GAMSAT

Overview

GAMSAT, the Graduate Medical School Admissions Test, is run by ACER (the Australian Council for Educational Research). Graduate-entry medicine, dentistry and some other health-science programs in Australia, Ireland and the UK use it to select students who already hold, or are close to finishing, a first degree in any subject.

GAMSAT has three sections: Reasoning in Humanities and Social Sciences, Written Communication, and Reasoning in Biological and Physical Sciences. There are two sittings a year, in March and in September, and a candidate sits all three sections in the same sitting.

Who can apply

You can sit GAMSAT if you have already completed a bachelor's degree, or are in your final or second-last year of one, in any field of study. A science background is not required: many graduate-entry programs welcome applicants from non-science degrees, as long as they meet the admitting university's own entry requirements.

Registration is through ACER's own account system. You need a valid personal email address, and the name and date of birth on your account must match the ID you present at your test session, since the same details appear on your Statement of Results sent to universities.

Exam pattern

For the 2026 sittings, GAMSAT ran across two separate test windows rather than one single day: Written Communication first, taken by remote proctoring from home, followed about three weeks later by an in-person test-centre session covering both the Humanities and Social Sciences section and the Biological and Physical Sciences section on the same day. Test centres are available in Australia, Ireland, the UK, New Zealand and Singapore.

Marking and results

Each section is scored on its own scale from 0 to 100; these are scaled scores, not raw percentages. The overall GAMSAT score is a weighted average of the three section scores, with the Biological and Physical Sciences section counted twice:

Overall score = (Humanities and Social Sciences + Written Communication + 2 × Biological and Physical Sciences) ÷ 4

For the 2026 sittings, results were released roughly two months after each test window: late May for the March sitting and mid-November for the September sitting. A GAMSAT result stays valid for up to two years for admission in the UK and Ireland, and for up to four years for admission in Australia, so a single sitting can usually support more than one admissions cycle.

Important dates

GAMSAT runs two sittings a year. For the 2026 cycle, the test windows were:

• March sitting: Written Communication on 28 February to 1 March 2026, followed by Humanities and Social Sciences and Biological and Physical Sciences on 20 to 22 March 2026. This sitting is the one used for admission in Australia, Ireland and the UK.

• September sitting: Written Communication on 22 to 23 August 2026, followed by Humanities and Social Sciences and Biological and Physical Sciences on 11 to 13 September 2026. This sitting runs mainly for Australian admission, with a smaller set of test centres than the March sitting.

Registration for each sitting opens several months in advance and closes about a month before the first test window, with a short late-registration period afterwards for an extra fee. Exact 2027 dates had not yet been published by ACER as of this review; check the official registration page before planning around them.

Fees

For the 2026 sittings, the standard GAMSAT registration fee in Australia was AUD 568, which included an official practice test e-book. Registering or changing test centre during the late-registration window added AUD 114 to this fee. Fees are set separately for each sitting and currency, so confirm the current amount on ACER's own registration page before paying.

How to apply

1. Create an ACER online account with a personal email address, entering your name and date of birth exactly as they appear on the ID you will bring to the test.

2. Register for a specific GAMSAT sitting through that account, inside the standard registration window for that sitting.

3. Choose a test centre, or a remote-proctored option if you qualify for one, for each test window.

4. Pay the registration fee online by card.

5. Sit the Written Communication window first, then the Humanities and Social Sciences and Biological and Physical Sciences window a few weeks later, following the dates ACER confirms for your sitting.

Preparation tips

1. Learn the structure and timing of each section before attempting full practice sets.

2. Practise Section 1 and Section 3 as timed multiple-choice sets, since both run at just over a minute and a half per question.

3. Write full essays under the 65-minute Section 2 time limit so planning, writing and checking all fit inside it.

4. Revisit any underlying biology, chemistry and physics you have not studied recently, since Section 3 assumes it.

5. Sit at least one full-length practice sitting under realistic timing before your real test.