference in volts; I is the current in amperes or amps and R is the resistance in ohms.
- Day 29: How will you deal with graphs and diagrams, and long slabs of text to ensure they don't waste your valuable test time? Simple. Skim first, then read the questions, then check back into the text to find your answers. You don't have to comprehend completely on first reading, if you are skilled at picking up the meaning of each sentence quickly. Look into speed reading and skimming to improve your comprehension and speed. Don't try for large improvements, but skimming up to 1000 words/minute is achievable. More than this and you may be being sold a dodgy product.
- Day 30: Rest day - see our article on what to do the day before the GAMSAT. Undertake pre-exam ritual such as purchasing The Exam Pen, snacks and chocolate for the day.
Last minute GAMSAT 1 month study plan days 11-20
Days 1-10
Days 11-20
Days 21-30
Days 11-20
Days 21-30
- Day 11: Look up the human heart and how it works. What’s the pressure in different areas of the heart? What would the pressure look like graphed over time in the aorta? In the left ventricle? If you were graphing the sound of the heart over the space of one heartbeat, at what point would you hear the biscupid valve close? The tricuspid? What would happen if blood was noisily flowing past a blockage in the aorta, or in the pulmonary artery? Which point in your graph is systole? Diastole? Which vessels carry oxygenated blood? Nutrient-rich blood?
- Day 12: Optics. Firstly, the important thing to remember with mirrors is that the angle of incidence should be equal to the incidence of refraction. This and some simple geometry should be sufficient to solve the mirrored table tennis table problem – can you solve these in less than a minute?
- A table tennis table with a mirrored surface is set up in a room with a single window. The table tennis table has an opaque net 10cm high. The sun shines through the window, off the surface of the table, and projects a light patch onto the opposite wall. What is the height of the shadow caused by the net? If the table is moved 1m closer to the window, how does the image on the opposite wall change?
- Day 13: Section 1 comprehension. Poetry and cartoon comprehension. Read through some cartoons like xkcd. What’s funny about each cartoon? What’s implied, but not stated? Find some somewhat obscure poetry. What’s the poem about? How does the poem use rhythm, rhyme and choice of words to get across the poet’s message? Look at poetry analysis– the Wikipedia article has several examples that talk you through the process of analysing poetry for meaning and intent. Be able to use literary terms to describe what you are reading.
- Day 14: Take second half-length practice test, again to time. Try practicing moving through the questions you know fastest and making sure you don’t run out of time.
- Day 15: Recap on test. Homeostasis and hormones, feedback loops. Drawing hormone interaction diagrams to simply understanding.
- Day 16: Membranes exist in many forms. They form a barrier between two areas. If the membrane is semi-permeable, or has small holes, then solutes - molecules dissolved in a solvent like water - can pass through it. If a solute such as salt is introduced to one side of a membrane, then it will slowly move through the membrane until the concentration on both sides is equal in a process calleddiffusion. Water will similarly move to equalise concentration - this is called osmosis.
Examine the lipid membrane. Understand polar and non-polar molecules. How does soap work to break up fat? How does the lipid membrane separate the interior of the cell from the exterior?Ion channels and pumps are proteins that form channels to cross over the lipid bilayer. What parts of the proteins are polar? What parts are non-polar? What molecules require energy to pump across the membrane?
- Day 17: Fun day!
- Day 18: Read a book on being a doctor, with personal experiences. Look up a series of medical school interview questions and take some time to think and answer each one. Then think about how you would use this material in your reflective essay. It may be on a topic such as intelligence or the importance of family or social networks.
- Day 19: Meiosis and mitosis. Get out the spoons and forks from your kitchen, chuck them on the table, and poof! they're chromosomes. Practice running through the different cell divisions. How many offspring cells at there at each point? When do chromosomes mix up and cross over? At what point is the DNA collated into chromosomes, and at what point is it spread out? If you had a graph of the DNA concentrations within cells, can you pick the different phases?
- Day 20: F=MA is one of two equations you will need to memorise for physics. Force in newtons equals mass in kilograms times acceleration in metres per second per second. This may seem a little confusing but distance is measured in metres, speed is measured as change in distance per second, thus metres/second, and acceleration is change is speed per second - thus meters/second/second. You can rearrange this equation as needed.
For example, if a 60kg sprinter leaves the blocks at an acceleration of 5m/s/s, what force would the sprinter need to push back on a block of a 30 degree angle from the ground? In this case you would need to break work out the unknown force on the 30 degree block into a vertical and a horizontal component using trigonometry. The horizontal component is known - the 5m/s/s.
Last minute GAMSAT 1 month study plan day 1-10
Stuck for time? Needing to get some GAMSAT study in stat before the exam looms? Here are 30 days of small actions to help you max out your marks.
