GAMSAT
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
GAMSAT stands for the Graduate Australian Medical School Admissions Test - It is used to select candidates applying to study medicine, dentistry and veterinary science at Medical schools with so-called Graduate Entry Programmes (candidates must have a recognised Bachelor degree completed prior to commencement of the medical degree).
Sitting the GAMSAT is a separate process to applying to study medicine. Commonly, the GAMSAT is taken by students in their final year of university studies in order to apply for medicine commencing the following year.
Most universities with graduate-entry medical programs require:
- Completion of any Bachelor degree (this includes non-science related degrees eg. arts, law)
- Obtaining a determined GAMSAT cut-off score
- Achieving a determined GPA - Grade Point Average based on marks from the Bachelor degree
Once a candidate has fulfilled these criteria, they may then apply to universities offering a medicine/dentistry/veterinary science course. If the GAMSAT and GPA scores of the candidate are of sufficient calibre, the candidate may be offered to attend an interview at one or more of the universities to which they applied. This interview is conducted by established medical practitioners, and aims to elucidate the candidate's ethics, verbal reasoning skills, and motivation to study medicine at their university. If successful at this interview (as approximately 2/3 of candidates are), then the candidate may be offered a position in their chosen course at the university.
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[edit] History
GAMSAT was originally produced in 1996 by four Australian medical schools as a tool to select for candidates applying to study medicine. In 1999, it was brought into use by British universities - St Georges, University of London first, and subsequently by others.
[edit] Usage
GAMSAT is a reasoning rather than knowledge-based test. Not to be confused with a dissimilar test UMAT (which used for applicants to traditional undergraduate-entry medical schools - open to high schools leavers).
[edit] Format
GAMSAT is held only once a year in late March/early April, and is administered by Australian Council of Education Research (ACER) and requires timely registration usually by late January.
There is no prescribed synopsis of the test, but it does require knowledge from:
- Biology and Chemistry - 1st year university
- Physics - Year 12
- English - general proficiency
The test takes a full day (from 8 till about 4pm):
- Section I comprises 75 questions in 100 minutes from the Humanities and Social Sciences
- Section II - 2 essays assessing written communication (1 hour) following a 20 minute break (you may not leave the exam room during this 20 minute break)
- Section III - 110 physical science questions in 170 min after 1 hour lunch
A score is calculated based on performance in all 3 sections with weighting towards section III. This score is then used by medical schools to determine who receives an invitation for interviews.
[edit] Exam Preparation
It is likely that your general preparation for GAMSAT has already taken place. You presumably have completed two, three, or four years of an undergraduate university degree. You likely have taken first and second year science classes as well as classes from the humanities and social sciences. Above all you probably have become skilled at reading a wide range of textual materials. It is likely that your coursework and extracurricular reading have served to expand your working vocabulary, increase your familiarity with the types of texts and arguments typical of a number of disciplines, and develop your reading pace to a reasonable level. At this point, you must adopt a more active, organised, and disciplined GAMSAT revision strategy.
Preparing for the Humanities and Social Sciences Reasoning Section If you have experienced problems on this section of GAMSAT, they may reflect your level of proficiency in reading the passages, answering the questions, working within the prescribed time limit, or some combination of these elements. If you had difficulty reading the prose passages, the most common skills evaluation vehicle on this section of GAMSAT, you may need to learn about argument as a form of written discourse. Knowing the purpose, content, and structure of argument can help you process the texts and answer the questions.
Preparing for the Written Communication Section In the long term, the best preparation for this section is class work in composition and creative writing, both of which will acquaint you with the components of a well written, properly organised essay. You may also benefit from humanities and social science classes that have strong reading and writing requirements.
Preparing for the Physical and Biological Sciences Reasoning Section The science section of GAMSAT will assess your abilities to use prior knowledge in the basic physical and biological sciences and to demonstrate your science problem-solving and data interpretation skills. It is important that your preparation include both review of content and development of facility with the problem–solving skills needed to answer the questions.
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