Phew. I have just finished learning the ideal gas law (PV=nRT) and Daltons law of partial pressures (Ptotal = P1 + P2 + P3) etc etc. I am so stoked to be through this, it was one of my mental obstacles. I looked at last year and just felt lost. This time around, with the benefit of time and a good whack of diligence, I can do it fine. Okay well I can plug the numbers in and get the right answers. I even understand it (to a small degree), but I'm not sure if that's good enough for the GAMSAT. I'll be content with getting it right for now, and worry about it more when I start doing practice exams. Actually I found balancing chemical equations WAY harder. It had me in angry tears! I guess because there's no nice equation for you to just dump the numbers on, you have to figure it out for yourself. I really like doing equations that are done for me ^_^. I realised something tonight too. For all the demoralisation I've felt lately, the truth is, I wouldn't be putting myself through Daltons law if I wasn't 100% serious. Fact is, I'm not giving up. I would not be doing this if I were going to. To combat the demoralisation, I've started saying a small mantra "65 on the GAMSAT" over and over.

And interestingly enough, upon reading the forums and looking at everyone elses results, I discovered a Neuroscience student who got 56 (I got 55). I know it sounds a bit mean, but that was a huge boost. It means that we all have our disadvantages to overcome. You could tend to believe that science students have an unfair advantage. However you could also tend to believe that English students do too, and I've seen a student get 78 on the science and fail the essay section. If you fail any section, you don't get an interview. I want a 60 for the science section. That's an increase of 20 points on my part and it's doable. I picked up an MCAT book (the american exam) the other day and looked in the chemistry section. I could do some of it!! I can't tell you how exciting it was to watch as what was formerly hieroglyphics start to dissolve and make sense in my mind. I am still very very green and have no idea if I will be ready in time - but this time last year the only thing I knew about chemistry was that magnesium flared when it burned. Now I know the ideal gas law and all that comes before it. Well, sort of ;) I've learned it, the important part is the practice. I can plug numbers into an equation in a very specific environment, the key now is to find problems that are all over the place. The key after that will be to do the problems in 1 minute each but I wont get ahead of myself right now.

This is so lame but I feel like jumping up and down and shouting "OMGWTFBBQ I UNDERSTAND PARTIAL PRESSURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I'll just do it inside though because it's really not relevant to the outside world. I'm pretty pleased though - from this point on I am learning stuff that's on the gammy so I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere.