GAMSAT 2016 (2017 entry)

Just a question: how is the gamsat score standardised if people had different gamsat papers ?


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Same with S2 A, I used space exploration as my example for my thesis (comment 3) since I'd read a really interesting article the night before about the challenges of it 😄

I do feel a little screwed by Acer. However if most people had a similar experience, the adjusted scores may reflect that. Nobody really knows just how much they have to change raw scores to get GAMSAT scores. Des O'neil may guesstimate but that differs year on year.


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Space exploration - that's so cool! I bet there are loads of interesting essays for Task A - it was so vague that you could've gone in so many different directions.

I also feel screwed, but like you say if more or less everyone feels the same way then the scores are likely to be adjusted. If anyone checks out the pagingdr forums too you'll know that people sitting it in Aus also found it much harder than usual! Whew!

I keep reminding myself that I just need over 50 in S3 and I'll be alright, but for now, I'm going to complete my UCAS application and forget about it all.

If you've read that that's a valid technique, then go for it, I suppose! But check that there are people out there who used that technique and didn't get penalised for it.... I always thought the 'point' of S2 was persuasive writing/ writing arguments and critical thinking. I got 70,72,79 (overall 75) when I sat Ireland 2016, and 67,70,51 (overall 60) when I sat last September.

Wow, those are great scores, especially the 75!! Well done! And thanks for the advice but too late now - I sat the London exam yesterday hahaha. I used an argumentative approach for both I would say. Didn't want to risk anything 😬

I found SI nice, a few confusing questions but nice on the whole and finished with 15 mins to spare meaning I was able to use the toilet 😅 SII was nice also. I talked about CRISPR-cas9 system for potentionally giving rise to "designer babies" in essay A and went down the optimistic route also for essay B and finished in time.

SIII was weird! A LOT of organic chemistry and as someone mentioned earlier, doing the biology questions first really messed up my timing. 8 ended up guessing about 15 questions I want to say. Skipped over the physics and just did what I could. I agree that it was very different from the practice material available. And yes, Gold Standard was practically useless 😓

I'm hoping a good score in sections I and II bring up my average

Oops! Sorry! Hope you're resting up! After last September I was so run down that I had a constant cold for the next 2 months :O So..... relax! You deserve it

Didn't even take 10 seconds to look around the room at others so I have no idea if people stopped early. S1 I literally marked my answer to Q75 as he said 'put your pencils down' so my timing could not have worked out any more accurate. For S3 I finished with about 5 minutes to spare. I answered every question in all sections though for a small number I made educated guesses where I simply couldn't deduce what I was looking for. When I counted through very quickly in the final few minutes I think I had about 60/110 that I felt I had right with relative confidence, so if I got extra on top of that with some guesswork/luck in hoping my S3 will scrape above 55. I was hoping for more like 80/110 that I had right but it didn't work out that way...

Also just remembered, practically nothing on log rules either. Gold Standard was useless this year. Everything they said comes up time and time again didn't at all. Argh, can't stop going on about it 😩


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I actually find gold standard extremely helpful. A lot of questions in S3 are in similar style in the questions in gold standard and practice test. When I was doing the test, I was literally thinking "this can't be gamsat questions. They are too easy"

Especially because of my poor English, I didn't read most of the text, I went straight to the questions/diagram/graphs. The girl next to me was smiling at me after the reading time, I guess she thought the exam was pretty easy as well.

For SII A, I talked about the unemployment crisis bought by artificial intelligence, and we could use the exp in industrialization in the past to turn challenge into opportunity, and of course i talked about morality vs genetic engineering, which we use our intrinsic moral value to help us judge the situation, which is the same for all new technology that we invented in the past. Not sure if they are valid examples tbh...........

SII B I'm not sure if Im the only one to propose not to follow your dream.... I used a story of a poor singing performance in the British Got Talents to start my essay, and I discuss dream vs talent, before following our dream we have to think about if we have the talent first. It's quite a negative essay I suppose....... So again not sure if it will fit the examiners' appetite......

And SI....... **** it..........

Anyway, you guys have any suggestions on how to improve my English? I think it is quite likely that I will have to resit the Gamsat in Mar (another year...... I'm 30 already.......) I just want 50 in SI, never been good in my English since I was young....

