GAMSAT Biology Sample Questions Walkthrough | Section 3 | Improve Your Score
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ก.ย. 2021
- In this video, I break down a set of sample biology questions and discuss some of the qualitative analysis that is required for these question types.
Disclaimer: These questions are written by me. They are not ACER questions and while I make every effort to reflect the exam with similar questions, actual exam content may vary.
The material in this video is protected by copyright and should not be reproduced without permission.
Timestamps:
1:08 Unit 1 - Triglyceride Metabolism (Biochem)
10:47 Unit 2 - Neural Pathways and Feedback Loops
30:13 Unit 3 - Restriction Enzymes (Molecular Biology)
You can access the questions over at my resources page:
www.notion.so/simplifiedstudy...
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Hey, I'm Jesse, I'm a professional private tutor and founder of Simplified Study Tutoring. Since 2011, I've been helping students take a simpler approach to their studies and educating people in anything from science and maths to English and economics. In March 2021 I sat the GAMSAT and achieved an 84 including a 100 in Section 3. Hopefully, that's credentials enough to give this video a good watchin'.
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📸 Instagram: / osbourne_jesse
Miss you Jesse, Hope Med school is treating you well. Will be sitting gamsat this sept, your content is the amazing, thanks and again and good luck.
Loving this content :D
Hi Jesse ! Thank you so so much for these resources ? Do these questions reflect the true nature of the exam itself (to some extent)? I’ve had a look at some of the ACER questions and these are much more pleasant 😅
Hey Jesse, thank you for taking your time with formulating such unique questions! Just wanted to enquire with regards to your application to University of Melbourne as to what sort of relevant documents did you submit? From what I recalled you stating in your acceptance video, you had sent them a plethora of supporting documents (~150 pages?), which contributed to you acquiring an interview (correct me if I am wrong). Looking forward to hearing from you soon, and I hope you have a blessed New Years!
The documentation was supporting documentation as part of my Graduate Access Melbourne application
Hi Jesse, thanks for the amazing content. I am visiting these question walkthroughs again.
Just wondering, would question 7 & 8 in a real gamsat setting provide the definition of a Blunt end and a sticky end (tho they are pretty self-explanatory, but they did got me as a non-science back ground. )
thanks
Hey Frank, great to hear! It wouldn't be expected that you'd know what blunt/sticky ends are just from the use of the terms but you'll notice I've actually provided a basic functional definition in the stem of that question set (last paragraph). I've used generalised words like "flush" and "overhanging" to provide enough of a working understanding to tackle the question. This is a common theme in GAMSAT questions in which a basic definition or explanation of a key term/concept is provided in place of a detailed technical one that you might find in textbooks. Cheers
@@jesseosbourne Thanks, upon re-inspection of the question, the word flush and overhanging was just ignored by me mentally. lol Thanks for the reply, I wish you all the best at medical school.
Thanks, just 6mins in and loving it! Quick question, when practicing, how much time would you dedicate to reading and summarising the text (roughly). Apologies if you’ve already answered it towards the end of the video 😊
Fantastic! I don't think I ever really measured the time spent reading but I guess I kinda gauge it based on its length and the number of questions attached to the stem. More questions means more time invested reading and annotating and vice versa. I wouldn't spend more than a few minutes reading and note taking though. If I was getting bogged down with the reading I'd skip to the questions to guide me
@@jesseosbourne thank you 😊
@@jesseosbourne in this video, you reference another video that talks about breaking down the stem for bio questions! Which video might that one be?
Hey man, love this detailed walkthough. Thanks
Checking in about question 8 37:15
Im wondering if its a mistake but is there not a RE site closer to 5' - for Afel? 5' - AC/GG or is that not a RE site due to it being double G and not single G? And Shortly after HindIII RE site there is another CG?
I understand these take massive brain power to generate no critisism just curious how wrong my answer was?
Cheers
Hey Alexander, so although there is are other locations with sequences 5' - CG - 3' (cleavage site) etc in the DNA sequence, they would only be a cleaved if they exist within the specific restriction site for that enzyme. This is given in the stem from the wording rather than outside knowledge.
"Another restriction enzyme AfeI can only cut the phosphodiester bond between Cytosine and Guanine nucleotides when arranged 5' - CG - 3' in its recognition site 5' - AGCGCT - 3'"
The key part here being "when arranged 5' - CG - 3' in its recognition site 5' - AGCGCT - 3'.
To help clarify things with some outside theory revision (even though I don't think it would be necessary prior knowledge for the exam), this stem provides the general principle of specificity of restriction enzymes and provides the bare minimum to be able to identify restriction enzymes.
