Why Getting Into Med Can Be Gruelling (And two things you can do about it.) By Michael John Sunderland, 90plusgamsat.com | 22.09.22   Here’s a dose of reality: life’s hard. If you want a job that’s easy to get into, go work in a chicken shop. “But then,” I hear you say, “I won’t be fulfilled, my parents won’t be proud, I won’t have the income and social status I desire, I won’t be able to prove those high school friends that said I won’t be anything wrong.” Sure. So, pick your hard.   Either struggle toward a goal that inspires you; or struggle because you gave up and have to deal wi ..read more

The Five C’s Clear and effective GAMSAT Section II writing by Michael John Sunderland, 90plusgamsat | 29.06.21 Gosh, it’s been a minute. I’ve focussed the bulk of my attention on extraordinary Section II writing for around 18 months now, and as a result of my tutoring and marking essays in the 90+ Facebook group, I’ve had the benefit of not only learning what scores well for myself, but how most students’ essays depart from what I learned about how to score highly in Section II. This knowledge is going to help you fix half of all errors I see in GAMSAT writing, and let your ideas shine through ..read more

The Art of the Task A Introduction How focussed and effective Task A writing begins. By Michael John Sunderland, 90plusgamsat.com | 01.12.21 —– This is an excerpt from the book How to Kick *ss in Task A: a methodology designed by me which allowed me to get 91 in Section 2 in the GAMSAT, and which has successfully been used by students of 90plusgamsat to replicate this score (90 – March 2021; and 91 – September 2021).  The book is available at 90plusgamsat.com ; and mentoring available at 90plusgamsat.com/mentors Enjoy! —- Introduction Short hook Acknowledgement of theme First aspec ..read more

The 90+ approach to nailing the last few weeks before the GAMSAT. by Michael John Sunderland | 90plusgamsat.com Here you are. It’s just a few weeks to go. You’re probably telling yourself everything is on the line: all the time you’ve studied, your future, people’s perception of you, the esteem of your friends and family, some fiction about finally “making it.” I get it. Firstly, just so you know, passing the GAMSAT means none of those things – about you, people’s thoughts of you, or your future. Getting a 67 or higher means you got a 67 or higher. That’s it. If you want to make it mean more t ..read more

Understanding Philosophy and the Humanities The smart way to study for Section I and II   Shabeer Zacky | Master GAMSAT Tutor | 90plusgamsat | —- A note from Michael: Hello team, we are lucky today to have a guest post by my very own GAMSAT tutor, and Fraser’s GAMSAT’s very first employee. He’s been teaching GAMSAT for 9 years and has degrees in both philosophy and education. Over and above that, he’s the smartest guy I know, so we’re very lucky to have him contributing. The topic? How to situate ideas from the humanities into an epistemic landscape that allows you to interact with Sectio ..read more

The 90+ Mindset: How to nail the GAMSAT before you even arrive at the test centre It’s said “Success is an abundance of small things done well.” I read on Reddit recently that my essays weren’t anything special, just some fancier words. Perhaps. To be honest I never said my essays were special, only that they got 91. Which they did. So, whatever works. *Shrugs* This said, it got me thinking about the locus of success. Is it all in the essays? The essays are an output. But there are SO many inputs out of site that you don’t get to see. I have as much to say about mindset as I do about writing ..read more

Task B Aesthetic By Michael John Sunderland, S2- 91 I developed this style of responding to Task B to enable me to display the broadest spectrum of the quality of my thinking and engaging with the topic at a variety of levels. It ultimately scored (along with the corresponding Task A style response) 90 in Section II. It seems, then, that it’s reasonable to conclude there is something about this approach that’s worthy of further investigation; if not already a very close articulation of an ideal GAMSAT Section II response. So what is an ideal Task B response? An ideal response is one that achie ..read more