GAMSAT Results 2024: The Definitive Guide

GAMSAT Scores Explained: Raw Scores, Percentiles, Overall Scores

It’s very easy to get confused with all the terminology used when discussing GAMSAT ^® marks, so here’s a handy breakdown.

Your raw score is the absolute number of questions you got correct in each section - these are not released to anyone and it’s a common mistake for students to try and calculate this during the exam itself (Don’t do it - You’ll just be wasting your time!). Instead, you will receive a GAMSAT ^® score for each section when results are released as well as a percentile graph. You can think of the GAMSAT ^® score as a scaled version of your raw score that takes into account the performance of other students as well as the difficulty of the particular sitting you took. As it would be virtually impossible or impractical to write a precisely equivalent examination each year, your results are scaled to allow for comparison across different exam sittings. This is to ensure fairness across different sittings of the exam. You may hear other students talking about how one sitting was particularly difficult and another was seemingly easier - although this may be true, this will not affect the scores received precisely because they will be scaled against each other. This GAMSAT ^® score for each section is calculated using Item Response Theory (ITR), which is explained below ( How are GAMSAT ^® Results Calculated? ). The percentile graph that is released with your scores depicts how your GAMSAT ^® scores relate to the performance of the cohort who took the same sitting as you, and this graph can fluctuate between sittings - This is explained further in the section below.

So, when you get your GAMSAT ^® results back, you will be presented with an array of numbers: A score for each individual section and an overall score that is calculated from each of these.

Now these scores you receive may not be quite what you are expecting. It may be that you are certain that you got essentially every question in the test itself correct, but having received your GAMSAT ^® results, they are not nearly as high as you expected - It’s important to remember that these are not your raw scores but your scaled GAMSAT ^® scores. It may be that a large proportion of applicants did very well and so to ensure that the scores are nicely distributed, they will be scaled up and down. These scores are expressed on a scale of 0 to 100 but the calculations conducted by ACER means that these scores are not evenly spread out between 0 and 100 - This is where the percentile curve becomes useful for correlating GAMSAT ^® results to percentiles. Percentiles are not used in your application, however they are a great way for you to interpret your score as they will give you a sense of comparatively how well you did on the day.

A useful summary of the differences between these different concepts is provided in the table below:

GAMSAT Scores, Raw Scores & Percentiles Explained:

What do your GAMSAT Results mean?

Your GAMSAT ^® scores are what Universities will use to rank your application, and will ultimately help decide if you have a place in their Graduate Entry Medicine Course - Universities will not use your raw scores or percentile ranking.

For the majority of medical schools, a score of at least 50 in all 3 sections is required. Most medical schools will simply use the overall GAMSAT ^® score ( as calculated by ACER ) as part of the admissions criteria, but some will use the individual section scores. Some universities apply a different weighting to ACER and take the simple average of all 3 sections, whilst the University of Sydney is unique in that they do not use an overall score but rather rank students by each section of the GAMSAT® exam. For further details, read this section below.

Previously, GAMSAT ^® results are only valid for 2 years, but in November 2022, ACER announced that GAMSAT ^® results will henceforth be valid for 4 years. For more information about what this means for your GAMSAT ^® preparation and medical school application, visit our GAMSAT ^® 2024 guide.

Why can your GAMSAT Score vary between sittings ?

The key reason why ACER manipulates and scales your GAMSAT ^® score is to ensure that results remain comparable across different sittings by compensating for factors such as cohort performance and exam difficulty. However, this very scaling can of course lead to variation in your results between different sittings.

A number of variables are involved in calculating your GAMSAT® score and because of this, it is possible that your score may vary across different sittings. Let us use a hypothetical example. Let us say that in each of two tests you scored the exact same number of correct answers. But in the second test your scaled scores and your percentile are different. The variables that could affect this are as follows :

Overall, the IRT (Item Response Theory) that ACER applies to your GAMSAT ^® results is designed to account for these two factors and ultimately provide a comparable score for Universities to use. This manipulation can cause variation in your results across sittings - Even if you feel that you’ve performed the same as last time, your scores may be better due to an increased difficulty or poorer cohort performance across the most recent GAMSAT ^® exam.