Days 1-10
Days 11-20
Days 21-30
- Day 1: Check that you are registered for the GAMSAT. Line up or order any necessary study materials such as textbooks, organic chemistry model kits, practice questions. Check forums for old copies of prep materials for sale, check out your university's second-hand bookshop, look at free online resources. Create a study area and set aside a quiet study time for each day. Print out five copies of your admissions ticket and tuck them into your wallet, handbag and jeans pockets so you will not forget it on the day.
- Day 2: Take one of the half-length ACER practice tests. Ensure you take it in a quiet place and to the correct time (don't forget, only give yourself half as long!). Do not use any materials. Get a feel for the length and size of the test, any mental fatigue, how you pace yourself. Take note of which questions you got stuck on the length (still stuck halfway through reading question) and which questions you got stuck on the content (read, but did not understand, and could not work out an answer). The first you'll be improving by using your scanning and speed-reading skills to pull out relevant sections. The second indicate areas you will need to study.
- Day 3: Mark your practice test. Panic, and then remember that it's very hard to align raw test scores to final GAMSAT scores after test questions had been removed, scores adjusted and scaled, etc; especially going on only half a test. Sign up to a GAMSAT forum to compare scores with others taking the test. For your essay, request feedback from suitably-qualified friends or colleagues, bribe college teachers for feedback with food, post essays on forums, or pay for an essay marking service.
- Day 4: Sign up for a word of the day email. Change daily reading habits to include high-brow newspapers and magazine, especially opinions - check comments section of abc.net.au news and opinions, The Australian. Set up email or RSS feeds to have this material delivered directly to you so you cannot ignore it. Visit your local library to check out books on being a doctor, biological ethics, and literature for Section I practice, or search the Web and Project Gutenberg.
- Day 5: Pull out the model kit – or make some playdough and toothpicks – or a whiteboard and marker. It's organic chemistry time! Pick a molecule such as caffeine. Draw it. Create the model. What are it’s functional groups? Does it contain rings, double bonds, triple bonds? Now recreate it backwards, and then in mirror image. Is it chiral? Check your organic chemistry textbook and find a reaction that could occur to your molecule. Look at the sample in your textbook, then at your model. Which carbon chain in your model is R? Which is R’? What happens to the molecule during the reaction? Recreate your model after the reaction. What if R and R’ were connected as a ring? Repeat with different molecules and reactions.
- Day 6: Read up on the essays for Section II. Know about the two essay formats; the argumentative and the reflective. The essay is a lot less easy to define than study of science materials but it's also easier to pick up good marks with some simple changes.
- Day 7: Look into speed reading and skimming. Practice on some of your texts for section III. Can you skim a complex text or diagram, and then when checking the question know where to turn back to? This will speed up your answers to questions. Skimming is mostly a matter of slowly building up the spaces between where your eyes rest on the page - creating greater saccades - and letting your peripheral vision pick up the rest.
- Day 8: Make up some genetic traits like left- or right-eyed flounder fish or green- or purple-eyed aliens. Which one is recessive? Which is dominant? Make up a Punnett square to show what happens if two creatures with different genotypes breed. What's the probability you'll get a green-eyed alien? What's the possibility, if it bred with itself, that it's offspring would also be green-eyed? Would it be pure-bred (also known as homozygous, ie you'd never get purple-eyed offspring)? What if your alien did not have only two of every gene, but three? What would the offspring ratios look like then? Mendel's original experiments on peas are interesting and great simple examples - although modern statistics say he might have fudged his numbers! Finally, can you work out the percentages for each offspring type in an overall population using only the allele percentages? (Hint: Hardy-Weinberg)
- Day 9: Read a book on philosophy, logic, or science ethics. What makes a strong argument? Think back on some points argued in the book that you read. Were these strong arguments? Look into a list of logical fallacies. Have you used some of these in your arguments?
- Day 10: Look at the comments on a news website on a recent, controversial issue - perhaps something medically related such as euthanasia or abortion. Can you spot the logical fallacies in their arguments? How does the quality of arguments vary between 'tabloid' websites such as news.com.au and other websites such as abc.net.au? Write a short practice argumentative essay on the topic, checking your logic and your facts.
Review of the Guru Method for GAMSAT preparation
The GURU method is a study program available online at Gurumethod.com.au. The content available for free includes a free PDF and a ten-day email course, also available at gamsatpreparation.org. The paid content consists of practice questions for section I and III, and although the 2010 course has not been released, it should include a section on essay-writing for section II.
The free PDF focuses on one specific method of studying for the GAMSAT. Michael Tan argues that the GAMSAT was designed to get a new sort of medical school candidate: rather than attracting fresh out of high school swotters and nerds, the GAMSAT was designed to prefer a more rounded, older postgraduate student. The test is therefore less based on swotting and studying material and more about ranking understanding and comprehension between students with widely different backgrounds.
