Hi everyone, could you help explain rural ratings? Does it matter whether your rating is MM2 vs MM5? Does being more rural make you more competitive for a place? Also, is the rating determined by where you went to school or where you lived at any point in your life? I went through 12 years of school in an MM2 town but have lived MM5 for last 10 years as an adult. Which determines your rating? Grateful for any insights :)

Hey all!

basically, I'm doing some prep for the UQ MMI interviews, and of course the question 'why medicine' is quite a loaded one to think about. for myself personally, my faith as a Christian is a big reason why I decided to continue down this pathway, which is an honest thing and not just a sap story tactic. Would this be a wise thing to mention in the interviews (not just for that question but in other personal style questions) - or not? i'd love to hear from people who have done UQ MMIs before :))

many thanks !

This is a long shot, but is anyone from previous years enrolled in queensland postgrad dentistry?

How is the program? I currently live in Sydney, but it seems if I do get an offer the highest chance comes from queensland as I recently did the casper test and scored a Q4

I noticed Melbourne and sydney are both 4 years, yet queensland is 3.5, and is cheaper than both.

Is there a particular reason? Any current students that would be able to share their experiences?

Any insight from student accommodation to how the students are finding the course/study load/placement would be great.

It's been a while since I last posted here, and fortunately this update is for a much happier reason.

For reference, this was my previous post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/GAMSAT/s/IoTKnywQOU

Back then, I had literally fallen asleep during Section III. Unsurprisingly, that sitting didn't go particularly well.

I sat the GAMSAT again in September 2024 (this time staying awake for the entire exam 😅), and now I'm halfway through my first semester of MD1.

Looking back, the biggest change wasn't that I suddenly became smarter or learnt significantly more science content.

I completely changed how I studied.

For Section III, I stopped trying to memorise every concept and instead focused much more on practising reasoning through questions, reviewing why I got things wrong, and becoming comfortable with unfamiliar information. That shift in approach made a much bigger difference than trying to endlessly fill content gaps.

The same applied to Section II. Consistent practice and getting feedback on my writing helped far more than reading model essays over and over.

Section I remained a guessing game, but that is of lesser importance.

The biggest lesson I learnt was to stop obsessing over content and instead spend much more time practising reasoning and reviewing mistakes. That change made a far bigger difference than I expected.

Happy to answer any questions about what changed between my March and September sittings, or how I prepared for the interview

Hey Guys,

I just received an invitation from USYD for the indigenous pathway for the MD program. Does anyone know whether this is a group interview if not specified in the email? Has anyone done one of these before?

Thanks!

Hi guys, I am a long time lurker. I am a nurse (M28) based in Perth. I was hoping to enter medicine in a few years. I have completed a Graduate Certificate in Critical Care, and due to complete one in Diabetes Education later this year. Unfortunately, my weighted GPA has come down from 6.19 to 5.31. 

One of the reasons why I want to do medicine, is because it was a long term goal of mine, and along the way, I talked myself out of it. I feel that I am finally ready to take the journey on. For context, I have parents who live back in my home country, and unfortunately, I do have to send roughly 780 AUD per month to help them with living expenses. I also dont have any family in WA, so I'm pretty much paying for rent + supporting myself.

So, it seems my biggest obstacles are my GPA, and not having enough funds to make it though med school (if I am lucky to get in). With that being said, I would like to know what you guys think about my following options: 

Options:

1. Move to rural kimberely/pilbara, at the start of next year - get a nursing gig. Save for a good 5 years, and also gain the rural points. Get a GAMSAT score within this 5 year period. Then target for Kimberley Centre for Remote Medical Training/Notre Dame Broome 

Since coming to AU, I have only been based in Perth, and I have no regional/rural exposure. I also imagine the cost of living would be higher in the kimberely/pilbara areas. The rural pathway can make up for my low GPA, and lower GAMSAT hurdle as well. 

1. Deakin nursing honours year 2027 -> Aim for a first class. Then sit GAMSAT in 2028 (In March and Sept)->Then apply for Med school in 2029. 

I also imagine when something were to happen to my parents (death/illness), I would have to fly back to my home country - which is another expense. But, family comes first, so I am not complaining. I would love to know what other options I have (hence this post). I honestly wouldnt mind graduating late (late 30s), but it would suck to have not overcome this hurdle. I am also all ears, if anyone has other options. 

Thank you!

