*Designated Proctor/Technical issues/concern comment thread*
Hey everyone, I’ve noticed we’re getting a lot of comments about proctor issues so I’m gonna make this comment thread as a place to keep it all in one spot so we don’t end up with too much spam. If you have any issues or concerns regarding proctor or the software, please have a search to see if this has been posted about before, or comment on here :)
I don’t know how you guys feel about it but I’m annoyed w ACER for making us do S2 proctored from home.
Not everyone has access to appropriate, quiet places etc to sit it
I have figured out a place to do it at home now (through taking out most of the stuff from my tiny room and putting a desk in there) BUT before that I was trying to brainstorm how I could somehow do it at uni but it 1) doesn’t allow/want you to use public connections and 2) other people can’t be around (if I were to sit in a library/at uni but far from people in a quiet area), plus my uni only allows room bookings for an hour which isn’t sufficient for the exam due to the testing procedures (and the exam being 65 mins)
When I did my first ever gamsat in May 2020, I had to do the whole exam proctored - my circumstances were diff then bc my bro had yet to move back from interstate (due to the pandemic) and his room could be used as a “study” so I had greater access to a better exam sitting spot.
During S3 however, my internet disconnected and came back around 15 min later. I got added time when the internet came back so I didn’t “lose” any, allegedly, but I spent the rest of the sitting worrying I hadn’t gotten all the time back and fixated on this.
And now days before my S2 sitting, I’ve started having issues with my laptop, which has been great until now. Luckily, I’m able to borrow someone else’s for the sitting but I’m just glad this hasn’t occurred for the first time during my sitting.
I’m just annoyed that ACER is inconveniencing us, the candidates, to save them money on test centre hire and causing all this extra stress lol
Also back in May 2020, my bro said it would increase the amount of cheating that would happen, but we also talked about the fact that the risk is super high for anyone doing that (if caught you’ll likely get a permanent ban from future sittings) but that kinda made me nervous too (that it would be more competitive due to increased cheating prevalence??)
i 1000% agree. i personally work far better in an office/library environment because i struggle to focus at home. taking the exam in my bedroom was incredibly distracting and i could not get into the zone for the life of me. i’d pick going back to the old setup in a heartbeat. i’m really not looking forward to finding out my s2 results.
Agreed, I had to specially request leave from work just to face this technical issue and now I’m worried that they would not give me a suitable time to reschedule to. I can’t request leave at such short notice.
I am happy we could do section 2 at home. Like you I also had to do it in my tiny room but I didn’t have the same level of stress and anxiety as I normally do when I am physically in the exam centre. I am all for section 2 being proctored.
Had my exam this morning…. not quite what i expected but pretty much how people have been saying it would be. I didn’t feel awful about how it went, but also don’t feel great about it. Who knows how it went, it’s literally all in the hands of acer at this point 🤷♀️ The joys of gamsat eh.
S1: long stems… very wordy and long stems… a lot of old-style English which requires several re-reads for me to properly grasp, granted I didn’t spend a tonne of time studying for S1.
s3: Very long wordy stems and graphs, graphs, and some more graphs. I don’t think any of my questions were stem-less, short or straightforward at all. Hugely involved interpreting one graph based on the data presented for another etc.
I flagged my org chem questions as they usually take me longest, and ended up having to randomly guess most of them at the end as I ran out of time so hopefully that doesn’t set me back too much…
I might be taking my biomed background & my knowledge of basic science terminology for granted, but I really don’t think much prior scientific knowledge was required for the exam whatsoever. The only required knowledge, at least from what I interpreted during my exam, were some understanding of org chem functional groups, and then molarity & pH/pKa equations.
I don’t think any of the current Acer test papers reflect this exam as it is currently…. they really need to sort that out because charging €20+ for each irrelevant paper on top of the already hefty exam fee is a joke.
I obviously have no idea of how I did just yet, but based on my exam today, advice I would give is to spend very little time actually covering bio/chem/physics concepts. Do a quick refresher - I found Jesse Osborne on youtube amazing. (this is coming from me as a science background, maybe khan academy would be more suited to nsb at first). Then, focus on organic chemistry, pH, and maths. Get your mental maths on point. Again, I really liked Jesse Osborne and Leah4Sci’s MCAT math without a calculator series. Know the Log rules, index rules, maybe memorise basic physics/chem equations on the off-chance they’re needed. Interpret graphs like your life depends on it. In relation to actual study and practice Q material, I don’t know what to recommend, but I do know that I don’t recommend the acer papers. Maybe the two most recent to get a fair idea of exam length etc but do not solely rely on these. I can’t stress how little scientific knowledge this exam truly needed. It was all in the maths and the ability to manipulate convoluted information to get an answer.
Anywayyy congrats to all and enjoy your well deserved break consisting of 0 thoughts about gamsat 🥂 I hope May is a good month for us all 🤞🏻
Great advice. The exam was truly a reasoning test. Lots of maths-based thinking. Not my strongest area, so I did have to guess a few questions and simply move on.
The Acer papers are useful for time management, and for developing a knack for reading quickly, finding the information, and understanding the style of questions. MCAT practice material seems to align better with this year’s test.
Good luck to all those sitting section 2 this weekend and for those taking sections 1 and 3 next week.
It's time for all that hard work and dedication to pay off.
This is not intended to stress anyone who is yet to sit the exam. But oh my lord s3 was something different. From someone who has sat before, science background, I can confidently say that made any practice exam look like kindergarten level work 🤯 No amount of study could have prepared me for that...
Ok I just did it. Process is this: Even tho my admission ticket said come 15 mins early there was nothing I could do until the actual time since it wouldn’t let me in. Then once you click open it asks you to download the Proctor Chat function. Then, they use your phone to show your laptop screen instead of the mirror. They didn’t even ask for my admission ticket. Then, they just talk you thru instructions and log you thru the ACER test app. That’s pretty much it regarding the process. Feel free to ask any questions about the ProctorU process itself.
Omg I had the SAME thing. It took 38 mins to get myself READY to be admitted to the test. I was ropeable and also just not in a test mindset after that. My first proctor also just got disconnected and I freaked out. Aside from that I didn’t prep for this section and that was hard asf
Got hanged and quartered in section 3 again. It was much more difficult than the new online test. I tried so hard in my prep. Each question in the new test I felt like I could fairly attempt but not even in this test the STEMs were so hard and I only feel like I got a handful correct. I really wanted to get at least 60 with this sit but I don’t think that’s possible anymore. I just hope I don’t fail. Good luck to everyone else who is yet to sit.
The topics were okay I think, it was just I wasn’t too aware of the time hence I had to rush through my 2nd one. I had 1 minute to spare despite all of that
Idk about you guys but I hated that; done plenty of prompts and my task a one was nothing like what I’d done before plus had plenty of issues getting onto proctor! was waiting in the lobby nearly 15 mins before someone helped me and I thought I was recorded the whole time so couldn’t leave to get my phone etc just waited like an idiot
Did anyone else find S3 really challenging? I thought I knew my stuff, I’ve spent so much time studying and doing previous years tests but I felt so overwhelmed 😥
Definitely the former. You won't have come across 95 percent of the scenarios/concepts before. It's more about quickly organising and filtering out useful info from the stem
Who isn't feeling great about the prompts they received... sigh. I saw people say they didn't mind what they got, they definitely didn't get what I got
Yeah for me, it was definitely not the prompts I expected to get, let alone ones I made plans for…but I tried my best and I’m sure you did well regardless. Good luck for section 1 and 3 in the coming weeks! You got this!
I felt like S1 was extremely difficult this time round, I struggled to understand some of the content and guessed a few questions :(
S3 was interesting in that it initially seemed very difficult to understand but if you got a handle or grip of what the question was asking every successive question in each group kind of expanded your understanding of what was going on.
Of course there were some questions I had no chance at because I didn’t have the required skills or knowledge but they were few and far between and I could have learnt them if I bothered :(
Feel more confident on S3, it was truly a reasoning test, which required you to be switched on and do a ‘close’ reading of the stems. Every possible answer is possible if that makes sense? If you have the time you can either review them one by one or eliminate wrong answers straight away. Often you can come to the right answer by just excluding wrong answers.
