GAMSAT Lecture Series and Interview Preparation

www.emergencyone.com.au

It is with great pride that EmergencyOne would like to announce the creation of two new course series for GAMSAT preparation:

The GAMSAT Lecture Series (2 Hours, $75): Consisting of three stand alone 2 hour sessions focusing on Sections I, II & III. They will be run twice each year, each time covering something different. They are short, to the point and cost effective. The idea being to come to as many or few as you'd like in order to help develop your own strengths and weaknesses as you see them.

We noted with great interest that many candidates perform well in one or two sections but underperform in the others. Another piece of consistent feedback is that our customers also wanted more time to practice questions under the guidance of people who had sat and passed the exam.

The Lecture Series was developed with this feedback in mind. Each 2 hour session will consist of a 1 hour lecture discussing the nature of the section, recurring themes and how to answer the questions effectively and efficiently. This will be followed by a 1 hour small group work session where you will have the opportunity to practice questions under the guidance of a doctor or medical student who has passed the GAMSAT. You will also have the opportunity to meet and learn from your peers who will sit with you on test day. This is also a great opportunity to meet others to form private study groups if desired.

They GAMSAT Lecture Series will run on Friday the 6th, 13th and 20th of September 2012 and again early next year.


Blitz the Interview (3-4 Hours, $190): A novel approach to interview preparation. Being doctors and medical students, we have all been through the terror of the interview both in South Australia and other states. We have collectively passed and failed at some point or another. We know what the interview is testing, what works and what doesn't.

The medical school interview is unlike any other interview you'll ever sit and you won't know exactly what to expect until your turn comes. Candidates are ushered into secluded rooms, made to complete baffling puzzles and then made to answer unanswerable questions. There are also the occasional horror stories of the interview panel playing Good Cop Bad Cop and starting arguments between the candidates and each other. (I was made to wait in the corridor after my interview for 20 minutes....it turns out they just forgot I was there....but I genuinely thought it was all part of the act....ie; can he follow instructions?).

With this is mind, we've compiled the tales of countless medical students to give our customers are realistic glimpse of what they will face on interview day. This 3-4 hour session will be comprised of 1 hour of lectures, 1 hour of small group interview practice and 1 hour of actual formal mockup interview consisting of problem solving, ethical dilemas and a 3 person interview panel. Our goal is to give you as close a taste of what to expect on the day as possible.

The Blitz the Interview course will run on Saturday 14th of September 2012, approximately 2 weeks after offers to interview are released.

As always, we'd like to thank our customers for their unwavering support. I'd also like to give a shoutout to Josh for designing our spiffy new logo! Congrats to all of the candidates who aced this year, good luck with your interview preparations. For those of you who didn't get to where you wanted or who are sitting for the first time in 2013, good luck. I can put my hand on my heart and tell you that the blood, sweat and tears are all worth it if it's what you truly want (though I won't necessarily endorse that view at 3am!)

Cheers
David

www.emergencyone.com.au

Course date for 2013

** Hey y'all. ACER have announced GAMSAT Australia for March 23rd 2013 (I swear it's getting later and later....no?). In light of this, January 12th seems a little premature for our 2013 course date, not to mention I'll still be in Nhulunbouy which might be a little out of the way for most. Ergot we've switched the date to February 16th for good measure. We've also announced a series of GAMSAT lectures, 5 to be precise, from February 21st until March 21st to give people plenty of opportunity to practice right up until the big day! Depending on turn out we'll also book a second date for mid March for the one day reasoning course and also aim to take our show interstate (likely Melbourne/Sydney/Brisbane) so if you're interested, then let us know!!). Good luck with all of your preparations!!**

A big shout out to all of our customers, past present and future. We have just announced the date for the next live 1 day reasoning course as January 12th 2013, full details and booking available at:

www.emergencyone.com.au

If you're thinking of coming along, then do! You won't regret it. If you're a past customer and you found the course beneficial, then tell your friends (according to your feedback, you ALL loved it!). If you're a past customer and were unfortunate enough to not be offered a place this year, then we'd love to have you back (and remember there's a 50% discount on the course fee for returning customers). Finally, if you're ever unhappy, tell me! It's the single most beneficial piece of feedback I can ever have!

All the best with preparations for 2013 folks!!

David

What if English is my second language?

