How to get into medicine in Australia
Getting into medicine in Australia usually means UCAT ANZ for school leavers or GAMSAT for graduates, then results and often an interview. Some courses use neither test.
How to get into medicine in Australia depends on the course, not on a single national exam. School-leaver courses that use an aptitude test mostly use UCAT ANZ, then school results, then an interview the university runs itself. Graduate-entry courses mostly use GAMSAT, a university grade point average, and their own interview. Sitting the wrong one does not create a back door. Dentistry at the same university often shares the aptitude test and then splits at the interview or the prerequisite. James Cook University publishes a third case: its domestic undergraduate medicine selection does not use UCAT or GAMSAT at all, and sitting them brings no advantage.
The chart is the school-leaver clock, because that is the one with a single public format. GAMSAT’s minutes live on ACER’s page and differ by section. Switch nothing here until you know which path the course actually named.
[[chart:ld-ucat-clocks]]| Path | Aptitude test | What else the course usually weighs |
|---|---|---|
| Final year of school, or a course that accepts later applicants | UCAT ANZ, in a test centre | School results or a rank, then often an interview |
| Graduate entry | GAMSAT | Grade point average, then often an interview. Many schools take the form through GEMSAS; some do not |
| A course that lists neither | Neither score helps | That course’s own form, prerequisites, and interview rule |
UCAT ANZ for undergraduate medicine
UCAT ANZ is a computer test of just under two hours, sat in a test centre. It has four separately timed subtests: Verbal Reasoning (44 questions, 22 minutes), Decision Making (35, 37 minutes), Quantitative Reasoning (36, 26 minutes), and Situational Judgement (69, 26 minutes). Each one starts with its own instruction screen. Once the test has started it cannot be paused, and unused time does not move to the next subtest.
You may sit it only if you are in, or have finished, the final year of secondary school, or a higher qualification. For the 2026 test, that meant completing Year 12 in Australia or Year 13 in New Zealand in 2026, or having already done so. Australian Year 11 students are not eligible, including those already taking one or more Year 12 subjects. New Zealand Year 12 and below are not eligible. A degree does make you eligible to book, but not every undergraduate medicine or dentistry course will then consider a non-school leaver. The university site is the rule, not the booking screen.
The cognitive total adds Verbal Reasoning, Decision Making, and Quantitative Reasoning only. It runs from 900 to 2700. Situational Judgement is a separate score from 300 to 900 and is not added. There is no negative marking. The consortium sends results to its universities. You do not forward them yourself. A result is valid for that admissions cycle only. The dates and the fee for the cycle you will actually sit are in UCAT ANZ 2026 dates and booking deadline.
GAMSAT for graduate-entry medicine
GAMSAT, run by ACER, is for graduate-entry medicine and dentistry. It is not a substitute for UCAT, and UCAT is not a substitute for it. The paper has three sections: reasoning in the humanities and social sciences, two written tasks, and reasoning in the biological and physical sciences. Section I and Section III are long multiple-choice blocks. Section II is writing you produce under a clock. Use the minutes on the ACER page when you time yourself. A format table we keep for practice is on the GAMSAT page.
Many graduate medical schools collect applications through GEMSAS. Some courses do not. A graduate who sits UCAT because an undergraduate course still accepts non-school leavers is on the UCAT path, not “doing both to be safe,” unless two different courses have each named a different test. Read both course pages before you pay two fees.
If an undergraduate offer does not come, the usual next path is a degree and, later, GAMSAT. A UCAT ANZ result does not carry into that cycle. You can sit UCAT again only in a later year, and only if the undergraduate course will still consider you. That is a new booking, not a remark of the old score.
Courses that do not use UCAT or GAMSAT
James Cook University states that it does not use UCAT or GAMSAT in selection for its domestic undergraduate medicine, dentistry, and veterinary science courses, and that sitting those tests does not improve consideration. Offers depend on academic results plus the university’s own process. Medicine applicants have also been told not to submit written statements or letters of support. That is a change from older advice that told families to labour over a long personal essay for this one university. If a guide still says to write one, trust the current JCU application page.
Medicine prerequisites are not the aptitude test
Prerequisites are separate from UCAT and GAMSAT. James Cook publishes English, Mathematical Methods, and Chemistry for its undergraduate medicine course. Other universities publish their own subject lists, and dentistry at the same university can differ. A strong aptitude score does not waive a missing prerequisite, and a completed prerequisite does not waive a test the course still requires.
Other courses add a sitting of their own: a psychometric test, or Casper, or a school-specific form. The name and the date are on that course page. A UCAT score does not stand in for a test the page lists beside it.
Pick one path, then practise that clock
- Write the course name and the test it lists. If it lists two courses, write two lines. Do not collect a fifth rumour.
- If the line says UCAT, book only in the consortium window and practise one subtest at the minutes on the chart. Timed practice is on the UCAT page. The even-split seconds, and what to do with a miss, are in UCAT time per question.
- If the line says GAMSAT, time Section II as writing you finish before anyone comments on it. Marks after the draft exists are on assignment feedback. Do not start from a model essay.
- If the line says neither, stop buying aptitude practice for that course. Meet the published subjects and the published form.
- Lodge the application with the centre that course names: UAC, VTAC, QTAC, SATAC, TISC, GEMSAS, or the university’s own form. Include every medicine and dentistry course you are actually eligible for. Leaving one off is how people miss an interview they could have been considered for. The close date is on that centre’s page. It is not the UCAT test date.
Methods you still cannot produce — a graph read, a yes/no decision, a sentence you could not finish — belong on a card in Study Lab, covered, on a later day. Rereading a coaching booklet the night before the booking deadline does not change which test the university asked for.