Strategic insights as to how to increase candidate performance on GAMSAT

1. Strategic Education Series
„Dismantling‟ GAMSAT
&
Identifying Competitive
Advantages

2. A little bit of ‘legalese’:
Disclaimer: This is an opinion piece
only. GAMSAT Strategies is not affiliated
with GAMSAT, ACER on any of its
related bodies. Any reliance upon this
material by a candidate is entirely at the
candidate‟s own risk with no recourse
whatsoever against the author(s).

3. Let’s get started!

4. Have you ever had a friend who beat
you by 20 or more points on GAMSAT?

5. Have you ever thought that they are not
that much smarter than you and that
you don‟t understand how they did it?

6. This presentation aims to help you to
understand why such discrepancies in
score can occur

7. Our company motto is:
“Where intelligence
meets guile”

8. We focus on
2
things…

9. 1.
structural
weaknesses
competitive advantage
Identifying and exploiting
in GAMSAT to gain a

10. In case you‟re wondering, that is the
“guile” bit

11. The second thing we focus on is:
2.
content
knowledge to exploit those structural
Endowing our candidates with the required
weaknesses

12. That‟s the
“intelligence” bit

13. FACT:
Most people only focus on the content
and neglect the structural weaknesses

14. FACT:
Most people only focus on the content
and neglect the structural weaknesses
That’s why when you have your first look at materials from a
traditional GAMSAT training provider, it feels like you just bought
an overpriced textbook…boo!

15. This leads to mediocre results when a little
lateral thinking could lead to
sensational results

16. So…
Q.
What are
structural
weaknesses?

17. They are …
A.
administrate
Weaknesses that exist as a product of having to
a test on a large-scale

18. They can be either:
1.
Cohort
driven
or
2.
ACER
driven

19. When 6000+ people sit the same
test, the majority of those people will
attempt their preparation in the same
way.
Cohort Weaknesses
This is particularly the case with
GAMSAT as the intellectual but
conservative nature of the test
populace lends itself to a cohort that
copies each other’s approach.
This ‘herd mentality’ is a weakness
that an individual can exploit in order
to generate a competitive advantage.

20. OK… so let‟s identify these
cohort weaknesses…

21. Section II Cohort Weaknesses

22. Cohort Section II Weaknesses:
Tell-tail signs:
Inconsistent essay strength dependent upon topic
affinity (i.e. inability to create a system to address topic
risk)
You say: “If I know something about the
topic I can write a decent essay”
Provide clichéd responses under time pressure thereby
failing to differentiate your essay from the ‘pack’ (i.e.
an inability to systematically and reliably generate nonobvious insights in response to a given stimulus)
You say: “I got an essay out in time but it
was really general and meandered all over
the place”
An ill-fated reliance on technical English skills that
yields little to no gain in marks relative to the cohort
You say: “but I’m great at English and I got a
62”
Poor time management skills brought about by years of
excelling in an education system that rewards
exhaustive prior preparation with simplistic assessment
methods (i.e. you know what is on the test, you just
have to study it)
You say: “I worked really hard at school and
did really well because of that hard work – I
don’t like working under pressure and really
like to rely upon my preparation base to
deliver an answer”
An inability to leverage the repeatable value of practice
to attain a better score because the topic changes
every time you write a new practice essay
You say: “I’ve done lots of practice essays
but my performance is still very inconsistent
– sometimes I write really well, sometimes I
don’t, it really just depends on the day”

23. Section III Cohort Weaknesses

24. Cohort Section III Weaknesses:
Tell-tail signs:
A rote learning bias brought about by the mode of
teaching and assessment at secondary school and
tertiary institutions
•
•
Poor content targeting
•
You’re a bio-medical science student or
health science student who ‘limped’
through GAMSAT as your entire course
was designed around a rote learning bias
Accordingly, you struggle to “identify
existing knowledge in new contexts”
You haven’t tailored your preparation to
account for the following: chemistry and
biology are said to be worth 40% of the
content each, while physics is only 20%,
so relatively less important; and out of
chemistry and biology students have
more difficulty with chemistry