But this is something that I must pursuit, I never study any science in my life, since when I was in middle school, my school thought that I was too stupid to study science (in HK, you don't always got to choose what you want to study in high school/middle school), I was forced into studying art subjects, And ever since half a year ago when I started looking at SIII questions, it was like a foreign language to me. But then when I investigate more into the science subject, I really enjoy doing the SIII paper (no joking, most ppl find it difficult to do 110 questions in 170 mins, for me it's like playing a game, I really like it very much) I must do it again, and if I can only enter the med school at the age of 31, so be it.

I actually find gold standard extremely helpful. A lot of questions in S3 are in similar style in the questions in gold standard and practice test. When I was doing the test, I was literally thinking "this can't be gamsat questions. They are too easy"

I actually find gold standard extremely helpful. A lot of questions in S3 are in similar style in the questions in gold standard and practice test. When I was doing the test, I was literally thinking "this can't be gamsat questions. They are too easy"

Especially because of my poor English, I didn't read most of the text, I went straight to the questions/diagram/graphs. The girl next to me was smiling at me after the reading time, I guess she thought the exam was pretty easy as well.

For SII A, I talked about the unemployment crisis bought by artificial intelligence, and we could use the exp in industrialization in the past to turn challenge into opportunity, and of course i talked about morality vs genetic engineering, which we use our intrinsic moral value to help us judge the situation, which is the same for all new technology that we invented in the past. Not sure if they are valid examples tbh...........

SII B I'm not sure if Im the only one to propose not to follow your dream.... I used a story of a poor singing performance in the British Got Talents to start my essay, and I discuss dream vs talent, before following our dream we have to think about if we have the talent first. It's quite a negative essay I suppose....... So again not sure if it will fit the examiners' appetite......

And SI....... **** it..........

Anyway, you guys have any suggestions on how to improve my English? I think it is quite likely that I will have to resit the Gamsat in Mar (another year...... I'm 30 already.......) I just want 50 in SI, never been good in my English since I was young....

But this is something that I must pursuit, I never study any science in my life, since when I was in middle school, my school thought that I was too stupid to study science (in HK, you don't always got to choose what you want to study in high school/middle school), I was forced into studying art subjects, And ever since half a year ago when I started looking at SIII questions, it was like a foreign language to me. But then when I investigate more into the science subject, I really enjoy doing the SIII paper (no joking, most ppl find it difficult to do 110 questions in 170 mins, for me it's like playing a game, I really like it very much) I must do it again, and if I can only enter the med school at the age of 31, so be it.

Hey Guys

I was just wondering how does ACRE know to send the result? Do they send the results directly to us and do we then send it to universities we applied to or do they send it directly to the universities, If so how do they know which university we applied to.

If anyone know how we can received our GAMSAT EXAM RESULTS .

Hey Guys

I was just wondering how does ACRE know to send the result? Do they send the results directly to us and do we then send it to universities we applied to or do they send it directly to the universities, If so how do they know which university we applied to.

I was pretty annoyed about S3 too - so many things that I revised didn't come up - there didn't seem to be many (any?) quick couple of marks questions. My tactic of going through all the bio first shot me in the foot cos I spent too long really making sure I understood what they were asking, and ended up only getting through about half of them chemistry questions. I think I guessed around 30 questions

S1 was fine for me, there were a couple of tricky questions but nothing too bad. S2 I actually enjoyed cos I thought Task A was perfect - had read something interesting in the morning and got lots of it in! Task B was a bit odd but I went down the optimistic route too

It's over now at least!

Just a quick thought - in S3 I saw a lot of people around me who had just stopped about 1hr-40 mins ish before the end; either they had super quick reading skills, or they gave up. I'm leaning somewhat towards the latter. Did anyone else notice this, or did anyone speak to anyone post-exam who just gave up?

Some people just blind guess all of S3, using a certain letter for all answers in some sort of desperation that it will get them at least 50 in that section - which is highly doubtful.

It sounds like the majority of questions required little-no existing knowledge and instead focused on providing the knowledge in the data/text. The exam in 2015 did feel like it was going this way a bit more than the 2014 exam but only slightly. Maybe ACER feel this is fairer on non-science applicants who have minimal prior knowledge, although I am not too sure.

Sounds like a lot of organic chemistry which I would have enjoyed! I HATED that stuff when I began my GAMSAT revision, but now I love it. Please can someone link/include the percentile curve when results are released in what will feel like an eternity haha.