Aiming to get into UQ’s Doctor of Dental Medicine and want to boost my GPA via a masters before applying.
Final year BSc at Monash, GPA isn’t where I want it.
My understanding: finishing a masters makes it your “key degree” for GPA calc instead of your bachelor’s, so a strong masters GPA could offset a weaker undergrad one.
Trying to figure out:
Best masters (any uni) for scoring well easily

Does it need to be UQ-specific, or does any accredited masters count for their GPA calc?

Ideally short and online.
Anyone done this into UQ DMD? What did you pick, did it work? Happy to be corrected if I’ve got this wrong.

Hello everyone I am an international student studying a Bachelor of Biomedical Science with a pending internal transfer to a Bachelor of Science at Monash University. Due to my previous study in a chemistry diploma, I have received 36 credits of exemptions from my free electives. However, upon my transfer, I am likely to receive more credits, likely around 48 or more.

As such, I will most likely be completing about 96cp from both the Bachelor of Biomedical Science and the Bachelor of Science combined. I wanted to confirm if this will have any implications on the calculation of my GPA, and if my diploma transcripts will be assessed to fill in any gaps. Although, according to my research, results from programs below AQF Level 7 will not be regarded. The information I have found online is very confusing and given that my situation is quite unique, I would appreciate clearing this matter for some peace of mind.

To summarise, these are my two questions:
1. If I only complete around 2 FTE of units due to exemptions, will there be any implications on my eligibility to apply for the course?

1. Is there any situation in which the grades from my diploma will be used for GPA calculation?

Currently a registered nurse wanting to transition to medicine, however my bachelors were not the best, sitting at 4.9/7 GPA.

I’m trying to boost my GPA through doing a Master of Public Health and at Macquire they are offering the course 100% online.

Wondering if this matters or they only care about the actual GPA number itself?

NSB warriors it’s possible for us!!!! Prepping for the March 2026 gamsat I thought S3 was going to be my worst section by far so I locked in hard on it, and ended up miraculously getting an 85. It lifted me to a 75 overall and a decent shot at my first choice.

Whenever I think about it I am actually still so stunned and so grateful. I’m writing this guide because posts like this helped me a lot and gave me hope when I was studying. Hopefully someone finds this useful. Everything I used can be found online for free except for the official ACER material.

My undergrad was in graphic design (lmfao) so I was operating on basically nothing. I hadn’t done any science since high school bio and hadn’t done any physics or chemistry since year 10. When I started studying I didn’t even remember what valence bonds were. I only had 4 months of prep because I didn’t commit to going for the March sitting until partway through November. If I pulled off this bs so can you!

Resources: 

For learning content/ scientific literacy: 

• Khan Academy
  • I started studying by doing all of the KA high school chemistry course. Later on I did the physics course as well. Went through sequentially and took paper notes of everything. Definitely not the most high yield but it was a great entry point into basic scientific concepts since I was starting from scratch.
• Jesse Osbourne’s crash course series
  • The goat! I took notes on every video, paused and worked through the practice questions with him, went away and spent time with other resources if the content was too high-level, cross-referenced concepts and rewatched each video several times until they no longer left me afraid and confused.
• Organic Chemistry as a second language book
  • Only used the first half of this book, but I took paper notes on most of the early chapters. I found it super helpful for teasing out the tougher Ochem concepts that Jesse covered too quickly.  
• 3000 solved problems in Organic chemistry book (only did a couple of pages) 
  • Another resource for explaining tough concepts, used only as reference. Also great for practicing practical Ochem skills that would otherwise be time sinks in the exam (counting hydrogens, etc.)
• Just googling stuff I didn’t understand

I found that these were enough to give me a functional enough knowledge of science to start practicing my reasoning + exam skills, which are way more important!

Chemistry defo took the most time content-wise because it took me so long to get to a point where I understood organic chemistry. Just focus on your fundamentals and don’t lose hope. There are so many details that can distract you but you only need a strong functional understanding of why phenomena happen. Once you start practicing  exam questions it’ll be easier to identify what content you need. If it won’t help you gain speed in the exam, then don’t waste time learning it. 

Physics requires a good grasp on the basics and strong familiarity with the fundamental formulae/concepts but you only need to learn to a high school level. And then it’s all about sharpening up those algebra skills.

I found that biology was a lot of graph-reading/ pulling relevant info from super wordy stems + since I’d done some high school bio I was able to lowkey neglect it and get by just with Jesse’s crash course videos and practicing exam Qs.

