GAMSAT – Your Way To The Medical Field

Education now has become a market product. If you can select the right product or rather if you can invest in the right type education, it will fetch you handsome return. There are many reputed universities in the world. All good colleges give admission considering the cut off marks obtained in recognised examinations. GAMSAT is one such examination for admission to medical colleges. Passing GAMSAT is not a guarantee for admission, but with good marks in GAMSAT you are assured of an interview in good colleges in Australia, England and Ireland.

The full form of GAMSAT is Graduate Australian Medical School Admission Test. It has been developed by Australian Council of Medical Research in conjunction with Consortium of Graduate Medical Schools. It is designed to assess the students’ capacity to pursue high level of intellectual discourses required for the medical courses efficiently and successfully. It was originally floated by four medical schools in Australia in 1995 as a test for selecting students for these medical schools. In 1999 it was brought into use by British Universities namely Saint Georges University of London, University of Nottingham, Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry and the University of Swansea. In Ireland it is used by University of Limericks, Royal College of Surgeon, University College Dublin, University College Cork.

The successful candidates may apply for medicine, dentistry, podiatry, pharmacy and veterinary courses in the above colleges. They should have a bachelor’s degree from a recognised University prior to admission to these colleges. GAMSAT gives a percentile marks and not total marks obtained in the examination. The above mentioned colleges ask for the following documents as eligibility criteria for admission to these colleges:

1.      Bachelor’s degree certificate from a recognised university. This includes arts and other faculties also.

GAMSAT is held once in a year. In Australia and Ireland the test is held in late March or early April. In England, it is held in middle or end of September. It is administered by the Australian Council of Educational Research. Registration for the examination should be done by late January for Australia and Ireland and August for UK. Prior to registering it is imperative for the candidates to read the information booklet available at site http://www.gamsatguru.com.au/.

GAMSAT is a reasoning test. It does not test the knowledge of the candidates. The candidates have to tune themselves accordingly. There is no prescribed synopsis of the tests but the candidates should have the following standard of knowledge: English as in Higher Secondary School level, physics as in 12^thstandard Australian school, Biology and chemistry as in 1^st year university level. The duration of the test is 8 hours, from 8 AM to 4 PM. There are three sections.

1.      Section 1 is from humanities. Total number of questions is 75, Time permitted is 100 minutes.

2.      Section 2 is written communication. The candidates have to write two essays. Communication ability is assessed. Time given is one hour.

3.      Section 3 is from physical science. Total number of questions is 110. Time permitted is 170 minutes. The section 3 score has a double weightage.

Percentile score is calculated based on the score of all the subjects. Percentile marks of a candidate signify the percentage of total no of candidates below him. Each college announces a cut off marks for admission. Accordingly the candidates have to apply for different colleges.