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