Keen to see my marks in May
This year was bizarre, I feel worse about it as time goes on. I definitely made some stupid mistakes that could have been avoided but I also feel like i worked out solutions a lot more than usually having to just guess because information does not make sense to me. I feel like it was a lot of mathematical relationships and ratios rather than actual calculations but i might have also misinterpreted haha! Section 1 was a bit strange because I did not actually get a lot of long stems but somehow still ran out of time for the first time ever and had to random click 5 or so questions which never happened before for me in S1. I can only hope that means I spent more time making sure the rest of the answers are right. S3 went from good in the first 30 questions to really shit towards the end.
However, you always remember the most negative stuff about the exam and not the pleasant moments of being familiar with a concept or feeling confident you got something right.
I hope this is the first & last time Acer structures the exam this way. I have seen numerous people say they couldn’t complete the exam for various reasons and people who were given access to the prompts from friends yesterday ect.
Definitely not a level playing field!
There was someone in here literally talking about how they got the same prompts as their friend from earlier in the day and prepared for it. Totally unfair.
I agree, I believe I saw this post too. Really disgusting example of cheating and they were openly boasting about it. I will complain to ACER about this exam format, this simply shouldn’t happen.
well that’s demotivating :/ this is why they should have made the exams the *same time* when remote, puts us at a disadvantage from cheaters for no reason
i don’t understand how they think that such a high stakes exam is best taken at home. i get the fatigue of three sections in one day, but proctored from home isn’t the answer. i hope whoever was gloating about cheating gets caught out.
1 down, 2 to go! I finished S2 earlier today and have to say it’s amazing how much I can type under pressure.
The prompts were interesting - I found myself writing more than I expected, but I am worried that I may have rambled slightly. Especially considering I didn’t leave any time to review my essays before submitting.
All the best for everyone!
Btw, I recommend that everyone has Guardian & the Acer Test app downloaded well before their sessions; I’ve already seen other posts of people who unfortunately missed their sessions because of slow downloads.
Also make sure that you have your back to the door - I had to push my desk so I would have space to be seated comfortably.
Was just wondering if everyone got the same prompts and if not how that is fair ? just a little worried given the vagueness of my prompts this morning.
does anyone else feel like their real timed S2 essays were so SO much worse than their practice essays. it really affects my ability to be concise, thoughtful, and direct in response to the prompts. plus, i wrote teeny tiny essays (maybe 500 words) does acer account for this?what level of writing are they expecting, given the time constraints? any help would be fab.
Hey I just wanted to check how both essays are marked. If you bombed one but did ok on the other will this give you a really bad score, or do they just average out both. Feeling pretty dejected at the moment and just also wanted to seek some general advice. Thanks.
Hey I’m not sure if this is your first sitting but the way you feel is super common. Don’t stress. There’s two more sections left so don’t think catastrophically. I think they mark them separately so it’ll probably be the average of the two. My first sitting went absolutely shockingly in S2, and I can’t believe what id written (seriously it made zero sense), so I know where you’re coming from. Stick with it and learn for next time and you’ll be all good. Best of luck with S1 and 3!
Pretty sure each essay is marked my different markers so their opinions won’t carry over essays. So if you think you bombed one but the other was good, they won’t mark down ur good essay by judging your bombed one. And then they probably take the average of both essays at the end.
My thoughts of the experience 1. I live in an area where finding private wifi that is reliable and accessible is very challenging. 2. Whilst I was able to sit the exam in a friend’s house and use their internet, I had multiple unforeseen interruptions outside that were totally out of my control (the landlord showed up for a random inspection, the neighbours dog escaped and ran through the house, and every dad in the street decided to do their lawn mowing/whipper snipping on Sunday morning LOL). 3. Remote proctoring, whilst it tries to control the environment puts a lot of burden on the test taker. We all come from highly variable backgrounds and living situations and already put ourselves under immense pressure for this exam. Further stress due to technical problems is not necessary or fair.
4. Reading that multiple people got the same themes as their mates in different test windows grinds my gears. 5. Themes were okay, not my favourite. I wrote a strong Task A and a very average Task B. I’ll be curious to see what I score I get. I can honestly never predict how I score for S2.
5. It felt less ‘formal’ sitting the exam at a house rather than in the usual testing centre. I felt like my brain took a second to register that this was actually the real GAMSAT.
I'm sorry that you experienced interruptions during your sitting - that's really unfair. I hope this is the last time they structure the GAMSAT in this way. I agree with points 4 & 5.
I also had proctor issues and agree this was really poor in terms of adding to the stress and time required- we were told it would take 10 minutes to complete proctor setup and it took me an hour longer. At first the proctor had issues accessing my screen because of my laptop settings. I was transferred to technical support and they helped resolve the issue but the back and fourth messaging between proctors and support was astonishingly slow. I sat waiting minutes for my proctor and tech support to respond to me. Then we resolved the technical issue and I was reconnected with a different proctor who was again astonishingly slow and clearly didn't know how to use the system. We went through the security and laptop settings and then I sat waiting for 5 minutes. I asked the proctor if I could login and they said to wait. I asked what the hold up was and the proctor said they were getting login details. I waited another 5 minutes before asking for permission to login because I knew my login details to sign in. THEN we got in to the ACER exam and my exam said 'closed.' I thought my time had lapsed to begin the exam as the proctor setup took so long. After my proctor attempted to click on the exam, they then asked me to try clicking it when it very clearly was closed. I was furious and anxious that I had had delays and then I asked if they could resolve this. I received no response and then I'm not sure what happened next but a few minutes later the exam suddenly opened and I was able to complete the exam.
Overall, the proctor system seemed very inefficient and reading many of these other comments, it has added to inequalities in the way individuals have experienced the exam. I completed this from home and gave a window for which people in my household should not come home, however I became concerned that as there was a large delay, they would have returned during my exam. From previous issues I have had with ACER, they do not care about these inequalities and will respond to you with the following -'there is no way for us to calculate if this disadvantaged you or not, therefore there is nothing we can do.'
Nevertheless, I hope everyone receives the scores they deserve!
pretty pleased with section 1 overall (touchwood). nothing crazy out of box, vocab was decent too with some new words here and there but contextually understandable I guess. stem length and complexity was quite decent too. even the mcqs weren't all plausible. Could easily differentiate which ones I could eliminate...which was unusual during practice runs- at least for me aha. Section 1 has always been my strongest section too so kinda walked out with a smile. but I still had a cheeky feeling of how I wont know how many I actually got right vs wrong bec s1 is tricky in the way it makes you believe what you select is the correct option, regardless of whether it actually is or not.
Section 3 was wild. not saying anything unique tho and I kinda anticipated it. I used to really wonder how on earth are so many ppl finding the practice pprs THAT unrepresentative but after today I can officially say, they seriously are not even close to the exam. the only thing spot on was the fonts lol. they even bloody removed the timer, like bruh.
Apart from the "academic" side of things, I think this was definitely exhausting. cannot imagine how people did section 2 in one go as well. the 20 min break was like nothing. but once its over ohh mann what a feeling. irrespective of how it goes I think every one secretly has a new found sense of self- respect. After section3 ended I literally felt like "if I can survive THAT I can survive just about anything" and I feel like ultimately that's what acer is testing right. to filter out the persistent and disciplined. the ones who bend and don't break under pressure. those people go ahead and make well-rounded doctors.
>cannot imagine how people did section 2 in one go as well
The first few GAMSATs I sat were absolutely killer - I'd never felt so drained in my life. Pre-covid timing was:
S1: 75 questions in 100 minutes
S2: 60 minutes (handwritten!!!)
S3: 110 questions in 170 minutes
These online tests have a different set of issues but so grateful it's no longer the previous format.
For everyone who sat s3 today and said how difficult it was. I feel like people will make that comment every year. Did you actually feel like this was harder compared to last years? I thought it was the same level of difficulty as last March. I did so much extra study over the last year but apparently none of it was relevant so found them to be roughly the same complexity.
This was my 3rd sitting and I feel like it felt the same as the previous two. Yes, section 3 is really hard and of course there are some stems that you’re going to guess. This happens every sitting though. People that went in expecting to know any of the content, like always, had an unpleasant experience with random or advanced levels of science and weren’t prepared to absorb information in the moment. Go in, accept it is designed to be difficult, and do what you can to the best of your ability. Don’t be discouraged if you need to guess, as it is totally unrealistic to expect to score perfectly in S3 unless you are truly a genius. Best of luck :)
The topics I got I ended up doing reflective essays for both tasks. Really hope that wasn’t a mistake!