How are GAMSAT Results Calculated?

You will receive a GAMSAT score for each section when results are released. This is not your raw score. You can think of the GAMSAT score as a scaled score or a numerical version of a percentile ranking. As it would be virtually impossible or impractical to write a precisely equivalent examination each year, your results are scaled to allow for comparison across different exam sittings. This is to ensure fairness across different sittings of the exam. You may hear other students talking about how one sitting was particularly difficult and another was seemingly easier - although this may be true, this will not affect the scores received precisely because they will be scaled against each other.

The overall GAMSAT score is a weighted average of the three section scores. The following weightings are given to each section in determining your overall score:

Most Australian medical schools will simply use the overall GAMSAT ^® score ( as calculated by ACER ) as part of the admissions criteria, but some will use the individual section scores. Some universities apply a different weighting to ACER and take the simple average of all 3 sections, as listed in the above box. The University of Sydney is unique in that they do not use an overall score but rather rank students by each section of the GAMSAT ^® exam. For further details, read this section below.

What is Item Response Theory?

As noted above, your GAMSAT ^® scores will not be a facsimile of the questions that you got right on the day in that they do not directly correspond to the amount of questions you answered correctly.

Whilst the specifics of how scores are calculated are reasonably inscrutable and the process is intentionally opaque on behalf of ACER, we can make some general insights into how they are calculated. The results are based on what is called Item Response Theory (IRT).

The marks are adjusted so that an equivalent performance in any given GAMSAT ^® exam will score within an appropriate tolerance margin.

For example:

1. A particular student may score 70% correct answers in the first half of the year.
2. Then with an identical quality of performance they may score 90% correct in the second half of the year because it is an easier paper.
3. These would be manipulated so that they both earned a GAMSAT ^® score within perhaps 10% or less to ensure that the test is still considered valid and equivalent from year to year.
4. This in turn allows universities to accurately compare GAMSAT ^® results from across different sittings, and therefore different candidates, regardless of when they sat the GAMSAT ^® exam.
5. For this reason, it is the section and overall scores that Universities will consider, not the percentile ranking.

A simple way of thinking about this is that if one sitting is particularly difficult, it will not be harder to score higher, but rather, a lower raw mark in the more difficult sitting will be synonymous with a higher raw mark in an easier sitting.

For more background on Item Response Theory (IRT), click here.

When are GAMSAT results released?

The GAMSAT ^® Exam will take place on two separate occasions.

2025 GAMSAT ^® Exam Dates

GAMSAT ^® Results are generally released about 2 months after sitting the exam - Around late May for the March sitting and mid-November for the September Sitting.

To learn more about how GAMSAT Results are calculated and see a list of past release dates visit our guide: Understanding your GAMSAT ^® Results.

To learn more about sitting the GAMSAT ^® Exam in 2025, visit our guide to everything you need to know for the GAMSAT ^® 2025.

The past results release dates have been compiled in the table below.

Past GAMSAT Results Release Dates

In case of any updates or changes, it’s best to consult the ACER Website for up-to-date information.

What is a good GAMSAT score?

What determines a ‘good’ GAMSAT ^® score is relative to the university course that you want to get into as well as your specific cohort, but it is possible to give examples. For the March 2024 GAMSAT ^® Exam, the average score was 58.

March 2024 GAMSAT Exam - Average, Good and High Scores

It’s important to note that the specific scores related to certain percentiles will fluctuate from year to year between different GAMSAT ^® Exam sittings. What defines a good GAMSAT ^® Score will ultimately depend on factors such as your GPA and the medical institution you intend to apply to. You can find further information of past cutoffs in the section below, GAMSAT ^® Score Cutoffs, as well as further details on our Guide to Graduate Medical School Entry Requirements in Australia. Nevertheless, it’s always best to check with the relevant medical school for further details.

