GAMSAT vs UCAT-ANZ — which test should I sit?
2027 Entry · Decision matrix · Schools · Prep time · Cost
For most Australian medical applicants, the choice between GAMSAT and UCAT-ANZ is decided by pathway rather than preference. School leavers applying to a 5-6 year undergraduate Doctor of Medicine sit UCAT-ANZ; graduates applying to a 4-year postgraduate MD sit GAMSAT. This guide walks through the decision matrix, lists every Australian medical school by the test it uses, compares prep time and cost head-to-head, and identifies the small group of dual-pathway schools where sitting both tests opens additional options.
The decision matrix
Three variables drive the choice: your degree status (already hold a bachelor or finishing year 12), your target programme length (4-year graduate or 5-6 year undergraduate), and your strongest academic profile (sciences vs humanities, depth vs speed).
| If you… | Recommended test | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Finish year 12 in 2026, target undergraduate MD | UCAT-ANZ | Almost every Australian undergraduate medical programme uses UCAT-ANZ + ATAR for school-leaver entry — the exceptions are JCU, which uses no admissions test, and Bond, which runs its own psychometric testing instead. |
| Hold a bachelor degree, target graduate-entry MD | GAMSAT | Every 4-year graduate-entry Australian MD uses GAMSAT (plus GPA and interview) except Monash, whose graduate stream takes no admissions test and is open only to graduates of specified Monash degrees. Several other schools also admit their own undergraduates through assured or provisional pathways that waive GAMSAT. |
| Hold a bachelor but want maximum school flexibility | Both | Sitting both unlocks undergraduate MDs (Monash, UWA, UQ, Griffith, Flinders and Tasmania among others) and graduate-entry MDs in one cycle. Sydney is graduate entry only — it does not use UCAT-ANZ. |
| Hold a bachelor and prefer a shorter, faster programme | GAMSAT | Graduate-entry MD = 4 years vs undergraduate MD = 5-6 years. Twelve 4-year GAMSAT programmes run across the country — the ten GEMSAS schools plus Sydney and Flinders, which take direct applications. |
| Apply to dual-pathway schools (UWA, UQ, Griffith, Flinders, Tasmania) | Depends on stream | Undergraduate stream uses UCAT-ANZ; graduate stream uses GAMSAT. Commit to one stream. Casper is not a dual-pathway rule — it is a separate school-by-school requirement, notably at Curtin (undergraduate) and at Notre Dame and Wollongong (graduate). |
Head-to-head — what each test is
GAMSAT
Graduate Medical School Admissions Test · ACER
- Length: 5 hr 15 min of testing, split across two windows — Written Communication by remote proctoring, then Humanities + Sciences at a test centre about three weeks later
- Sections: Humanities (62 MCQ), Written communication (2 essays), Sciences (75 MCQ)
- Frequency: March + September each year
- Cost: AUD $568 / sitting (2026)
- Score validity: 2 years
- Schools: 13 Australian medical programmes
UCAT-ANZ
University Clinical Aptitude Test - ANZ · Pearson VUE
- Length: 2 hours, single sitting
- Sections: Verbal reasoning, Decision making, Quantitative reasoning, Situational judgement
- Frequency: one window a year — 1 July to 5 August in 2026
- Cost: AUD $335 (2026); AUD $240 concession
- Scoring: three cognitive subtests, 300-900 each, totalling 900-2700; Situational Judgement is reported separately as its own 300-900 scaled score and is not in the cognitive total
- Score validity: Current cycle only — one shot per year
- Schools: 12 Australian medical programmes
Cost — total spend, not just registration
Registration is the smallest line item. The full cost of a competitive prep cycle includes materials, mocks, tutoring hours and (for some) a year of postgraduate science to bridge into GAMSAT Section 3.
GAMSAT — typical total cost
- Registration: AUD $568 per sitting, 2026 (often x2)
- ACER practice material: individually priced AUD $22-$62, with Practice Test A included in the registration fee; about AUD $200 buys everything else
- Third-party question banks: AUD $250-600
- Tutoring (10-30 hours): AUD $800-3,000
- Realistic total: AUD $2,000-4,500 over 6-12 months
UCAT-ANZ — typical total cost
- Registration: AUD $335, 2026 (single sitting; $240 concession)
- Question bank subscription: AUD $200-450
- Mock-test platform: AUD $100-250
- Tutoring (10-25 hours): AUD $700-2,500
- Realistic total: AUD $1,200-3,500 over 2-3 months
Every Australian medical school by test (2027 entry)
24 programmes across two streams (4 dual-pathway) — click any school for the full how-to-get-in guide including UCAT-ANZ/GAMSAT cut-offs, interview format and intake size.
