GAMSAT in Australia
the complete guide

The GAMSAT is a graduate-entry reasoning exam used by Australian, UK, and Irish medical, dental, optometry, pharmacy and veterinary programmes. Within Australia its primary use is for the 4-year graduate-entry Doctor of Medicine (MD or MChD) — the standard route into medicine for applicants who already hold a bachelor degree.

ACER, a not-for-profit educational research body based in Camberwell, Melbourne, has run GAMSAT since 1995. The test is designed to measure reasoning capacity rather than recall — what you do with information rather than how much you have memorised. That said, the science section assumes first-year university-level knowledge of biology, chemistry, and physics, so "reasoning only, no content" is not strictly accurate.

Three things make GAMSAT distinctive. First, it is long — a single five-and-a-half-hour sitting tests endurance as much as ability. Second, it requires written communication — most other medicine admissions tests are entirely multiple choice. Third, the science section combines biology, chemistry, and physics into one paper and weights physics and chemistry significantly more than most candidates expect. Misjudging that weighting is the single most common preparation mistake.

ACER runs two GAMSAT sittings per year — one in March and one in September. Both sittings are held over a single day in cities across Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Hobart, Canberra, Darwin) and overseas (London, Dublin, Singapore, Washington DC). The two sittings use different exam papers but are equated in scoring so neither is "easier".

Registration windows. Registration opens roughly four months before the test date and closes around six to eight weeks before. For the March sitting, registration typically opens in November and closes in mid-January. For the September sitting, registration opens in May and closes in mid-July. Late registration is available for a higher fee until approximately four weeks out.

Costs. Standard registration is approximately AUD $560 (2026 fee — confirm current pricing with ACER). Late registration adds roughly $115. International test-centre fees may apply on top. There is no discount for repeat sittings.

Which sitting to choose. For most applicants targeting an upcoming application cycle, the September sitting is decisive — its results release in mid-November aligns with most graduate-entry application deadlines in late November and early December. Sitting in March gives you a diagnostic and a safety-net score; sitting in September lets you act on the diagnostic. Strong applicants often sit both and use the better overall score.

For most Australian applicants the choice is determined by the pathway, not preference. School leavers applying to undergraduate medicine sit UCAT-ANZ; degree holders applying to graduate medicine sit GAMSAT.

The decision tree:

• You finish year 12 in 2026 and want a 5-6 year undergraduate MD → UCAT-ANZ.
• You already hold a bachelor degree (or will by 2026 entry) and want a 4-year graduate MD → GAMSAT.
• You hold a bachelor and want flexibility across both pathways → sit both. Several applicants do this each cycle. Costly but maximises school choice.
• You're applying to dual-pathway Monash and want both the undergraduate (UCAT-ANZ + CASPer + ATAR) and graduate (GAMSAT) streams → sit both, but commit fully to one.

The two tests share almost no skills. UCAT-ANZ rewards fast pattern recognition, mental arithmetic, and lateral reasoning under intense time pressure. GAMSAT rewards depth, written expression, and applied science reasoning. Most candidates find one materially easier than the other after taking a diagnostic of each.

For more on the differences and a UCAT-ANZ deep-dive, read our UCAT-ANZ guide and the broader undergraduate vs graduate pathway guide.