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Undergraduate Course – Undergraduate means no previous (relevant) qualification and is the course you can enter straight from high school or without any other previous bachelor degree or qualification.
Postgraduate Course or Graduate Entry – Postgraduate means you already have a previous tertiary (university) qualification. To enter a graduate entry course (postgraduate course) you have to have a previous bachelor degree. Most universities don’t have a preference of what discipline the previous degree is in, only that it is completed and they will generally check your academic record (transcript) as well.
UMAT – stands for the “Undergraduate Medicine and Health Sciences Admission Test”. This is the test most people need to sit if they want to enter medicine straight out of high school or when they apply for an undergraduate medicine course. The test is developed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) on behalf of the UMAT Consortium universities. The test is used specifically to assist with the selection of students into the medicine, dentistry and health science degree programs at undergraduate level.
GAMSAT – stands for the “Graduate Australian Medical School Admission Test”. The GAMSAT is available to any student who has completed a Bachelor degree or who will be in the penultimate or final year of study for a Bachelor degree at the time of sitting the test.
GAMSAT is designed to assess the capacity to undertake high level intellectual studies in a demanding course. The test is offered once a year only and is usually held around March.
The GAMSAT developers state that it “evaluates the nature and extent of abilities and skills gained through prior experience and learning, including the mastery and use of concepts in basic science as well as the acquisition of more general skills in problem solving, critical thinking and writing”.
If your first degree is in a non-scientific field of study you can still sit GAMSAT and succeed in an application for admission to one of the graduate-entry programs. A science degree is not a prerequisite. The GAMSAT developers also state "it must be stressed that success in GAMSAT is unlikely without knowledge and ability in the biological and physical sciences, however this is acquired". (http://gamsat.acer.edu.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5&Itemid=2 accessed 18 June 2007).
GAMSAT results show a score for each of the three test sections and an Overall Score. ANU, Deakin, Flinders, Griffith, Melbourne, Monash, Notre Dame, Queensland, Sydney and UWA rank applicants using the Overall Score (with required minimum section scores normally around 50). The acceptable GAMSAT scores may be different for each of the universities, and may vary from year to year. |
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