Text passages
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Text passages are the most common format in GAMSAT Section I, making up over three-quarters of the sets in the official practice materials. These include any passages which consist solely of text, without any images, illustrations or visual data.
All these text passages are classed as Humanities with the exception of Non-fiction.
Non-fiction passages may be either Humanities or Social Sciences, depending on the topic.
Different passage types require slightly different approaches. Learn the characteristics of each type so you can recognise them quickly and adapt your technique on Test Day.
The tips in Medify’s Study Notes will help you understand what to expect from each passage type and how to approach them effectively.
Text passages vary in length and complexity. Some passages are brief and straightforward; others are dense and challenging.
Be prepared to adapt your pacing based on the passage in front of you. A short, clear passage may allow you to move quickly, while a longer or more complex passage may require more careful reading.
Non-fiction passages occur most frequently in the official GAMSAT practice materials, accounting for 34.8% of the Section I sets. Nearly 45% of the questions in the official practice materials accompany Non-fiction passages, so they are likely to represent the largest share of questions on Test Day.
Most sets contain a single Non-fiction passage; however, there are some sets with two passages, and a few with four or more passages.
Passages range in length from 82 to 581 words, though the average length is around 250 words. Most passages are likely to be between 200 and 400 words.
Non-fiction passages may be drawn from virtually any topic in Humanities or Social Sciences.
You do not need to have any previous knowledge about the broader topic of the passage. You can answer entirely based on the contents of the text.
The prose style of Non-fiction passages tends to be syntactically complex, with long sentences and protracted phrasing. The ideas in these passages are often dense, with a certain amount of abstract or theoretical discussion.
For these reasons, it can be difficult to read Non-fiction passages quickly. You are likely to need to return to the passage to find support for each question as you work through the set.
Fiction passages are the second most common passage type in the official GAMSAT practice materials, making up 12.1% of the Section I sets, with 14.5% of the Section I questions included with these passages.
Nearly all sets feature a single Fiction passage, though there is one example of a Fiction set with two passages.
Passages range in length from 180 to 511 words, with an average length of around 350 words. Most passages are likely to range from 200 to 400 words.
In the official practice materials, most Fiction passages are from mid-twentieth-century novels. A couple of Fiction passages are more recent, from the final decades of the twentieth century.
Earlier Fiction passages are less common, but a recent official online practice test includes one from a Jane Austen novel. You may see Fiction passages from any era on Test Day.
While one official Fiction passage consists almost entirely of dialogue, Fiction passages tend to have very little dialogue.
Most commonly, they feature a narrative voice in the third person indirect style.
Consider this example:
‘Gloria considered the unusual colour of the scrambled egg on her plate, the same dull brown as the inlaid floor. The texture of the egg was no less curious. She feared she would lose a filling.’
Notice how we are told Gloria’s impressions and feelings (‘She feared she would lose a filling’) in the third person, as if the narrator can see into Gloria’s mind. It is as if the narrator sees and knows everything from Gloria’s point of view, but this is a particular literary convention. It makes for interesting reading, but it can make it more challenging to answer questions based on a passage in this narrative style.
Poetry passages are a little less than 10% of the official practice materials for GAMSAT Section I, accounting for around 8% of the questions.
There are two common variations of Poetry sets:
- A set with a single poem, often a contemporary poem
- A set with multiple poems, most commonly three or four poems on the same theme
Poems range in length from 6 lines to 23 lines, and from 36 words to 220 words.
The poems in Section I tend to be shorter on average than Non-fiction or Fiction passages. However, the poems can be more challenging to analyse in order to answer the questions.
This is certainly the case in the sets with a single poem, as these poems are more recent and tend to be very dense with imagery and symbolism. The questions in single poem sets are often among the most difficult questions in Section I, at least in the official practice materials.
Be careful not to read too much into this, since there are only a few examples and we cannot guarantee that a set with a single poem in the actual GAMSAT would be similarly difficult.
The sets with multiple poems tend to have questions that are quite a bit more straightforward. Some questions will ask you to compare poems, or specific words or lines from different poems. These questions are actually simpler than they might first seem.
Even though a question may say ‘most’ (or ‘least’), you should not need to compare the quality and try to determine which poem has slightly more. Most likely, you will find that one poem has the quality and the other poems do not.
Opinion passages make up 9% of the sets in the official GAMSAT practice materials and include nearly 12% of the practice questions.
There are three common variations of Opinion passages:
- A short passage including a debate topic (usually a brief, single statement), with further statements in each question that you assess as relevant to the debate for or against the topic.
- A long passage consisting of seven to nine numbered comments that relate to a debate question given at the top; each comment is a paragraph of one to four sentences.
- A series of passages from published sources (such as letters to the editor of a newspaper); each passage is one or more paragraphs followed by questions, with up to four separate passages in the set.
In the first two variations, the statements and comments will have been written to fit the debate topic or question. These debate topics and questions may have a medical or healthcare focus, or they may be on other contemporary topics with an ethical or moral dimension.
You do not need any outside knowledge on the debate topics or questions. Instead, weigh whether statements or comments could be used in favour of, or against, the debate topic or question.
Bear in mind that some statements could potentially be used on both sides of a debate topic, and some might not be directly relevant to the debate.
Taken together, Proverb and Quotation questions make up just over 10% of sets in the official GAMSAT practice materials. Almost all of these are standalone questions.
In a Proverb question, the passage is most commonly a proverb stated in a single sentence, usually with an attribution such as ‘Chinese proverb’. The question will ask you to interpret the meaning of the proverb. Rely on your inference skills – along with synonyms and paraphrase – to select the correct answer.
In a Quotation question, the passage is normally a brief quotation – usually a single sentence – attributed to its author or speaker. The question will ask you to interpret the meaning of the quotation. Once again, rely on your inference skills – along with careful use of synonyms and paraphrase – to select the correct answer.
In Proverb and Quotation questions, watch out for wrong answer traps that might share the same general word charge as the correct answer but not the exact meaning.
There is one example in the official GAMSAT practice materials of several Proverb questions appearing on one page, as if in a set. However, note that these are still individual questions, each with its own proverb. They effectively function as standalone questions.
You may or may not see Proverb or Quotation questions on Test Day. They are worth practising though – if they do appear in the actual GAMSAT, you should be able to make quick, accurate work of them, banking time for the other sets in Section I with longer, more challenging passages.