What Skills & Knowledge Does the GAMSAT Test?

The GAMSAT® test is divided into three completely different sections. It is designed to evaluate students’ abilities and skills across a huge variety of topics, including but not limited to the application of basic science concepts in new scenarios, general problem-solving skills, critical and logical thinking, and GAMSAT essay writing.

Essentially, the GAMSAT® exam is meant to give students from different background with different learning experiences—even those who come from a non-science background—the chance to perform to the best of their ability and pursue an education through the currently available pathways to medicine in Australia.

The GAMSAT® test is generally designed to assess the ability to read, understand and then analyse the materials given in multiple formats, and to present to the examiners your skills and knowledge in the given field. Students are tested to apply their knowledge in a new scenario in GAMSAT® Section 3. For Section 2, students are asked to present their critical thinking skills and the corresponding writing skill to correctly and concisely express their thinking in a logical and well-structured manner. It's important to understand what each of these sections is designed to test in order to plan your GAMSAT prep properly.

Overall, the three separate sections are meant to assess students' performance in different areas:

 

GAMSAT Test Section 1 - Reasoning in Humanities and Social Sciences

 

GAMSAT® Section 1 is called "Reasoning in Humanities and Social Sciences.” This is the section where students are given different types of text, and are required to interpret and understand the ideas within the text. Most of the material will be in the form of written passages with a range of different writing styles, for example an argumentative piece, a creative piece or a descriptive piece. At the same time, you may also be asked to analyse visual arts like cartoon, advertisement, infographics or even tables. The topics also vary widely, including but not limited to political, social, educational, cultural or personal issues.

Questions in this section are used to test students’ ability of logical understanding, reasoning and thinking. More specifically, it asks the students to process the verbal and non-verbal language, to understand the deep underlying meanings and the overarching idea of a paragraph, and sometimes students need to rationally make judgments or even provide critiques to show that they are thinking critically.

Moreover, practically speaking, as related to the medical setting, understanding the meaning of the patients is crucial, so it is important to understand the art of language. You need to understand the tone and the underlying meaning of a particular phrase in a given context. Although EAL students will be given the chance to use a bilingual dictionary, the dictionary does not tell you the answer to a specific scenario. For more in-depth tips and tricks about how to prepare for GAMSAT® Section 1, visit our guide on GAMSAT Section 1.

 

GAMSAT Test Section 2 - Written Communication

 

The Written Communication section tests students’ writing skills. It is a section with two 30-minute writing tasks, with each providing quotes related to a common theme. The first task is more likely to be social, cultural or political related. The second task is more related to personal issues.

The writing in the GAMSAT® test is assessed from two different angles—the quality of the ideas which are expressed in the piece and the structure and language used in the piece to articulate the ideas that the students want to demonstrate. For the first criteria, that is, content wise, there is no right or wrong about your opinion in the piece; it is about how well you convey your opinion to the examiners and how deep or thoughtful your responses are.

For the second criteria, if you are not sure what structure to use, try to stick to easy ones like SEER or TEEL. These effectively give a logically well-structured response and students can build it up by themself while practicing. Similarly, the effectiveness and fluency of the language is also important. Things like repetition and lack of linking words are not a good sign. A good Section 2 essay is never only good in one aspect; it is the overall flow of the response that is assessed.

 

GAMSAT Test Section 3 - Reasoning in Biological and Physical Sciences

 

GAMSAT® Section 3 is commonly known as the science section, which involves questions from three disciplines—biology, chemistry and physics, with a proportion of 40%, 40% and 20% respectively.

Although it is called the science section, it is quite different from a normal final exam for a university science subject. In the GAMSAT® test, students will be given different forms of materials including a long paragraph like one of those lecture slides. There may also be tables, charts and diagrams for students to analyse data, to apply logical reasoning, or to interpret the rationale behind the graphical display of information.

Generally, students are required to have basic mathematical skills including the ability to solve problems arithmetically and algebraically, and to do calculations and related approximations. Speaking of which, it will be worth reviewing power and logarithm laws as these appear very frequently in the GAMSAT® test.

In some of the organic chemistry questions, students need to be sensitive to the visuals and find the general patterns. You will also need to be able to clearly spot those R groups to be able to compare and contrast between the options. For more information, check out our guide on GAMSAT Chemistry.

For some of the biology question, a very complex diagram or flow chart will be provided, which requires students to understand data interpretation and have related skills like extrapolation and interpolation.

Students with a science background certainly have an advantage, but it does not mean that a student from a non-science degree cannot succeed in the GAMSAT® test. You will need to review Year 12 or equivalent level of physics and first year university level of biology and chemistry. Although most of the questions in GAMSAT® Section 3 will not have a lot of presumed knowledge and most of the information required will be provided in the text in the question stem, knowing basics like what is pH, naming in organic chemistry, stoichiometry, forces, motion and basic cell biology will have a huge impact on students’ performance in this section.

If you’re worried about preparing for Section 3 in the GAMSAT® test, check out our comprehensive guide on GAMSAT Section 3. The guide will provide you with useful tips and tricks regardless of whether you come from a science or a non-science background.