Average GAMSAT Score

It is important to note as well that more than 95% of candidates will receive an overall GAMSAT ^® score between 40 and 80. Using the March 2024 sitting as an example, an average GAMSAT ^® score was 58 - this was the 50th percentile, meaning that 50% of students scored below this and 50% of students scored above this. A score of 63 places the student in around the 75% percentile. This means that around 75% of students scored below this score whilst 25% students scored above this score. A very high score of 73 would place the student in around the 98th percentile, meaning that 98% of students scored below this and only 2% of students scored above this score. But to re-emphasise, the correlation between the percentiles and the overall score vary with each sitting, and the cut-offs for each university also vary with each year.

What is the GAMSAT Percentile Curve?

The essential purpose of the curve is to establish comparatively how well each individual performed on a particular sitting of the GAMSAT ^®

March 2024 GAMSAT Exam Percentile Curve

The process for determining the percentile curve is determined is as follows:

1. Once the ‘raw’ overall scores are calculated and scaled, they are spread out so that the person who scored the highest mark is at 100 and the person who scored the lowest mark is at 1.
2. These are the highest and lowest “percentiles” respectively. This means that the former scored higher than 99.99% of all other applicants, with the inverse true for the latter.
3. To fit the raw marks onto the percentile curve, the average and median scores are calculated and the raw scores then equally spread around that point.

What this means is that the majority of people (>95%) will rank somewhere around the middle of the curve, the 50 ^th percentile, with increasingly fewer the farther you go in each direction. This has implications for your marks. In the lower third of the curve three marks might be the difference between the 20 ^th percentile and the 40 ^th percentile. So too in the top third. However in the middle third, three marks might be the difference between the 50 ^th percentile and the 55 ^th .

This is most easily visualised with an example of the curve as seen above. You can also review the score distribution curve below.

One of the best things about GradReady’s Online GAMSAT ^® Practice Exams and live Mock Exam day are that they actually provide you with an Overall Percentile Score as well as individual breakdowns for each Section. Your performance is analysed and compared to thousands of other GradReady Students past and present, letting you know how you stack up.

You can try out our industry-leading online LMS for yourself with our GAMSAT Free Trial which includes access to 50 MCQs and a Diagnostic Exam along with a wealth of other free GAMSAT resources.

March 2024 GAMSAT Score Distribution Curve

Do I need 65+ on the GAMSAT to get into medicine?

Naturally, medical schools in Australia cannot accept every applicant, so it is a safe bet that you should be aiming to be better than average. This means that you want to be better than the 50th percentile. For the March 2024 GAMSAT ^® Exam, this roughly equates to a GAMSAT ^® score of 58. Even better would be to aim for the top 25% of applicants. A score of roughly 63 will put you in the 75th percentile. A score of 73 will place you around the 98th percentile and in an extremely competitive position.

You might often hear that a good score on the GAMSAT ^® is over 65, but it’s important to note that this really depends on what university course you want to get into and the cutoffs themselves fluctuate from year to year. As such, it’s not really accurate to say that there is a universal GAMSAT ^® Score that can be deemed to be ‘good enough’ to get into any medical school of your choosing and the magical figure of 65 can be a little misleading.

It is important to note the difference between minimum cut off scores and competitive cut off scores. Minimum cut off scores refer to the minimum score that the university has set for you to be considered as an interview candidate. In most cases, the genuine cut off is 50. On the other hand, the competitive cut off scores is the score that gets spoken about. This is the score that many consider necessary to secure yourself an interview as it is very competitive - you might hear this as a score over 65 or a score over 70. However, this does not mean that you cannot get in with a score of less than 65 as what defines a good GAMSAT ^® result will ultimately depend on factors such as your GPA, your medical school interview score, the medical institution you intend to apply to, the place you’re willing to accept (e.g. CSP vs BMP ), and any additional bonuses such as having lived rurally. You can find further information of past cutoffs in the section below, GAMSAT ^® Score Cutoffs , as well as further details on our Guide to Graduate Medical School Entry Requirements in Australia. Nevertheless, it’s always best to check with the relevant medical school for further details.

