GAMSAT (Graduate Medical School Admissions test) is an exam that can open up enormous opportunities. No matter the bachelor's degree you study or have studied for, you can still sit GAMSAT and be accepted into a medicine course.
That can be a good option for lots of students, from those who got interested in medicine too late for an undergraduate degree to those who were able to pass UCAT after school and would like to try their luck once more time.
Of course, GAMSAT is not an easy exam, so registering for it doesn't mean you will certainly enter a medical school or university. Nevertheless, the difference between UCAT and GAMSAT, is that you will have more experience when sitting GAMSAT, so it will be a completely different context.
To get a bachelor's degree, students have to submit numerous assignments and pass exams every year, so they simply get to know better how to prepare for them and to stay focused on the day of the test.
What you may not know, however, is the particular features of GAMSAT and namely its organisation since it is set by ACER independently from any university or medical school.
That is why we have decided to gather information about GAMSAT sessions for you, so you can choose the best moment to sit it. Keep reading this article to find out more.
There is more about the GAMSAT exam on our blog.
When can students sit GAMSAT?
If you decide to try and enter a medical university, you should know that you don't just need to pass GAMSAT and but your score will also count a lot.
Actually, the higher your score the higher your chances to be accepted to a university course will be, so it can be a good idea to spend some time on revision for the exam.
The problem is that students are also likely to have other assignments and exams to pass during the university year, so finding time to study for GAMSAT may not be an easy task.
So knowing the exact dates when you should register for and then sit GAMSAT is crucial for organising your revision effectively. Here are the actual GAMSAT dates for the year 2023.
The first GAMSAT 2023 test window is from 18 March until 22 March. The standard registration for this period opened in November of this year and will close on 30 January 2023.
Beyond that date, it will still be possible to sign up for sitting the medical test in March but you will have to pay an additional fee. After 10 February 2023, no registration will be possible at all.
The second GAMSAT 2023 session will take place from 8 September until 12 September. It will be possible to register for this sitting window from mid-May 2023 until 11 July in a regular way and the late registration period will end on 21 July.
Students can sign up for either of the two sitting windows each year but you should keep in mind that the March session is timed for the admission cycles in Australia and Ireland, whereas the September session is better suited for the UK.
How many times can you sit GAMSAT?
An important rule for GAMSAT is that a student can sit the test only once in the same year, so it is not possible to have a second chance by registering for the September session if you fail in March.
On the other hand, there is no limit on how many times you can sit the medical exam in your life. What's more, the GAMSAT results are valid for 4 years in Australia and for 2 years in the UK and Ireland.
That basically means that although you cannot try your luck twice in the same year, nothing prevents you from passing GAMSAT in advance, both last year and second-last-year students being allowed to sit it.
So, students who already know that they would like to apply for a medical school or university in the early years of their bachelor's degree can start the revision for the test in advance and gain precious time.
Of course, sitting GAMSAT has a cost, so it is better to pass it on your first try even from a financial point of view but it can still be good to have a backup plan.
Students are actually even more likely to do well in the exam on their second try because after sitting it once, they earn a better understanding of how it works and have additional time to prepare for it.
You will be able to focus on a particular part of the test, such as the essays or questions on science. You will make sure to get a really competitive score the next year and enter the medical university of your dreams in the end.
You can read about GAMSAT score in more detail in our article.
How much time will you have for each GAMSAT section?
To get a good GAMSAT score, you need to have a clear idea about the structure of the exam and its different parts.
In reality, students don't take GAMSAT in just one go but it consists of three separately timed sections with different kinds of questions. When you start your preparation for the exam, you should identify your weak and strong sides and check if you can do the assignments quickly enough to finish on time.
What you can do for that is to buy revision materials from the ACER website and try to measure how much time you spend on each section.
Just to give you an idea, the first part of GAMSAT consists of 62 analytical multiple-choice questions and you will be given 100 minutes to solve them. This means that you will have about one minute and a half per question.
The second part of GAMSAT is made up of two writing exercises for which you will have 65 minutes, so you will have to write your answer to each question in 30 minutes.
Finally, the last part of GAMSAT is similar to the first one in that it includes 75 multiple-choice questions. However, they are not about general topics this time but about science. 40% of the questions are about biology, 40% about chemistry and 20% about physics.
This is the largest section of the exam for which you will have 150 minutes and it is also the most important one as it has a coefficient of 2 in the final score.
You will have 2 minutes to choose an answer to each question, so even though 150 minutes may seem long, it is still easier to run out of time, especially if you haven't had enough practice before.
Once you have identified which part is the most difficult, you can do more ACER exercises for it so that it doesn't lower your final score.
On our blog, you can also learn how to register for GAMSAT correctly.
Prepare for GAMSAT with a tutor
Even though ACER provides training material for GAMSAT, it may not be enough for all students. In particular, the essay part often causes difficulties for students with scientific studies, whereas students from other fields may have trouble with the last section.
A good GAMSAT tutor can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses quickly and come up with training activities to fill in the gaps.
Thanks to their teaching experience, GAMSAT tutors know exactly how the exam works and what skills students need to score well in it.
They can advise you on how much time you should spend on GAMSAT preparation every day, what exercises you should do and what theoretical concepts you need to understand.
Studying with tutors is less stressful because you have someone you can rely on and you can easily combine it with other activities such as university courses since private classes can be organised at any moment in the week.
As the day of the exam draws closer, your tutor will help you develop effective strategies to answer questions quickly, so you will be really unbeatable regarding both knowledge and the exam format.
You can find out about how difficult GAMSAT really is, if you read our article.
Find a GAMSAT tutor on Superprof
The last year of university is a busy time and many of us may not afford to waste hours to find a good tutor, especially given that GAMSAT tutors are scarce and in high demand.
That is why you need an efficient tool to search for a tutor and Superprof can be such a tool for you.
On our website, there are lots of qualified GAMSAT tutors living in different cities in Australia and in other countries, like Ireland or the UK, with whom you can study face-to-face or online.
On Superprof, you will find helpful information about each tutor, get access to other users' reviews for classes and can contact any tutor you want by chat.
Thanks to all these features, you'll not simply find a tutor quickly but make sure that it's the right person for you, so you can revise effectively and with fun.
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