GAMSAT (Graduate Australian Medical School Admissions Test), often confused with UMAT, is a test which is conducted for admission into medical colleges, mainly belonging to Australia, Britain and Ireland. It is basically a test of reasoning rather than being a test of knowledge. GAMSAT is a test which was brought into the picture in 1999 by British Universities. The first one to embrace GAMSAT as the gateway for entrance into their university was St. Georges, University of London. After which many others followed suit and started accepting candidates for admission to their university through GAMSAT. Ireland now uses GAMSAT as the criterion for admission to all graduate entry programs.
GAMSAT is held once in a year unlike GMAT which can be taken according to ones suitability. So one needs to prepare beforehand and plan well in advance since its once in a year, missing it would mean wasting one valuable year of your life. In Ireland it is conducted towards the end of the month of March or early April. The same is applicable for Australia. But in the UK where it originated from, it is conducted around the middle or towards the end of the month of September.
The Australian Council for Education Research (ACER) is the body that is responsible for the administration of GAMSAT. It requires the candidates to register timely. The registration is to be done latest by January end for Australia and Ireland and by August end, the registration closes for the UK.
The Minimum Requirement for Appearing in GAMSAT is as follows:
- English-HSC Standard, Biology and Chemistry- 1st year university level and Physics- Australian Year 12 level.
- The candidate should be a graduate and should have secured the minimum cut off marks in GAMSAT and in Bachelor degree examination.
- The test duration spans through one whole day, starting from 8:00 am and stretches till 4:00 pm in the afternoon. The GAMSAT test consists of three sections.
- Section I comprises of a total of 75 questions. The said numbers of questions are to be answered in 100 minutes. The questions in this section are asked from the Humanities and Social Sciences.
- Section II is of 60 minutes and the candidate has to attempt 2 essays assessing written communication. An hour of break is provided for the candidates to have their lunch and take some rest before embarking on the third section of the test to which double weighting is applied.
- Section III, the last of the lot, has 110 questions on physical science which have to be attempted in 170 mins. The overall score is calculated with the maximum weighting applicable to the third section.
- Once the score is calculated, the candidates are sorted according to their percentile rankings, and then, those who have cleared the cut off scores are called in for an interview. The number of students appearing in the GAMSAT is approximately 10,000. To appear for GAMSAT, apply online by going on to this website www.gamsatguru.com.au.
Here you will find one online registration form. After carefully going through it, fill the form and then go through it once again to check for any missed out columns or any mistakes. Once the form is duly filled up, you will be directed to the online payment page. For completion of the registration, one will need to finish the process of online payment through credit cards (Visa or mastercard). Please be patient while paying online and make sure that there is no danger of phishing.