The exam
GAMSAT sections explained
Three sections, two sittings, four scores. What each section tests, how long you get, and which format facts most preparation sites still publish out of date.
- 3sections
- 137multiple-choice questions
- 5.25 hof examined time
- 2separate sittings
The short version
Section 1 tests reasoning about humanities and social science material. Section 2 is two pieces of writing. Section 3 tests scientific reasoning and counts double. Section 2 is sat remotely, on its own, about three weeks before the other two — GAMSAT® is not a one-day exam.
The three sections at a glance
| Section | ACER’s name | Questions | Time | Where you sit it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Section 1 | Reasoning in Humanities and Social Sciences | 62 | 100 min | Test centre |
| Section 2 | Written Communication | 2 tasks | 65 min | Remote-proctored |
| Section 3 | Reasoning in Biological and Physical Sciences | 75 | 150 min | Test centre |
Sections 1 and 3 are multiple choice with four options each, and you are asked for the most appropriate answer rather than the only correct one. Section 2 is typed prose. All three are computer-based.
Section 1: reasoning about material you have never seen
Section 1 hands you unfamiliar stimulus — prose, poetry, cartoons, graphs, tables — and asks what it means. There is no syllabus to revise, because every answer is derivable from the material in front of you and outside knowledge is a liability rather than an advantage. That is also why it is the section science graduates most often postpone, and the one most often reported as harder than expected. A timed Section 1 test sits on that page, below the explanation of what its questions actually demand.
Section 2: the only writing, and the only sitting you do from home
Section 2 is 2 writing tasks inside 65 minutes, each opening with four statements on a common theme — four, not the five most of the preparation market still publishes. It is marked on thought and content and on organisation and expression, every response is read and scored independently three times, and spelling and punctuation errors do not cost you marks.
Section 3: the section that counts double
Section 3 is 75 questions in 150 minutes, split 40% chemistry, 40% biology and 20% physics by ACER’s own published proportions, with the three disciplines interleaved rather than blocked. No calculator, no formula sheet and no periodic table, so every constant a question needs appears in that question’s own material. A timed Section 3 test sits on that page too.
GAMSAT is two sittings, not one day
This is the fact most competitor pages get wrong, and it changes how you plan.
GAMSAT runs across two sittings approximately three weeks apart. Written Communication is remote-proctored; Sections 1 and 3 are sat at a test centre.
The practical effect is that your Section 2 preparation has an earlier deadline than the rest of your study plan, and that you sit the writing tasks in your own room with a proctor watching, rather than at a test centre. Candidates who treat GAMSAT as a single date routinely arrive at the writing sitting with no practice behind them.
How the four scores combine
You receive four scores: one for each section, plus an overall score. All are on a 0–100 scaled range. They are not percentages and not raw marks.
| Section | Multiplier | Share of the overall score |
|---|---|---|
| Section 1 | ×1 | 25% |
| Section 2 | ×1 | 25% |
| Section 3 | ×2 | 50% |
Section 3 is worth as much as the other two combined.That is the strongest argument for spending most of your time there — and it is ACER’s own arithmetic, not a prep company’s.
It is not the whole picture, though. Several universities ignore the overall score and build their own weighting from the section scores, so the section that matters most to you depends on where you are applying. Our score calculator shows both.
What ACER no longer publishes
Reading time
ACER no longer publishes a reading-time breakdown. Earlier booklets (2020–2022) itemised it; the 2026 edition does not.
Most preparation sites still print the old itemised figures beside the current question counts, which produces a structure ACER has stopped describing. We publish no reading-time number because there is no current one to publish. Plan against each section’s total.
The same caution applies to older question counts. Section 1 has run at three different formats since 2020, and pages still ranking on Google publish the superseded ones. The current figures are the ones in the table above, taken from the 2026 booklet.
Every question is worth the same
A correction to the most-cited source in this market
ACER states: "All questions have the same value." Marks are NOT weighted by question difficulty.
GradReady publishes that marks are allocated by question difficulty, and uses it to argue that answering hard physics questions earns you more. It is wrong, and because GradReady is heavily cited in AI-generated summaries, the error travels. The underlying advice — do not skip physics — is fine. The reason given for it is not.
Two related facts, both from ACER:
- There is no negative marking. Nothing is deducted for a wrong answer, so every question should carry an answer before time runs out.
- Some questions do not count. A live GAMSAT sitting includes unscored trial questions. Neither ACER nor any third party can reproduce an exact scaled score from raw performance.
Conditions that apply across the exam
What you may not use, and what that means for the questions themselves.
| Item | Permitted? |
|---|---|
| Calculator | No |
| Formula sheet | No |
| Periodic table | No |
| Ruler | No |
| Spellcheck, autocorrect or copy-paste (Section 2) | No |
These are constraints on the examiner as much as on you. With no calculator and no formula sheet, every constant a Section 3 question needs has to appear in that question’s own material, and the arithmetic has to be doable by hand in around two minutes. With no ruler, no question can require you to measure a figure on screen.
Which section should you spend your time on?
- Section 3 — 40% chemistry, 40% biology and 20% physics, worth half the overall score. The largest body of content and the slowest to build, so it should start earliest.
- Section 1 — the section science graduates most often under-rate. There is no content to learn, which is precisely why it is easy to postpone and hard to improve quickly.
- Section 2 — the fastest to improve. It is worth a quarter of your overall score, it has no syllabus, and how you shape and develop an argument is learnable in a way first-year chemistry is not.
If you want a starting point rather than a study plan, sit the free practice test and see where the time actually goes.
Common questions
What are the three sections of the GAMSAT?
- Section 1, Reasoning in Humanities and Social Sciences — 62 questions in 100 minutes, sat at a test centre.
- Section 2, Written Communication — 2 writing tasks in 65 minutes, sat remotely.
- Section 3, Reasoning in Biological and Physical Sciences — 75 questions in 150 minutes, sat at a test centre.
Which section of the GAMSAT is the hardest?
ACER publishes no difficulty data, so any single answer to this is someone’s impression rather than a fact. What can be said accurately:
- Section 3 carries the most content and counts double, so errors there cost the most.
- Section 1 is the one most often reported as harder than expected, especially by candidates from science backgrounds.
- Section 2 is the least prepared for. That is a different problem, and a more fixable one.
How long is the GAMSAT?
5.25 hours of examined time in total — 100 minutes for Section 1, 65 for Section 2 and 150 for Section 3. It is not sat in one day: Written Communication runs in its own remote window roughly three weeks before the test-centre sitting that covers Sections 1 and 3.
How is the GAMSAT scored?
You get four scores on a 0–100 scaled range — one per section, plus an overall score calculated as (1 × Section 1 + 1 × Section 2 + 2 × Section 3) ÷ 4. They are scaled scores, not percentages, and raw marks are never released. All questions carry the same value, nothing is deducted for a wrong answer, and a live sitting contains some unscored trial questions.
Do I get reading time before each section?
ACER no longer publishes a reading-time breakdown. Earlier booklets (2020–2022) itemised it; the 2026 edition does not. We do not publish a figure that ACER has withdrawn.