Registered  members with 100+ posts do not see Ads

Studying Medicine from a Non-Science Background

LisaJo

Lurker
Hi!
I'm just turning thirty. I've been a teacher for 8 years now but I would like to pursue my dream of becoming a doctor. My background is in English, Languages and Humanities and I have no idea where to start with developing the knowledge and skills of Maths and Science. I've thought about doing Chemistry, Physics, Biology and Maths to VCE level through Distance Education, while I work....I've started to read science textbooks. Has anyone got some advice?!
 

Yamster

Dental Moderator
Emeritus Staff
Hey LisaJo,

Welcome to MSO. There's actually a lot more material on PagingDr for advice regarding non-science backgrounds and S3. See here: Login

You have to join to look, but it's worthwhile joining as MSO is more for the undergrad entry scheme. Hope that helps. :)
 

DrDrLMG!

Resident Medical Officer
Administrator
Alternatively, if you're like me and are frankly terrified by the notion of teaching yourself the GAMSAT basics, you could give UMAT a whirl and apply as a non-standard student ;)

My background is clinical psych and I'm a couple of years older than you; UMAT is more up our alley content-wise (imo). That said, there are others who'll argue GAMSAT is also about logical reasoning and strong chem/bio/physics isn't necessary. I'd dispute this, but I also looked at a single practice exam for GAMSAT and gave up so... ya know, grain of salt and all that!!
 

DrDrLMG!

Resident Medical Officer
Administrator
Thanks so much for that. I'll looking into UMAT straight away!

UMAT <3

We have a pretty active UMAT forum here that you should feel free to join/peruse, and I'm about to put together an updated FAQ on the exam.
 

Mana

there are no stupid questions, only people
Administrator
Hi!
I'm just turning thirty. I've been a teacher for 8 years now but I would like to pursue my dream of becoming a doctor. My background is in English, Languages and Humanities and I have no idea where to start with developing the knowledge and skills of Maths and Science. I've thought about doing Chemistry, Physics, Biology and Maths to VCE level through Distance Education, while I work....I've started to read science textbooks. Has anyone got some advice?!

As someone who has done GAMSAT and UMAT (and scored well enough in both to gain entry to medicine through both pathways) - I am one of those people who will suggest that GAMSAT isn't so much content based as it is skills based - i.e. it is not so different to the UMAT. I think you would have a good grounding if you learned concepts behind the sciences and scientific theory, and how to apply this to scenarios, than if you were to learn scientific facts per se. If you have a strong teaching background and can write and reason well outside of the sciences this places you well for Section 1 and 2 which are both non-Science and are rather more Humanities based - I would exploit your strengths there to maximise your advantage (knowing of course that you have to also do decently in S3).

I think it's easier to perform well in GAMSAT than it is in UMAT based on statistics alone; others may disagree. However, I think we all agree that the best chance of getting into medicine comes with you doing BOTH the UMAT and GAMSAT - allowing you to apply for almost all undergraduate and graduate entry medicine programs in Australia. I think preparing for the UMAT also improves your chances at the GAMSAT, and vice versa, owing to the similarity of many of the skills tested in these exams.

Good luck!
 

GV

Regular Member
I agree with Mana in that a large proportion of the GAMSAT is 'test taking knowledge' rather than the actual scientific knowledge. For most questions in S3 the answers can be deduced from problem solving without really knowing much content wise. What I'd suggest is finding the Khan academy science video list, watching all the videos on there and then just doing as many questions as you can. You'll soon start to see the patterns that arise in the questions. Another neat trick is to reverse engineer the questions you have done, try to think about how ACER has written the questions as it'll help you answer similar question types in future.
 

alpaca

Lurker
Hey LisaJo,

Welcome to MSO. There's actually a lot more material on PagingDr for advice regarding non-science backgrounds and S3. See here: Login

You have to join to look, but it's worthwhile joining as MSO is more for the undergrad entry scheme. Hope that helps. :)


I joined PagingDr last night and haven't received any emails of confirmation yet. I have requested for another email after trying to sign in and I still haven't received anything. I've checked my junk folder too. Would you know how else I could join the website?
 

chinaski

Regular Member
Be patient. The staff work on a voluntary basis. If you haven't already sent an email to the site admin, do so. Otherwise, cool your jets.
 

Registered  members with 100+ posts do not see Ads

Hi everyone!

I've been thinking about going into medicine for a while now and finally feel set on pursing that goal. However, I am curious as to the different degrees that have made it into a medicine program. I am a provisional psychologist and feel quite the pressure on performing well on the GAMSAT as I haven't done chemistry and physics, but have heard people from all kinds of degrees including non-science do well and managed to pursue their goal in becoming a doctor. I'd like to hear how those who have a non-science discipline manage to get into a medicine program, and your methods of studying and whatever else you did to help you secure a place in the program.
 

chinaski

Regular Member
The third section of GAMSAT is increasingly an aptitude test grounded in problem solving, rather than requiring any real science background, as was the case earlier. Unless you are looking at applying to a school with science pre-requisite units (which you would otherwise need to make up ahead of applying), your original degree is of negligible consequence. People with non-science backgrounds in graduate medicine are not rare or particularly remarkable in the greater scheme of things.
 

heart

Member
another thing to add is some universities weight all three sections equally, rather then the science section (section 3) being worth weighted double. As someone who has scored 90 in section 3 I agree that knowledge helps very little, its more about understanding the information quickly and knowing how to apply it for the question, basically more about reasoning then knowing.
 

