I Want To Be A Doctor, Not A Poet

“I hate Poetry! It’s the hardest part of Section 1. The language is difficult. I don’t understand the poems, the terms and words used.”

This is a common response I hear when I ask people about the hardest aspects of section 1.

You don’t have much time to answer the section 1 questions. So a complex poem can really throw you off. Especially if you haven’t looked at a poem for years.

But it’s in there. It’s part of the GAMSAT. So you need to be ready for it.

The big question is:

Why is poetry even in the GAMSAT?

When I first saw it in there I thought to myself, “I want to be a doctor, not a poet.”

I want to spend my time studying anatomy and physiology. Not alliteration and metaphors.

A doctor doesn’t have to read a poem to help cure their patient, so why do I have to answer questions on this in the GAMSAT?!

To be honest, I don’t know why poetry is in there.

Perhaps…

It’s because understanding it shows a strong command of the English language.

Perhaps it also show you can think is abstract ways and creatively think about life, people and the challenges they go through – which is often what poems are about… as well as caring for patients.

Perhaps it’s an easy way to insert difficult questions to distinguish the best candidates from the rest.

I’m not sure.

But if you add up the above reasons (even if each of them are slightly true), it makes sense to have poetry in there.

That means you’ve got to be ready for it.

If you want to know how to prepare for section 1 without boring yourself to death with poetry and literature, we’re running an online workshop on just that topic very soon.

To hear more about it, click here and subscribe to the ebook. We’ll send you emails when the next workshop is happening.