No intake for new prospective students for GAMSAT or VCE

I regret to inform that I will not be taking any new students for the GAMSAT or VCE subjects these summer holidays and it is very unlikely that I will be taking any in the future. After these holidays, the next summer "holidays" will most likely be a very short one between medical school and internship, and I intend to make the most of those.

Although I enjoyed the last two rotations, this year has been a long year for me with this exam period, and I also have an elective coming up next week for another four weeks cutting into my holiday. For the rest of the holiday, I intend to spend most of the rest of it either resting, or looking at some biostatistics and reading more research articles online to get a handle around my research project for the first semester next year.

I apologize for any inconvenience caused. I wish the best for you all doing the GAMSAT and hope you can find an alternative tutor.

GAMSAT 2014 Australia over. No new student intake until after end of year exams.

Today was the date for GAMSAT 2014. If you sat the GAMSAT this year, I hope you have done well. The results will be out in approximately mid-May, in 8 weeks.

I am planning to concentrate more on my studies, so I will not be taking on any new students for the GAMSAT or VCE until after my end of year exams this year. I'll also be required to do a medical student elective during the upcoming summer break, so my availability will be restricted on some days more than usual on holidays. I apologize for any inconvenience caused.

GAMSAT 2014 in two weeks!

The GAMSAT Australia 2014 is in two weeks time! If you were one of my tuition students, I have sent an email on some tips. If I have tutored you and you haven't received this, feel free to send me an email and I will send it to you.

Not too long to go now! Keep up with your studies and good luck for the test!

Free webinars on GAMSAT preparation from PrepGenie: The Eureka Webinars

This is a message from PrepGenie. PrepGenie, a medical test prep company is conducting a series of free online seminars on GAMSAT preparation: The Eureka Webinars.

This series consists of 4 webinars which will be delivered by GAMSAT toppers:

• Sumudu Perera (95 percentiler)
• Michael Marazita (98 percentiler) and 
• Reuben Lim (99 percentiler).   

Click here to enrol

What to expect from the webinar:

• Exam Strategies, smart tips and silver bullets in your pocket from the toppers.
• Live demonstration of solving difficult GAMSAT questions.
• Special Eureka Q&A session to get your queries resolved.

If you are still wondering if this is for you, check out what we will discuss in the four back to back webinars:

• GAMSAT: The New Perspective
• GAMSAT Humanities and Essays
• GAMSAT: Science Demystified
• GAMSAT Strategies Explained

What's the catch? We designed this as an exclusive workshop for only those who are serious about taking action, so we are limiting the seats. Grab yours now!

Simply CLICK HERE and you will be sent to a registration / checkout page and you will be off to the races.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact support@prepgenie.com.

[update] 2013 MD2 OSCE done! Available for GAMSAT/VCE tuition.

Today I did my last exam for the year, the OSCE. We had two examination and three history stations.

I now realize a few things which I forgot to do during the stations. Also, there was a weight loss station, where the correct diagnosis was apparently type 1 diabetes. I did not get that diagnosis right, and many people I talked to didn't either. Some people did, but others had answers ranging from hyperthyroidism to cancer.

Ah well. I hope that I did better than in last year's OSCE. For now, all the exams are done. I should be able to tutor people now. Keep in mind that it will be more convenient for me to tutor in Monash on the holidays than Melbourne. For more information, see the GAMSAT Science 100 + VCE tutor page at the top of the blog.

I will do a longer post about this year after the results come out. In the past I made some annual posts on the anniversary of my blog creation, but it is more logical to make them at the end after results come out and not have repetition.

PrepGenie GAMSAT Comprehensive Series 20% off

I was involved in reviewing questions for PrepGenie last year and this year. PrepGenie’s GAMSAT Comprehensive Series consists of 10 full length tests and 20 sectional tests on Humanities, Biology, Chemistry and Physics along with 10 sets of free essay evaluation. PrepGenie also wants to give all readers of my blog a 20% off on this course. The price set for the package is 475 AUD but you get it at 380 AUD, unbelievably low.

To take advantage of this offer, use the discount coupon "BOBBYLI". To purchase multiple courses with discounts, please contact support@prepgenie.com.

The GAMSAT Practice Test Papers can be found here: http://prepgenie.com/gamsat/gamsat-test-papers/

GAMSAT SIII 100: Win The Day (Team SIII parody)

For some reason, today I've decided to make a subtitled video regarding GAMSAT SIII.

GAMSAT SIII 100: Win The Day (Team SIII parody)

I will most likely resume GAMSAT tutoring after my exams in November. For more info, visit http://additionelimination.blogspot.com.au/p/blog-page_8.html

Ace Physics free iOS app‏

One of my friends in the Melbourne MD program has made a new iOS app called Ace Physics (Android app not yet available). I have tried a few of the questions and had a look at this app myself. This is a question bank app with questions of varying difficulty and random number generation, together with very detailed, comprehensive worked solutions for each question. It is an excellent way to consolidate physics knowledge on the go.

