GAMSAT case studies
GAMSAT · Put your knowledge to work in context.
GAMSAT is the Graduate Medical School Admissions Test, a computer-based assessment developed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) in conjunction with GEMPASS Australia Limited. It is designed for applicants to graduate-entry courses in medicine and allied health, and it assesses capacity to undertake high-level intellectual studies rather than testing rote recall of a syllabus. The GAMSAT case studies are 5 cases and about 2,946 words.
1The Night Shift Handover
A regional hospital runs a 12-hour night shift with one resident covering two wards: a 24-bed general medical ward and a 6-bed high-dependency unit (HDU). At 02:40 the resident is called to the HDU for a patient whose systolic blood pressure has fallen from 118 to 84 mmHg over 40 minutes, heart rate 112, respiratory rate 26, temperature 38.4 °C.
590 words, about 3 min2The River Permit
A coastal council must decide whether to grant a 10-year permit to a desalination plant that would draw 40 million litres per day from an estuary and discharge concentrated brine back into it. The estuary supports a commercial oyster fishery worth $6 million annually and is used by an Indigenous community for customary fishing, which has no market valuation but is recognised in the council's reconciliation framework.
593 words, about 3 min3The Trial That Stopped Early
A randomised controlled trial of a new drug for a rare aggressive cancer was designed to enrol 400 patients over four years, with overall survival as the primary endpoint. An independent data monitoring committee reviewed results after 180 patients had been enrolled and followed for a median of 14 months.
586 words, about 3 min4The Essay Prompt
You are sitting a written communication task. You are given the statement: "A society that prizes efficiency above all else will eventually find itself efficient at things that do not matter." You have 30 minutes to write a response of roughly 600 words.
606 words, about 3 min5The Screening Programme
A national health service is considering a screening programme for a condition affecting 1 in 2,000 people. The test has a sensitivity of 95% and a specificity of 90%.
571 words, about 3 min