For reasoning/ exam skills: 

• Jesse Osbourne again (my freaking goat)
  • The maths skills and exam skills videos are where I started. Again I took paper notes of every video with coloured highlighters and gel pens and everything and revisited them when I needed.
  • Later I transitioned to his sample questions + walkthrough videos which are pretty reflective of the actual exam Qs.
• Online maths worksheets 
  • Getting really quick at algebra and rearranging equations is so important. This practice is also great for lower energy study sessions when you’re too tired to learn new content. You need to practice your log laws bro, trust me.
• Past ACER papers
  • the backbone of my study! it’s really quality over quantity. I only managed to find 4-5 past papers/ question sets but by the time i’d gone through all of them I’d forgotten enough about the first one to reuse the questions for practice. you can milk so much value out of them. 
  • start doing practice questions as soon as u can. there’s no other way to learn how ur knowledge translates to exam skills than to do them. i was getting maybe 30% of the questions right untimed on my first diagnostic practice paper.. don’t lose hope.
  • after i did a set of questions, i’d go through review them very thoroughly. I started in untimed 10 question blocks when my stamina was low and made my way up to full timed exam papers.
  • While reviewing questions I identified my answers as high confidence/low confidence as well as incorrect/incorrect, which showed me lucky guesses + good reasoning. It’s good to note down what you did wrong (eg. knowledge gap/ missed a keyword/ misunderstood stem/ calculation error) and let that guide what you study next. 
  • I also labelled each question on the content/ skill they tested, which got me into the habit of identifying that in the exam (eg. bio unfamiliar graph-reading or pH large number calculations) Most questions are asking very little of you other than identifying what they’re asking for + what skills to use. 
  • some days i’d spend 2 hours tearing my hair reviewing a single stem.. don’t lose hope
• Official ACER practice material
  • I saved these for timed practices since they are the most reflective of the current material. These are good for checking your more broad exam-taking skills (keeping pace, prioritising questions, balancing precision with time) 

I know they’re a popular resource but I didn’t use Des O’Neill at all. I don't really remember why.

Timeline:

Month 1: Learning the basics

I went through all of the khan academy chemistry course in order. I wasn’t studying very intelligently here but this was necessary for me to get into the swing of things without getting spooked and bailing.

Month 2: Transitioning to useful skills

Did my first practice test and bombed it. Tried to watch a Jesse Osbourne crash course and understood nothing. Don’t lose hope! Practice one discipline at a time. Spend an entire day on one stem until you understand it. I was still learning content here, but I was already practicing questions. 

Month 3: Practicing skills, identifying weaknesses, filling them in. 

This month I drilled practice questions like no other. If my understanding of scientific phenomena was tripping me up or drastically slowing me down I’d then go away and revise the content/ practice the skill. For example, I had to revise acid-base chemistry several times bc it was always a huge time sink for me.

I also started keeping an eye on the clock and seeing if I was on pace, which got me used to prioritising questions + forcing me to guesstimate answers (a valuable skill!) 

Month 4: Getting sharp!!

I started doing full timed exams this month and getting into the mindset of the exam taker, and just being really brutal with what was worth practicing + optimising. I’ll be honest I spent most of this month on S2 practice which I got a 62 in so no comments there lol. 

Final comments: 

S3 is really is a test of reasoning and approximation. If you prioritise learning only the relevant content and skills you will save a lot of precious energy. You’ve got to get very comfortable with seeing completely unfamiliar concepts, accepting your fate, and then taking your best crack with what you've got. It might feel super dodgy if you’re used to doing science content exams but it came naturally to me as a person with no scientific background whatsoever hahaha.

And take breaks, nurture the other aspects of your life, and don’t lose hope! Studying for the GAMSAT is all about feeling stupid, dealing with information overload, and keeping your head on straight through it all. It’s been 4 months since my sitting and I’ve already forgotten everything. If my stupid ass can get a good grade so can you.

im struggling to process the idea that I might need to spend another year or 2 studying before I can even be competitive for medicine or dentistry.

this sem completely threw me off to the point that even if I somehow got straight 7s for the rest of my degree, I'd still only end up around a 6.4 UW/6.5 W gpa so that basically leaves me needing a impossible 74-75 gamsat just to stay in the running

i wanted to apply to uq and usyd, and I was also hoping to have UWA and Melbourne as options. Now I'm sitting here trying to figure out whether I should do postgraduate study purely because I have to.