This app has trial questions which are free to try, with extra topics able to be downloaded with additional charge of 0.99 c (notation parody intended) if you are satisfied with the trial questions and solutions.

Download the free trial version at http://www.acephysics.com/ and send any feedback to the form on that site at http://www.acephysics.com/contact.php.

There may be instances when the numbers do not make sense. If this happens, then an app reset or phone/tablet restart is required.

Temporary postponement of intake of GAMSAT and VCE students

Effective immediately, it is unlikely that I will take on any new students for the tuition of VCE or the GAMSAT until the end of the university year 2013 for my year of the MD program (University of Melbourne MD Year 2). According to the Melbourne Medical School website, this is until 22 November 2013. I have decided to focus more on my studies. I apologize for any inconvenience caused, especially if you were seeking to undertake the GAMSAT UK.

GAMSAT 2013 results released

Today the GAMSAT 2013 results were released. To my students and readers of this blog who sat the GAMSAT, I hope you went well. Now it will be time to decide preferences if your score combined with GPA and/or portfolio gives you a reasonable prospect of getting in somewhere.

If I tutored you for the GAMSAT this time, especially if we had several sessions, I would like to know how you went this time; and also compared to your last sitting if you did the GAMSAT previously as well.

GAMSAT 2013 results in 1-2 weeks

Today is the last day of the first week of May. Going by historical release dates, I would expect the results to be released in one to two weeks.

Most of the wait is over now! To my students and other readers of the blog, good luck if you are waiting for results.

[update] MD2 Semester 1 midsemester break

I am now on my midsemester break for semester 1 this year, due to Good Friday being a public holiday.

This will be a good time to rest, although there are a lot of lectures to revise. I still have to submit two more de-identified patient cases as part of a pass/fail hurdle we have to clear (total 24 in the year).

After the break, we'll move back into the "proper" clinical school which was undergoing renovations. I'm looking forward to playing some table tennis on the breaks.

The university still has not told us specifically when we are allocated to go on our rural placement though. Australian CSP students need to do at least 4 weeks of rural placement. We were supposed to do it in our third or fourth year, and they initially planned to inform us when at the start of the year, but we still haven't been told. Ah well, I guess it's still a while to go anyway. I hope I don't have to go during my scholarly selective though... that may be a bit problematic; especially with only 6 months to do some sort of research project.

For everyone who did the GAMSAT last Saturday, and especially my students, I hope you went well.

GAMSAT 2013 tomorrow

The Australian GAMSAT for 2013 is tomorrow. To everyone I have tutored and to the readers of my blog sitting for the GAMSAT, good luck for this GAMSAT!

Get enough sleep before tomorrow, remember to bring your lunch and water, and remember to think and use good exam strategy.

PrepGenie: GAMSAT Booster series introduced. 25% off other courses.

I was involved in reviewing questions for PrepGenie last year and this year. PrepGenie has now introduced a GAMSAT Booster series consisting of 3 FLTs and 4 sectional tests along with 3 sets of free essay evaluation. The price set for the package, 50 AUD, is unbelievably low. PrepGenie also wants to give all readers of my blog 25% off on all other courses.

To take advantage of this offer, use the discount coupon "BOBBYLI". To purchase multiple courses with the discount, purchase each item and check them out separately.

The GAMSAT Practice Test Papers available from PrepGenie can be found here: http://prepgenie.com/gamsat/gamsat-test-papers/

GAMSAT in 3 weeks

The GAMSAT is now just under three weeks away. If you are sitting it this year, I hope the preparation is going well. You may be interested in some of the tabs on the top if the page.

Meanwhile, I'm still getting used to the clinical school. It is cool how we get free tea, coffee and Milo supplied. Our clinical school is undergoing renovations at the moment though so we don't have table tennis or pool tables, but we should have them back soon.

[update] MD2 starts next week.

Tomorrow will be the last day of my Immediate level Intensive Summer Course in Chinese. As I said earlier in my blog, my Chinese is not as good as I would like it to be, so this summer I decided to enroll in a course to improve it. If it doesn't clash with the start of the year for medicine next year, I might join it again next year if they have it available.

Today we were able to purchase the subject guides for second year medicine in the bookshop for $36. Here's what the whole pack looks like:

Since I'll be starting medicine again next week, I won't be available as often for GAMSAT and VCE tutoring; definitely not available during morning and afternoon of weekdays. Since I won't be able to satisfy all prospective demand as the GAMSAT approaches, anyone new who initiates contact regarding tuition from now on will have slightly increased fees. That said, the fees are still a lot lower than other GAMSAT tutors I have seen. See the GAMSAT Science 100 + VCE tutor link on the top of the page for updated information regarding tutoring.