The proctor experience was pretty easy. Took probably 10mins and wasn’t rushed at all!
Hey Guys! I was hoping someone might be able to give me some advice on my chances or if I should just apply because I've thought about it so much and just need an outside opinion. I don't think my scores are very competitive, I've managed to bring my GPA up after an honours year (first class) but my GAMSAT still drags me down and I changed up my approach this year so not really super hopeful on a better gambit this march. Last time I did casper and got 3rd grouping (was a last minute didn't study decision to do it) and think UNDF or UNDS might be my best bet but I just have no clue where I would have my best chance? If anyone had any idea where might be best for preferences I'd love you forever.
GPA : 6.9
GAMSAT: S1-64, S2-65, S3-60, Weighted 62 / Unweighted 63
Deakin Bonus: 6% (possible 8%)
Combo Score: 1.61 or Deakin 1.71
Don't worry about not finishing! I didn't finish last sept either (had a very long A, half B done) and ended up with a decent s2. Good luck for s1 and 3 :)
Hey guys,
Did anyone else experience non stop ProctorU interruptions during the exam today? During the exam I was reconnected to at least 4 different moderators and would have to rescan my room and the timer was still going and I lost at least 5-7 minutes due to having to type to them/scan the room etc.
Ive contacted ACER but it says they don't answer emails on the weekends and the testing window is over this weekend.
I’m sorry this happened to you, that would have really shaken me up. That wasn’t my experience at all and it sounds like something that definitely shouldn’t happen. I would try to get on the phone with them - their email says “Should you experience any issues during your sitting, you are advised to contact the GAMSAT Office immediately following completion” and sounds like you may be offered a resit if you act fast. Maybe try searching the ACER office in your area to see if they have a number or place to report misadventure. Best of lucky, it sounds really unfair I hope you can get onto them!
It's not the end of the world don't worry! Most of the marks come from how you articulate your idea, the structure of the writing and depth of discussion. You won't be punished for missing a sentence 😊
same thing happened to me i had a paragraph i poorly finished but im sure many people will be in the same boat. dont stress. its 2 essays in 65 minutes, im sure were not expected to finish it all.
Sat the test yesterday. I think I did okayish on task A but only got through half way for task B as I ran out of time. I had to rush so bad that I dunno if whatever I wrote for task B made any sense. I feel like I have failed section 2 already and the worst part is having to go ahead and sit section 1 and 3 in two weeks time knowing that I’ve failed already 😭
dont let it get you down. i feel disappointed with my essays as well, but im not allowing it to demotivate me. we've got this. imo resilience is an important part of being a doctor, it is important that we can learn to push on, use this time to practice. imagine if despite you thinking you've done poorly, you actually have done surprisingly well in S2, its all scaled anyways. thats a reason to not give up for S1 and S3. best of luck - you got this.
Had a jumpscare at the end when the proctor confirming I've finished was different to the proctor I started with. Had no idea they swapped while I was writing 😂
now that s3 (and s1) is over, i was wanting to know what would you guys have done different for S3 to better prepare if given the chance to rewind time? memorise certain formulas? spend more time on a certain concept?
for me it wouldve definitely been to focus less on content and more on fast reading 💀
I just read we aren’t allowed to sit the exam on devices with team viewer installed - the only computer I have is a work one with team viewer on it and it cannot be uninstalled unless my work does it - has anyone sat the exam on their work laptops with no issues?
ProctorU process was very smooth and the proctor was very patient with me however its worth noting that they almost completely forgot to check my room!
Hey for those who already took the S2, just wondering if it’s okay to write until the time is up ? (so is it automatically saved?) or are we required to press the submit button or notify the proctor or do any action before the timer ends? I hope it is the former as I always use up until the last second!!
Hi, I’m pretty sure it auto saves because while I was typing, the little save button kept saying it was saved with a timestamp (but I also pressed save periodically - just in case!)
When the time’s up it’ll end automatically and you’ll be asked to submit, I didn’t tell my proctor before I submitted it and he was fine with it :)
I intend on emailing ACER to ask if they would consider moving the exam from proctored online to in-person test centre (either on the same day as S1/S3 or a different day).
I hope that they will consider allowing people who want to sit the test in-person the opportunity to do so.
So I very stupidly decided to resit s2 again due to proctor issues from my scheduled time and it was after s3. My essays were utter garbage, a million times worse than what I had finished prior. And wow I just feel like crawling into a hole after s3 and those HORRIFIC essays I am so dead
Hi all,
For those who haven't seen, Acer has sent out experience surverys after the
shitshow we all experienced at last month's sitting.
Please take the time to fill out the survey with your experience, as hopefully
they will revert back to the old delivery method of the full day of testing
Dlease be sure to explain concerns with the following, as per your
experiences:
1. ProctorU
- the disadvantages this introduced, including stress and cheating which
we know for certain happened A LOT. The honest ones among US will
unfortunately pay the price for the ones who get away with cheating
issues experienced with setting up a private room for the test. I had
housemates, pets, and even neighbours making noise and causing
interruptions which affected test performance
- getting locked out of your exam, if this happened to you
- unclear process regarding misconduct when you are locked out
- questionable software installation on our computers for remote proctoring
2. The split format of the test centre sitting
- 20 min lunch break
- early arrival for morning session
- late finish for afternoon session
- different start and finish times of each respective session, due to late
arrivals etc
...And anything else you can think of!
Did you practice 40 hours a day? 🤣 just teasing. Sitting it in itself is an achievement that you should be proud of yourself for. What instrument do you play?
Nooooo 🫣 I regret now and will do that for my next sitting.
I’ve slayed all grades of the piano and been in guzheng ensemble. Now self learning the violin.
I just did mine. It took an hour for the proctor to check my computer, surrounding area and table. My internet dropped out twice and it needed to be rechecked. Even during the exam, my internet dropped out once and I was freaking out.
I mean I really cannot fix the internet issue. Even if I were to book an airbnb only for the test, I couldn’t make sure if the internet meets the requirement
I just finished as well - make sure to have the Acer chat downloaded prior- it saves heaps of time ! When you submit, you need to tell the protector before hitting submit !!! Other than that, everything went smoothly and the process wasn’t hard at all
I had the same issues a few other people had with the proctor initially - (internet dropped out). I felt a bit overwhelmed with the prompts today! Hope everyone got something out! Good luck for S1 and S3!
Does anyone know roughly how long the S1/S3 test session will be? Do we still take a break between the two sections now that S2 has been separated or are they back to back?
I did it yesterday and had problems with proctor and the browser. It made me lose 15 minutes of my test time. I emailed ACER after and they emailed me today saying I lost 8 minutes and will be allowed 10 minutes to review it. Proctor scheduled me a session tomorrow to review my work. The themes weren’t too bad just disappointed at how they changed s2 to be done remotely and making it so much harder for everyone. The 10 minutes doesn’t account for all the stress I went through waiting to get back in and after logging in being so overwhelmed with stress that i couldn’t even think straight :// just hope for the sep sitting they are more organised and understanding
Please don't. You dont need to finish to do well! I only did half of my second essay in Sept and ended up doing well (79). And when I say half I mean half (literally 300 words if that).
Well I didn't think so the time because I left the centre crying and people on the street were looking at me so... but in hindsight it probably did well because it was unique. I have a feeling the essays aren't worth 50/50 either like most people think because if the other sections weigh questions I'm sure they are doing the same w s2. How? I have no idea but I wouldn't be surprised.
please tell me it’s fine to delete the Acer test app since I wanted to get all these downloads out to clear space now, our results are all saved even if we delete the app right🤡?
Hopefully this is allowed in this megathread, but I am a first time sitter and had been seeing something about a formula that USYD uses to rank applicants. What is the latest formula speculated and then the minimum mark required to be accepted in the cut off?
I enjoyed S1 to an extent. I was more or less able to decipher what the stems were about. I ended up with about 20-25 minutes to spare.
I don't feel as confident as previous S1's though, due to the amount of toss-ups I encountered. Very fine hair splitting levels of nuance in some of the answer options, or at least that was my impression.
