While there is no official limit to the number of times that you can sit GAMSAT, the reality is that
GAMSAT preparation requires a significant investment in terms of time, effort, and money. As of the time of writing, the registration fee for the GAMSAT exam is $515 (AUD), with an additional late fee of $100 if you register during the late registration period. For many candidates, that $515 is no chump change: it could be worth a couple of weeks’ rent, a car service, or a child’s school camp. Unless you’re fortunate enough to be in a position where you can laugh off $515, you’ll probably want to make sure you’re truly ready to sit the GAMSAT. But how do you know when you are ready?
There are 3 questions that you’ll need to ask yourself and answer:
- Are you ready to prepare for the GAMSAT?
- Are you ready to sit the GAMSAT?
- Are you ready to study medicine?
Are you ready to prepare for the GAMSAT?
If you haven’t started preparing yet, you’ll first need to think about what that preparation will entail, and if you’re in a position to be able to prepare for the GAMSAT right now. Think about how much time there is until the exam that you are thinking of sitting. If there’s only a couple of months, you’ll need to make sure you have lots of time each day to study, but if you’re not planning to sit until next year, you won’t need as much time per day. Next, consider your commitments. Will your commitments allow you to get in the required amount of study per day? If not, perhaps you will need to give yourself more time by aiming for the next sitting instead. Check out our other blog article “
How Long Does It Take to Prepare for the GAMSAT?” to get a better idea of how much prep time you should set aside.
As well as time, think about what resources you have for studying. Do you have somewhere that you can study? If you have a chaotic home environment with a lot going on, you might not be in the best position to study for GAMSAT. Consider also that you will be doing a lot of studying in your medical degree, so if you have too many personal or social factors going on in your life right now, it’s well worth taking the time to get them sorted before you even think about preparing for GAMSAT. It’s not a race—there are many mature age students in medical school, and they often offer some new perspectives that traditional students can benefit from hearing. Check out our other blog article “
Medicine for Mature Age Students” for more information.
Are you ready to sit the GAMSAT?
Before I delve into this question, I would like to point out two things. Firstly, I would like to point out that there is a deadline for requesting refunds for GAMSAT registration fees. Therefore, once this deadline has passed, you might as well sit the GAMSAT even if you don’t feel prepared, since you will lose the money anyway (best case scenario, you might exceed your expectations and get a good enough score to gain a place in medicine!). The second thing that I would like to point out is that, in Australia, universities only look at
one of your GAMSAT scores, and you get to choose which score (within the past two years) universities receive. (Note that this is different to some other countries, such as the US, where many universities look at all MCAT attempts.) Therefore, if you sit while unprepared and get a terrible score, you can simply not use that score. I recommend checking out our other page “
GAMSAT Results 2022: The Definitive Guide” for more detailed information about GAMSAT scores.
It is difficult to answer the question of whether you are ready to sit, given that virtually everyone feels unprepared (to some extent) while walking into the GAMSAT exam. The best advice that I can give is to look back honestly at your preparation over the past few months. Have you done a lot of practice questions? Have you spent a decent amount of time honing your test-taking and essay-writing skills? If the answer to both of these questions is yes, then you are probably prepared to sit. Bonus points if you’ve also been doing exam-style practice (i.e. sitting a mock exam or studying according to the schedule of exam day). If you’ve been doing this, you can feel confident that you’ll have enough stamina to get you through. If you haven’t, I recommend that you get started with GradReady’s
Free GAMSAT Practice Questions and Materials.
Are you ready to study medicine?
This may seem like a bit of a silly question, especially if medicine has been your dream ever since you were young. Medical degrees are not for the faint-hearted: they require far more contact hours than any other degree, including irregular hours during some clinical rotations. Also, you can only study medicine full-time. If you’re currently in a position where this won’t be feasible, e.g. you have to work full-time in order to keep a roof over your head, you may not be in a position to study medicine right now, but perhaps you might be in a position to do so in the future.
Also, think about what it will be like to be a doctor. Of course, there is prestige and a good income attached to the role, but there is also a lot of hard work. The studying won’t stop when you leave medical school, as you’ll then be learning on the job, beefing up your resume and/or studying for the entrance exam for specialty training, completing assessments and studying for specialist exams, and doing ongoing professional development and research as a consultant. You may also find yourself being on-call, or travelling to rural areas. Furthermore, being a doctor carries a lot of responsibility, and you will have to make life-or-death decisions and have difficult conversations with patients and family members. You must ask yourself if you are truly ready to pursue this lifestyle, warts and all.
Conclusion
While it is nearly impossible to feel truly ready for the GAMSAT, I hope that you can take comfort in knowing that if you gave yourself adequate study time, and used that time to do practice questions, hone your essay-writing skills, and develop problem solving strategies, you’re probably more prepared than you think. If you don’t quite meet this standard, don’t fret—you can get a refund if you get in before the deadline, and if it’s too late to get a refund, you can sit the GAMSAT anyway and hope that you might get a score good enough for your purposes. Throughout all of this, make sure you remember why you are sitting the GAMSAT, and make sure that you’re ready to adopt the challenging study and lifestyle that comprises a career in medicine.
If you feel like you need some additional help to really be ready for the GAMSAT, take advantage of GradReady’s
Free GAMSAT Preparation Materials, designed to help you consolidate your prep!
