Barry has helped thousands of students over the last decade with high-stakes exams in math and science.
In the early days, he tutored high school and university students and realised fairly quickly that he had a knack for teaching complex concepts in a simple way. His students must have thought so too, because through word-of-mouth his reputation grew ... and grew! He eventually quit his job as an engineer to pursue tutoring full-time.
As his reputation continued to grow, he was requested to assist students with preparing for high-stakes exams, such as the dreaded GAMSAT. Having worked with students from around the world and all walks of life, he has gained valuable insights on what is needed to succeed.
Barry is now a full-time performance coach with a particular interest in helping students approach exam questions in a more logical and efficient manner. Recently, he has been exploring the use of principles from the field of psychology to further assist his students.
Truly enjoyed your step-by-step explanations and very thoughtful of you to introduce a second way of solving this, which is even more time-saving. Hopefully you're going for a teaching position of some sort because you're brilliant at it!
Glad you enjoyed the explanations! Yes, I prefer the second approach as well. I'm actually running my own GAMSAT coaching business and I'm fortunate enough to get to do this for a living! Are you sitting the GAMSAT this September? If so, do you have any video requests?
@@barrystutoring that's amazing! Well done 👏🏼 Doing what you love and making a living out of it! Super 👌 I will be sitting GAMSAT for the 4th time 🤦🏻♀️ in September, yes. Specific request would be the redox reactions - I'm having trouble with them. Thank you!
Sure, redox reactions can be tricky. Just bare in mind that what often makes questions tricky is not the science topic. With this video, it might seem like a question about organic chemistry or isomers, but actually the nature of the question is more to do with combinatory maths. In a similar way, many redox questions are more mathematical in nature. Hope that makes sense!
@@barrystutoring wow! You've just blown my mind with this answer!!!! So the process for finding answers to chemical reactions is a matter of putting maths to work??? I think you've just changed [and simplified] chemistry for me 🥳🥳🥳 I think my brain just got it 🤯😱😱
great tips! have been watching your videos and am finding them very helpful and also reassuring because I am beginning to relate to the process of reasoning at the foundation of the questions.
@barrystutoring Hi Barry, very helpful video. I just got confused with the last bit... when you said that A and B depict CO2 being produced... I thought the plus sign meant CO2 is being added to the equation should it not be an equals sign? I just need clarification as Chemistry (let alone Organic Chemistry) is not my strongest subject😅 Thank you.
Sorry, disregard my previous comment (deleted now) as I was confusing this with another question. In chemistry equations, the "plus" sign essentially means "and". So options A and B are saying that 2 products are made, molecule 1 "and" CO2. Hope that makes sense!
Sorry about the delayed reply Jaymie! It is important to practice drawing out molecules confidently and quickly. In this case it is reasonable to be able to draw out the molecule at the top of the question and annotate/manipulate on paper to help you solve the problem. In cases where the molecule is really complicated, it is likely that you won't need to draw out the whole thing. The "pattern" that you are looking for will probably be restricted to a particular area on the molecule and you'll only need to draw that part. Let me know if you need me to clarify :)
Hi Barry, thanks for the video. When numbering, do you need to follow standard conventions or does it not really matter too much? I remember there's some rules in naming/numbering line drawings? but I could be totally wrong too. Cheers
Hi Kate, no worries! When your are naming a compound using IUPAC naming, you do need to follow standard conventions around numbering. But when you are numbering to help simplify a pattern (like in this video) it doesn't really matter how you number, so long ad you are consistent. Hope that makes sense :)
You're welcome! Be sure to check out my other free videos on YT. I've also got e-courses on my Teachable site if in need of extra guidance: thescienceofgamsat.teachable.com/
Your vids are honestly soo good , I envy your thinking process man, Im planning to sit the gamsat in September, do you recommend buying the acer past papers?
Thank you! I'd love to pump out some more videos but have been busy leading up to the March 2024 sitting. I definitely recommend the ACER booklets. There is also a new timed online test available which is worth having a look at :)
Hi Barry, when you calculate the change per 5 years for M&D, we see on the table that marriage goes from -6 to -7, and that divorce goes from +1 to +1.3, I see you just kept those numbers rounded and kept the rate of change the same when doing the table (+6 and +1 respectively). I understand that this is due to linear extrapolation, and if you instead increase the rates every 5 years in line with the table you get a different answer. My question is, what in the stim/question section tells you to do a linear extrapolation? Is it just because it asks for an average rate of change?I would not want to get caught out doing the wrong sort of extrapolation. Thankyou!
Thanks for the comment! The question is asking us what the M&D rates are doing outside of the available data set (past 1996). By definition, this is extrapolation. The reference to "average rate of change" means we can assume the data behaves in a linear manner. Hope that helps!
This is a great way to break down question types! Is there any way you'd be able to do the same with other S3 questions? It would be interesting to see this method applied to a graphical chemistry question, for example :)
The question is asking us to use Fig 1 and 2 together to arrive at a number. Also, if you have a look at Fig 1, all cohorts start at 1000 so it's likely that these are not ACTUAL numbers, but that the cohort numbers were standardised. Hope that makes sense!
You're welcome! I like to think that if I can explain something in a simple way then it means I understand it. Are there any particular types of questions you'd like me to go through in my next videos?
I'd rather help others reach their goals! I'll be getting busy with one-on-one coaching and group classes soon so I'm taking to opportunity to push out some videos to help those who can't afford tuition :)
I'm not sure, I should follow up with him. But I've got another video with a student who went from 49 ---> 70 in S3. He has recently received an offer which is really exciting!
The key is "similar in nature"! It is unlikely that this exact question will come up, but it is VERY common for ACER to include questions with visual stimuli (like organic chemistry structures) and expect you to find patterns in the examples provided :)
With Q5 of unit 4, you are essentially being asked to add up the length of the course sand bars (the thick lines) and the fine sand bars (the thin lines) and compare them as a ratio. This can only reasonably be done with a ruler (which used to be allowed). In my opinion, I would skip this question as it's not representative of what you would see on the test these days. Did you find Q6 ok?
@@barrystutoring Thanks for confirming my suspicions Barry. Des is old content but there are still some interesting and relevant questions for GAMSAT. As for q6, it is fairly easy to do. Thanks so much, Barry. I appreciate it
I think it's nice that you worked your way backward as both a nice change of pace from your usual questions and as a way to show how GAMSAT test makers add so much irrelevant info to confuse test takers
@@barrystutoring Yep, next march. I having trouble with improving my S3 scores so I am curious to see you analyse and breakdown the process behind solving S3 questions
Hi Barry, thanks for your videos. Just wondering regarding the questions are they based on an existing practise material or did you make these GAMSAT-style questions yourself?