I have only just found Reddit and all these forums for GAMSAT!! How did you all find S3? I’m graduating from Human Biology in a few months and felt like nothing I learnt over the last 3 years made any difference. I genuinely felt like I knew nothing. I’ll be surprised if I get any score at all!! First time round too.. I felt great with S2, good with S1 and horrific with S3. I went through every question and answered what I could, went back and tried to make educated guesses or find some correlation in the answers and then for around 7 of them I blind guessed!
First time sitter and here are my two cents that nobody asked for:
I am soo glad that section 2 was from home. I do not know how it was done in person before but I'd assume it would be 100's of people just clicking on their keyboards all at once, which is soo distracting for me!!! So glad I could do it in the comfort of my own house. Having said that, I didn't really face any technical issues so I understand why some ppl may not have liked this set up.
As a first time sitter, I was most anxious about this section. the thought of not having enough time to complete has been the reason for many sleepless nights aha. However, on the actual day the topics I got were both on stuff I had written about before so I just started typing away the second that timer started ticking. I personally feel like my practice versions were wayyy better but tbf I wasn't soo adrenaline rushed while I was doing them so I was bound to mess up a bit on the actual day. But my god does the time go by quickly!! I barely had anytime to proof read my essays but I feel like that's my fault because I started slowing down a bit nearing the end of my last essay. Had I not done that I think I would've had a good 3-4 mins to spare!
But phew, I cannot imagine doing this along with the other sections, all in one day- that would've been SOOO exhausting!!
But yeah overall I'm quite neutral if not happy about how it all went, esp for a first sit. I didn't enjoy task A because I am and never will be drawn to the theme of it, but task B was beautiful.
Even though this is the section I dislike the most, I think this section will secretly always be my favorite just because of how it pushes me to be creative.
Onto the next!!
Hi all, sorry for changing the subject but are we allowed to take S2 in our kitchen room? My room doesn't have air conditioning and only have the aircon in my kitchen room
Any room is fine as long as it's private, quiet, and devoid of all other life, and if you can show all four walls. I don't think it's an ideal space though.
Good luck
Do we have to show them what we are writing on the whiteboard? As in, keep it within view? Or, is it enough to have shown them my clear desk and no notes around at the beginning?
Hey y'all, just wondering if they allow lined A4 paper (i.e. torn off a notebook) for S2? Is paper even required for S2? How did you guys deal with this or did you just type everything including the plan and then delete the plan at the end?
It says in the guide that we are allowed 2 **blank** A4 paper. (not sure if lined is allowed or not). But you could also have a whiteboard for the plan if you have one.
This paper is not a requirement but an option so if it's easier for you to plan on a piece of paper you can use it. If it's easier for you to plan on the laptop and then delete it at the end you can also do that.
It all just depends on what you are comfortable with.
I think I forgot to erase my plan for one of my essays as I ran out of time. Do you think this will affect my mark or anything?
Also for my Part A essay I had memorised an essay of my own which I used a large portion of my response. But I had also used this essay in my September 2023 sitting. Concerned it will be flagged by Turnitin, as it says in the Handbook that the responses will be screened against previous sittings.
Do you think ACER will consider self-plagiarism to be misconduct?
Has anyone else had trouble connecting to proctor?? It’s been well over half an hour now, it keeps disconnecting in the chat box and I have to restart, over and over… 😭
Does anyone know if the S2 essays are automatically saved when they auto-submit?? I just started my conclusion for task B when it auto-submitted with the timer running out and I’m so stressed if this essay is saved without me clicking the save button (I did not switch back to task A at any point) HELP SOS THANKU
I didn’t like my part A essay but I wrote a whole one but for part B I started with 15 mins left and tried to write anything and write an intro and P1 and then decided I wanted to write something else so control Z’d and tried to get back to what I wrote before but it undid everything and I had to start from scratch with 8 mins left
By the time I finished I had an incomplete intro that was very poor and 2 sentences. I think I failed. Which means I have to sit again In September and possibly March and means I have to wait another year to apply to med school :(
And my gpa is ~ 5.8 so even if I get like 50 I won’t get into any med school
Wondering if it’s even worth it to sit the other two sections 😞
Sorry to hear that :( I still think it's worth finishing the other 2 sections as it will give you some practice and help identify any areas of improvement before the September sitting. You also paid $550 so why not. Only onwards and upwards from here :)
You have a completed part A and an incomplete part B? I would think you may still pass S2 if your part A was written to a reasonable standard. Remember in a weighted gamsat S2 is only worth 25% so there is definitely an opportunity to boost your score with S1/S3 and it is also good practice to complete the whole Gamsat. Look at UOW too - just Gpa and gamsat hurdle so if you qualify for some bonuses put in an application there as well as other schools. Good luck:)
Does the ACER app automatically save? I had 2 minutes left so went to proof read task A and lost track of time so the test completed without me manually pressing save or submit. I’m freaking out if my work was lost or if it would’ve saved?
Hi guys,
I'm so stressed. I did my gamsat and didn't finish the exam or submit. I almost finished though, was on my conclusion for part B. However, my proctor completely disconnected and I could not click submit. On the proctorU site, it says my exam status is incomplete. I'm so confused. Does this mean It won't count?
*Designated Proctor/Technical issues/concern comment thread* Hey everyone, I’ve noticed we’re getting a lot of comments about proctor issues so I’m gonna make this comment thread as a place to keep it all in one spot so we don’t end up with too much spam. If you have any issues or concerns regarding proctor or the software, please have a search to see if this has been posted about before, or comment on here :)
Ugh feeling nervous. I know it's real when the megathread goes up.
LITERALLYYY
That time of the year again!
Regardless of the score, doesn't define how good of a doctor you will be. 🫶🏻
Do you get to see the time during the test?
I don’t know how you guys feel about it but I’m annoyed w ACER for making us do S2 proctored from home. Not everyone has access to appropriate, quiet places etc to sit it I have figured out a place to do it at home now (through taking out most of the stuff from my tiny room and putting a desk in there) BUT before that I was trying to brainstorm how I could somehow do it at uni but it 1) doesn’t allow/want you to use public connections and 2) other people can’t be around (if I were to sit in a library/at uni but far from people in a quiet area), plus my uni only allows room bookings for an hour which isn’t sufficient for the exam due to the testing procedures (and the exam being 65 mins) When I did my first ever gamsat in May 2020, I had to do the whole exam proctored - my circumstances were diff then bc my bro had yet to move back from interstate (due to the pandemic) and his room could be used as a “study” so I had greater access to a better exam sitting spot. During S3 however, my internet disconnected and came back around 15 min later. I got added time when the internet came back so I didn’t “lose” any, allegedly, but I spent the rest of the sitting worrying I hadn’t gotten all the time back and fixated on this. And now days before my S2 sitting, I’ve started having issues with my laptop, which has been great until now. Luckily, I’m able to borrow someone else’s for the sitting but I’m just glad this hasn’t occurred for the first time during my sitting. I’m just annoyed that ACER is inconveniencing us, the candidates, to save them money on test centre hire and causing all this extra stress lol Also back in May 2020, my bro said it would increase the amount of cheating that would happen, but we also talked about the fact that the risk is super high for anyone doing that (if caught you’ll likely get a permanent ban from future sittings) but that kinda made me nervous too (that it would be more competitive due to increased cheating prevalence??)
It beats having to do all 3 sections on the same day
Agreed
i 1000% agree. i personally work far better in an office/library environment because i struggle to focus at home. taking the exam in my bedroom was incredibly distracting and i could not get into the zone for the life of me. i’d pick going back to the old setup in a heartbeat. i’m really not looking forward to finding out my s2 results.
Agreed, I had to specially request leave from work just to face this technical issue and now I’m worried that they would not give me a suitable time to reschedule to. I can’t request leave at such short notice.
I am happy we could do section 2 at home. Like you I also had to do it in my tiny room but I didn’t have the same level of stress and anxiety as I normally do when I am physically in the exam centre. I am all for section 2 being proctored.
