Why you should never do a Trial GAMSAT

Hey! So, I’ve got a big question for you…

Why is doing a trial GAMSAT a bad idea? I get this a lot. A lot of people do it as a trial just to get a feel for the exam, to see what it’s like and that is a terrible and unfortunately a bad idea and I’ll tell you why in this article.

This concept is going to change a lot for you and if you’ve been thinking about doing a trial GAMSAT for the first time, then this article is going to shock you.

Every single year…

I hear people say ‘Oh I did it as a trial just to see what would happen…or I’m doing this one as a trial and then I’m taking it seriously the next time’, and here’s what happens right, it’s just a trial so it doesn’t really matter so you don’t really give it a hundred percent.

A lot of people say to me that they’ll do their best but because it’s just a trial and it doesn’t REALLY matter, they don’t really give it their everything that’s required and so what happens is they go into the exam and because they didn’t give it everything that’s required they end up getting a score that they can’t even work out how or where they went wrong, because you don’t get ANY feedback.

It’s not like they told you ‘Hey, section one you need to work on this… Essays, here’s some feedback… Section three, work on this’. You get zero feedback at all, so you have no indication as to what you actually NEED to be working on and HOW to work on it.

You end up in the same position as before…

Except now you’ve spent hundreds of dollars on the exam. You’ve wasted all this time and you’re sitting there looking at this result going ‘How Am I going to increase my score by twenty five points? Is it even possible?’ and then all these questions start to come into your mind. ‘Can I do this? Is it possible for me? Am I good enough? Can this actually be increased? How am I going to do this? Is this a sign? should I give up now?’ and it’s really a difficult place to be in because it can really knock you around and a lot of people don’t end up doing it again. So, I understand why people do the GAMSAT as a trial and there’s a couple of reasons why.

Number one:

Lots of people recommend doing it as a trial for the first time, they say ‘Oh! on average people do it twice so you should do it a couple times and then take it seriously’.
If you don’t intend to do it at 100% effort, don’t do it at all. Save yourself the money. Get one of the ACER practice papers. Do it at home under exam conditions. You get more feedback that way. You’ll see which questions you got wrong what you’ve got right, what you need to be working on. You’ll get a feel for the exam and you’ll save yourself a whole lot of time and money.

So why not focus on getting it right the FIRST time?

That’s my approach and a lot of people will say ‘oh because I don’t know how or I don’t know if I can’ and I get where you’re coming from and I understand that a lot of people do feel that way, they don’t know if they can or how to actually do that for a number of reasons, It’s a difficult exam.

It’s very different than your usual uni exams and all these people were really smart and were struggling with it and you’re wondering if you can do it and I don’t blame you, I know a lot of people feel that way but nonetheless, you still have to approach the GAMSAT with 100% commitment, that this is the exam for you. It’s the one and only exam that you’re going to do. Give it everything you have for this one exam. Do or die.

Make it happen!

Because only then will you actually give it what’s required and you know what this theory also applies to being a doctor as well, because let’s look at it this way.

If you had to get a surgery, a life-changing surgery and you went to your surgeon and your surgeon is sitting across the table from you and they’re going ‘You know what, this is going to be really difficult. Not many people do this well. It’s going to be a difficult surgery. There’s a lot at stake here and I’m not quite confident so I’m just going to give it a go the first time and see what happens. I’m just going to give it a go and we’ll see what happens after your surgery and then we’ll take this seriously the next time’.

If your surgeon or your doctor told you that you’d be out of there in a second and you’d get a second, and third opinion. You wouldn’t go back to them, so why are you approaching your medical career in that same way?

That surgeon sitting across the table is going to give you 100%

They’re going to give everything they can to help you so you’ve got to do the same with your GAMSAT preparation because there’s no other way it’s going to happen.

You can’t just give it 60% or 80% and you know some people do that because they feel like ‘Oh if I give it a hundred percent, what if I fail? What if I don’t get in? How is that going to affect me? I’m going to feel really disappointed’ and the truth is yes. You probably will.

If you give it a hundred percent and it doesn’t work out you may feel crushed but that’s the only way that this is going to happen and in fact that’s the only way anything in life is going to happen. You have to give it a hundred percent and sometimes you will be disappointed. You will be disappointed at times but what you have to do is you have to brush yourself off, get up and keep going and give it another go.

But I can guarantee you…

That the people that are getting in on their second, third, fourth, fifth attempt, it’s not because they’re giving us 60 percent every time or 80% or even 90% every time. When they get in they gave it 100%. They gave it everything they had because they knew that they needed to do that to get a great result and so do you.

Focus on this exam.

With 100 percent commitment and dedication, not as a trial exam. Save yourself the time, money, and commitment by giving it your all for this exam.
If you want to know HOW to prepare and WHAT to improve, then get in touch with us on 02 9319 0431.