I received an enquiry from a customer recently who wanted advice about preparing for GAMSAT when English is a second language. It dawned on me that it's probably a significant concern for many people who sit each year and thought a post on the subject was long overdue!! Anecdotally I would estimate the number of non-native English speakers in the course at around 10-20% (I will count Kiwis and Canadians as English speaking....though that's a bit of a stretch some times :-P). In the hospital environment I would estimate that number even higher at around 30-40%. Many of my colleagues were born in China, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka or Malaysia and often obtained their primary medical qualification there before coming to Australia to pursue specialty training.

Firstly, lets take a moment to consider how lucky the average English speaker is. Chances are we never bothered to learn another language and, courtesy of the USA, we never had to. The rest of the world just worked around us. We can all remember the the shock of the world when K Rudd actually addressed an audience in Chinese (excuse my ignorance, I don't know if he speaks Mandarin or Cantonese!). Yet none of us get excited when nearly every single foreign delegate addresses a major function in English. Food for thought but not the topic of this post :)

So I won't underestimate just how big an achievement it is for the average person born in a non-English speaking country to study, sit and exam and ultimately gain a medical degree in a second language. I speak enough German to sustain my basic life functions and engage in titilating small talk with a toddler. certainly not enough to have entertained working or studying there.

So what if English is your second language? I believe you can take a dictionary into the exam hall, but you'll run out of time even if you're a native English speaker. A dictionary is a last resort, not a primary means of coping. I came up with the following advice for the customer. I'd love to hear your thoughts or any other things you might have considered or tried when sitting GAMSATs or studying in English.

"With respect to an attempt in 2013, I think now is an appropriate time to start preparing given that you probably have a little extra preparation compared to a more fluent English candidate. For someone in your situation there are essentially 3 tasks that you need to undertake:

1-) Improve your English

2-) Improve your knowledge

3-) Practice your reasoning and test taking skills

All of these are vitally important and none should be overlooked.

1-) To improve your English, consider a language course (even repeating a basic English course will help), consider tutoring, practice English at all times with both English speaking and non-English speaking friends. Practice reading, writing, watching TV and listening to music in English. Immersion is the key to language, particularly in non-paediatric populations. There is some evidence to suggest that mapping to auditory cortex may also be helpful. Whatever you do, avoid native language 'just because it's easier'. 6 months of really solid work will improve your English skills remarkably. You may never speak with an Australian accent, but all you NEED is to speak English well enough to pass the GAMSAT and IELTS at the end of medical school.

2-) Improve your knowledge with books, preferably in English (time is precious in the exam and it is not the appropriate place to test your translating abilities. There's a list of text books and content on the blog that will help you with this. There is no assumed knowledge, but rather you should have at least a passable knowledge of major subjects in physics, chemistry, organic chemistry and maths to about a 1st year university level. If you need a tutor to help you with translating and forming the concepts in English then consider getting one. There are a multitude of courses available for science preparation. I can't really comment either way about their benefit since I have never undertaken one. Some people really seem to benefit however I managed the study alone with just text books.

3-) Practice your reasoning and test taking skills. I can't emphasise this enough and that's why we have chosen to teach this one field. The ability to apply reasoning and fluid intelligence is critical to every single question. If it improves a score of 55 by 10%, then it has taken the candidate well into the score range necessary for an interview. Some of the tennets of fluid intelligence are reading and writing ability, visual processing speed, auditory processing speed and general processing speed. These are obviously all intimately linked to linguistic fluency and are mandatory for a high time pressure exam like GAMSAT. Finally, practice your exam technique. This will have the lowest impact on your score (maybe only 2%) but in such a competetive environment that 2% can be the difference between an interview and having to re-sit the following year. Good technique is about working out that an exam is a system with rules and foregone conclusions. Some of those rules can be bent and manipulated (good technique) and some of them can't (accademic misconduct). When you walk into the exam hall you should be an expert at taking that exam on the first try.

Obviously our business is trying to sell a product, whether or not you elect to buy it is entirely up to you. We only offer help with the 3rd point above, however we feel a wider moral compulsion to help out however we can with all GAMSAT candidates. It's a high pressure and not entirely pleasant exam to sit and our aim is to ease this process. As always, I'd love any feedback you have and welcome any enquiries.

We will be announcing the course dates for 2013 very shortly, feel free to sign up and good luck with your preparation!

Cheers

David