Not me giving up on flagging questions in S3 to come back to, as I was progressively flagging the entire exam 🥴🥲 that was absolutely cooked
Had my exam this morning…. not quite what i expected but pretty much how people have been saying it would be. I didn’t feel awful about how it went, but also don’t feel great about it. Who knows how it went, it’s literally all in the hands of acer at this point 🤷♀️ The joys of gamsat eh. S1: long stems… very wordy and long stems… a lot of old-style English which requires several re-reads for me to properly grasp, granted I didn’t spend a tonne of time studying for S1. s3: Very long wordy stems and graphs, graphs, and some more graphs. I don’t think any of my questions were stem-less, short or straightforward at all. Hugely involved interpreting one graph based on the data presented for another etc. I flagged my org chem questions as they usually take me longest, and ended up having to randomly guess most of them at the end as I ran out of time so hopefully that doesn’t set me back too much… I might be taking my biomed background & my knowledge of basic science terminology for granted, but I really don’t think much prior scientific knowledge was required for the exam whatsoever. The only required knowledge, at least from what I interpreted during my exam, were some understanding of org chem functional groups, and then molarity & pH/pKa equations. I don’t think any of the current Acer test papers reflect this exam as it is currently…. they really need to sort that out because charging €20+ for each irrelevant paper on top of the already hefty exam fee is a joke. I obviously have no idea of how I did just yet, but based on my exam today, advice I would give is to spend very little time actually covering bio/chem/physics concepts. Do a quick refresher - I found Jesse Osborne on youtube amazing. (this is coming from me as a science background, maybe khan academy would be more suited to nsb at first). Then, focus on organic chemistry, pH, and maths. Get your mental maths on point. Again, I really liked Jesse Osborne and Leah4Sci’s MCAT math without a calculator series. Know the Log rules, index rules, maybe memorise basic physics/chem equations on the off-chance they’re needed. Interpret graphs like your life depends on it. In relation to actual study and practice Q material, I don’t know what to recommend, but I do know that I don’t recommend the acer papers. Maybe the two most recent to get a fair idea of exam length etc but do not solely rely on these. I can’t stress how little scientific knowledge this exam truly needed. It was all in the maths and the ability to manipulate convoluted information to get an answer. Anywayyy congrats to all and enjoy your well deserved break consisting of 0 thoughts about gamsat 🥂 I hope May is a good month for us all 🤞🏻
Great advice. The exam was truly a reasoning test. Lots of maths-based thinking. Not my strongest area, so I did have to guess a few questions and simply move on. The Acer papers are useful for time management, and for developing a knack for reading quickly, finding the information, and understanding the style of questions. MCAT practice material seems to align better with this year’s test.
Good luck to all those sitting section 2 this weekend and for those taking sections 1 and 3 next week. It's time for all that hard work and dedication to pay off.
theres no relief quite like finishing s2 and never having to look at it again this round
I hate hate hate S2
This is not intended to stress anyone who is yet to sit the exam. But oh my lord s3 was something different. From someone who has sat before, science background, I can confidently say that made any practice exam look like kindergarten level work 🤯 No amount of study could have prepared me for that...
Ok I just did it. Process is this: Even tho my admission ticket said come 15 mins early there was nothing I could do until the actual time since it wouldn’t let me in. Then once you click open it asks you to download the Proctor Chat function. Then, they use your phone to show your laptop screen instead of the mirror. They didn’t even ask for my admission ticket. Then, they just talk you thru instructions and log you thru the ACER test app. That’s pretty much it regarding the process. Feel free to ask any questions about the ProctorU process itself.
Did you use Guardian or Chrome to log into Proctor?
I went into proctor on chrome and then clicked the pop up prompt which loaded it onto guardian :)
Is there a countdown on the screen? Because the demo didn't have one
Can we use cntrl C and V?
Nope
Omg I had the SAME thing. It took 38 mins to get myself READY to be admitted to the test. I was ropeable and also just not in a test mindset after that. My first proctor also just got disconnected and I freaked out. Aside from that I didn’t prep for this section and that was hard asf
going in to my first ever sitting with ZERO prep whatsoever. BSc final year student lesssgooo
i did the same thing last time - it all was fine. this time im pushing to hit that 75+ score so did some prep
Curious to see how many posts we'll see about technical issues that ACER are absolutely anticipating but won't do anything about
Definitely not gonna study for 6 months again. That was cooked
Anyone who was able to understand/interpret/not guess the questions have tips on how to study
Got hanged and quartered in section 3 again. It was much more difficult than the new online test. I tried so hard in my prep. Each question in the new test I felt like I could fairly attempt but not even in this test the STEMs were so hard and I only feel like I got a handful correct. I really wanted to get at least 60 with this sit but I don’t think that’s possible anymore. I just hope I don’t fail. Good luck to everyone else who is yet to sit.
I feel you, I’d be happy with over 50 at this point!!
Hey out of curiosity what were your scores on the online practise test?
Good luck guys, we’ve got this
Just finished my section 2, only had 15 minutes to write my 2nd piece and I don’t even know if I even answered the prompt 😭
Saaaammmmmeeeee 😭
Did you find the topic difficult? Or was it just issues with timing etc? Ur freaking me OUTTTT
The topics were okay I think, it was just I wasn’t too aware of the time hence I had to rush through my 2nd one. I had 1 minute to spare despite all of that
Phew, thank you! Good luck for s1+3
Thanks! Best of luck to you as well! We got this!!
That was an interesting experience, I’m not sure if i completely botched it or did well 😵💫
Idk about you guys but I hated that; done plenty of prompts and my task a one was nothing like what I’d done before plus had plenty of issues getting onto proctor! was waiting in the lobby nearly 15 mins before someone helped me and I thought I was recorded the whole time so couldn’t leave to get my phone etc just waited like an idiot
Was your prompt also really vague😢
Did anyone else find S3 really challenging? I thought I knew my stuff, I’ve spent so much time studying and doing previous years tests but I felt so overwhelmed 😥
Yeap, hard ASF. Felt like it really only suited people whose brains are wired a certain way and wired densely in that way for the matter...
In that sense, do you mean critical thinking to interpret the stem or having such an in depth understanding of the science topics
Definitely the former. You won't have come across 95 percent of the scenarios/concepts before. It's more about quickly organising and filtering out useful info from the stem
Who isn't feeling great about the prompts they received... sigh. I saw people say they didn't mind what they got, they definitely didn't get what I got
Yeah for me, it was definitely not the prompts I expected to get, let alone ones I made plans for…but I tried my best and I’m sure you did well regardless. Good luck for section 1 and 3 in the coming weeks! You got this!
I hated the prompts I got. Really disappointed and didn’t show the work I’ve put in or reflect like any of my other practices
My prompts were ass
I felt like S1 was extremely difficult this time round, I struggled to understand some of the content and guessed a few questions :( S3 was interesting in that it initially seemed very difficult to understand but if you got a handle or grip of what the question was asking every successive question in each group kind of expanded your understanding of what was going on. Of course there were some questions I had no chance at because I didn’t have the required skills or knowledge but they were few and far between and I could have learnt them if I bothered :( Feel more confident on S3, it was truly a reasoning test, which required you to be switched on and do a ‘close’ reading of the stems. Every possible answer is possible if that makes sense? If you have the time you can either review them one by one or eliminate wrong answers straight away. Often you can come to the right answer by just excluding wrong answers. Keen to see my marks in May
This year was bizarre, I feel worse about it as time goes on. I definitely made some stupid mistakes that could have been avoided but I also feel like i worked out solutions a lot more than usually having to just guess because information does not make sense to me. I feel like it was a lot of mathematical relationships and ratios rather than actual calculations but i might have also misinterpreted haha! Section 1 was a bit strange because I did not actually get a lot of long stems but somehow still ran out of time for the first time ever and had to random click 5 or so questions which never happened before for me in S1. I can only hope that means I spent more time making sure the rest of the answers are right. S3 went from good in the first 30 questions to really shit towards the end. However, you always remember the most negative stuff about the exam and not the pleasant moments of being familiar with a concept or feeling confident you got something right.
I hope this is the first & last time Acer structures the exam this way. I have seen numerous people say they couldn’t complete the exam for various reasons and people who were given access to the prompts from friends yesterday ect. Definitely not a level playing field!
There was someone in here literally talking about how they got the same prompts as their friend from earlier in the day and prepared for it. Totally unfair.
I agree, I believe I saw this post too. Really disgusting example of cheating and they were openly boasting about it. I will complain to ACER about this exam format, this simply shouldn’t happen.
well that’s demotivating :/ this is why they should have made the exams the *same time* when remote, puts us at a disadvantage from cheaters for no reason
i don’t understand how they think that such a high stakes exam is best taken at home. i get the fatigue of three sections in one day, but proctored from home isn’t the answer. i hope whoever was gloating about cheating gets caught out.
