GAMSAT is not just about science or even just about general knowledge. You have to be able to write a report; you have to be able to argue logically; you have to be able to make an argument; you have to be able to connect a piece of information to another piece of information. There are many ways to prepare for this section and a lot of ways to learn how to write a report, argue a point, and connect pieces of information. There are a lot of tricks and techniques to learn in order to succeed in this section of the GAMSAT. Here are some tips to get your desired gamsat section 1 score easily.
Review section 1 questions and familiarise
GAMSAT section 1 is a notoriously difficult section to do well in, but it doesn’t have to be. The best way to prepare for GAMSAT section 1 is to review past section 1 questions and familiarise yourself with the style and technique. Building speed and accuracy with past papers will help you get a feel for the section’s difficulty levels and how long you’ll need to spend on each question.
Improve reading speed
There are two ways to improve reading speed. The first one is to improve your reading speed on your own, which will let you read everything in the GAMSAT, but the second one is to improve your reading speed with the help of a professional tutor who will help you to improve your reading speed. That is why it is important to notice that this is the only part of the GAMSAT that can be improved with help.
Learn critical thinking
‘Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.’ Critical thinking is very hard to define, but the above definition is a good start. It is also something we use on a daily basis, even if we don’t realise it. Critical thinking is important to medical school and helps to separate the best doctors from the mediocre ones.
Critical thinking is all about learning to think logically and rationally. This means that you will have to be able to put aside your personal opinion and think objectively. Critical thinking is a great skill to have to help you solve problems, think on your feet, and make decisions. Critical thinking is a skill that you can learn, and by learning this skill, you will be able to spot logical fallacies, flaws in arguments, and inconsistencies in your own thinking.
Familiarise yourself with literary devices
Literature comes in many forms, but it always contains some form of text. It could take the form of a short story, a novel, an essay, or a series of poems. Regardless of its form, literature will always use literary techniques and devices to put across a message or tell a story. Knowledge of literary techniques and devices is also useful for various GAMSAT essay prompts. For example, the GAMSAT could ask you to discuss how a piece of literature uses irony to convey its meaning. To solve the prompt, you’d need to identify irony in the text and then explain how the text uses irony.
Familiarise yourself with literary techniques and devices. In the GAMSAT section 1, you will be given five minutes to answer three questions (one of which is an independent writing task). The questions will be based on the reading material, which is typically a passage from a piece of literature. You need to be able to answer these questions by using your knowledge of literary devices and techniques, as opposed to memorising facts and details.
While it is important to know the basic definitions of literary devices, it is even more important to understand how they are used in a text. The better you understand literary devices, the better you will be able to answer the question. It is better to be able to answer a question without knowing the exact device or technique being used than to know the device or technique and not be able to answer the question.