Adelaide
SA · undergraduate · Intake Adelaide does not publish a total place count, though it publishes sub-pathway reservations (approximately 41 Rural Background, up to 20 Northern Community Care Stream, minimum 10 Higher Education). Its official student profile shows 160 students commencing in Semester 1 2026 (28 international, 17.5%; 96 admitted on ATAR plus additional criteria; 33 through the Higher Education pathway). Approximately 600 domestic and 160 international applicants are invited to interview each cycle. Domestic offer weighting: Academic 40% + UCAT ANZ 20% + Interview 40%.
Test: UCAT-ANZ
ANU
ACT · graduate · Intake 2027 entry: 63 CSP + 26 BMP (89 domestic) + up to 30 international full-fee, plus uncapped Indigenous places offered in addition to that cap — so up to roughly 119, plus Indigenous entrants. Note that approximately 40 of the available places are reserved for students who came through an ANU undergraduate pathway (ANU's BHLTH page: "Up to 40 domestic students from the BHLTH will receive an offer to the MChD program each year"), so materially fewer than 89 domestic places are contested through GEMSAS.
Test: GAMSAT
Bond
QLD · dual · Intake Up to 180-200 domestic places a year across two intakes (May + September) — Bond's entry-requirements page says "up to 180 domestic places" while its FAQ says "up to 200". About 80% undergraduate / 20% graduate. Full-fee only, no CSP, does NOT participate in BMP. Bond's 2026 programme guide sets out the funnel: approximately 900 applicants invited to psychometric testing, of whom approximately 400 are shortlisted for interview.
Test: Bond-Test
CDU / Flinders — NT Medical Program
NT · undergraduate · Intake 12 places a year (5 NT resident, 5 NT First Nations, 2 national First Nations).
Test: UCAT-ANZ
Charles Darwin University
NT · undergraduate · Intake 40 Commonwealth Supported Places; 160 candidates interviewed.
Test: None
Charles Sturt (Rural)
NSW · undergraduate · Intake 47 Commonwealth Supported Places a year from 2026, after an extra 10 CSPs were allocated (implying about 37 previously, though CSU does not state that figure). For scale, the inaugural CSU cohort that started in 2021 was 38 students. CSU does not publish a rural/non-rural split of places — its published 80 per cent rural floor applies to interviews — and no CSU, UAC, AMC or Medical Deans source publishes a combined JPM intake figure.
Test: UCAT-ANZ
Curtin
WA · undergraduate · Intake 2027 intake: approximately 110 domestic places (CSP, inclusive of Bonded Medical Places), plus 10-15 international full-fee places. Curtin 2027 Domestic and International Admissions Guides.
Test: UCAT-ANZ + CASPer
Deakin
VIC · graduate · Intake 2027: ~160 total (up to 100 CSP + 45 BMP + 15 international + 30 RTS reserved subset). Maximum 220 interview offers; implied interview-to-place ratio ≈ 1.6:1 (GEMSAS Medical Schools Admission Guide, Deakin entry, 2027 intake).
Test: GAMSAT + MCAT
Flinders
SA · dual · Intake Flinders does not publish a single total MD intake figure; the intake is assembled from Bedford Park (Flinders Graduates max 75%, Non-Flinders Graduates min 25%, Rural min 28% of SA places, up to 5 Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander places, up to 4 Humanitarian Visa places), SARM up to 60 for 2027 entry (30 Mount Gambier, 30 Riverland), NTMP up to 24 Employer Reserved fee-paying places, plus a separate international intake. Indicative annual MD fees published for 2026 entry: AUD $13,558 Commonwealth Supported (domestic — the same student contribution whether the place is Bonded or Non-Bonded) and AUD $91,200 full-fee international; 2027 fees are not yet published. Separately, on the 6-year direct-entry Bachelor of Clinical Sciences / Doctor of Medicine (a different course, 2026 fees $9,537 CSP / $52,300 international), Flinders' published profile shows 73 students commencing in Semester 1 2026 — 35 domestic recent-secondary and 38 international.
Test: GAMSAT + UCAT-ANZ + MCAT
Griffith
QLD · graduate · Intake 2027 cycle: 208 domestic places (148 CSP + 60 BMP), of which about 80 are reserved for Griffith and UniSC Bachelor of Medical Science pathway students, plus up to 35 international — up to ~243 in total. Griffith interviews around 200 candidates at GUMSAA for approximately 110-120 places.