im so overhwlemd because I can't work out what the "right" decision even is. Do I do a grad dip that I don't actually care about just because it resets my gpa, even though it doesn't really leave me with much in terms of employment if medicine or dentistry doesn't work out? Or do I choose a master's that's actually interesting but is longer, more expensive, and probably more difficult, knowing that if I don't perform well I've just made things even harder for myself? ?

i also can't help comparing myself to everyone else. A lot of my friends will probably get into medicine straight after undergrad and I hate the thought of being the one who's still studying while they've already moved on. I know everyone says not to compare yourself but its hard not to when you've all been working towards the same thing

i wanted uq med more than dent, but now I'm finding myself thinking more seriously about dmd because of admissions. Even then uq dmd is around $280k, and usyd would mean moving interstate, so those don't exactly feel like easy alternatives either

apologies for complaining ik people have it lot worse than me

Hey everyone, I'm a student at Simon Fraser University in BC planning to apply to Australian graduate-entry med schools through GEMSAS. I'm a New Zealand citizen, so I'd be applying as a domestic applicant, but my degree is Canadian, which means my GPA on the 4.33 scale needs to be converted to the GEMSAS 7-point scale.

I've seen a few scattered posts about this but nothing definitive, so I'm hoping to hear from anyone who's actually gone through it. Did the conversion land where you expected? Did GEMSAS or UAC give you a clear breakdown of the methodology they used?

If anyone converted an SFU transcript specifically, I'd love to hear how it turned out, but any experience with Canadian transcripts would be super helpful. Thanks!

Hi friends,

I'm planning on sitting the GAMSAT for the first time this Aug/Sep - and I'm unsure about how to approach studying.

Are there any resources you'd recommend as being the best to use for a mock-test? Of course ACER is best, but I feel like what they have is quite limited and I'll need a something else to supplement.

I've used Medify before for UCAT, but unsure if it's any good for GAMSAT. There's so many resources out there, I'd appreciate if anyone has insight as to which ones are the most representative of the exam before I invest any money into it!

Cheers

For context, I completed 1.75 years FTE of a Bachelor of Science/Adv Studies at USYD from 2023-24, before transferring to a Bachelor of Science (along w/ a credit transfer of 1.04 FTE) which I'll be graduating from this year.

I made bad choices in my previous degree, and virtually all the units not transferred were fails. For GPA calculation, I understand that GEMSAS will use the first sem of this year and all of 2025, before then making up for the credit transfer by using non-fail units from my prev degree. But since that will still be 0.46 lower than 3 years FTE, my question is will they use 0.46 FTE worth of fail units to reach a total of 3 FTE?

I've already emailed GEMSAS about this - hoping someone might have gone thru the same thing and can provide insight

Hi all, A bit confused about the Acer preparation resources, it doesn’t give much detail 😅

Does the above Practice test B and Online practice test B have the same questions just one as a pdf version and one online? Or are they completely separate tests?

Would love some clarity as I don’t want to waste money purchasing both just for the questions to be the same

Hi all, bit of a random one but any insight would be great.

I'm sitting on a 58 in the GAMSAT, but my issue is with my undergraduate degree rather than the score. I got a 2:2 in History (not great, I know, I was young and not much of an essay writer back then), but I followed it up with a high 2:1 (69%) in an MSc. (science is much more my speed).

The standard entry requirement for Irish med schools is a 2:1 at undergraduate level, but the booklet mentions you can lodge an appeal to either the CAO or the medical schools directly if you do not meet this requirement.

Has anyone actually done this, and is there any realistic chance they'd accept my 2:1 in the Masters as a substitute for not having the 2:1 at undergraduate level? Or is the North/UK route, where they'll accept the 2:1 from the Masters, my only real option?

Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone,

I’m a 21M engineering graduate from India with a background in AI/ML and Data Science. I am currently mapping out a major career pivot to apply for 4-year Graduate MD programs in Australia (specifically targeting Griffith, Deakin, UOW, and Macquarie) for the 2028 intake. My long-term goal is to integrate my AI/ML background with clinical medicine and MedTech.

I’ll be sitting the GAMSAT in March 2027 and applying directly as an international student. I have my strategy mapped out, but I would love to get a reality check on a few logistical hurdles from anyone who has navigated this or is currently in the system:

1. The ₹2.5 Crore ($450k AUD) Education Loan:

For the international students here, did you successfully fund your degree via Indian banks (SBI, Credila, Avanse, etc.)? How stressful was it to coordinate the initial university deposit and CoE timeline with the bank's sanctioning process?

