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The GAMSAT ® exam is a comprehensive examination of all your reasoning and problem solving skills, and likely covers more content than you have ever been tested on before in a single occasion. This makes it essential to have a GAMSAT ® Study Syllabus that covers all the areas you need to prepare for, and also to organise your study in a way that will allow you to learn all this in an efficient manner. Each section tests fundamentally different content and skills, meaning a one-size-fits-all approach is unlikely to be successful. At GradReady, we’re here to help by providing you with a free GAMSAT ® Study Guide that summarises all the key information you need to know to ace the GAMSAT ® exam.
The GAMSAT ® exam covers a wide range of varying areas, making it difficult to prepare for without a comprehensive study plan. If you’re not sure where to start, our expert tutor, Georgia, provides tips on how to use our GAMSAT ® Study Syllabus in this video guide.
One of the most common questions we hear about the GAMSAT ® exam is “Is there a syllabus for the GAMSAT ® ?” Although ACER doesn’t provide a concrete syllabus for students to refer to, here at Gradready we’ve compiled a list of general topics that come up time and time again in the GAMSAT ® exam.
Our GAMSAT ® Study Syllabus is a brief overview of the GAMSAT ® exam and how to approach it. It can be accessed for free through the below link. You can use it to kickstart your study, to check off topics as you go, and to get some insight into organising and managing your preparation.
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You can also access our more detailed week-by-week GAMSAT ® Study Guide by signing up for our free trial here: GAMSAT ® Free Trial. Our Free Trial includes a complete breakdown of the GAMSAT ® Syllabus, 50 free MCQs as well as a wealth of other preparation materials to help you kickstart your preparation.
This Study Syllabus is designed to help guide you in your GAMSAT ® Preparation and also acts as a GAMSAT ® checklist - It describes and summarises the recommended content for each section, and provides study tips from our expert tutors on how to tackle each part of the GAMSAT ® exam.
GradReady’s GAMSAT ® Study Guide will help you to gain an overview of the GAMSAT ® exam and its core components and is a useful tool in planning your preparation. To make the best use of it, you should also ensure to do the following:
Time management and studying efficiently is a core skill to succeeding in the GAMSAT ® . Getting into a steady routine is vital in managing your preparation, reducing stress, and improving performance. For example, planning ahead gives you more direction over your study, so that you always know whether you are on track, and what you need to study when you sit down at your desk for the day. To help you with this, we have created a free GAMSAT ® Study Schedule which provides a framework and some key checkpoints along your study journey.
The GAMSAT ® exam tests knowledge and skills across many different areas, so it is important to have a thorough understanding of what exactly you will be assessed on. While this GAMSAT ® Study checklist gives you an insight into the GAMSAT ® exam, it is only an overview of the process. To learn more about the GAMSAT ® exam, you can read our comprehensive guides for each Section:
For Section 1 of the GAMSAT ® Exam you will be asked questions on a wider array of different media which may include the following (this list is not exhaustive):
Section 2 of the GAMSAT ® exam, also known as ‘Written Communication’, assesses your ability to express your thoughts in a logical and effective manner in response to two sets of stimuli.
Task A generally deals with socio-cultural issues and is best suited to an argumentative style of essay. Some example themes include:
Task B centres around themes targeted at more personal and social issues and allows for students to express themselves through a more creative or reflective essay style. Some example themes include:
For further ideas, head to our GAMSAT Section 2 Essay Quote Generator.
For Section 3, the questions are based on three discipline areas along the following ratios:
You are advised to have a level of basic knowledge equivalent to first year university levels of biology and chemistry along with a Year 12 level of physics.
Below you will find a list of Biology topics which will need to be included in any GAMSAT ® science syllabus.
Below you will find a list of Chemistry topics which will need to be included in any GAMSAT ® science syllabus.
Below you will find a list of Physics topics which will need to be included in any GAMSAT ® science syllabus.
You may have heard that the GAMSAT ® ‘cannot be studied for’, or that it only tests your general intelligence meaning there is no point in preparing. However, a review of more than 50 academic studies of over 130,000 participants finds that in general, preparation improves performance on any test. In the context of the GAMSAT ® exam, this is the case because:
When learning new content, focus on asking questions, putting information in context, and summarising information. Then, revisit the material periodically and test yourself regularly. One of the biggest pitfalls students encounter is simply passively reading information, which they are likely to forget immediately. It’s important to remember that the GAMSAT ® exam is not designed to test your recall of knowledge but rather your reasoning skills - As such, it’s important to think critically as you work through practice questions and consider the type of skills they’re testing.
Spending all your time on chemistry doesn’t help you much if you are already a science whiz but can’t write an essay within the allotted time. Before you start spending a lot of time on studying a specific area, assess whether it will actually help you do better on the exam. Use our GAMSAT ® Study Guide to get a quick overview of the various areas in the exam.
You don’t need to know what score or university you want, but it is helpful to have some perspective of why you are sitting the exam. You most likely want to get into a study program that leads into a healthcare field that you are passionate about. Having this goal somewhere (and tangible reminders of it) to refer back to in tough times will help keep you on track.
The GAMSAT ® curriculum is quite broad. However, the subjects which are needed for the GAMSAT ® exam may still be defined for each section:
Question stems in Section 1 draw from a variety of topics, including literature and psychology. In terms of what subjects you should be studying, this question is complex. A student would benefit from reading widely in both fiction and non-fiction. For fiction this includes short stories, poems, and novels. For non-fiction, this includes long-form journalism, opinion pieces, essays and books.
At times you will be asked to interpret graphs and tables, and this could be described as analytics. Subjects which may be most useful for these kinds of questions include statistics, philosophy and psychology, as many involve assessing causality.
For more information, check out our GAMSAT ® to Med School Podcast episode which specifically covers GAMSAT ® Section 1 advice and best practices.
There are no particular subjects which are needed for Section 2. Content and subject matter in the essays is up to the student but restrained by the quote sets, which may draw themes/quotes from sociology, politics, climate science, technology and more. Perhaps the most useful subjects to study at University-level might be sociology, english literature and political science.
Practice is key for GAMSAT® Section 2, which is why we’ve created a GAMSAT ® Quote Generator that you can use for free.
Section 3 is broken down into the following overarching subjects (proportion of questions in %):
The actual sub-topics which are required for these overarching subjects may vary slightly from exam to exam, but are usually predictable.
E.g. for chemistry, there will be some questions on organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, chemical bonding. Please refer to the section syllabus to see these in more detail for each subject.
The most comprehensive library of free GAMSAT Preparation materials available.
Covers everything you need to know about your GAMSAT ® Results - How the scoring works, result release dates and even GAMSAT ® score cutoffs.
A breakdown of how to approach study effectively and how to set up a GAMSAT ® study schedule
An overview of what to expect in Section 1 of the GAMSAT ® Exam, how to prepare for the Reasoning and Humanities questions.
An overview of what to expect in Section 2 of the GAMSAT ® Exam, how to prepare and how to perfect your essay technique.
An overview of what to expect in Section 3 of the GAMSAT ® Exam and how to prepare for each of the topics - Biology, Chemistry, & Physics.