Why that is the case though, is because enzymes still ultimately work in 3 dimensions and rely on strong conformity/tessellation to their substrate (the DNA sequence in this case). The recognition site is the first requirement as that specific arrangement of nucleic bases and their chemical structures would be most complementary to the shape of the active site of that restriction enzyme, allowing it to bind tightly. The cleavage site within that recognition site is then the site at which bonds can be broken to cut the DNA. So although there might be other cleavage sites along the DNA, if they are not embedded within that enzymes recognition site, it'd never be able to effectively bind to do its job anyway.
at around 22:00 I have a question about your reasoning for 5 b) the mutation option. I understand why C is the most correct answer, but b) does not specify whether the mutation is negatively impacting the efficiency of the Ach transferase or positively affecting it right? Was it too much to assume that a 'mutation' immediately means it hinders its efficiency when it doesn't seem to specify in the question?
Hey Keelan, yeah it's a good question!
So firstly, yes mutations can be either a help or a hinderance to a pathway/process however there are two things that I aimed to include in this question that will help deduce the answer.
The first is more on the conceptual side of what an enzyme is and what a mutation is. Enzymes perform very specific functions on very specific substrates based on very specific complimentary functional shapes and biochemical interactions. So a mutation if random is more likely to be assumed to no longer support these very specific requirements and therefore lead to a 'change in function' or a 'loss of that function'. This application of the general structure and function of enzymes allows for a relatively safe assumption that the mutation means a loss of that step in the pathway.
The second part then follows that options B and C both use the term 'mutation' ambiguously so there is a deduction skill being applied to decipher between the two and the relative accuracy of the two ends up allowing you to bypass the need to go through the previous assumptions.
If we were to assume that mutation could mean a positive impact then neither B nor C would be supported because B would not include a feedback loop and C would lead to a negative feedback loop. Because this would give no answer, you could deduce that interpreting the mutation as a negative impact is perhaps a better alternative.
Assuming this, we get the reasoning I run through in the video and this concludes that B gives no loop whereas C has a repeating action of ACh if not being broken down by the now mutated Acetylcholine Transferase.
So although mutations can be either be advantageous or disadvantageous to a process, this is actually a distractor in the question because we can set that aside and deduce that only one interpretation provides a distinct answer.
Is there always a description before the questions?
hi Jesse, just wondering if highlighting is possible in the exam, with it being on a screen - does the software they use have tools like this built in?
Unfortunately no highlighter tool from what I remember. It's a pain because it means a little more note taking but this is a much more active reading process anyway so I found it a little easier to retain the stem info having to find quick ways to note take as I read. I also held my fingers at points on the screen a LOT throughout the test 😂
@@jesseosbourne thanks for getting back to me - that's unfortunate. I agree on the note taking though; it helps with my thought process to write down my 'evidence' and cross out potential answers on the paper. I like that they allow an erasable whiteboard too. I think it'll be helpful (mentally) to have a clean space for working between questions.
Question, currently a year one med sci student and looking to do the GAMSAT next March, I noticed that some of the bio content covered in your video was basic content covered in my physiology class, from your experience, how much physiology content that’s learnt is actually applicable in the GAMSAT (section 3 for example) from a percentage stand point? Cheers buddy
I'm not sure I can really answer this question. By ACER's wording, expected knowledge is drawn from first year uni level bio/chem and Y12 physics but this is really a catch all statement that demonstrates the general scope of assumed knowledge but not what is being directly tested. ie. They will not be directly testing your knowledge of concepts you've learned at uni, but rather applying the basic principles in novel ways or contexts without necessarily mentioning them.
The test is very varied so it isn't possible to say that a certain % relates to X concept. Also, the physiology you've learned in first year med sci will be different from what I would've learned in my science degree so it already becomes difficult to make comparisons or transferrable conclusions.
The second thing to consider is that there is a huge amount of subjectivity when it comes to people's claims of what the test is like. I'm explaining this in detail, not to be dismissive of your question but because it is very common for people who have sat the test to make broad generalisations and blanket statements based on subjective individual experience that can be very misleading. I hope that others in your position read this and recognise that your time is better spent just preparing in a way that works for you.
The reality is that even as someone who has sat the test four times, I've only sat it for times so my sample size for any advice is n=4. A lot of advice gets thrown around with even less exposure to the test based on individual experiences. Advice is good but there are no definitives when it comes to GAMSAT so beware the advice giver that claims to know it all and claims to speak in truths.
Best of luck!
Hey Jesse, with question 2, the second last paragraph states that "the removal of insulin's inhibitory effects is the source of activation". If I am reading correctly, this activation refers to the activation of HSL. Wouldn't this make statement III of "removal of insulin has an excitatory effect on HSL" true? Hence, the answer would be B.
Hey James, very good point! I think when writing out this question, I was going for the distinction between the words "activation" and "excitatory". So activation referring to the conversion of an enzyme from its inactive form to its active form compared to excitatory effect as being synonymous to stimulatory. To be fair though, it's a bit dodgy because there is some reasonable ambiguity in between activation and excitatory without any explicit mentions in the stem, so that's a fair call
It means you're using the right reasoning and I need to work on more carefully wording my questions 😂
Hope that helps clear things up!
@@jesseosbourne Thanks Jesse! Love the videos.
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