Comparison · decision
GAMSAT vs UCAT
Almost every page comparing these two treats it as a choice about which exam suits you better. For most applicants it is not a choice at all — it is a lookup against the courses you intend to apply to.
Start here, because it saves you the rest of the page
Graduate-entry medicine generally uses GAMSAT. School-leaver entry generally uses UCAT. If you already hold or are finishing a degree and are applying to graduate-entry programmes in Australia, the UK or Ireland, GAMSAT is almost certainly your exam.
The exception worth checking: a number of UK courses now accept either. That is a genuine choice, and it is the only situation in which the comparison below decides anything.
- 5.25 hrGAMSAT test time, across two sittings
- <2 hrUCAT test time, one sitting
- 0–100GAMSAT score scale
- 300–900UCAT scale, per subtest
They are not the same kind of exam
The structural differences explain why a score in one tells you almost nothing about the other.
| GAMSAT | UCAT (ANZ) | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical entry route | Graduate entry | School-leaver / undergraduate entry |
| Structure | 3 sections — Reasoning, Written Communication, Sciences | 4 subtests — Verbal Reasoning, Decision Making, Quantitative Reasoning, Situational Judgement |
| Test time | 5 hr 15 min, across two sittings ~3 weeks apart | Just under 2 hours, one sitting |
| Questions | 137 multiple-choice plus 2 written tasks | 184 multiple-choice |
| Science knowledge assumed? | Yes — first-year university biology and chemistry | No — no curriculum content at all |
| Essay component | Yes — two tasks, 65 minutes, sat remotely | No |
| Calculator | None permitted | On-screen, in two subtests |
| Scoring | 0–100 per section and overall | 300–900 per subtest |
| Sittings a year | Two — March and September | One annual test cycle |
The single biggest difference
One exam assumes you studied science. The other deliberately assumes nothing.
GAMSAT’s third section assumes first-year university biology and chemistryand school-level physics, and that section is weighted double in ACER’s overall score. UCAT assumes no subject knowledge whatsoever — it is an aptitude test, and its designers say so.
This is why the two cannot be compared on difficulty in any meaningful way. A humanities graduate may find UCAT far more approachable and GAMSAT brutal; a biochemistry graduate may find the reverse, because GAMSAT rewards a base they already have. “Which is harder” is the wrong question, and every page that answers it confidently is guessing on your behalf.
The second difference that matters practically: GAMSAT has an essay component and UCAT does not. Written Communication is two tasks in 65 minutes, sat remotely under proctoring, with no spellcheck and no copy or paste. If writing under time pressure is your weakness, that is a real and specific cost of the GAMSAT route — see Section 2.
Can I sit UCAT instead of GAMSAT?
Only if the course you want accepts it
Admissions tests are not interchangeable by candidate preference. A course specifies which test it requires, and sitting the other one does not create an alternative route into it.
Where this genuinely opens up is the UK, where several graduate-entry courses now accept UCAT as an alternative to GAMSAT — and at least one has moved away from GAMSAT entirely for 2027 entry. Because that list changes year to year, the only safe method is to check each course you intend to apply to, in the cycle you intend to apply in. We track it on the UK page and hold a record for every institution that uses GAMSAT.
One genuine warning if you are weighing both: sitting two admissions tests in one cycle is a substantial undertaking, and the preparation does not transfer. They test different things, over different durations, on different scales. Splitting your preparation across both usually produces two mediocre scores rather than one competitive one.
Frequently asked questions
Can I do the UCAT instead of the GAMSAT?
Only where the course accepts it. Most Australian and Irish graduate-entry medicine requires GAMSAT specifically. Several UK courses now accept either, which is the main place a real choice exists.
Is the GAMSAT harder than the UCAT?
They are not comparable on difficulty. GAMSAT assumes first-year university science and includes an essay; UCAT assumes no subject knowledge and is under two hours. Which feels harder depends almost entirely on your background.
Do any universities accept both?
Yes, several in the UK. The list moves between cycles, so check the specific course rather than any third-party summary — including ours.
Can I sit both in the same year?
Nothing prevents it, but the preparation does not overlap and the two test very different things. Most candidates are better served by committing to the exam their target courses actually require.