020 7584 5818 [email protected] www.gamsat.co.uk 11 Course Guidelines and Syllabus Critical Reasoning and Writing Essays for GAMSAT There is an inner logic to the GAMSAT examination in these sections, which consists of testing two fundamental types of intelligence, intellectual and emotional (objective and subjective). This is most easily seen in the “Written Communication” paper (section II of the test), which is divided into two sections. Section A requires the candidate to write an analytical essay dealing with ideas, which tests intellectual intelligence. Section B requires the candidate to write a personalised essay dealing with inter-personal issues which tests emotional intelligence. This matches the skills required by an effective medical practitioner, who has to analyse symptoms (intellectual intelligence) and simultaneously manage the people who present those symptoms (emotional intelligence). These first two sections of the test require the exercise of similar, overlapping skills, so it makes sense to study them in combination as well as separately. Essay writing is a matter of making intellectual structures out of words, and verbal reasoning is a matter of deconstructing intellectual structures made of words. In the one you put things together, and in the other you take things apart. If you can do one you can do the other, provided you understand how language and meaning go together, and provided you practice the requisite skills. The course seeks to emphasise the skills of critical thinking and logic, but also sensitivity to the emotional nuances of words and information. These are of course essential to a medical career, and almost all medical departments now use tests which seek to assess how, regardless of academic background, a person might approach a patient, or process information of different kinds. These are just some of the areas the course explores relating to critical thinking, linguistic reasoning and writing: • The “4 Cs” of essay writing – Be Concise, Be Consistent, Be Clear, Be Compelling • Different approaches to planning and writing analytical or discursive essays. • The art of “Expressive” essay writing, for story telling and self-reflection. • Understanding the purpose of stimulus quotations and your options for responding to them individually or collectively. • Interpreting essay titles, and “questioning the question”. • The particular requirements of reasoning in the Social Sciences and Humanities, and its difference from conventional verbal reasoning. • “Reading between the lines”, the importance of logical inference and deduction. • Approaches and considerations for successful time management. • Approaches for improving knowledge of the humanities and social sciences. • Tonal reading, sympathy and emotional awareness as comprehension skills. • The subject of medicine from the perspective of both practitioner and patient as a common theme. Sciences on GAMSAT As the application of theory to the GAMSAT is unique, so the approach taken to learn that theory needs to reflect this unique nature of its application. Although the level of content covered extends to undergraduate level Chemistry and Biology, what is important is to gain a broad understanding of the principles and skills which underly the theory. We take a very pragmatic approach to looking at what are often quite complex ideas from a purely GAMSAT perspective. This means making sure that the basic fundamentals of each of the sciences are in place, but most importantly looking at the way these skills are actually tested on the exam itself. This is where our twenty two years of experience allow us to present material in the light of the actual questions you are likely to see. As well as core knowledge the GAMSAT is unashamedly testing certain core intellectual traits. Things such as core numeracy, following rules and an ability to spot and recognise patterns are a common thread across all of the sciences. So quite often problems which look like complex physics actually boil down to spotting the basic mathematical skills the problems are testing. Complex organic nomenclature often becomes about the application of codes and patterns, and complex looking organic or biochemical reaction sequences are actually testing the ability to spot patterns and puzzle your way through the combination or breakup of organic reactants. Understanding this skills based approach to the sciences means that what often seems like a vast and unmanageable amount of information, can be targeted clearly to fundamental core principles, and the very specific applications that the GAMSAT actually uses.
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