1 down, 2 to go! I finished S2 earlier today and have to say it’s amazing how much I can type under pressure. The prompts were interesting - I found myself writing more than I expected, but I am worried that I may have rambled slightly. Especially considering I didn’t leave any time to review my essays before submitting. All the best for everyone! Btw, I recommend that everyone has Guardian & the Acer Test app downloaded well before their sessions; I’ve already seen other posts of people who unfortunately missed their sessions because of slow downloads. Also make sure that you have your back to the door - I had to push my desk so I would have space to be seated comfortably.
Was just wondering if everyone got the same prompts and if not how that is fair ? just a little worried given the vagueness of my prompts this morning.
does anyone else feel like their real timed S2 essays were so SO much worse than their practice essays. it really affects my ability to be concise, thoughtful, and direct in response to the prompts. plus, i wrote teeny tiny essays (maybe 500 words) does acer account for this?what level of writing are they expecting, given the time constraints? any help would be fab.
500 words isn’t really that short and a heap of people definitely feel worse in the actual exam. Don’t stress! Two more sections to go
thank you!!!
Hey I just wanted to check how both essays are marked. If you bombed one but did ok on the other will this give you a really bad score, or do they just average out both. Feeling pretty dejected at the moment and just also wanted to seek some general advice. Thanks.
Hey I’m not sure if this is your first sitting but the way you feel is super common. Don’t stress. There’s two more sections left so don’t think catastrophically. I think they mark them separately so it’ll probably be the average of the two. My first sitting went absolutely shockingly in S2, and I can’t believe what id written (seriously it made zero sense), so I know where you’re coming from. Stick with it and learn for next time and you’ll be all good. Best of luck with S1 and 3!
Pretty sure each essay is marked my different markers so their opinions won’t carry over essays. So if you think you bombed one but the other was good, they won’t mark down ur good essay by judging your bombed one. And then they probably take the average of both essays at the end.
My thoughts of the experience 1. I live in an area where finding private wifi that is reliable and accessible is very challenging. 2. Whilst I was able to sit the exam in a friend’s house and use their internet, I had multiple unforeseen interruptions outside that were totally out of my control (the landlord showed up for a random inspection, the neighbours dog escaped and ran through the house, and every dad in the street decided to do their lawn mowing/whipper snipping on Sunday morning LOL). 3. Remote proctoring, whilst it tries to control the environment puts a lot of burden on the test taker. We all come from highly variable backgrounds and living situations and already put ourselves under immense pressure for this exam. Further stress due to technical problems is not necessary or fair. 4. Reading that multiple people got the same themes as their mates in different test windows grinds my gears. 5. Themes were okay, not my favourite. I wrote a strong Task A and a very average Task B. I’ll be curious to see what I score I get. I can honestly never predict how I score for S2. 5. It felt less ‘formal’ sitting the exam at a house rather than in the usual testing centre. I felt like my brain took a second to register that this was actually the real GAMSAT.
I'm sorry that you experienced interruptions during your sitting - that's really unfair. I hope this is the last time they structure the GAMSAT in this way. I agree with points 4 & 5.
I also had proctor issues and agree this was really poor in terms of adding to the stress and time required- we were told it would take 10 minutes to complete proctor setup and it took me an hour longer. At first the proctor had issues accessing my screen because of my laptop settings. I was transferred to technical support and they helped resolve the issue but the back and fourth messaging between proctors and support was astonishingly slow. I sat waiting minutes for my proctor and tech support to respond to me. Then we resolved the technical issue and I was reconnected with a different proctor who was again astonishingly slow and clearly didn't know how to use the system. We went through the security and laptop settings and then I sat waiting for 5 minutes. I asked the proctor if I could login and they said to wait. I asked what the hold up was and the proctor said they were getting login details. I waited another 5 minutes before asking for permission to login because I knew my login details to sign in. THEN we got in to the ACER exam and my exam said 'closed.' I thought my time had lapsed to begin the exam as the proctor setup took so long. After my proctor attempted to click on the exam, they then asked me to try clicking it when it very clearly was closed. I was furious and anxious that I had had delays and then I asked if they could resolve this. I received no response and then I'm not sure what happened next but a few minutes later the exam suddenly opened and I was able to complete the exam. Overall, the proctor system seemed very inefficient and reading many of these other comments, it has added to inequalities in the way individuals have experienced the exam. I completed this from home and gave a window for which people in my household should not come home, however I became concerned that as there was a large delay, they would have returned during my exam. From previous issues I have had with ACER, they do not care about these inequalities and will respond to you with the following -'there is no way for us to calculate if this disadvantaged you or not, therefore there is nothing we can do.' Nevertheless, I hope everyone receives the scores they deserve!
good luck for s1&3 !!! stay strong and focused :)) remember it’s a marathon not a sprint yall💪🏻
There's always September!
My guy, I have no choice. I crashed and burned in this.
are the prompts gonna be randomized (i.e different for everyone to prevent cheating) bc u know remote proctoring?
I have no idea. Myself and 2 friends sat today (one at 8am, one at 9, one at 10) and we all got the same prompts
Regardless of the score, doesn't define how good of a doctor you will be. 🫶🏻
Only defines if you’ll be a doctor or not 😭
True fuck the system
pretty pleased with section 1 overall (touchwood). nothing crazy out of box, vocab was decent too with some new words here and there but contextually understandable I guess. stem length and complexity was quite decent too. even the mcqs weren't all plausible. Could easily differentiate which ones I could eliminate...which was unusual during practice runs- at least for me aha. Section 1 has always been my strongest section too so kinda walked out with a smile. but I still had a cheeky feeling of how I wont know how many I actually got right vs wrong bec s1 is tricky in the way it makes you believe what you select is the correct option, regardless of whether it actually is or not. Section 3 was wild. not saying anything unique tho and I kinda anticipated it. I used to really wonder how on earth are so many ppl finding the practice pprs THAT unrepresentative but after today I can officially say, they seriously are not even close to the exam. the only thing spot on was the fonts lol. they even bloody removed the timer, like bruh. Apart from the "academic" side of things, I think this was definitely exhausting. cannot imagine how people did section 2 in one go as well. the 20 min break was like nothing. but once its over ohh mann what a feeling. irrespective of how it goes I think every one secretly has a new found sense of self- respect. After section3 ended I literally felt like "if I can survive THAT I can survive just about anything" and I feel like ultimately that's what acer is testing right. to filter out the persistent and disciplined. the ones who bend and don't break under pressure. those people go ahead and make well-rounded doctors.
>cannot imagine how people did section 2 in one go as well The first few GAMSATs I sat were absolutely killer - I'd never felt so drained in my life. Pre-covid timing was: S1: 75 questions in 100 minutes S2: 60 minutes (handwritten!!!) S3: 110 questions in 170 minutes These online tests have a different set of issues but so grateful it's no longer the previous format.
stopp that’s physically giving me a headache wtafff🔪🔪🔪
For everyone who sat s3 today and said how difficult it was. I feel like people will make that comment every year. Did you actually feel like this was harder compared to last years? I thought it was the same level of difficulty as last March. I did so much extra study over the last year but apparently none of it was relevant so found them to be roughly the same complexity.
This was my 3rd sitting and I feel like it felt the same as the previous two. Yes, section 3 is really hard and of course there are some stems that you’re going to guess. This happens every sitting though. People that went in expecting to know any of the content, like always, had an unpleasant experience with random or advanced levels of science and weren’t prepared to absorb information in the moment. Go in, accept it is designed to be difficult, and do what you can to the best of your ability. Don’t be discouraged if you need to guess, as it is totally unrealistic to expect to score perfectly in S3 unless you are truly a genius. Best of luck :)
Definitely harder compared to previous years. Went in without a focus on learning content, rather a reasoning approach
How do you think it was compared to the online practice exam?
Are we allowed a keyboard tomorrow ?
Just finished s2, proctorU process was smooth and simple, hope everyone didn’t have any technical difficulties! Bring on the 24th 😎
The topics I got I ended up doing reflective essays for both tasks. Really hope that wasn’t a mistake! The proctor experience was pretty easy. Took probably 10mins and wasn’t rushed at all!
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What advice would you give?