What is the highest possible GAMSAT ^® score?

Naturally, the theoretical top overall score is 100, however only the top 0.1% of students will score over 80. If you hear fellow students stating that they scored an almost impossibly high score of 98 or 100, in most cases they are referring to a rounded percentile score rather than the overall score. Nevertheless, there are always a few students each sitting who score 100 in a particular section.

GAMSAT Score Cutoffs - Is my GAMSAT Score Good Enough?

There are currently 14 Medical Schools that provide a Graduate Entry Medical Program, 13 of which require the GAMSAT ^® exam (or MCAT ^® Exam for international students).

To get a list of these schools and learn more about admissions requirements, visit our overview of the Medical School Applications: Australian Medical Schools - Graduate Entry Medicine.

GAMSAT Cutoffs - Australian Graduate Entry Medical Schools

• ¹CSP - Commonwealth Supported Place
  
  ²BMP - Bonded Medical Place. Click here to learn more.
  
  ³These full-fee places are allocated to International students only and are not applicable for domestic students. 24 USYD CSPs are “Dubbo Commonwealth Supported Places”. 30 USYD places are reserved for undergraduate Double Degree medicine students.
  
  ⁴For the University of Melbourne, full fee places are available to both international and domestic applicants. The University of Melbourne does not specifiy how many places go to domestic vs international students. These full-fee places are also available for Guaranteed Entry Students. Regarding the BMP places, 30 are reserved for the MD Rural Pathway Applicants who apply outside of GEMSAS.
  
  ⁵In 2019, UQ introduced the MMI as part of their admissions process which may help explain the drop in cutoff scores. Prior to this, the GAMSAT ^® Score was the only criteria UQ used to rank students for medical offers.
  
  ⁶At UNDS, up to 10 of the full-fee places are open to International applicants.
  
  ⁷At Griffith, the total CSP and BMP places also include reserved places for 80 students from their Medical Science Pathway
  
  ⁸MQ report 20 of these 70 FFP places are for International students
  
  ⁹Approx 30% places are available for rural students, and up to 10% for Indigenous students
  
  ¹⁰Up to 90 Commonwealth supported places are available - This includes CSP and BMPs. Note that up to 75% of places available are reserved for Flinders University Graduates. For 2023 entry, 73% of places went to Flinders University Graduates. The types of places at Flinders University are complex and it is recommended students carefully read the Flinders University Medical Admissions Guide. The scores provided as a cut-off for Flinders refers to non-reserved places for Flinders Graduates.
  
  ¹¹Scores provided for Deakin University do not include bonuses. For the 2024 cutoff scores, the score of 66 does not include any bonus. The lowest cutoff score with Deakin bonuses was 60.75 (12% bonus)
  
  ¹²UQ also provides 135 places for its provisional cohort which refers to an undergraduate pathway at UQ where students are guaranteed a place in postgraduate medicine as long as they complete their bachelor’s degree at UQ and achieve certain academic requirements. 40 of these places are BMP. 96 UQ CSPs are allocated to the “Wide Bay cohort” and 39 CSPs are allocated to the “Darling Downs cohort” (rural training scheme)

Note that USyd will rank students by each section of the GAMSAT ^® exam. This means that USyd will not look at overall or average scores in the ranking of applicants. It’s important to note as well that the exact method used to combine and rank students has not been provided. Students must still meet a minimum score of 50 in each section (except for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander applicants). For the GPA, standard applicants will be required to have a minimum of 5, and rural applicants a minimum of 4.5. USyd have now released a 2025 Admissions Guide and you can find a summary of the changes on our guide here: Australian Medical Admissions Guide.

It’s important to note that your GAMSAT ^® Score only makes up one component of your application, and there are various other factors that need to be considered. For more information, you can refer to our guide on the different Admissions Criteria and Weightings for graduate entry medical schools around Australia: Australian Medical Schools: Entry Requirements.

