The End is Nigh

www.emergencyone.com.au

Dear folks

The end is nigh....GAMSAT Australia sits in 6 days. If you haven't started preparing yet....what were you thinking.....either that or you're a genius and will be one of those annoying people that makes the whole exam look super easy....at least try to pretend it was hard :)

Word from the not so wise, go easy on yourself! Let's face it, you're not going to cram the reading list in the next 6 days. By all means, brush up and review some last minute details, but by now most of the struggling should be done! My top tips for the next 6 days:

Monday: review your notes

Tuesday: practice puzzles, sudoku, cross words, anything that limbers you up mentally (think dual N back)

Wednesday: do something fun! Watch a (good) movie or read a book; thereby preparing and relaxing at the same time-helps to ameliorate the perfectionistic guilt!

Thursday: have a crack at some more ACER questions under exam conditions.....if you don't do so well, it's all good! Use the exercise to try and patch up any last minute flaws in exam technique

Friday: eat well, do some exercise, read a good book-preferably something funny

Friday night:

1-GO TO SLEEP EARLY

2-Sleep soundly (can't change anything now....might as well sleep well!)

 

Saturday morning:

1-Get up early.....not the day to be late.....

2-Eat a nourishing and well balanced breakfast....avoid excessive carbohydrates and simple sugars (sugar dumps are a biatch!)

3-Make your way to the exam hall in a leisurely fashion, maybe walk and incorporate some light exercise in the process-I did and it felt rather surreal and nice!)

4-Walk into the exam hall like you own the joint, smash the exam with 15 minutes to spare, give the invigilator a Fonzie style 'aaaaayyyyyyyy' as you leave!

5-Proceed to pina colada

 

PS: with respect to those people who habitually try to undermine other people's confidence at the interval- win by being excellent rather than trying to make other people suck. If you're affected by this sort of thing on the day.....smile politely and say 'totally'...... then walk away saying 'aaaayyyyy' (in your head of course!)

Good luck peeps.....shall see some of you about the hospital next year!! Come visit me in ED for the exploding leg special!!

PPS: there were 600 page views last month, feel free to follow us, recommend us, like us, whatever....just want to feel like less of a Nigel when I see our 3 followers (but love all 3 of you!!)......aaaaayyyyyyy :)

D

www.emergencyone.com.au

5 ways to be better than everyone else in the exam hall

www.emergencyone.com.au

So let's forego why you want to study medicine; suffice to say that if you're willing to pay $400 to sit the exam with less than a 20% chance of success then you must want it for some reason. Instead let's look at getting better value for your money....ie; if you've already paid $400, you might as well pass right?!

If you've decided that this is path for you, you need to find a way to be better than 8 out every 10 people around you in the exam hall. The reality is that it's a competition. I'm afraid I can't condone violence, incapacitation, cheating or mischief; you can only win by lifting yourself up, not by dragging the competition down.

 5 Ways to be better than everyone else:

1. What is the exam testing? This seems obvious, but I hear of so many candidates who seem to omit this fundamental idea in their preparation (there are a lot of you who are franatically trying to learn biology, physics and chemistry to a post-doc level......please stop). Read the ACER website carefully, understand what the exam is testing and then do just a handful of questions to get a feel for what this means.
2. Practice what you're supposed to: As I keeping harping on....it's a reasoning exam....not a knowledge exam. You can acquire as much knowledge as you'd like, but without developing your reasoning skills you're wasting your energy. You're not going to study architecture because it's not necessary, nor are you going to study ancient Greek. Learn uni level chem, organic chem and biology and year 12 physics, then learn to solve a problem (it's called problem based learning for a reason).
3. Have immaculate exam technique: As I've said, it's a tough competition. World records rarely get broken by wide margins....in reality, one point may be the difference between an interview and no interview. Good technique will help you juice every possible mark out of the exam.
4. If it ain't working, do something else: If you've sat the exam and your score wasn't great, it's time to change something. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Maybe you have to work harder, develop your physics, read more fiction or work on your problem solving. Just make sure you do something different. 
5. Go with the crowd or stand out? This is an interesting concept and it's entirely statistical. In the exam your chances of success are about 20%. In the interview your chances are 66.6%. In the exam you have to stand out if you want to succeed. In the interview, the goal is to be as much like everyone else as possible.

Ultimately you can and must be better than everyone else if you want to make it, just make sure you're a gracious winner. Good luck with your preparations.

www.emergencyone.com.au

Timing is everything...as is technique

http://www.emergencyone.com.au/

So imagine it's GAMSAT day. You have an exam lasting just shy of 7 hours ahead of you. Here's the breakdown.

Section I: 100 + 10 minutes for 75 questions
Section II: 60 + 5 minutes for 2 essays
Lunch: 60 minutes
Section III: 170 + 10 minutes for 110 questions

The average attention span in most adults is 15-20 minutes......you need to sustain it for nearly 7 hours!! The difference between good and bad technique can very realistically be the difference between an interview and having to repeat the whole process the following year. You will have to work smarter and harder than the average bear :)

You have about 90 seconds per question for section I (including your reading time) and just under 100 seconds per question for section III.

Here's some handy hints:

1-) Use your reading time! You can't mark the answer book, but you can read the questions and answer on your scrap paper. It takes about 2 seconds per question to transcribe an answer and it gives you the ability to answer an extra 6-7 questions more in the alloted time. It's not against the rules.....use the time!!

2-) Develop a system. Good technique can be make or break.I used a system that quickly sorted questions into 3 categories:

• Questions you can answer within 90 seconds: solve them immediately
• Questions you could solve if you had more than 90 seconds: flag them on your scrap paper and come back to them after you've done a FULL lap of the paper
• Questions you can't answer: you have to guess and you won't be penalised for doing so, but save these questions for last. You have a 25% chance of getting the right answer. Once you've gotten all of the points you can get by skill, it's time to get all of the points you can by chance!!

3-) Practice!! You WILL drift off during the exam whilst contemplating your navel. Develop strategies to deal with your inherent human-ness.

• Practice sustaining your attention for prolonged periods
• Learn to identify when you're distracted and tune back in quickly
• Allow yourself a few strategic seconds to stretch and refocus; do this every 1-2 vignettes and you'll find you're more efficient overall

4-) Learn to identify the key information quickly and efficiently. Each vignette will have a key piece of information that the subsequent question will test. The exam is full of "trick" questions whereby you will give the worng answer (but think you got it right) if you missed a key word or sentence in the vignette. Learn to identify these nuggets of information and develop the habit of putting mental 'post it notes' on them so that you can refer to them quickly and easily. This is particularly true for section I where there are often long vignettes and several questions to answer. Missing the word no or not in a long stretch of prose is the difference between getting the answer exactly right and exactly wrong!!

5-) Read quickly and efficiently!! If you're a slow reader, practice. If you're a quick reader, good, just don't miss anything important.

Good luck y'all

 http://www.emergencyone.com.au/