25. Cohort Section III Weaknesses:
Tell-tail signs:
Poor question comprehension and ‘key’ information
identification
• You get ‘tripped up’ by the wording
of questions and thus cannot
identify the ‘existing concept’ in the
‘new context’

26. Q. How do you turn cohort weaknesses
into strategic advantages?

27. Answer: “For every identified
weakness, there is a corresponding
competitive advantage”

28. COHORT Section II Weakness:
How to turn cohort weaknesses into strategic advantages?
Inconsistent essay strength dependent
upon topic affinity
You should use a system to mitigate topic risk thereby
disrupting the relationship between essay strength and topic
affinity
Clichéd responses under time pressure
You should use a system to generate non-obvious insights
that will simultaneously alert you to the cohort’s likely
reaction and provide an alternative sophisticated response
An ill-fated reliance on technical English You should identify key score drivers and re-focus study
skills
energy upon those score drivers that yield the highest net
gain in score
Poor time management skills
You should assess and establish practical boundaries,
establish a routine for those steps and then implement as a
non-negotiable check list that delineates time based
milestones so that you can assess the efficacy of your time
management under exam conditions against those
milestones
An inability to leverage the repeatable
value of practice
You should develop a system of repetitive constants and
identified variables to increase the % of control over an
essay thereby leveraging the repeatable value of practice

29. COHORT Section III Weakness:
How to turn cohort weaknesses into strategic advantages?
Rote learning bias
You should use well-written materials that articulate all
concepts from a ‘first principles basis’ so that existing
knowledge can be applied in new contexts
Poor content targeting
You should develop a strong understanding of physical and
organic chemistry to distance yourself from the cohort
Poor question comprehension and ‘key’ You should learn how to interpret what a question is actually
information identification
asking and practice how to find the clues in the question
that give you the answer

30. Administrating a test for 6000+
people is a difficult job.
Naturally, there are practical
constraints which lead to pedagogical
compromises.
ACER Weaknesses
This is particularly the case as ACER
has the difficult task of assessing a
number of skill sets under significant
time pressure.
These pedagogical compromises
lead to weaknesses in the test that
an individual can exploit in order to
generate a competitive advantage.

31. OK… so let‟s identify these
ACER weaknesses…

32. Section II ACER Weaknesses

33. ACER Section II Weakness:
Why?
Length
Because of the practical constraints of administrating a writing task,
Section II is a very short section and therefore provides only a cursory
assessment - it is a ‘sprint’ not a ‘marathon’
Marker Fatigue
After reading 300 responses on the topic of ‘love’, it would be
understandable for a marker to find it hard to establish grounds on
which to substantially differentiate between responses and thus award
above average marks
General stimuli
Because of the practical constraints of administrating a writing task,
Section II often involves general stimuli as too specific a stimuli would
severely disadvantage the cohort

34. Section III ACER Weaknesses

35. ACER Section III Weakness:
Why?
Excessively long impractical
blurbs under severe time
pressure
•
This is a deliberate tactic that should alert you to the fact that there
is an easier way – make sure you know the core principles so that
you don’t have to read the blurbs
A multiple choice format
•
As organic chemistry is fundamentally a structural science with
visual depictions that must follow set principles, you can evaluate
the validity of a structure without reading the question provided
you know the set principles
A MCQ format allows for such quick assessments to take place
thereby allowing for significant time savings in the exam
•
A limitation to the “first
year organic chemistry”
standard
•
•
In our opinion this division does not exist – there have been many
advanced concepts on GAMSAT that were never examined in typical
first year organic chemistry tests
This is also known as the “chemistry major scores an 80 or above on
Section III and finishes with an hour to go” phenomenon