Happy new year!

I think it's safe now to say that we have survived 2012. I hope that 2013 will be a good year for everyone.

This year I'll be spending most of my time in the hospital. It will be a different experience to sitting in lectures and classrooms for most of the day, but there will be some lectures still. I'll have to improve my clinical skills a lot this year if I want to get good grades.

Good luck if you are sitting the GAMSAT this year and trying to get into medical school. Right now I am available to tutor for the GAMSAT or VCE math methods, specialist, chemistry or physics at the University of Melbourne or Monash. See the GAMSAT Science 100 + VCE tutor tab at the top of the blog for more information. Right now, I can tutor most times apart from around 1.30 to 3.30 pm. However, when university starts for Medicine again on 4 February, I will be more restricted to tutoring after uni hours and on weekends.

In more unrelated news, Girls' Generation released a new song recently, but I don't like it as much as most of their previous songs. Nowadays I listen to other artists more, including IU. I linked a music video of one of IU's songs in one of my posts one or two months ago (아이유 - 너랑 나), although it was all in Korean, and with some "improper" word usage.

Also, it seems like the computers in the biomedical library at UniMelb have very annoyingly had their sound disabled, even when putting in headphones! Not only does it mean that we can't watch youtube videos properly, it also means that anyone who actually wants to study and re-listen to lectures through echo360 cannot do so. Silly idea I think. I can anticipate an influx of complaints once the standard semester starts if it's not changed!

PrepGenie: 50% off GAMSAT preview course. 25% off all other courses.

I was involved in reviewing GAMSAT practice questions with PrepGenie at the start of this year. PrepGenie wants to give all readers of my blog 50% off the GAMSAT preview course and 25% off all other courses.

To take advantage of this offer, use the discount coupon "BOBBYLI". To purchase multiple courses with the discount, purchase each item and check them out separately.

The GAMSAT Practice Test Papers available from PrepGenie can be found here: http://prepgenie.com/gamsat/gamsat-test-papers/

[update] Back from China

I have finally returned home now after being in China and Hong Kong for almost 3 weeks. The trip had highlights, although also lots of boring portions. When I was around 10 years old I used to really like traveling. However, now that I've been to several different places, there's less and less substantially different things to see each time. After a while, a lot of it just becomes "another rock, another lake, another building, another road"...

Anyway, this was the first time I went to China and Hong Kong. I won't go into all the details of the trip, but here's a few "take-away" points I got:

• The cities are quite developed now. That said, there's still a significant amount of squat-toilets there (in mainland China that is. I didn't notice any squat toilets in HK).
• I particularly like the count-down timers on the vehicle and pedestrian traffic lights in Chinese cities (esp Shanghai), which I also noticed in some places in Malaysia and Singapore when I was there. I haven't noticed any of them in Australia.
• The train system in Guangzhou and Shenzhen reminds me of Singapore's MRT. I'm quite sure they run better than the Melbourne trains, and in Shenzhen a single trip fare on a train or bus is only 2 RMB!
• Facebook and Blogger are blocked in China. I also notice that my blog view count has reached 0 for several days for probably the first time in the history of my blog since I made it (maybe because I told everyone I'd be away beforehand). Anyway, I'm back now. (*EDIT* Hmm now I think maybe my website was blog site was blocked because my google account got locked. They thought it was suspicious activity when I tried to log on in China and HK, but I didn't bother to unlock my account since I didn't have a mobile number there... Can anyone confirm any difficulties getting to my blog site within the past two weeks?)
• Even though the prices of electronic goods may be cheaper in store in Hong Kong (Mong Kok) than Australia, for the particular models of phone I was looking at the prices for, the shop prices in Hong Kong are still more than on the internet in the cheapest Australian websites (although that might be a bit more than on the internet in HK websites delivered to HK addresses).
• Hong Kong has an excellent Airport Express train service where you can check in luggage (in Kowloon) before boarding a train to the airport. Melbourne doesn't even have a train to the airport!

Now that I'm back, I'll be available to tutor for the GAMSAT and VCE again

G is for GAMSAT

One of my friends has released a GAMSAT preparation guide for free download called G is for GAMSAT.

Here is his message from Facebook:

"Are you interested in post-graduate medicine, dentistry or optometry, and need to the sit the GAMSAT, but not sure how to prepare? Due to popular demand, I have written a small guidebook to hopefully answer all of your questions. Download my FREE PDF book 'G is for GAMSAT' for an overview of GAMSAT preparation, including hints for all sections and sample essays. Please feel free to share this on your wall and with your friends. Like this page to keep updated :)

Download PDF here: http://bit.ly/GisforGAMSAT

Thank you - Gayan K (Year 1 Melbourne MD Student)" 

Source: link on facebook.