What is your dream career?
As you’re reading this, you must be the ambitious aspirant who wants to be a doctor one day, the old, good, and upright backbone of society.
Now, first things first. You have to clear the entrance exam to get into medical school.
What is GAMSAT?
The Graduate Medical School Admissions Test, aka GAMSAT®, is the compulsory, standard admission cum aptitude test conducted by ACER (Australian Council for Education Research) to assess the capacity to undertake high-level intellectual studies in medical and health professional programs.
This is your gateway to graduate medicine. It is said that the questions of this test assess not only theoretical grasp on the subject but also the ability to solve real-life problems.
Also, it tests your ability to communicate and explain your ideas to others.
Out of a total of 13 graduate entry medical schools in the continent, 12 (including Canberra, Queensland, Melbourne, Sydney, New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, etc.) require their applicants to have a valid GAMSAT® score.
Eligibility Criteria for GAMSAT
GAMSAT® authority is very lenient about the rules and there are few strict barriers for aspirants.
Usually, all candidates who have a bachelor’s or undergraduate degree and are currently applying for a healthcare-related course are eligible to take the GAMSAT® Test.
Pre-final and final-year undergraduate honors students or students who have finished their university exams but are awaiting results are also eligible to take this entrance test.
Visit the official ACER site to know more. Even students who have studied some non-science undergraduate degree may also appear in this test.
How to Apply for GAMSAT 2023?
The ACER authority conducts two GAMSAT® exam sessions each year, one in March and the other in September.
Fee structure, Late fines, and application submission deadlines differ from year to year. So it would be wise to keep an eye on the official website and stay updated with the latest changes.
A prerequisite before the application is Student’s own online ACER account which will be used to register for the exam and in all future correspondence with the authority regarding confirmation of examination center, hall ticket download, checking results and merit list, ranks, etc.
Top 5 tricks and hacks to crack GAMSAT 2023 in one go
You’ll be competing with a pool of thousands of the best students in STEM. Winning never comes easy.
To level up, you have to implement clear strategies early on, right from your preparation days, to perform your absolute best on the exam day. After all, smart work outperforms hard work.
Here are some tactics advised by the toppers and experienced experts for you.
- Leave no stones unturned.
There’s no negative marking. So answer all the questions. If you’re running out of time, choose a letter and answer all the skipped questions
- Read Questions Carefully
Often the question itself harbors a vital clue to the answer. Read it minutely. Notice Important keywords highlighted in bold, italics, or underlined duly.
- Pace up
Maintain a consistent speed and breeze through all the sections smoothly. Don’t waste too much time on a particularly difficult question you can’t get a hold of. You’ll be given scratch papers in the hall. Write the question number on that sheet and move on. Attempt later if time permits.
- Practice, Analyse, Repeat
Practice tests are a vital preparatory part of any competitive exam. You will get habituated to the exam format and most common question pattern so that everything may look familiar on the exam day. If you practice enough previous year questions, often you’ll find those questions repeatedly appearing over and again. Voila! Make GAMSAT practice questions an integral part of your exam strategy.
- Ignore snobs
During your preparation months and even during the exam sessions, you’ll come across lots of over-smart, if not overconfident, people who’ll try to belittle the difficulty level and seriousness of the exam and advise you to go casual or simply discourage you from taking the exam at all. These people are not your well-wishers. Stay away and focus more on studies that count. Study smart and get into the medical school that you’ve dreamt of. All the best for your bright future.