Section I: Practice
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Top-scoring students who prepare for admissions tests like GAMSAT spend at least 25 to 30 hours revising, with a focus on:
- learning strategies and techniques.
- answering practice questions.
- sitting timed mocks.
Students who build top scores often report that it is more effective to prepare for an hour a day, rather than trying to set aside 6 to 8 hours for revision in a single day.
Think of your daily GAMSAT revision as a sprint – or a series of daily sprints – not a marathon. You will develop your speed and accuracy through these revision sprints.
The only time when you will need a longer session is for a full timed mock, which you should also take time to review within a day or so of completing it.
Take time at the start of each week to plan your weekly practice.
Consider which skills, subject matter or question types you want to work on in the week ahead.
A clear weekly plan keeps you moving and motivated in your revision.
In Mastery practice, you will use individual questions to build familiarity and accuracy. Use the Medify practice questions for Mastery practice.
Mastery practice is normally untimed, allowing you to improve your accuracy before you work on building your speed.
Review the explanations as you complete each group of questions. This will let you consider what you did well and what you could do differently next time.
The biggest gains may come from Pacing practice, which uses full-length GAMSAT sections. Use individual Section I or Section III mocks, or Section II essay prompts, for Pacing practice.
Pacing practice helps you build your speed and accuracy in longer sprints, simulating the Test Day experience at the section level. For this reason, it’s important to time yourself in Pacing practice.
In Pacing practice, you can also train yourself to make decisions about skipping questions and time management at the section level. For example, you might want to skip the most time-consuming or difficult questions without attempting them, saving them for a second pass through the section. This approach is essential for maximising marks, and it’s integral to Pacing practice.
Endurance practice will prepare you for Test Day with full-length practice tests. Use the GAMSAT mocks in your Medify course for Endurance practice.
In Endurance practice, you will combine all the skills and techniques from Mastery and Pacing practice whilst pushing yourself to complete each section under test-like conditions. This means sitting a full GAMSAT mock in Test Day timing with the normally timed breaks.
Allow time after you finish a mock to review the answers and explanations. Check the explanations for questions you got right, as well as those you got wrong, to ensure you are getting the correct answers for the right reasons.
You can also use this review to identify areas you want to work on in the next phase of your GAMSAT revision. This can help drive your plans for the next week of GAMSAT practice.
You should also consider what to do if you are running out of time.
Try not to panic. Instead, take control and tighten your pacing. Answer any remaining questions in half the usual time, which means that you need to eliminate wrong answers rapidly with the absolute minimum work.
Make your quick, best guess where needed. The priority is marking an answer for every question before time is up.
This approach is not ideal. With plenty of practice and reflection, you are unlikely to need it on Test Day. However, preparing for common problems means good pacing will minimise Test Day problems.
If you prepare for GAMSAT problems and challenges, you will be ready for Test Day success.