What Is The GAMSAT Science Section Really About?

The September GAMSAT coming up and I want to talk about what the science section is REALLY about.

So what is the fuss really about?
The thing is, people struggle with this section you hear it every single year, you hear the rumour mills that even the most intelligent people are messing it up. All these people who do great at uni in the science degrees, who have the science knowledge, mess it up, but the thing is, it’s not about your science KNOWLEDGE.
It’s not about the ways to eliminate questions, it’s not about a magic trick, no in fact, it’s not about that at all, so here’s the question that you need to ask yourself.

Do you know the difference between University science and GAMSAT science?
Because they are very different and that difference is the key to doing well in the science section.
Here is what happens right, when you do a science degree or any other degree in fact, the way you do it, is like this; you look at the curriculum and the topics you need to learn, you then go to the lectures. You take notes, you then go to the textbooks, you make further notes there, you then you go online and you’ll learn about those topics and then you do some practice questions to see how much you’ve learned and then you get into your exam and you show them what you’ve learned and that’s the usual process that people go through.

Then they see section three of the GAMSAT and they’re like ‘oh this kind of looks like science, I have done this before, it’s chemistry, physics biology ‘and then they apply that same process, the only process they know.
They go to the to the books they make some notes, they learn the topics, they go to all the lectures and then do some practice questions to see how much they’ve learned.

AND then they get into the GAMSAT and they`re shocked by what they see
because the questions are so abstract, half the things they studied aren’t even in there.
There are all these random topics that they could never have prepared for and the things that they have seen before are presented in such an unusual way that completely throw you off.
They come to me and they say, “Dr Tomasz, it’s ironic, I’m a science student and that’s the section I studied for the most and I really messed it up”.

They all say things like, The GAMSAT has changed or it’s looking for different things now or it’s an IQ test.
It hasn’t changed, it’s still the same thing. The other thing is, that they’re not testing you on the content and they are not testing your knowledge of the topics or even applied knowledge, they’re not testing any of that.

Do you know what they are testing you on?
There’s a clue in the title of the section, because if you don’t know what they’re testing you on, then that can be a bit of a problem, because it’s not called the science section, it’s called reasoning in the biological and physical sciences so there’s your first big clue.

It’s not your understanding of the topics or applying the knowledge in the sciences or interpretation skills. It’s reasoning and so the next big question is…

what is reasoning and how do you do it?
So have a think to yourself, what’s reasoning? GAMSAT specific reasoning and how do you do it, because that is what they’re testing you on, so you need to know what that is and how to develop it and how to work on it.

And I’ll tell you what it’s not, it’s not problem solving, it’s not logical thinking, it’s not interpretation skills because then the section will be called Interpretation Skills in the Sciences or Logical Thinking and the thing is, science students can think logically. They can solve problems, they have all of that that’s what they have science degrees but they still mess up section three of the GAMSAT so what is it?

If you want to know more about what the science section is really about, how these reasoning skills work, what they are and how to develop them. Then get in touch with us, we’d love to help you make this September the last GAMSAT you ever sit. Click on ‘speak to the team’ on the home page, we’d love to hear from you!