Structure and ContentThe purpose of GAMSAT is to assess your ability to understand and analyse material,to think critically about issues and,in the case of the Written Communication section,to organise and express your thoughts in a logical and effective way.GAMSAT questions are based on material drawn from a variety of sources.They typically require candidates to read and think about a passage of writing,to interpret graphical displays of information,to use mathematical relationships and to apply reasoning skills to tables of data.Problem solving is a major focus of the test.
The test is divided into three sections designed to assess performance in the areas of:
- I Reasoning in Humanities and Social Sciences
- II Written Communication
- III Reasoning in Biological and Physical Sciences
Since problem-based learning techniques are central to modern medical curricula,GAMSAT is constructed with a major focus on the assessment of problem solving ability across a wide range of subject areas.
Section I - Reasoning in the Humanities and Social Sciences
The Reasoning in Humanities and Social Sciences section tests skills in the interpretation and understanding of ideas in social and cultural contexts. Different kinds of text will be used as stimulus, including passages of personal, imaginative, expository and argumentative writing. Although most of the stimulus materials in this section are in the form of written passages, some units may present ideas and information in visual and tabular form. The stimulus will deal with a range of academic and public issues, with an emphasis on socio-cultural, personal and interpersonal topics.
Questions in the Reasoning in Humanities and Social Sciences section demand varying degrees of complex verbal processing and conceptual thinking, logical and plausible reasoning, and objective and subjective thinking.
Questions that emphasise understanding involve the recognition of explicit and implicit meanings through close reading of words and phrases and global interpretations of text.
Questions that emphasise plausible reasoning involve interrelating, elaborating and extending concepts and ideas, and drawing conclusions.
Questions that emphasise critical thinking require candidates to make discriminations and judgments in the realm of plausible reasoning. Questions in this section are in multiple choice format with four alternative answers from which candidates choose the most appropriate.
Section II - Written Communication
The Written Communication section is a test of the ability to produce and develop ideas in writing. It involves two thirty minute writing tasks. Each task offers a theme and a number of ideas relating to that theme. The themes are general rather than specific in nature. The first task deals with socio-cultural issues, while the second deals with more personal and social issues. In selecting topics for the writing tasks every effort has been made to minimise factors which might disadvantage candidates from non-English-speaking backgrounds.
Written Communication is assessed on two criteria. These criteria address the quality of the thinking about a topic and the control of language demonstrated in its development. Assessment focuses on the way in which ideas are integrated into a thoughtful response to the task. Control of language (grammatical structure and expression) is an integral component of a good piece of writing. However, it is only assessed insofar as it contributes to the overall effectiveness of the response to the task and not in isolation. Candidates are not assessed on the ‘correctness’ of the ideas or attitudes they display.
CRITERIA FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
Assessors consider the following issues:
Thought and Content
(the quality of what is said)
• what is made of and developed from the task
• the kinds of thought and feeling offered in
response to the task
Organisation and Expression
(the quality of the structure developed and the language used)
• the shape and form of the piece
• the effectiveness and fluency of the language
Each piece of writing will be assessed by three independent raters.
Section III - Reasoning in Biological and Physical Sciences
In addition to testing problem solving within a scientific context, this section examines the recall and understanding of basic science concepts. These skills include the ability to identify knowledge in new contexts, to translate knowledge from one symbolic form to another, to estimate measurements and to recognise limits in accuracy, to formulate hypotheses, to extrapolate and interpolate, to formulate generalisations in the light of given relationships, to deduce consequences from models, to discover relationships, to analyse data, to make comparisons, and to follow a line of reasoning. Stimulus material is presented in a variety of formats including verbal, mathematical, graphical and visual. Section III is made up of questions in three discipline areas in the following proportions:
Chemistry 40%
Biology 40%
Physics 20%
Questions from the three discipline areas are integrated throughout the section and are in multiple choice format.
Questions in this section do not specifically require the use of a calculator. However, you may, if you wish, take a non-programmable calculator of your own to the test centre for use in Section III only. The level of subject knowledge required for the Reasoning in Biological and Physical Sciences section of the test generally corresponds to the first year of a university course in biology and chemistry. The test focuses primarily on problem solving and on the use of knowledge that will be presumed at the beginning of the medical course: that is, a basic understanding of biology and chemistry (including organic chemistry) at first year university level.
A student who has mastered the concepts covered in A Level physics, and in the first year of university level chemistry and biology, should have adequate knowledge to answer questions in this section.