36. Q. How do you turn ACER weaknesses
into strategic advantages?

37. Answer: “For every identified
weakness, there is a corresponding
competitive advantage”

38. ACER Section II Weakness:
How to turn ACER weaknesses into strategic advantages?
Short Length
•
•
This is the main reason why poor writers can still score highly in
Section II – if the test was longer, this would not be possible
Create a system that eliminates ‘waffle’ and focuses upon allowing
you to consistently (across multiple topics) demonstrate your critical
reasoning ability
Marker Fatigue
Identify the key drivers of fatigue and implement protocols to overcome
this emotional barrier
General stimuli
•
•
•
General stimuli are set as a trap – they reduce the difficulty of the
task but simultaneously make it difficult to attain a high mark
With respect to the distribution of scores, it creates a ‘fat middle’
You can differentiate yourself by using a system to write a specific
response with a narrow score

39. ACER Section III Weakness:
How to turn ACER weaknesses into strategic advantages?
Long blurbs
Re-orientate your practice to the identification and application of coreprinciples in new contexts with less emphasis on ‘blurb reading’
A multiple choice format
Re-orientate your approach to ruling out options based on ‘first
principles’
A limitation to the “first
year organic chemistry”
standard
Study beyond this level to gain a jump on the cohort

40. So now that you have read our strategic
insights what do you do?

41. The key is not to fall into the trap of
making a „linear selection‟ as to your
GAMSAT training provider!

42. What are your options as to a provider –
they comes in all „shapes and sizes‟:
Students who
have performed
well on GAMSAT
Doctors
Established
training
providers

43. Types of GAMSAT Providers
Doctors
Medical
School
• It is a trap of linear thinking to assume that because you want to get into
medical school a doctor is the best placed to tell you how to do that
• What doctors learn at medical school has nothing to do with GAMSAT
• To give you an analogy, in the American National Football League , the
“punter”, the player that specialises in simply kicking the football, is often
selected from the ranks of the Australian Football League, see here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Graham_(football_player)
• Applied to GAMSAT, you need to use a provider who is a specialist in the
specific skills that allow you to get ahead in GAMSAT

44. Types of GAMSAT Providers
• Established training providers with large numbers of students
• If you are using a dominant industry player, then you will be learning the
same skills and approaches as everyone else – it is a “sausage factory”
• How do you plan to do better than your competitor if you are learning
the same approach?
• Further, after-market service is a key determinant in consolidating
learning – if you are just a number then you will not be able to get the
assistance you need when you need to ask a question.

45. Types of GAMSAT Providers
Students who
have performed
well on GAMSAT
• We form part of this category
• The only way that a past student can be useful is if they have identified
what elements of their success are ‘teachable systems’ and what
elements are due to their own natural ability
• We focus solely on teachable systems so that the skill set that allowed us
to perform is transferable to other people – it is also why we don’t have a
Section I course and why we only teach Section II and organic and
physical chemistry to an advanced level.
• This requires ‘pedagogical insight’ and significant investment into
developing resources and is an additional step beyond just attaining a
good GAMSAT score

46. The Types of Students We Attract
•
Older Students
• The increased intellectual maturity of this cohort leads to an increased ability to
understand the true nature of GAMSAT and the type of study required to do well
• They are also willing to amend their study habits and are willing to adopt different
study methods
•
Frustrated Younger Students
• Generally these students have bought a large amount of preparation material from
traditional providers but cannot shift themselves from the ‘fat middle’ of the score
distribution
• This is due to an over-reliance on traditional study methods (lot’s of practice
questions, lot’s of desk time, no identifiable strategy)
•
Younger Students with ‘inside knowledge’
• Generally these students have had an older sibling or friend who has gone through
the process and thus has access to ‘generational’ information which allows them to
see the task for what it is

47. What we hope you do
• Obviously we’d like you to consider us for your preparation but even if you
don’t, we hope that you at least consider some of the strategic insights
contained in this document and adjust your preparation accordingly
• If you would like further information, you can download an information guide
our peruse our online store at www.gamsatstrategies.com.au
We’re also happy to have a chat on the phone to
discuss your options– you can call us at any time on
0404 879 422

48. GOOD LUCK!