Michael Tan argues that this is why ACER includes so many complicated diagrams and long test passages in the questions. Even if you've studied and are an expert on the material, if you cannot quickly understand and excerpt information and separate what you need from the dross then you cannot complete the questions quickly enough to score well on the GAMSAT. Many GAMSAT candidates will complain about how rushed they felt! It's always a wonderful bit of schadenfreude to put down your pencil with five minutes on the clock, and having looked over your answers, and take a break while everyone else is still frantically flicking through their test books.
The time permitted for each question is very small - 80 seconds for Section I, 92 seconds for Section III, and 30 minutes to plan and write a complex essay for Section II. This may not seem like much, but it’s doable. I aim for 1 minute per question in sections I and III for a first run-through in which I pick up 80% of my answers – that’s a lot easier to keep track of than 92 seconds!. I leave the hardest questions for later, and this gives me additional time on those harder questions.
The Gamsat Guru method seems focused on running though all practice questions at GAMSAT speed to acclimatise you to answering the questions within the short timeframe. It does not have a focus on science study. Perhaps you could call it more of a course on how to take the GAMSAT than a course on science and humanities topics, like the Des O’Neill courses. I haven’t seen or heard any information on their essay test section which is due out for the 2010 GAMSAT season.
I also think that Gamsat Guru places too large an emphasis on moving through questions quickly. Without the correct knowledge behind you, you are just going to be getting the wrong answers faster. It’s also easier to answer the questions fast if you understand the material. I think that getting speed-answering of GAMSAT questions is best used as part of a study plan which also includes understanding the most common GAMSAT questions, material and concepts, towards the end of your studies and as you’re getting closer to the GAMSAT test date.
Additionally, Michael Tan recommends that you do not look at non-GAMSAT materials. While there are free GAMSAT materials available, the quality varies and there is not a large amount in terms of volume. I feel that materials such as textbook and MCAT questions can be really valuable in making sure you understand the material you will be tested on.
The Gamsat Guru is most likely to be useful to a well-rounded science student who feel that they know the material already, but could improve the speed of their test-taking – and that’s a pretty small area. I’d advise you to try a free or cheap ACER practice test, timed, before looking into this course further, and see if your speed is an issue for you.
The free PDF focuses on one specific method of studying for the GAMSAT. Michael Tan argues that the GAMSAT was designed to get a new sort of medical school candidate: rather than attracting fresh out of high school swotters and nerds, the GAMSAT was designed to prefer a more rounded, older postgraduate student. The test is therefore less based on swotting and studying material and more about ranking understanding and comprehension between students with widely different backgrounds.
Michael Tan argues that this is why ACER includes so many complicated diagrams and long test passages in the questions. Even if you've studied and are an expert on the material, if you cannot quickly understand and excerpt information and separate what you need from the dross then you cannot complete the questions quickly enough to score well on the GAMSAT. Many GAMSAT candidates will complain about how rushed they felt! It's always a wonderful bit of schadenfreude to put down your pencil with five minutes on the clock, and having looked over your answers, and take a break while everyone else is still frantically flicking through their test books.
The time permitted for each question is very small - 80 seconds for Section I, 92 seconds for Section III, and 30 minutes to plan and write a complex essay for Section II. This may not seem like much, but it’s doable. I aim for 1 minute per question in sections I and III for a first run-through in which I pick up 80% of my answers – that’s a lot easier to keep track of than 92 seconds!. I leave the hardest questions for later, and this gives me additional time on those harder questions.
The Gamsat Guru method seems focused on running though all practice questions at GAMSAT speed to acclimatise you to answering the questions within the short timeframe. It does not have a focus on science study. Perhaps you could call it more of a course on how to take the GAMSAT than a course on science and humanities topics, like the Des O’Neill courses. I haven’t seen or heard any information on their essay test section which is due out for the 2010 GAMSAT season.
I also think that Gamsat Guru places too large an emphasis on moving through questions quickly. Without the correct knowledge behind you, you are just going to be getting the wrong answers faster. It’s also easier to answer the questions fast if you understand the material. I think that getting speed-answering of GAMSAT questions is best used as part of a study plan which also includes understanding the most common GAMSAT questions, material and concepts, towards the end of your studies and as you’re getting closer to the GAMSAT test date.
Additionally, Michael Tan recommends that you do not look at non-GAMSAT materials. While there are free GAMSAT materials available, the quality varies and there is not a large amount in terms of volume. I feel that materials such as textbook and MCAT questions can be really valuable in making sure you understand the material you will be tested on.
The Gamsat Guru is most likely to be useful to a well-rounded science student who feel that they know the material already, but could improve the speed of their test-taking – and that’s a pretty small area. I’d advise you to try a free or cheap ACER practice test, timed, before looking into this course further, and see if your speed is an issue for you.
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