amount of study required for GAMSAT

Drawing Dead

hi,

i'm coming from a mechanical engineering background and after reading some of the posts here of people going to england for practice tests and spending 9+ months studying i'm suddenly thinking i may be starting too late.
do i have enough time to cover the material required in the 3 months till the exam. as i said i've a degree in engineering so pretty good a physics and i have a basic grasp of chemistry but i havn't done biology since the junior cert.

MicraBoy

Nah you're grand. May be get Griffiths Exam Review to give yourself some perspective/orientation. You'll definitely need the Acer Sample Papers and Practice tests if you don't have them already.

Best of luck.

gordonmedques

u can def do it. i came from mech eng and was in similar situation. 3 months is perfect. but u need to do min 10-15hrs per week. i dunno ur background so that might not be enough. get griffith & acer and look at papers first. sec 1 is basically iq test and there is nothing to study apart from prev exams. sec 2 is essay...nothing to study...just decide on structure...sec 3 is prob...i completely ignored biology...u should be able to ace physics...chem is where u might spend 60/70% of ur study time...doable...just go for it dude good luck

Echani

gordonmedques wrote: »

u can def do it. i came from mech eng and was in similar situation. 3 months is perfect. but u need to do min 10-15hrs per week. i dunno ur background so that might not be enough. get griffith & acer and look at papers first. sec 1 is basically iq test and there is nothing to study apart from prev exams. sec 2 is essay...nothing to study...just decide on structure...sec 3 is prob...i completely ignored biology...u should be able to ace physics...chem is where u might spend 60/70% of ur study time...doable...just go for it dude good luck

The essays in section 2 do require preparation - you need to practice being able to write a good essay from concept to finish in 30 minutes. A pretty sizeable proportion of people fail the exam because they can't get 2 coherent essays out in an hour.

Drawing Dead

thank you for that! puts my mind at ease. i was planning to just go all out and study all day every day till the exam so if you think only 10-15 hours a week is needed i should be ok. sent away for all the books today so should get cracking on the study soon. very nervous as i really want to get in. hoping for ucd myself.:)

gordonmedques

just to be clear, i think 10/15hrs per week is potentially enough etc but i am not familiar with your background etc. if you want to ace the test and you have the time then you would be mad not to ramp up the study time and really go for it. you will know after 2 weeks where you stand and how much you need to do so have a look at the material pronto.

Drawing Dead

gordonmedques wrote: »

just to be clear, i think 10/15hrs per week is potentially enough etc but i am not familiar with your background etc. if you want to ace the test and you have the time then you would be mad not to ramp up the study time and really go for it. you will know after 2 weeks where you stand and how much you need to do so have a look at the material pronto.

oh no don't worry, your post just eased my mind, i still fully intend to study every hour i have, thank you though.

imported_guy

Drawing Dead wrote: »

oh no don't worry, your post just eased my mind, i still fully intend to study every hour i have, thank you though.

hah, i posted this route for you in the engineering forums before i saw this post, but i guess youve already discovered it, good luck

Intake

Hey, I need advice. I am almost 32 and thinking of doing medicine now. I have a business degree and didn't take physics or chem for the LC. I've been reading the posts/threads re GAMSAT and am wondering if I've left it too late to start studying for the exam in March? I'm bright but extremely lazy. Is it possible to fit enough study time between now and end Feb? I have 2 weeks off over Xmas and then it's back to work 4th Jan. All advice welcome! Thanks

imported_guy

Intake wrote: »

Hey, I need advice. I am almost 32 and thinking of doing medicine now. I have a business degree and didn't take physics or chem for the LC. I've been reading the posts/threads re GAMSAT and am wondering if I've left it too late to start studying for the exam in March? I'm bright but extremely lazy. Is it possible to fit enough study time between now and end Feb? I have 2 weeks off over Xmas and then it's back to work 4th Jan. All advice welcome! Thanks

nothing is impossible , you just need to stop being lazy and get a good work ethic, if not march you can just try to do it in london in september, but that being said march is a little close if you have never done science before and youre working full time as well its going to be pretty hard, and make sure its what you want to do and what youre going to do after graduation a medical degree by itself is pretty useless, you need to have a genral idea of how you want to progress your career etc, i.e GP vs particular speciality, ireland vs abroad etc

medicinegirl

imported_guy wrote: »

make sure its what you want to do and what youre going to do after graduation a medical degree by itself is pretty useless, you need to have a genral idea of how you want to progress your career etc, i.e GP vs particular speciality, ireland vs abroad etc

I would agree with the first part of this i.e. that medicine is what you want to do but not necessarily with the second part.

I started medicine as a mature student with no idea which area I wanted to specialise in, just knowing that I wanted to be a doctor and that I'd more than likely decide after rotating in different areas.

I'm now in final year and am relatively sure what I want to do after the last 3 years in different rotations.
What I would say is that most of my classmates (and I'm aware not all) started medicine thinking they wanted to do Surgery/Paeds/GP etc and the vast majority of those have changed their minds while some more have become interested in areas that they never saw themselves doing.

I think it would be a mistake to enter Medicine with your heart set completely on one thing-be open to all the rotations that you do and you're bound to be attracted to something.