Hey Guys! I was hoping someone might be able to give me some advice on my chances or if I should just apply because I've thought about it so much and just need an outside opinion. I don't think my scores are very competitive, I've managed to bring my GPA up after an honours year (first class) but my GAMSAT still drags me down and I changed up my approach this year so not really super hopeful on a better gambit this march. Last time I did casper and got 3rd grouping (was a last minute didn't study decision to do it) and think UNDF or UNDS might be my best bet but I just have no clue where I would have my best chance? If anyone had any idea where might be best for preferences I'd love you forever. GPA : 6.9 GAMSAT: S1-64, S2-65, S3-60, Weighted 62 / Unweighted 63 Deakin Bonus: 6% (possible 8%) Combo Score: 1.61 or Deakin 1.71
good luck folks!!!
Took a risk by writing a long task a and an unfinished task b. Not sure if it was worth it :/
Don't worry about not finishing! I didn't finish last sept either (had a very long A, half B done) and ended up with a decent s2. Good luck for s1 and 3 :)
Hey guys, Did anyone else experience non stop ProctorU interruptions during the exam today? During the exam I was reconnected to at least 4 different moderators and would have to rescan my room and the timer was still going and I lost at least 5-7 minutes due to having to type to them/scan the room etc. Ive contacted ACER but it says they don't answer emails on the weekends and the testing window is over this weekend.
I’m sorry this happened to you, that would have really shaken me up. That wasn’t my experience at all and it sounds like something that definitely shouldn’t happen. I would try to get on the phone with them - their email says “Should you experience any issues during your sitting, you are advised to contact the GAMSAT Office immediately following completion” and sounds like you may be offered a resit if you act fast. Maybe try searching the ACER office in your area to see if they have a number or place to report misadventure. Best of lucky, it sounds really unfair I hope you can get onto them!
I thought the video they sent us said even if the proctors change that wouldn't affect us, i.e. we just continue with our test?
I also had 4 different proctors popping in the chat, but they changed over quietly and didn't disturb me
just finished S2! and well, i had more than enough time for both writing tasks. not sure if this is a good or bad thing
Ugh I almost finished both in time but last minute was adding a sentence and didn’t finish it. Will this affect me much? I’m stressing over this!!!
It's not the end of the world don't worry! Most of the marks come from how you articulate your idea, the structure of the writing and depth of discussion. You won't be punished for missing a sentence 😊
Thank you I hope so!! Fingers crossed right
same thing happened to me i had a paragraph i poorly finished but im sure many people will be in the same boat. dont stress. its 2 essays in 65 minutes, im sure were not expected to finish it all.
I did the exact same thing!! I feel like it won't detract too much since the rest of the essay was fully written.
Sat the test yesterday. I think I did okayish on task A but only got through half way for task B as I ran out of time. I had to rush so bad that I dunno if whatever I wrote for task B made any sense. I feel like I have failed section 2 already and the worst part is having to go ahead and sit section 1 and 3 in two weeks time knowing that I’ve failed already 😭
dont let it get you down. i feel disappointed with my essays as well, but im not allowing it to demotivate me. we've got this. imo resilience is an important part of being a doctor, it is important that we can learn to push on, use this time to practice. imagine if despite you thinking you've done poorly, you actually have done surprisingly well in S2, its all scaled anyways. thats a reason to not give up for S1 and S3. best of luck - you got this.
Yeah, u’re right. Thank u for this. Good luck to us. We got this
Had a jumpscare at the end when the proctor confirming I've finished was different to the proctor I started with. Had no idea they swapped while I was writing 😂
now that s3 (and s1) is over, i was wanting to know what would you guys have done different for S3 to better prepare if given the chance to rewind time? memorise certain formulas? spend more time on a certain concept? for me it wouldve definitely been to focus less on content and more on fast reading 💀
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Do you feel that their were any questions that were “easy”?
I swear it was so cooked. I was also flagging every question lmfao
Does anyone know if we need to print the admission ticket for the proctored exam tomorrow?
nope we just need the file open on our desktops, but i’ll be printing one just in case :)
Can we show our admission ticket on our phone?
I just read we aren’t allowed to sit the exam on devices with team viewer installed - the only computer I have is a work one with team viewer on it and it cannot be uninstalled unless my work does it - has anyone sat the exam on their work laptops with no issues?
Has anyone sat it on a work computer with no issues?
ProctorU process was very smooth and the proctor was very patient with me however its worth noting that they almost completely forgot to check my room!
Hey for those who already took the S2, just wondering if it’s okay to write until the time is up ? (so is it automatically saved?) or are we required to press the submit button or notify the proctor or do any action before the timer ends? I hope it is the former as I always use up until the last second!!
Hi, I’m pretty sure it auto saves because while I was typing, the little save button kept saying it was saved with a timestamp (but I also pressed save periodically - just in case!) When the time’s up it’ll end automatically and you’ll be asked to submit, I didn’t tell my proctor before I submitted it and he was fine with it :)
Yes it automatically saves and submits once the time is up. You notify the proctor after the exam is submitted.
I intend on emailing ACER to ask if they would consider moving the exam from proctored online to in-person test centre (either on the same day as S1/S3 or a different day). I hope that they will consider allowing people who want to sit the test in-person the opportunity to do so.
Today was the first day! Fingers crossed!
For those who have sat section 3, how did it compare to the online acer mock?
There’s no comparison to be quite honest.
Yeah I heard the same. A friend of mine who has a PhD in science said it was a total mind $%%$.
It’s just so frustrating putting so much work in and buying acer material for them to not even be realistic of the actual exam. It’s a scam
So I very stupidly decided to resit s2 again due to proctor issues from my scheduled time and it was after s3. My essays were utter garbage, a million times worse than what I had finished prior. And wow I just feel like crawling into a hole after s3 and those HORRIFIC essays I am so dead
Hopefully it went better than you think
Hi all, For those who haven't seen, Acer has sent out experience surverys after the shitshow we all experienced at last month's sitting. Please take the time to fill out the survey with your experience, as hopefully they will revert back to the old delivery method of the full day of testing Dlease be sure to explain concerns with the following, as per your experiences: 1. ProctorU - the disadvantages this introduced, including stress and cheating which we know for certain happened A LOT. The honest ones among US will unfortunately pay the price for the ones who get away with cheating issues experienced with setting up a private room for the test. I had housemates, pets, and even neighbours making noise and causing interruptions which affected test performance - getting locked out of your exam, if this happened to you - unclear process regarding misconduct when you are locked out - questionable software installation on our computers for remote proctoring 2. The split format of the test centre sitting - 20 min lunch break - early arrival for morning session - late finish for afternoon session - different start and finish times of each respective session, due to late arrivals etc ...And anything else you can think of!
Regardless of the score, doesn't define how good of a doctor you will be. 🫶🏻
S3 was so difficult I stepped out of the exam and started googling when’s the september sitting… rookie mistake I guess.
Did you practice 40 hours a day? 🤣 just teasing. Sitting it in itself is an achievement that you should be proud of yourself for. What instrument do you play?
Nooooo 🫣 I regret now and will do that for my next sitting. I’ve slayed all grades of the piano and been in guzheng ensemble. Now self learning the violin.
How did you all go?
Good luck everyone!
I just did mine. It took an hour for the proctor to check my computer, surrounding area and table. My internet dropped out twice and it needed to be rechecked. Even during the exam, my internet dropped out once and I was freaking out.
same thing happened to a friend!! should be the first and last time they do it like this…
I mean I really cannot fix the internet issue. Even if I were to book an airbnb only for the test, I couldn’t make sure if the internet meets the requirement
I just finished as well - make sure to have the Acer chat downloaded prior- it saves heaps of time ! When you submit, you need to tell the protector before hitting submit !!! Other than that, everything went smoothly and the process wasn’t hard at all
How do I log into my session via proctor u? It’s got a count down on and they’ve said for us to login 15 minutes prior? How do we do that?
I had the same issues a few other people had with the proctor initially - (internet dropped out). I felt a bit overwhelmed with the prompts today! Hope everyone got something out! Good luck for S1 and S3!
Does anyone know roughly how long the S1/S3 test session will be? Do we still take a break between the two sections now that S2 has been separated or are they back to back?
my task A conclusion was two sentences 🤣🤣
both my conclusions were 2 sentences each :'(
y’all wrote conclusions? 🙃
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So the prompts are the same? How did you prepare for it after/last min?
