GAMSAT study guide
GAMSAT · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
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. It is delivered as a mix of remote proctored and test centre sitting, with two testing cycles per year aligned to application cycles. The exam has three parts: Written Communication, comprising two essay responses that assess the ability to generate and develop ideas in writing; Humanities and Social Sciences, comprising 62 multiple choice questions on the interpretation and understanding of ideas in social and cultural contexts; and Biological and Physical Sciences, comprising 75 multiple choice questions that assess the ability to identify knowledge in new contexts and to analyse and interpret data. The GAMSAT study guide has 3 sections and about 1,010 words.
01Written Communication: Building a Reasoned Argument Under Time Pressure
Written Communication asks you to produce two short essays that argue a position on a social or ethical issue. Markers reward clear thinking, not vocabulary.
355 words, about 2 min02Humanities and Social Sciences: Reading Arguments in Context
This section presents passages from philosophy, history, sociology, economics, and cultural criticism, then asks what the author claims, assumes, implies, or would reject. The core concepts are argument structure , premise and conclusion , assumption , inference , tone , bias , and historical or theoretical context .
337 words, about 2 min03Biological and Physical Sciences: Reasoning Across Disciplines
This section rewards conceptual understanding across biology, chemistry, and physics, applied to unfamiliar data. Key areas: cell biology and genetics , human physiology and homeostasis , organic and acid-base chemistry , mechanics and energy , electricity and waves , and data interpretation .
318 words, about 2 min