Gold Standard GAMSAT Textbook Review

I was only able to briefly read one of the Gold Standard GAMSAT books and I did not use it for my study. This review will contain my impressions on the textbook and whether I would have used it for my study, with comparisons to the Kaplan MCAT books which I also did a review for here.

First impression, the textbook layout is very similar to classical textbooks, the language they use is simpler than that found in Kaplan. Each theory topic was short and brief, as I mentioned in my previous post, third party preparation companies are not supported by ACER. For this textbook, it seems to me that each area in their respective fields are briefly explained, I would compare it to the length of a summary in some books, before focusing on how it may appear in the GAMSAT. Important definitions are mentioned briefly then used throughout the text many times in more complex processes. The content provided is not enough for someone brand new to the area and I can only see it useful to people with a scientific background that are looking to revise. The book is extremely text heavy and its use of figures usually doesn't support or provide a visual understanding of the concept. It just seems to have been placed there since its related to the topic and to break up to text. 

I was also able to see some of the questions, the questions are quite reliable and can easily be added to your question bank. The difficulty of the questions are varied some are quite easy while others are harder. Some of the cartoons in section 1 questions are poorly drawn and look more like bad memes than something you would find on an ACER test. Section 2 contained 5 quotes for each question, as you would find in ACER's GAMSAT. I'm pretty happy with this section, some textbooks juts give you the theme and not bother with the comments. The S3 questions, noticably, had 4 types of answers ranging from correct to obviously incorrect. Where as in ACER's GAMSAT the answers are typically, two are similar and the other two are similar with one not obvious answer. In Gold Standard questions, you can not consider 2/4 questions since their obviously not correct and focus on the other two (assuming you understand the question and topic its referring to). As is also mentioned in my previous post, S3 of the GAMSAT is not a theory test and the correct answer can be implied from the question. Gold Standard does a really good job at providing the right amount of information in the question, perhaps only hindered by its beginner friendly language, as I find ACER's questions have more sophisticated language in its theory. 

In comparison to Kaplan, it is quite obvious that Kaplan provides more in depth theory with a more sophisticated language. There are more Kaplan books and they provide more value, page per dollar and content provided. If you're after questions, Gold Standard will have better GAMSAT style questions for S2 and 3, either is ok for S1. 

I would only recommend buying Gold Standard for its questions, I believe there are better alternatives to learn GAMSAT theory. Perhaps if you were reviewing concepts it would suffice but there are much cheaper options to choose from.