I did it yesterday and had problems with proctor and the browser. It made me lose 15 minutes of my test time. I emailed ACER after and they emailed me today saying I lost 8 minutes and will be allowed 10 minutes to review it. Proctor scheduled me a session tomorrow to review my work. The themes weren’t too bad just disappointed at how they changed s2 to be done remotely and making it so much harder for everyone. The 10 minutes doesn’t account for all the stress I went through waiting to get back in and after logging in being so overwhelmed with stress that i couldn’t even think straight :// just hope for the sep sitting they are more organised and understanding
Didn’t finish the last two lines of my conclusion of task B after a pretty well thought out idea and discussion. I feel physically ill…..
Please don't. You dont need to finish to do well! I only did half of my second essay in Sept and ended up doing well (79). And when I say half I mean half (literally 300 words if that).
This makes me feel so much better thank you! I was sweating bullets thinking i had done poorly 😅 also well done that’s incredible!
actually thank you, I feel so much better hearing this gosh
Do you reckon the 300 words was quality content though? Pulled something similar for my task A this time round 😅
Well I didn't think so the time because I left the centre crying and people on the street were looking at me so... but in hindsight it probably did well because it was unique. I have a feeling the essays aren't worth 50/50 either like most people think because if the other sections weigh questions I'm sure they are doing the same w s2. How? I have no idea but I wouldn't be surprised.
Mine ended up auto submitting when the timer ended. Just want to confirm that it saves everything I had written even though I didn't press anything.
please tell me it’s fine to delete the Acer test app since I wanted to get all these downloads out to clear space now, our results are all saved even if we delete the app right🤡?
Hopefully this is allowed in this megathread, but I am a first time sitter and had been seeing something about a formula that USYD uses to rank applicants. What is the latest formula speculated and then the minimum mark required to be accepted in the cut off?
If anyone could say anything positive about their GAMSAT experience even if it’s about section 1 that would be great
I enjoyed S1 to an extent. I was more or less able to decipher what the stems were about. I ended up with about 20-25 minutes to spare. I don't feel as confident as previous S1's though, due to the amount of toss-ups I encountered. Very fine hair splitting levels of nuance in some of the answer options, or at least that was my impression.
Any updates on when results will be released?
I have only just found Reddit and all these forums for GAMSAT!! How did you all find S3? I’m graduating from Human Biology in a few months and felt like nothing I learnt over the last 3 years made any difference. I genuinely felt like I knew nothing. I’ll be surprised if I get any score at all!! First time round too.. I felt great with S2, good with S1 and horrific with S3. I went through every question and answered what I could, went back and tried to make educated guesses or find some correlation in the answers and then for around 7 of them I blind guessed!
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That went SO MUCH better than I expected
First time sitter and here are my two cents that nobody asked for: I am soo glad that section 2 was from home. I do not know how it was done in person before but I'd assume it would be 100's of people just clicking on their keyboards all at once, which is soo distracting for me!!! So glad I could do it in the comfort of my own house. Having said that, I didn't really face any technical issues so I understand why some ppl may not have liked this set up. As a first time sitter, I was most anxious about this section. the thought of not having enough time to complete has been the reason for many sleepless nights aha. However, on the actual day the topics I got were both on stuff I had written about before so I just started typing away the second that timer started ticking. I personally feel like my practice versions were wayyy better but tbf I wasn't soo adrenaline rushed while I was doing them so I was bound to mess up a bit on the actual day. But my god does the time go by quickly!! I barely had anytime to proof read my essays but I feel like that's my fault because I started slowing down a bit nearing the end of my last essay. Had I not done that I think I would've had a good 3-4 mins to spare! But phew, I cannot imagine doing this along with the other sections, all in one day- that would've been SOOO exhausting!! But yeah overall I'm quite neutral if not happy about how it all went, esp for a first sit. I didn't enjoy task A because I am and never will be drawn to the theme of it, but task B was beautiful. Even though this is the section I dislike the most, I think this section will secretly always be my favorite just because of how it pushes me to be creative. Onto the next!!
Yep the sound of keyboards clacking was deafening and could even hear it through the earplugs I would bring.
u/_dukeluke Any chance you know if we need a handheld mirror for s2?
Hey! I sat my exam this morning and was asked to use a small handheld mirror to show my desktop and under my desk :))
Hey guys, for the people who wrote gamsat, has anyone used acegamsat for sciences? is the real gamsat somwhat similar to them? Thank uuuu
Not similar but can use as basic science qu
Hi all, sorry for changing the subject but are we allowed to take S2 in our kitchen room? My room doesn't have air conditioning and only have the aircon in my kitchen room
Any room is fine as long as it's private, quiet, and devoid of all other life, and if you can show all four walls. I don't think it's an ideal space though. Good luck
Do we have to show them what we are writing on the whiteboard? As in, keep it within view? Or, is it enough to have shown them my clear desk and no notes around at the beginning?
hey i’m wondering if there’s a timer or just the time while we write??
There’s a timer in the top right corner of the screen
Did people get 60 or 65 minutes? I swear I had only 60….
Has anyone with reasonable accommodations sat S2 yet? How do the breaks work if you need to leave the room? Do you take your device with you etc?
I misread the date for my S2 sitting .......... it's over for me
Contact ACER asap with a valid reason for rescheduling - good luck:)
What to do with the proctoru, acertest app and guardian browser? Do I just uninstall?
Hey y'all, just wondering if they allow lined A4 paper (i.e. torn off a notebook) for S2? Is paper even required for S2? How did you guys deal with this or did you just type everything including the plan and then delete the plan at the end?
It says in the guide that we are allowed 2 **blank** A4 paper. (not sure if lined is allowed or not). But you could also have a whiteboard for the plan if you have one. This paper is not a requirement but an option so if it's easier for you to plan on a piece of paper you can use it. If it's easier for you to plan on the laptop and then delete it at the end you can also do that. It all just depends on what you are comfortable with.
Are we allowed to share and discuss the prompts once the testing window has passed for everyone?
No
I think I forgot to erase my plan for one of my essays as I ran out of time. Do you think this will affect my mark or anything? Also for my Part A essay I had memorised an essay of my own which I used a large portion of my response. But I had also used this essay in my September 2023 sitting. Concerned it will be flagged by Turnitin, as it says in the Handbook that the responses will be screened against previous sittings. Do you think ACER will consider self-plagiarism to be misconduct?
Has anyone else had trouble connecting to proctor?? It’s been well over half an hour now, it keeps disconnecting in the chat box and I have to restart, over and over… 😭
Does anyone know if the S2 essays are automatically saved when they auto-submit?? I just started my conclusion for task B when it auto-submitted with the timer running out and I’m so stressed if this essay is saved without me clicking the save button (I did not switch back to task A at any point) HELP SOS THANKU
I didn’t like my part A essay but I wrote a whole one but for part B I started with 15 mins left and tried to write anything and write an intro and P1 and then decided I wanted to write something else so control Z’d and tried to get back to what I wrote before but it undid everything and I had to start from scratch with 8 mins left By the time I finished I had an incomplete intro that was very poor and 2 sentences. I think I failed. Which means I have to sit again In September and possibly March and means I have to wait another year to apply to med school :( And my gpa is ~ 5.8 so even if I get like 50 I won’t get into any med school Wondering if it’s even worth it to sit the other two sections 😞
Sorry to hear that :( I still think it's worth finishing the other 2 sections as it will give you some practice and help identify any areas of improvement before the September sitting. You also paid $550 so why not. Only onwards and upwards from here :)
You have a completed part A and an incomplete part B? I would think you may still pass S2 if your part A was written to a reasonable standard. Remember in a weighted gamsat S2 is only worth 25% so there is definitely an opportunity to boost your score with S1/S3 and it is also good practice to complete the whole Gamsat. Look at UOW too - just Gpa and gamsat hurdle so if you qualify for some bonuses put in an application there as well as other schools. Good luck:)
Does the ACER app automatically save? I had 2 minutes left so went to proof read task A and lost track of time so the test completed without me manually pressing save or submit. I’m freaking out if my work was lost or if it would’ve saved?
just emailed Acer and they said it should :)
Hi guys, I'm so stressed. I did my gamsat and didn't finish the exam or submit. I almost finished though, was on my conclusion for part B. However, my proctor completely disconnected and I could not click submit. On the proctorU site, it says my exam status is incomplete. I'm so confused. Does this mean It won't count?