The UMAT has been replaced, is the GAMSAT next to be axed?

UMAT has officially been replaced, is GAMSAT next on the chopping block?

2018 was officially the last year the UMAT will ever be sat. It’s ending. Done. No more. It’s a moment of mixed emotions for those who have sat it before.

After many years of operation, the consortium of medical schools who use the UMAT exam created by ACER, have decided to ditch it for a new exam, the UCAT . However, if you’re looking to do the GAMSAT, this development in the UMAT is probably of little consequence to you.

The big question that is now on the minds of people doing the GAMSAT, is if the existing process of assessing potential undergraduate medical students needed an update, could the existing process of assessing potential post-graduate medical students also be changing? ACER have just had one of their medical school entrance exams cancelled, what about the other one?

Are the GAMSAT’s days numbered?

The GAMSAT’s usefulness as a predictor of medical school success has often been questioned. How they select various test questions are often a mystery. Testing poetry and drama interpretation for medical students, for example, can seem quite irrelevant.

Studies here and here

have suggested that the best indicator of medical school success is not the GAMSAT, but instead your undergraduate GPA.

That may be why many universities have started to include new and additional forms of assessment. In 2018 the University of Wollongong (UoW) added an extra testing process called Casper. This is a type of personalisty profiling tooled used to “make sure that students are not only intelligent but also possess the suitable characteristics of someone who will likely succeed on the job.”

UoW also have a portfolio (resume-like) component to their applications. The University of Notre Dame have a portfolio and personal statement but no personality profiling.

The University of Queensland will also be introducing interviews from 2019 . They used to only require GPA and GAMSAT and now there’s also an interview. Could this be in preparation for something else, like the GAMSAT, to be removed?

A response from ACER

ACER responded to our enquiries via email saying simply that there are, “no future plans for GAMSAT to switch providers”.

When asked to clarify, they responded, “Therefore, the GAMSAT test will remain the same while being delivered by ACER. The GAMSAT office will not enter into further discussion on this matter.”

With the next GAMSAT fast approaching all we can do for now is accept it and prepare for it. It might continue being run by the same provider but what we can be sure of is that the exam itself will change. I like to say that the only thing we can expect with the GAMSAT…

…is the unexpected.

The exam itself is constantly evolving and changing. If you would like to know why so many smart people fail the GAMSAT and how you can prepare yourself for it, check this out.

PassGAMSAT and the author is not part of, nor are they representatives of or associated or affiliated with ACER or any university mentioned here or anywhere else.