Test: GAMSAT
JCU
QLD · undergraduate · Intake 2027 entry: approximately 170 domestic places across Townsville and Cairns combined (JCU's figure; approximately 180 for 2026 entry and approximately 170 for 2025), plus approximately 35 international places in Townsville and 5 in Cairns. Domestic places are Commonwealth Supported; nationally 28.5% of commencing medical CSPs must be Bonded Medical Program places, and JCU reserves a small number of places under the QTAC Rural Access Scheme (NOT 100% MRBS — MRBS is a closed legacy scheme nationally).
Test: None
Macquarie
NSW · graduate · Intake 2027: ~60 full-fee domestic + ~20 international. No CSP/BMP at Macquarie (full-fee program; no Commonwealth-mandated bonded allocation).
Test: GAMSAT + MCAT
Melbourne
VIC · graduate · Intake 2027 cycle (indicative): 179 CSP + 71 BMP (39 via GEMSAS + 32 via MD Rural Pathway) + up to 105 full-fee places shared between domestic and international applicants ≈ ~355 total (GEMSAS 2027 UoM entry). UoM's own 2027-intake Admissions Guide gives the same total, split 295 domestic / 60 international, and labels all quotas a guide only and subject to change. No earlier-cycle intake figures are published by UoM or GEMSAS in a form this entry can cite.
Test: GAMSAT + MCAT
Monash
VIC · dual · Intake Direct Entry (Clayton): approximately 234 domestic places, inclusive of 30 Extended Rural Cohort and approximately 67 Bonded Medical Program places. Graduate Entry (Churchill/Gippsland): approximately 72 domestic places, inclusive of 35 End-to-End Rural places. Roughly 306 domestic places across both pathways; Monash does not publish international intake numbers.
Test: UCAT-ANZ + ISAT
Newcastle / JMP
NSW · undergraduate · Intake 170 places a year across the JMP (UoN + UNE combined) for more than 3,000 applicants. The JMP publishes no BMP count of its own; the national 28.5% rule for commencing medical CSPs would imply roughly 48. International places sit outside the 170.
Test: UCAT-ANZ
Notre Dame Fremantle
WA · graduate · Intake 2027 cycle ~127 total: 80 CSP (60 Fremantle + 20 KCRMT Broome) + 32 BMP + up to 15 international + uncapped Indigenous. For context, the GEMSAS guides put Notre Dame Fremantle at CSP 71 + BMP 29 = 100 places for both 2023 and 2024 entry, and the 2027 guide gives CSP 80 (Fremantle 60, KCRMT Broome 20), BMP 32 and up to 15 full-fee international. The 2026-entry figures are not published on any current Tier-1 source, so no year-on-year delta should be stated. KCRMT Broome has been taking students since the 2025 intake, so the 2027 numbers are not a Broome-driven step change.
Test: GAMSAT + CASPer
Notre Dame Sydney
NSW · graduate · Intake 2027 cycle: 40 CSP + 17 BMP + up to 57 full-fee domestic (via GEMSAS) + up to 35 full-fee international (direct to UNDA) — at most about 149 places. GEMSAS states the numbers are subject to change and that the quota includes the assured and priority pathways (GEMSAS Medical Schools Admission Guide, Notre Dame Sydney).
Test: GAMSAT + CASPer + MCAT
Sydney
NSW · dual · Intake ~300 students per year in total (not 300 domestic plus internationals). For 2027 entry Sydney publishes anticipated offers of 141 Metropolitan CSP + 66 Metropolitan Bonded Medical Program + 24 Dubbo CSP = 231 domestic (all marked TBC), which already includes approximately 30 offers reserved for progressing Double Degree Medicine students, plus up to 70 full-fee international places in the Metropolitan stream. Sydney admits no domestic full-fee students, and the Dubbo places are CSP-only.
Test: GAMSAT + MCAT
Tasmania
TAS · dual · Intake UTAS does not publish a total intake for the BMedScMD, and no ATAR/selection-rank or student profile is published for the course on CourseSeeker. What is published: 20 Tasmanian Rural Training Stream places at Cradle Coast, 29 first-year students announced for Launceston from February 2026, at least 75% of domestic places reserved for Tasmanians, 50% for MM2-7 rural applicants (25% from MM3-7), and approximately 30% of domestic students enrolled into the Bonded Medical Program.