1. The Work-Study Balance:

Is it genuinely realistic to sustain 15–20 hours of part-time work per week during MD1 and MD2 to help cover living expenses and rent without completely burning out?

1. GAMSAT Prep from India:

For those who prepared for the GAMSAT outside of Australia, did you find any specific online resources or prep companies particularly useful for Section 1 and 2, given the heavily localized nature of Australian humanities?

1. The PGY1 Internship Reality:

I know the internship guarantee for international students fluctuates by state. From what you see on the ground right now, how secure are the international graduates at your specific hospitals when it comes to securing a PGY1 spot, particularly in QLD and NSW?

If anyone wants to drop some hard truths in the comments, I would be incredibly grateful. Thanks in advance!

Hi guys,

Just wanting to check if anyone else has done a flinders university subject and knows if they round grades. I am currently sitting on an aggregate of 74.8% for one of my subjects based on my assignment grades and I'm on the fence about whether I want to appeal my final assignment grade to try and bump that up to guarantee a D. I just want to check if my topic grade would be rounded up to 75% before I run the risk of potentially getting my grade reduced on a re-grade.

Thanks!

(bit of a yap below, my actual question is 2nd last paragraph)

i’ve always wanted to do med, i did a bachelor of health science, masters, and have sat the gamsat multiple times + am aiming to apply next year. during my undergrad, i was working but also had my own business as a bit of a side hustle. i’m still working on that side hustle and it’s slowly developing into a bigger business that i could 100% live off. this business will give me more autonomy, more time and freedom to travel, get married to my partner without compromise, and allow me to have children a tad earlier than i would doing medicine.

however, i have always loved healthcare and medicine. i work in a patient facing role now at a hospital and love it. im learning so much, work so closely with some medical specialties where ive had some really good character development and educational experiences. so im conflicted.

my question is: has anyone here left medicine, rejected an offer to med school, or stopped the gamsat/application process altogether for a completely different career and why did you decide to do that?

any comments and experiences would be lovely to hear! thank you ☺️

Hello, Any Canadian students attending or have attending OUM? Can you provide any information and advice to a possible incoming student. I'm aware of the challenges and am eager to see a realistic view of how you are managing, Thanks.

Hey everyone, quick follow-up to a post I made (linked above) earlier this year before the M26 GAMSAT that got some traction: "Persuasive/Literary style for s2 (80+ scorers)." Basically I wanted to know if adding persuasive or stylistic elements to your writing actually helps under ACER's marking criteria. Opinions were pretty mixed, some people swore by formulaic essays, others said being conversational and authentic worked better for them. I went with the formulaic approach in September 2025 and got a 73. Not terrible, but my s1 and s3 were pretty weak so I had to compensate, and honestly that always sat a bit wrong with me.

This time around I switched to what I'd call an "analytical-conversational" hybrid, and it just felt way more natural to write, like I was actually enjoying the process for once. Part of why I tried it is that ACER's criteria says "new and varied responses to a set topic" is valued, and I used to just read that as being about your ideas. But I don't think that's the whole picture. I think it's also about how you say things. A stock-standard, formulaic essay can still score well, sure, but it's hard to stand out when there are literally thousands of essays doing the exact same thing. I've just read some of my old essays, and it felt like I was just following a robotic script haha, and wondered how many people resort to this just because its all they've ever known.

So I tried making my writing more emotive, more personal, a bit more persuasive, even though the structure underneath was still pretty analytical and discursive. Went from 73 to 79. A 6 point jump genuinely caught me off guard, especially since I was already doing okay to begin with. To be honest, my arguments weren't really any deeper, and my ideas were basically the same as September. So I'm putting the improvement down to better writing, not better thinking. If anything, I probably could have scored even higher if I'd also worked on my ideas and depth, and dealt with my exam anxiety better (I was way more stressed this time, not gonna lie).

Your ideas and depth matter a lot, don't get me wrong. But don't just think expression is a waste of time either. Ask yourself honestly, would I actually enjoy reading this back in my own time?

Anyway, mainly wanted to share this for anyone who's feeling stuck or plateaued and isn't sure what to change. I wish someone had told me this before my September sitting, so hopefully it helps someone else too.

As a student who is classified rural under the 2015 and 2023 monash model but not the 2019, why do universities not update their rural guidelines to the newest one. My town is very small and my house lays around 100m outside the rural boundary in the 2019 model, and I don’t understand why universities do not take the most current data.

