Graduate Australian Medical School Admissions Test

The Graduate Australian Medical School Admissions Test (more commonly known as the GAMSAT) is a test used to select candidates applying to study medicine, dentistry, optometry, physiotherapy, podiatry, pharmacy and veterinary science at Australian, British, and Irish universities for admission to their Graduate Entry Programmes (candidates must have a recognised bachelor's degree, or equivalent, completed prior to commencement of the degree).

GAMSAT makes use of a marking system known as item response theory, meaning that scores are issued according to a sigmoid distribution and can be converted to a percentile rank based on the percentile curve that is issued at the same time as results are released. Candidates are not informed of their raw mark and, in any case, this bears little resemblance to their final score.

Sitting the GAMSAT is a separate process to applying to study medicine. Most universities with graduate-entry medical programs require:

Once a candidate has fulfilled these criteria, they may then apply to universities offering a medicine/dentistry/veterinary science course. If the GAMSAT and GPA scores, or GAMSAT and Degree Class, of the candidate are of sufficient calibre, the candidate may be invited to attend an interview at one or more of the universities to which they applied, based on priority laid out in the student's application. This interview is conducted by established medical practitioners and education professionals, and aims to elucidate the candidate's personal qualities, ethics, verbal reasoning skills, and motivation to study medicine at their university. If successful at this interview (as one half to two thirds of candidates are), then the candidate may be offered a place on their chosen course at the university.

GAMSAT was originally produced in 1995 by four Australian medical schools as a tool to select for candidates applying to study medicine. Since then, its use in Australia has expanded to eleven graduate-entry medicine courses:

In 1999, it was brought into use by British universities and has since expanded to nine universities across the United Kingdom:

In the Republic of Ireland, the University of Limerick and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland adopted the GAMSAT for medical applicants starting with the 2007 enrolment cycle. It is currently used as the selection criteria for all graduate-entry programmes in Ireland (University College Dublin, University of Limerick, University College Cork, and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland).

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