What is the GAMSAT? A plain-English guide
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The GAMSAT® (Graduate Medical School Admissions Test) is the admissions test for graduate-entry medicine in Australia, and for some graduate-entry dentistry, optometry, pharmacy and other health programs. Medical schools in the UK and Ireland use it too. If you want to study medicine after finishing a degree, you will almost certainly need to sit it.
This guide covers what the test is, what's in it, how it's scored and how to start preparing.
Who runs the GAMSAT?
The test is developed and run by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), on behalf of GEMPASS Australia, the consortium of graduate-entry schools. ACER sets the questions, runs the sittings and reports your results to the universities.
GradMedMentor is independent and is not connected with ACER. For anything official — registration, rules, fees and dates — the GAMSAT website at gamsat.acer.org is the final word.
Who can sit it?
You need to have finished, or be currently enrolled in, a bachelor or honours degree, and be a genuine applicant to a course that requires the GAMSAT. Your degree does not have to be in science. Universities welcome applicants from the humanities, law, business and the arts.
There's a catch, though. ACER is clear that doing well without a solid grasp of biology, chemistry and physics is difficult, because the science section carries the most weight. If your background isn't in science, plan extra time for Section 3.
There is no limit on how many times you can sit the GAMSAT.
When is it held?
Twice a year, in March and September. Each sitting has two separate windows:
- Written Communication (Section 2), sat at home under remote supervision.
- Humanities and Sciences (Sections 1 and 3), sat together on one day at a test centre, about three weeks later.
If you live more than three hours' drive from a test centre, or in a country with no test centre, you can apply to sit all three sections remotely. See our GAMSAT dates guide for the current timetable.
The three sections
| Section | What it tests | Questions | Time | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Reasoning in Humanities and Social Sciences | Reading and interpreting unfamiliar texts, images and data | 62 multiple-choice | 100 minutes | Test centre |
| 2. Written Communication | Developing and expressing ideas in writing | 2 essays | 65 minutes | At home, supervised |
| 3. Reasoning in Biological and Physical Sciences | Using science to solve problems from data and diagrams | 75 multiple-choice | 150 minutes | Test centre |
Every multiple-choice question has four options, and there is no penalty for a wrong answer. Never leave a question blank.
Each section has its own guide:
How is it scored?
You get a score out of 100 for each section and an overall score, also out of 100. These are scaled scores, not percentages. The overall score counts Section 3 twice:
Overall = (Section 1 + Section 2 + 2 × Section 3) ÷ 4
That makes Section 3 worth half your overall score. There's no pass mark: each university sets its own cut-offs each year. Results are valid for four years in Australia, and two years in the UK and Ireland. Our GAMSAT scoring guide explains scaling and percentiles in more detail.
Is it a knowledge test?
Mostly not. The GAMSAT is designed to test how you think: how well you read closely, interpret graphs and tables, follow and judge an argument, use a mathematical relationship and write clearly under time pressure. Section 3 does assume knowledge — roughly first-year university biology and chemistry, and Year 12 physics — but most questions ask you to apply it to information you haven't seen before, rather than recall it.
That's good news. Reasoning skills improve with practice, and practice is what moves scores.
How to start preparing
- Find your starting point. Try a timed set from each section before you plan anything. Our free GAMSAT practice questions include 20 from Section 1 and 20 from Section 3, each with a full explanation.
- Use the official materials. ACER sells the only official practice tests. They are the best guide to the real test's style; use them alongside other practice, not instead of it.
- Weight your time towards Section 3. It's half your overall score.
- Practise in timed units, then review slowly. Most of the learning happens when you work out why a wrong option was tempting.
- Write essays to time, then rewrite them. Don't memorise essays. ACER says pre-prepared responses generally score poorly, and every essay is checked for plagiarism.
- Revise the maths by hand. Calculators aren't allowed.
Source: ACER GAMSAT Information Booklet 2026.