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
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.