Ultimate GAMSAT Graduate Entry Guide 2024

How To Revise for the GAMSAT

GAMSAT Section 1: Revision, Tips & Tricks

Section 1: Reasoning in Humanities - 47 multiple-choice questions designed to test your reasoning in humanities subjects. You will have 6 minutes of reading time and 64 minutes to answer the questions.

You will have around 1 minute and 20 seconds per question, which most candidates find to be enough for them to answer every question - though it’s tough! 

These questions will feature you being given a passage, comic panel, scientific abstract or some other form of media. You will then be asked questions about what you’ve read. All of the questions are multiple-choice.

Some of our top GAMSAT section 1 tips for preparation include:

• Teaching yourself to read faster: It’s important to be able to get through the passages quickly, and reading plenty is the best way to do this. After reading a passage, we recommend that you then aim to summarise it to ensure that you’ve fully understood it and taken in all of the information. Why not kill two birds with one stone and also read material that widens your understanding of medicine?

• Study literary techniques: Simply Googling “literary devices” will provide you with a litany of websites detailing various literary devices. Familiarising yourself with these will help you to answer Section 1 questions as efficiently as possible.

• Read Shakespeare: One of the trickiest parts of Section 1 is that Shakespearian passages often come up. As these are written so differently from contemporary English, many candidates find them extremely difficult. We recommend dedicating some time to learning how to read and interpret Shakespeare.

• Practice the UCAT Verbal Reasoning section: This section bears similarities to the UCAT’s VR section and practising that is also great preparation for this part of the GAMSAT. You can find resources on the Pearson Vue website and other online resources. Make sure, however, that you don’t just practice these! There are key differences as well, so it’s important to practice actual GAMSAT questions and the UCAT should complement rather than replace that.

Most candidates in this section will score 57-61, so anything above this is excellent! Speak to our GAMSAT tutors to help boost your GAMSAT section 1 score. 

GAMSAT Section 2: Revision, Tips & Tricks

GAMSAT Section 2: Written Communication - 2 essays that will assess your capacity to communicate effectively with the written word. You have 5 minutes of reading time and 60 minutes to write the essays.

Essay topics in this section can take numerous forms. You will have a Section A essay and a Section B essay to write, each on a different theme. Each section will give you not only the essay’s theme but also a set of 5 quotes from which you can draw for your discussion.

Past themes for GAMSAT Task A include:

• Freedom

• War

• Punishment

• Science

• Technology

• Crime

• Poverty

• Wealth

And for GAMSAT Task B they include:

• Friendship

• Love

• Beauty

• Youth

• Ageing

• Suffering

• Originality

• Conformity

• Humour

As you can see, Task A tends to focus on more tangible concepts relevant to the modern-day. Task B is more conceptual, referring to universal and abstract ideas.

GAMSAT Section 2 Tips & Preparation include:

• Build up a bank of ideas: For this section, it is important to do broad “reading”. That can include books and newspaper articles so that you have an understanding of current affairs upon which you can draw, or watching films and TV to build up your understanding of fiction, storytelling and rhetorical devices. You should build up a variety of topics about which you are knowledgeable and opinionated, that you can then draw on in your essay.

• Important topics: Specifically, we recommend that you learn about politics, psychology and philosophy as these are very often relevant ideas. Humanitarian issues, in particular, can be great to draw on in essays. TED Talks are particularly good for learning about these topics as not only are they easily comprehensible and digestible, but they are also designed to be inspirational and engaging. Pay attention to the rhetorical devices that they use!

• Get feedback: It’s really important to get feedback on your essays, as other people will spot things that you won’t. Ask your family, friends or tutors who may be willing to give feedback. Listen to what they say and try to apply this to future essays.

• Don’t worry about sticking to time initially: Whilst it will of course be important to practice timed essays, your first few should take as long as you need. It’s important to learn how to plan and write them properly first, building up those critical basic skills. You can focus on timings later!

• Read GAMSAT Essay Examples to help you work out what you need to write and how one might construct a good essay for the GAMSAT. 

Most candidates in this section will score 59-65, so anything above this is excellent!

GAMSAT Section 3: Revision, Tips & Tricks

Section 3: Reasoning in Biological and Physical Sciences - 75 multiple questions, approximately 40% of which require approximately A-level Biology knowledge, 40% of which require approximately A-level Chemistry knowledge and 20% of which require approximately A-level Physics knowledge. You will have 8 minutes of reading time and 142 minutes to answer the questions.

Section 3 is the most important section of the GAMSAT, weighing twice as heavily as the others. GAMSAT Section 3 time is a little more generous than the other sections, so the focus here is on knowledge more than time management. It’s also a marathon, not a sprint - taking two and a half hours to complete! Therefore, the best GAMSAT section 3 strategy is to start with the questions that you’re most comfortable with - be they Chemistry, Physics or Biology, and then branch off into the others.

You’ll have a half-hour break before this section of the exam, so be sure to bring some water and high-energy snacks.

Though ACER claims that first-year university knowledge of Biology and Chemistry is required, most people agree that A-level knowledge is more than sufficient.

Our top tips for studying for this section include:

• Use A-level revision resources: It can be really hard to find good, affordable GAMSAT resources. However, A-level resources are much more accessible and generally excellent - especially for building up your foundations. In particular, the BBC Bitesize website breaks down each topic with a handy revision guide before testing your knowledge with a quiz.

• Use Scottish Advanced Higher resources for Chemistry and Biology: If you want to take your knowledge further in Chemistry and Biology, then check out Scottish Advanced Higher curriculums. These expand on some key topics and are generally considered comparable to many first-year university curricula in the topics. BBC Bitesize is another great resource here, as are Bright Red Publishing textbooks and Hodder Gibson textbooks.

• Practice your mental maths: As with any science subject, GAMSAT sciences demand good mental maths skills. Be sure to practice these consistently - there are plenty of apps that you can download on your phone which will help you with this when you’re on the bus or in a waiting room!

Most candidates score 57-60 in this section, so anything above this is excellent!

Remember to have a look at our GAMSAT tutoring packages if you need support with these sections.