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Reposting as I need hope that there is a 'Maybe' in my future

Happiness Will Come To You.

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From the Family

Its there in air, the possiblity of someday, of maybe The hesitation to open the door when everything feels too still, too quiet. To us you are worthy but there are louder voices within. The daily fight to be the loudest until your own voice can reach the top. The shadowed eyes, all day sleeps and quiet musings once again bring the fight to the front. The heavy knowledge of one day brings saddness. It also makes us strive for the most of our time with you. The choice is yours alone but we are with you for the fight, willing you to hold on and see what tomorrow will bring.

For my sister, the shining light.

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2/100 of productivity challenge…more exam revision but posting the boring same old photo is giving me a chance to use my photo filters :)

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Day 1 of 100 for productivity.... Hopefully this goes well as I only have 195 days left of my course work! I can see the light!

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Suits Merchandise: http://bit.ly/1qYaU9u

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Follows Dr Leanne Rorish after the events of episode 1x10.... Hope you enjoy, there are so little Code Black fanfictions I can’t wait until  there are more but this is mine. 

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mala suerte. that’s directed at me? i’m bad luck? i was in code red. you walked up… code black. do the math.

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Puppy turns ramp into fun slide

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The Evolution of Medicine

Source

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Learn To Read Russian in 15 Minutes! I did this one with my fabulous guest writer Peter Starr Northrop, aka bilgeathresh! If you want me to make these dang comics more often, visit my Patreon!

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How I studied for the GAMSAT

I’m in my final year of diagnostic radiography, and I’ve done the GAMSAT three times. In my last GAMSAT, my score was 69, which I’m satisfied with.

Some have asked how I studied for it. I don’t think I’m the best person to ask, because my marks pale in comparison to others! But I’ve seen my Section II stay constant so I guess I can share how I went about it, and my Section III has improved by 7 and 6 marks, so I’ll share how my study style may have contributed to it.

Section I

My scores have been 61, 64, 61, so all fairly constant.

I did UMAT three times as well, and most of my preparation came from here. 

Learning how to understand the passage and get rid of options that are too strong helps.

I made a file of words that I came across that I was unsure about, so that I could build up my vocabulary.

Free workshops from PrepGenie or other GAMSAT companies were good but I think it comes down to practice.

Section II

My Section II carries me every year. I think it is possible to have a predictably decent score.

I find it quite formulaic. 

In terms of preparation, I collect articles and make notes and flow diagrams.

I quoted heavily from an article on humanity that I read in the Newspaper earlier.

I memorised quotes and a few philosophical concepts. Start now. By that I mean tonight. I think it looks good if you know the author, too.

Towards the end, I was writing essays maybe every second day.

My essay structure would be: for, against, and its application to humanity (three body paragraphs). Every single essay I wrote went this way, and the lowest score I’ve achieved is 78, so maybe it works!

Always plan your essays, by writing down your points and the quotes and concepts you want to cite. 

I put some of this in my imagination essay this year!

I quoted heavily from this article this year in my humanity essay!

Section III

Ah, the dreaded section. You should learn from my mistakes! I spent my first time trying to learn things too in-depth.

That said, I watched 161 Khan Academy videos to get my head around organic chemistry.

Organic chemistry: Know the basics, like chirality and spectroscopy (so many in March 2014). Don’t stress too much about the other bits.

Physics: electricity, motion and forces. Be confident with circuits, and even more confident with forces

Chemistry: Haha, the number of acids and bases questions this year… I actually started off my Section III study with acids and bases. 

Section III is intimidating, but the best thing you can do for yourself is get started.

I found that the more I focused on past papers and targeted study to areas I was weak in, the better I did.

Gold Standard worked solutions for the ACER papers on YouTube <3

Materials I used

Des O Neill Red Book: I don’t really recommend this. Go for the green one, with science MCQ practice. These are really great, from the results I’ve seen from people using it.

Gold Standard: It’s alright. Not the panacea to GAMSAT success I guess, but a good start if you’ve got 100% no idea where to start.

GAMSAT Guru set: This was helpful because it had MCQ practice + marked essays. However, you’ll need to fill in the gaps because it doesn’t exactly hold your hand through learning the science. If you buy the set, there are also practice essay questions and Section I questions.