Test: UCAT-ANZ + GAMSAT + ISAT + MCAT
UNSW
NSW · undergraduate · Intake The AMC's February 2024 UNSW accreditation report records a government-set quota of 198 domestic commencing students and a Faculty-agreed quota of 100 international students, with about 90% of the commencing cohort school leavers; UNSW has not published an updated figure since. UNSW does not publish a current-cycle CSP/BMP/international split; 28.5% of Commonwealth Supported Places are Bonded Medical Program places.
Test: UCAT-ANZ + ISAT
UQ
QLD · dual · Intake 2027 graduate intake: 107 CSP + 43 BMP + up to 190 international = up to 340 across the GEMSAS graduate route for 2027 entry (Graduate CSP 107, Graduate BMP 43, International 190 including UQ-Ochsner; GEMSAS notes these are indicative and subject to annual variation). UQ separately publishes approximately 275 domestic places and approximately 100 international places across the provisional and graduate pathways each year; 28% of domestic places go to the Rural Background Student Sub-Quota.
Test: GAMSAT + UCAT-ANZ + MCAT
UWA
WA · dual · Intake 2027 cycle: 206 domestic places plus about 40 international. Up to 50% go to school-leaver (Assured Pathway) entrants and the remainder to graduate entry, for which GEMSAS lists up to 103 domestic places. Note: gradready reports ~103 domestic and Fraser's reports 143 — discrepancy likely reflects different counting bases (graduate-only vs combined Direct + Graduate). Direct Pathway via UP056 Bachelor of Biomedicine TISC ranks 96.65 (2024) → 97.50 (2025).
Test: UCAT-ANZ + GAMSAT + ISAT + MCAT
Western Sydney
NSW · undergraduate · Intake ~120 places total per year (CSP + BMP + ~20 international); specific split not published by WSU (WSU MD Enrolment Places page).
Test: UCAT-ANZ
Wollongong
NSW · graduate · Intake 2027 cycle: 37 Unbonded CSP + 30 CSP Rural End-to-End + 27 BMP + 15 International = ~109 total (GEMSAS UOW).
Test: GAMSAT + CASPer
Prep time and study load
GAMSAT and UCAT-ANZ ask completely different things of your prep. The mistake is to budget the same hours for each — UCAT-ANZ rewards a sharp, short build; GAMSAT rewards a structured, sustained one.
- UCAT-ANZ — 6 to 12 weeks. 60-90 minutes per day, mostly question banks and timed mini-sections. The skill is pacing and pattern recognition: a candidate who has done 3,000+ practice questions under timed conditions will out-score one who has memorised theory but never raced the clock.
- GAMSAT (science background) — 6 months. 90-120 minutes per day. Content review on Section 3, daily reading practice for Section 1, weekly essay practice for Section 2 from month four onwards. Three full timed practice papers in the final month.
- GAMSAT (humanities background) — 12 months. First-year university biology + chemistry + physics from scratch in months 1-6, then reasoning practice from month 7 onwards. The longest, hardest prep path of any Australian medicine route.
See the full preparation timelines in our UCAT-ANZ guide and GAMSAT guide.
Which test plays to your strengths?
The honest answer comes from sitting a diagnostic of each — not from guessing. If you can spare the AUD $903 in combined registration (AUD $568 GAMSAT plus AUD $335 UCAT-ANZ at 2026 rates), sit a March GAMSAT diagnostic AND a UCAT-ANZ practice mock in your first month of prep. The score gap will tell you the right test more reliably than any self-assessment.
That said, the heuristics are real:
- Strong science degree + comfortable with timed essays? GAMSAT plays to your hand.
- Fast quantitative thinker + good under time pressure? UCAT-ANZ rewards that profile.
- Humanities degree + slow careful reader? GAMSAT Section 1 will favour you, but Section 3 is a real climb.
- Anxious under timed conditions + need recovery time? GAMSAT's longer breaks suit you better than UCAT-ANZ's rapid-fire pacing.
Frequently asked questions
Free GAMSAT and UCAT-ANZ diagnostics
Sample GAMSAT and UCAT-ANZ questions from our tutoring team — built to the same difficulty as official released materials. Sit both, then book a one-to-one with a tutor who has cleared the test you choose.
Related Australian medicine guides
- GAMSAT guide
Structure, scoring, school cut-offs and prep timelines.
- UCAT-ANZ guide
Subtests, the July sitting and cut-offs by school.
- Undergrad vs graduate medicine
Pathway length, cost and maturity trade-offs.
- All Australian medical schools
24 universities, full entry requirements and post-interview chances.