Image-based passages
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Image-based passages are less common than text passages in GAMSAT Section I, representing just under a quarter of the sets in the official practice materials.
These include any passage that includes any type of image, illustration or visual data, either on its own or with accompanying text.
Each image-based passage type presents distinct challenges. Familiarise yourself with the characteristics of each type so you can recognise them quickly and know what to expect on Test Day.
The tips that follow will help you understand what makes each passage type unique and how to approach them effectively.
Image-based passages often have less text than text passages, but this does not necessarily make them quicker to work through. You may need time to:
- interpret a diagram.
- analyse data.
- understand how visual elements relate to the questions.
Be prepared to adjust your approach based on the passage in front of you. Some image-based passages can be completed quickly; others require careful analysis before you can answer confidently.
Cartoons appear in around 7.5% of sets in the official GAMSAT practice materials, accounting for 2.1% of the questions.
Cartoons usually feature a caption indicating some dialogue or might include speech bubbles.
The question will ask you to interpret ‘the point’ or ‘the joke’ in the cartoon, which requires you to draw an inference about what is intended to be funny.
In most instances, each cartoon set includes a standalone question.
One set in the official materials includes five cartoons and five questions. The questions ask you to identify the cartoon that captures a specific quality or type of humour. In one instance, the task is to identify which cartoons make a similar point.
Consider the context of the cartoon.
Humour may derive from someone not saying directly what they think, or from their words contrasting with the situation in the image.
Less commonly, the cartoon may be presented alongside additional text giving some context, potentially in relation to an ethical or controversial topic. You may then be asked to interpret the cartoon based on this additional context.
In one instance in the official materials, the text provided alongside the cartoon is used as the basis for an additional question. This opens the possibility of cartoons being included in sets of multiple questions, possibly with longer text.
If a cartoon is part of a longer set, bear in mind that you might not need to use all of the text in conjunction with the cartoon. Similarly, there may be some questions that you will answer without referring to the cartoon.
Data appears in 6% of the sets in the official GAMSAT Section I practice materials, making up nearly 5% of the practice questions.
Each set includes three or four questions, but in theory, a Data set in the actual GAMSAT might include more or fewer questions.
The data may appear in any number of formats. Tables seem to be very popular, along with graphs. You may also see data in an unusual format.
There will likely be some accompanying text above or below the visual data formats. Data sets tend to include a lot of numbers for various categories, so they can prove very challenging to work with if you are trying to keep to a quick pace.
The skills being tested here are not quantitative – you should not have to perform calculations using the data in Section I. Rather, select answers that fit with the information in the data.
You may be asked to:
- find a detail in the data.
- draw an inference based on the data.
- assess new information in relation to the data.
Sometimes, the correct answer may come from the accompanying text rather than the data itself. Sometimes, the correct answer will be a minor or subtle point from the text, which can prove challenging if you assume that you will be doing calculations or heavily interpreting the numbers in the data.
Take care if a question includes the words ‘if true’. Most commonly, the question will start with a sentence or paragraph asserting a trend in the data. Then, the question itself will follow:
Which of the following statements, if true, could explain this fact?
The ‘fact’ – the preceding sentence or paragraph in the question stem – must be valid, since it is given as a fact and should describe a trend in the data. You can assume it is true.
The correct answer would explain this fact if it is also true. Find the answer that makes the trend make sense. All the answers will include additional details, but only the correct answer would help to explain the fact cited in the question stem.
Eliminate any answer choices that do not help to explain the fact. For example, wrong answers might contradict the trend cited in the question, or they could deepen a mystery rather than explaining it.
Diagrams account for 6% of sets in the official Section I practice materials, making up 3.1% of the questions.
Some Diagram questions are standalone items, each with its own diagram (or diagrams). Some Diagram sets consist of multiple questions.
In the official materials, the standalone Diagram questions include one or more graphs in unusual formats. There is minimal text accompanying these graphs, so take a moment to figure out how they work before you can answer the question.
There are two variations of Diagram sets with multiple questions:
- An elaborate diagram or flowchart with minimal accompanying text; it is very hard to establish how to read the diagram – for example, it does not read simply from left to right or top to bottom – so it may be difficult to work out what must happen before or after a specific step.
- A series of diagrams illustrating the steps in a process with some accompanying text; however, the illustrations are not clearly labelled, and it is challenging to establish how the terminology in the text and questions relates to the specific aspects of each illustration.
Wrong answer choices may seem tempting, but take care to answer based on what must be true in that particular step or the specific part of the diagram involved in the question. Some wrong answer traps will make claims that may be appealing but are not specifically related to the diagram.
You should be able to give a concrete reason why your chosen answer is correct.
Rules sets are the least common and often the most challenging passage format in GAMSAT Section I. They account for less than 5% of sets and 5.2% of questions.
Rules sets are a distinct variation of Diagram sets, which include two components:
- one or more diagrams.
- a significant amount of accompanying text.
Rules sets do not appear in every GAMSAT practice test, so you may or may not see a Rules set on Test Day.
The text in Rules sets provides a series of rules to be used in relation to the diagrams.
The text may also define certain terms that are to be used in interpreting the diagrams or other concepts related to the diagrams.
The text may not explain how to use the diagrams – if anything, it might make the diagrams harder to work with, since you will have to relate the terms and concepts in the text to the illustrations.
Rules sets also tend to introduce new diagrams and potentially even more rules:
- in an additional tab, or
- in later questions in the set.
This means you may have to work through quite a lot of information, scrolling within a tab or looking across tabs, in order to answer each question.
Determine if each question uses one tab or multiple tabs. Select the relevant portion within the required tabs and compare to the information in the question itself.
Be ready to apply the rules as well as the illustrations to draw conclusions about what must be true.