The Graduate Australian Medical School Admissions Test (GAMSAT)

GAMSAT was developed in Australia by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and assists some but not all of the medical schools offering graduate entry programmes, in the selection criteria. The purpose of GAMSAT is to assess your ability to analyse and understand both written and graphically presented material. The test will assess your ability to reason, make logical deductions and form judgments, and problem solving is a major focus of the test.

Or to the 5-year degree at:

 

-  Peninsula

 

The GAMSAT is split into three parts which tests general skills in problem solving, critical thinking and writing as well as concepts in basic science. A science background is not a pre-requisite to sitting GAMSAT or for admission into a graduate-entry programme.  But the level of subject knowledge required for the reasoning in biological and physical sciences section of the test generally corresponds to the first year of a university course in biology and chemistry.   It is unlikely, therefore, that you will succeed in GAMSAT unless you have already acquired a good degree of knowledge of science.

 

GAMSAT results are valid for two years. So, for example, if you sit GAMSAT in September 2010, your scores will be valid for application to the graduate-entry programmes and/or the Peninsula programme in 2011 and 2012. 

 

 

The GAMSAT is sat over a full day – 5 ½ hours of tests and one hour break.

 

The test is broken down as follows:

Number of questions: 75

 

This tests skills in the interpretation and understanding of ideas in social and cultural contexts.   Different texts are used as stimulus, including passages of personal, imaginative and argumentative writing.

Number of questions: 2

 

This is a test of ability to produce and develop ideas in writing. There are two thirty minute writing tasks, each one offering a theme and a number of ideas relating to that theme. The first deals with socio-cultural issues and the second with personal and social issues. Each piece of writing is assessed by three independent assessors.

 

The criteria used to assess the written communication include:

thought & content: the quality of thinking about a topic

organisation & expression: the control of language to the overall effective of the response.

Number of questions: 110

 

This test examines the understanding of basic scientific concepts as well as problem solving. Stimulus material will be presented in a variety of formats including verbal, mathematical, graphical and visual. This section is made up of questions in three discipline areas as follows:

Sections 1 and 3 are in multiple choice formats and you should work through them steadily, keeping an eye on the time you have left and not spending too long on one particular question. If you think you know the answer to a question then mark it and move on to the next question, then if you have time at the end you can always review your answers. No credit is given if more than one answer is marked and no marks are deducted for the wrong answer. All the questions have the same value, so it is in your best interests to attempt as many questions as possible to maximise your score. 

 

 

Registration for the GAMSAT usually opens early in June, with final registration and payment towards the end of August. The exam will be held on one day only during the third week of September. 2010 dates for the GAMSAT will be published in the near future.

 

 

You will receive a score for each of the three sections, together with an Overall GAMSAT Score. The Overall Score will be a weighted average of the three section scores, using the following formula:

(1 x section 1 + 1 x section 2 + 2 x section 3) / 4

To help you evaluate your test performance, you will be given a chart to enable you to calculate an approximate percentile ranking for your overall score.   A high score in one section cannot compensate for a poor score in another. 

 

To be considered for interview for admission to the graduate-entry programme at St George’s and Nottingham, candidates must achieve a minimum score of 55 in Section 2 and 55 in either Section 1 or 3 with a minimum of 50 in the other section. Scores for Peninsula may differ from this.  Swansea use GAMSAT results as part of the admission process, but not to determine who will be invited to interview.