A1

Rookie Doc
Moderator
In addition to these replies you can also apply to undergrad med schools WSU, JMP & Unsw with UCAT. These schools have no prereqs and UCAT doesn't require science background to do well.
 

DrDrLMG!

Resident Medical Officer
Administrator
Hi everyone!

I've been thinking about going into medicine for a while now and finally feel set on pursing that goal. However, I am curious as to the different degrees that have made it into a medicine program. I am a provisional psychologist and feel quite the pressure on performing well on the GAMSAT as I haven't done chemistry and physics, but have heard people from all kinds of degrees including non-science do well and managed to pursue their goal in becoming a doctor. I'd like to hear how those who have a non-science discipline manage to get into a medicine program, and your methods of studying and whatever else you did to help you secure a place in the program.

I'm a Clinical Psychologist (been practicing as such for about 5 years) in my second year of Med. Happy to chat further if you're keen :D
 

ksenia

Lurker
I'm a Clinical Psychologist (been practicing as such for about 5 years) in my second year of Med. Happy to chat further if you're keen :D
Hi LMG! and everyone else!

I'm a provisional psychologist (due to graduate in a few months from Master of Clinical Psych) and have wanted to pursue medicine for a few years now. I did not do chemistry, maths, bio or physics in high school, so my knowledge in those areas is very poor (except the stuff relevant to clinical psychology like the anatomy of a brain). Do you think for someone like me it is better to first enroll into a TAFE course to gain knowledge of high school chemistry, bio, physics, math, before attempting to study for the UMAT and/or GAMSAT?

Thank you in advance!
 

DrDrLMG!

Resident Medical Officer
Administrator
Hi LMG! and everyone else!

I'm a provisional psychologist (due to graduate in a few months from Master of Clinical Psych) and have wanted to pursue medicine for a few years now. I did not do chemistry, maths, bio or physics in high school, so my knowledge in those areas is very poor (except the stuff relevant to clinical psychology like the anatomy of a brain). Do you think for someone like me it is better to first enroll into a TAFE course to gain knowledge of high school chemistry, bio, physics, math, before attempting to study for the UMAT and/or GAMSAT?

Thank you in advance!

Welcome to MSO, and yay, a new clinical psychology to med friend!!

I can reply with regard to UCAT (it's not UMAT anymore) and studying Medicine, but not GAMSAT as I've never done it. Verdigris would be the person to speak to about GAMSAT as someone from a NSB (and she happens to have a handy blog about exactly that topic that I will try to find a link for!).

You should definitely prepare for UCAT but as soon as you look at it you'll realise that it's just a WAIS on steroids and you'll (if you're anything like me with UMAT) bloody love the challenge :D You most definitely don't need to do refresher bio/chem/etc for UCAT. And I know you've not actually asked this specifically, but it's also not necessary for studying medicine UNLESS you are intending to apply to universities that have chemistry and/or maths as a pre-requisite. Of the non-standard unis, that would be JCU and Curtin. In these instances, it's unlikely a TAFE course would cut it and your best bet would be to enquire directly with the unis about which bridging courses they'd prefer you to do.

I had to do a bridging chemistry unit to be eligible for UTAS and while it was fun and certainly reaffirmed my desire to get back to studying and the sciences more specifically, it hasn't been of any benefit whatsoever since I've started med and everything I've needed to know has been taught from scratch.

PS. the link as promised: Sitting the GAMSAT – my experience

ETA: there's also a graduate entry forum similar to MSO called Paging Dr but dedicated to those entering med who already have a degree. There is a lot of information over there about sitting GAMSAT with a NSB that you should have a look at.
 
Last edited:

Verdigris

baby doctor
Silliest Member 2019
hi ksenia!!

i personally did do chem bio and physics @ high school and for my first year of uni, so i was fine just revising that knowledge from textbooks. however, if it's fresh content, i've watched a youtube video by a lady with a background similar to yourself who did take night classes so she would not have to learn the concepts without a teacher. maybe you could have a look at some practice questions n judge from there? :)
 

Registered  members with 100+ posts do not see Ads

DrDrLMG!

Resident Medical Officer
Administrator
hi ksenia!!

i personally did do chem bio and physics @ high school and for my first year of uni, so i was fine just revising that knowledge from textbooks. however, if it's fresh content, i've watched a youtube video by a lady with a background similar to yourself who did take night classes so she would not have to learn the concepts without a teacher. maybe you could have a look at some practice questions n judge from there? :)

Is this your suggestion for GAMSAT preparation, Verdigris?
 

DrDrLMG!

Resident Medical Officer
Administrator
ksenia, if you do decide to engage in a refresher of some kind for GAMSAT, then definitely have a look at all the unis you'd be keen to apply to, evaluate them for pre-requisites, and then make sure what you're doing also ticks those boxes. No point having to do it all twice :D

Good luck and if you have more questions, let us know.
 

Registered  members with 100+ posts do not see Ads

Top