I think I know where imported guy is coming from in that as a mature student, you may have less time than others to work in your chosen specialty and should commit to a specific one from the outset but I don't agree with this-it's more important wherever possible to leave yourself open to ideas and in this way I think you'll end up doing whatever you're most suited to and would enjoy most.

Whatever you decide to do-good luck with it. I've never regretted doing Medicine and am looking forward to the light at the end of the tunnel!

Carsinian Thau

imported_guy wrote: »

a medical degree by itself is pretty useless

That's not even remotely true.

imported_guy

Carsinian Thau wrote: »

That's not even remotely true.

yeah well its a good decorating piece alright, but i meant in the sense its no use if youre not going to be using it i.e going back to using his old degree to find a job etc. there are some people who have done that, i know of someone who completed medicine (in america) and went back to work as a chemical engineer (primary degree)

ORLY?

imported_guy wrote: »

yeah well its a good decorating piece alright, but i meant in the sense its no use if youre not going to be using it i.e going back to using his old degree to find a job etc. there are some people who have done that, i know of someone who completed medicine (in america) and went back to work as a chemical engineer (primary degree)

Even if one finds that they do not wish to work in medicine how is an extra degree of any sort wasted, least of all a medical degree? Passing medicine shows that one has a tremendous work ethic. If I was interviewing two chemical engineers that were equally qualified in everyway except for the fact that one had a medical degree as well, I know which one I'd be choosing.

Also, many careers involve liaising with medics, and this is much easier to do with a med degree - a biomedical or mechanical engineer with a med degree is going to be at a tremendous advantage when it comes to multidisciplinary R&D projects with a medical element. A hospital pharmacist, who also has a medical degree would be hired more quickly than one without, a medical scientist who also has a medical degree would find the same, a nurse the same. In certain areas of marketing, journalism and law it would be a huge asset. For jobs in academia including teaching and research it would also be a huge plus, hell, even in the case of primary or secondary school teachers, especially with the competition people are facing in those sectors today, if one wanted to return to teaching, they'd be a shoe in with a med degree.

imported_guy

ORLY? wrote: »

Even if one finds that they do not wish to work in medicine how is an extra degree of any sort wasted, least of all a medical degree? Passing medicine shows that one has a tremendous work ethic. If I was interviewing two chemical engineers that were equally qualified in everyway except for the fact that one had a medical degree as well, I know which one I'd be choosing.

Also, many careers involve liaising with medics, and this is much easier to do with a med degree - a biomedical or mechanical engineer with a med degree is going to be at a tremendous advantage when it comes to multidisciplinary R&D projects with a medical element. A hospital pharmacist, who also has a medical degree would be hired more quickly than one without, a medical scientist who also has a medical degree would find the same, a nurse the same. In certain areas of marketing, journalism and law it would be a huge asset. For jobs in academia including teaching and research it would also be a huge plus, hell, even in the case of primary or secondary school teachers, especially with the competition people are facing in those sectors today, if one wanted to return to teaching, they'd be a shoe in with a med degree.

well just think about the ammount of dedication it will take it genrally isnt worth it if you dont want to be a doctor or work in medical research etc for eg. mechanical engineers working in spyker/boston scientific etc in the biomedical/design side they usually have a biomedical engineering master/diploma which would probably provide them with sufficient knowledge to do their tasks, i actully dont even think some one with a med degree + mechanical engineering would be better at the same work than someone with lets say a biomedical engineering bachelor + masters degree, so that argument doesnt really stand, i mean its an extra 4+ years of hard work and if you got hired by spyker/boston i doubt they would pay you as much as a consultant's wages given even if you work for them for 10-15 years same as the ammount of time it takes to become a consultant or attending physician even in america (obviously attending physician takes alot less time but w/e it supports my argument even more). unless an engineer is CEO'ing they dont usually earn 200k basic (excluding private patients etc) like most consultants in ireland

ORLY?

imported_guy wrote: »

well just think about the ammount of dedication it will take it genrally isnt worth it if you dont want to be a doctor or work in medical research etc

Of course it isn't, people who study medicine generally want to be doctors. It's just that sometimes when they become doctors they realise they don't want to be doctors. If any of these people find that they wish to go back to their previous careers or into new ones, their time in medicine will not be looked on as a waste, it will most definitely be an asset, a big one, and depending on the area into which the person is moving and their own interests it is possible that their medical training could be used to get much further along than would otherwise have been possible.

imported_guy

ORLY? wrote: »

Of course it isn't, people who study medicine generally want to be doctors. It's just that sometimes when they become doctors they realise they don't want to be doctors. If any of these people find that they wish to go back to their previous careers or into new ones, their time in medicine will not be looked on as a waste, it will most definitely be an asset, a big one, and depending on the area into which the person is moving and their own interests it is possible that their medical training could be used to get much further along than would otherwise have been possible.

oh yeah i completely agree, knowledge can never go to waste, but i just think you dont need degrees for the sake of it like alot of people have what i call a "diverse portfolio" of degrees lol, another thing is the cost factor, thats why i suggested that the OP look out for what he is going to do after graduating, its 12-13k a year for 4 years, which adds up, and if he has other loans etc right now e.g mortgage etc or a family to support he shouldnt just jump in and change careers unless he REALLY wants to do it, i mean changing your mind is fine, but dont do it as soon as you graduate from medicine, it will cost alot :P.