As always, it’s best to get in contact with the relevant medical institutions for further details - The above table is meant to serve as a guide and does not replace the personal responsibility of each applicant to obtain up-to-date and objective information from medical institutions regarding their medical school applications.

GAMSAT Pass Rate

The pass rate for the GAMSAT Exam can be considered in two different methods. The first method is how many students scored 50 or above. The second method is how many students were accepted into a medical degree.

How Many People Pass the GAMSAT?

• The first method: Based on data released by GAMSAT ACER themselves, on average, approximately 80% of people who sit the GAMSAT score 50 or above.
• The second method: To be accepted into a medical degree, an average score of 63 is needed (slightly higher for medicine and slightly lower for dentistry). Again, according to data released by ACER, this score would put you in the top 18% of people who took the GAMSAT exam.

Therefore, approximately 15-20% of people who sit the GAMSAT exam will be accepted into a medical degree.

How Many People Fail the GAMSAT?

Considering the data above, and knowing that only 15-20% of people who sit the exam get accepted, this means that there is a failure rate of 80-85%.

Medical School Applications and Entry Requirements

Currency of GAMSAT ^® Results

Results from a September Sitting cannot be used for an application in that same year for commencement in the subsequent year. For example, if you sit the September 2024 GAMSAT ^® Exam, you will be able to use the results of this exam for application in 2025 for a program commencing in 2026, for application in 2026 for a program starting in 2027, for application in 2027 for a program starting in 2028, and for application in 2028 for a program starting in 2029. You won’t be able to use this result for an application in 2024 for 2025 entry. This is because medical school applications, which require submission of GAMSAT ^® scores, start around May with offers for interviews being made from August to September.

In November 2022, ACER announced that your GAMSAT ^® results are now valid for four years. Previously, results were only valid for two years. This change is backdated, so GAMSAT ^® exam results from September 2021 can be used for medical schools application in 2025 with a 2026 start.

Note that the above information is specific to Australian universities and the details may differ, particularly for students based in the UK. To learn more about sitting the GAMSAT ^® Exam this year, read the ACER Admissions Guide.

To learn more about how GAMSAT ^® Scores are actually calculated, visit our guide: Understanding your GAMSAT ^® Scores.

To learn more about sitting the GAMSAT ^® exam in 2025, visit our guide to GAMSAT ^® 2025.

To learn more about applying for Graduate Entry Medical Schools in Australia and the different admissions criteria and weightings, visit our guide: Australian Medical Schools - Entry Requirements.

Improving your GAMSAT Score - Free Resources

Now that you understand what your GAMSAT ^® Scores mean, it’s time to set a target and start preparing. The below free resources might be helpful:

1. What is the GAMSAT ^® ?

   Everything you need to know about the GAMSAT ^® Exam from structure and overview to which universities require the GAMSAT ^®

2. How to study for the GAMSAT ^® Exam

   A breakdown of how to approach study effectively and how to set up a GAMSAT ^® study schedule.

3. How to prepare for GAMSAT ^® Humanities and Social Sciences

   An overview of what to expect from the Humanities and Social Sciences Section of the GAMSAT ^® Exam and how to prepare.

4. How to prepare for GAMSAT ^® Written Communication

   An overview of what to expect from the Written Communication Section of the GAMSAT ^® Exam, how to prepare and how to perfect your essay technique.

5. How to prepare for GAMSAT ^® Biological and Physical Sciences

   An overview of what to expect from the Reasoning in Biological and Physical Sciences Section of the GAMSAT ^® Exam and how to prepare for each of the topics - Biology, Chemistry, & Physics.

6. GAMSAT ^® Non-Science Background: How to Prepare

   A breakdown of how to approach GAMSAT ^® study effectively if you come from a non-science background.

7. GAMSAT ^® - 10 Year Retrospective Review

   If you’re curious, read through this 10 year review of the GAMSAT ^® Exam with a detailed analysis of candidate results in 2014.

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