MetC short essay course: 3 sets of two essays each, which was helpful.

GAMSAT tutor tutorials: I felt that I may have wasted me time going to it before this year’s because it had very basic science. It’s good if you have a non-science background, but if you do, maybe his strategy tutorials (held later) are better for you.

I also had a tutor. He’s Canadian though, so he taught me many concepts MCAT style, which may not have been totally relevant, but I’m glad he got me started on the path to Section III study.

Study tips

I started early and prepped hard, but it’s honestly quality over quantity. (I try to go for both but invariably end up going for the latter, haha).

Past papers are really good maybe halfway through.

Don’t be afraid to write an essay. The discomfort of having no idea what to write at home far outweighs having that experience during the actual GAMSAT.

I never actually did group study, but I think this would work really well, particularly for Section II and III.

Paging Dr is also good if you want to read other peoples’ essays and get feedback. It’s also quite motivational being amongst other aspiring students! Just don’t get too distracted, haha!

Sometimes there are free workshops. Those are good to attend! And free!

I’ve done each ACER paper about five times. It makes you familiar with the style (and they sometimes use their past paper questions in the final exam). I’ve also seen UMAT questions in there.

Just keep practising. I made a list of every question I got wrong in my exercises and past papers and redid them all again, after investigating the concept they were testing. And then I redid them again a few weeks later, to make sure.

And final words

Don’t be disheartened if you don’t do well the first time, or your second, or even your third. If you have the heart for medicine, you can do it.

Consider UMAT if you don’t make it in. On my third UMAT, I received an interview for Newcastle and then an offer. (I just did GAMSAT in case I could go for the medical school of my dreams, or a shorter postgraduate course).

Please take care of yourself. It’s only an exam, and it’s only a job, and you are so much more than that.

Let me know if I can help in any way!

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Ultimate GAMSAT Australia/UK/Ireland Resource Post.

Disclaimer.

I have cleared out my Google Chrome bookmarks as a majority of them are resources I used for my GAMSAT study. This is a list of the resources I used and would like to share with you to help you with your preparations. It does not necessarily mean that using these websites will guarantee your desired results, nor does it mean that these are the only resources you can use. There are a variety of resources out there that can be used and may suit to your learning needs. 

Additionally, some of the resources listed below are from third-party companies/authors that specifically provide resources for GAMSAT. Their resources do not necessarily reflect the difficulty of the actual GAMSAT questions. ACER does not endorse using additional resources. The recommendations in the list below were the resources I used, and I declare that I am not profiting from recommending these third-party resources to everyone. I have no associations with the third-party companies listed below nor have I received payment of any kind for my recommendations. 

Also, I will not comment on the flaws/cons of third-party companies and their services in case it is interpreted as defamations. I will only provide my personal opinion on what I found useful from them when I used those resources for my study. Furthermore, if I find one resource useful, it does not necessarily mean that you will too. If you would like a detailed opinion (i.e. pros and cons) on certain third-party companies, you will need to send me a non-anonymous ask and I will only personally reply to you. 

So now that I got the disclaimer out of the way, here are the resources!

Section 1.

https://www.cartoonbank.com/ Flick through these cartoons and analyse them. Try to understand what each cartoon is saying.

http://www.newyorker.com/cartoons ^ Same as above.

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/ These articles are useful and good for you to practise reading and understanding passages. However, some of these are very political.

http://www.smh.com.au/ You need daily readings of what is going on around the world. Also helps with Section 2. You need to critically analyse the articles.

http://www.nytimes.com/ ^ Same as above, need to constantly be up to date for Section 2, and also learn how to critically analyse articles.

http://www.poets.org/ Very good websites for accessing a variety of poems and analysis of the poems. Try doing them yourselves first before reading the analysis.

http://www.shmoop.com/poetry/ Same as above, you need be familiar with reading and understanding poems. 

http://freerice.com/ Expands your vocabulary.

Section 2.

Alain de Botton- The Consolations of Philosophy. Loved the book when I read it, very useful.

Alain de Botton- Status Anxiety. A very good book on understanding how we, as humans, are influenced by society today and how different society is from the past in terms of what we value.

A.C. Grayling- The Meaning Of Things. This is a good book to get you started on building your own ideas on certain themes.

Ben Dupre- 50 Big Ideas You Really Need to Know. Encompasses a lot of aspects and allows you to gain a basic understanding of some fundamentals.

http://www.ellipsoid.org/gmi/random-quote-generator - Generates 5 quotes on a certain theme for you to practise.

www.sparknotes.com - Would recommend going through novels (especially the classics) that you have read and read the analysis, underlying themes etc. This can be helpful for giving examples to support your argument by referring to certain themes/storyline in books. 

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300011h.html - Contains all 50 George Orwell essays on various themes and aspects of the world.

http://www.aldaily.com/ - Contains lots of opinion pieces.

https://www.ted.com/ - How could we neglect Ted Talks? Watch a majority of these videos to get personal insights, and opinions etc. to develop your own views and perceptions of the world.

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/episodes/- 4 Corners contain very interesting documentaries and insights on a variety of controversial topics. 

http://www.abc.net.au/services/podcasting/ Contains a variety of podcasts for you to listen to. Very recommended for you to listen to them while you’re catching public transport or when you are bored.

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Main_Page Contains LOTS of interesting articles.

http://www.debate.org/ Has various topics where you can read both ‘for’ and ‘against’ arguments.

http://theconversation.com/au Contains lots of opinion pieces and videos.

https://www.youtube.com/user/crashcourse/featured Very useful if you don’t understand a particular idea/topic/history so you can look them up here. 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnzItcpd7WGVn80TRRb8RcQ Fora.TV is extremely useful. You watch experts discuss main issues around the world.

http://alaindebotton.com/the-school-of-life/ Alain de Botton’s website where he posts philosophical ideas worth reading.

Other stuff you can do:

Constantly reading!!!! But read widely (so not just reading novels in your spare time, read autobiographies, non-fictions, essay collections etc).

Practise, practise, practise! Would recommend 2 essays per day then review it the next day. 

Get your friends to read your essays and get feedback!!

Purchase ACER’s Section 2 online marking service where you type your essays to their themes and they will automatically generate a range of the marks you would theoretically get.

When reading, always try to understand what the author is saying, the mood, the tone of the characters etc.

Section 3.

David Klein- Organic Chemistry as a Second Language. Very useful for those struggling with organic chemistry as it has a lot of questions. However, there are some topics/questions that are covered a lot in depth that goes beyond required for GAMSAT. 

https://www.khanacademy.org/ Khan Academy is a MUST if you are from a non-science background. Covers the basics required for GAMSAT Section III. Would recommend focusing on organic chemistry and the physics section.

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/ A must for those who have strong biology and chemistry background but is not very good with Physics. I would recommend reading the theory, and doing the questions. 

Examkrackers MCAT series: Consisting of Biology, Physics, Organic Chemistry and General Chemistry as separate books. Very good explanations with practise questions. These are more useful for understanding topics that you are weak at rather than applying your knowledge required in GAMSAT.

Examkrackers 1001 questions series for MCAT series: Consisting of Biology, Physics and Chemistry sold as separate books. These are useful for additional practises of questions and again, it’s for consolidating knowledge that applying knowledge.

Resources for practising GAMSAT questions.

ACER online GAMSAT papers. Can be purchased using your ACER account when you sign up for GAMSAT.

Des O’ Neill practice books: Books sold separately for Section 1, 2 and 3. I had Section 1 and 3 and they are extremely useful. This is a MUST. Unfortunately, new editions won’t be sold anymore so you will need to obtain these through second-hand purchase.

Gradready- I really like their essay marking service compared to their other services provided. Would highly recommend getting feedback from them for Section 2 essay practises.

One-stop shop for everything else.

http://gamsat.acer.edu.au/gamsat-australia - Where you sign up for GAMSAT and see your results.

http://pagingdr.net/forum/index.php Where you can get support for everything in your med journey- from studying for GAMSAT, prepping up for interviews and managing your life in medical school! It also contain other resources you can use for your studies.

Last updated: 15/07/2015.

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Good Morning http://cute-overload.tumblr.com source: http://imgur.com/r/aww/c3kmVEh

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