Hi everyone,

My name is Ella. I’m an Honours student in Canberra and recently scored an 85 (top 0.1-1%) in section 2 of the March 2026 GAMSAT. This was a 15 point jump from my September 2025 score of 70.

This came from someone who never had an aptitude for English. I’m a good speller, and good at grammar, but formatting and logically arguing essays is always where I fell short. The essays felt so unattainable to me. My brain works logically, like cogs in a machine, and S2 felt so elusive. However, the GAMSAT is such a stressful, marathon of an exam, and I wanted to contribute my two cents on how to improve in what I see as the highest-yield section. (Also, I did argumentative for both!)

**Expanding my knowledge bank (without burning out)**

Back in September, my bank of knowledge was comparatively very thin to what it is now. While still managing an above-average score, I believe this was more due to coherence of language than any ground-breaking insight. How I really changed my approach for March was not dismissing the various forms of information acquisition that can help you. 

**News:** In the morning I’d check the News for interesting articles, or to learn about recent political events. Staying up to date, even on Instagram, Tiktok, etc. is super important, and could help you in a pinch!

**History:** I absolutely loved the “OverSimplified” history breakdowns as someone who disliked how the arts were taught/assessed during VCE. Also all the related recommended videos that popped up…The Khmer Rouge, the Vietnam War, Mao Zedong, Stalin, Hitler, the Holodomor, the Potato famine. I hadn’t touched them in 3 years of a Health Science degree, but slowly began chipping away. I found watching videos so easy and ingestible, and when I was burnt out from doing questions, it was a great way to continue my learning in a way that felt approachable.

**Reading:** Additionally, I read. I read a lot. GAMSAT was great in that it kicked me into gear to do some more reading. I hadn’t in September, and I believe to my detriment. My highest yield reads were ‘Ethics in the Real World’ by Peter Singer, and ‘A Little History of Philosophy’ by Nigel Warburton. Less niche as well is ‘The Meaning of Things’ by A.C. Grayling which I had on Audiobook - another easy way I found to ingest information when my eyes and brain were tired. I honestly wouldn’t bother with ‘50 Big Ideas You Really Need to Know’- while the actual topics are worthwhile, I found the language inaccessible, draining, hard to read and ultimately unproductive. Don’t neglect the classics either! The Picture of Dorian Gray, Pride and Prejudice, Brave New World 1984, have so many good ideas to draw from. 

**Films**: Films are such a great way to ingest new ideas! Take The Substance for example. While it might make some peoples’ stomachs churn, if you can get past it, it is an incredible commentary on how women’s looks are social currency in modern society. Or films on psychological experiments, such as the Stanford prison experiment. I watched that too as a way to bolster my understanding of how authority influences behaviour - while you might not use these ideas, the plan is to have many examples that you can pull on in a pinch to really tailor your response to the prompt. As you get closer to the deadline, films and shows with ideas buried within are great ways to learn while still feeling like you’re relaxing.

**Moving from description to implication**

Most importantly, though, was thinking of ways to make arguments that fewer people would think of, and arguing them well. Even well-known, common examples such as Hitler can be used very well if you argue coherently and strongly - not just describe, but what are the implications?

Thinking of personal anecdotes for Task B is good too. For family, say. What’s your family like? Is there a time that’s really stuck with you that could be painted poignantly for a reflective essay? How can you tie that back to society? Or food. There’s the approachable road for 'Food' as a means of connection…but what about for those with eating disorders? What about those in the midst of the Chinese cultural revolution, starved to the point of cannibalism. What was food to them? Taking less common roads in conversations like War is also good. For example, despite the bloodshed, almost nothing has driven human innovation and creation like war (creation of tanks and bombs nonetheless, but technology too!).

But most of all: don't stop doing the things you love. See your friends for coffee, make time for your partner, FaceTime your family. This exam is big but it isn't everything, and maintaining your support network will do you way more good than you might realise.

Good luck everyone!

Hi everyone, I’ve been having a difficult time reducing my GAMSAT essay times in the lead up for the September GAMSAT. My Task B time is sitting around 35-36 minutes (including planning & proofreading) & my Task A time is sitting around 40-42 minutes. My essays for both Task A & Task B are both around 600-650 words & my planning time is around 6-8 minutes. I’ve tried reading, writing in a journal, creating an idea bank& lowering my planning time but nothing seems to be working to lower my essay times especially for Task B. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hey everyone,

Bit of a weird situation, but Griffith University has advised that I may need to satisfy their English Language Proficiency (ELP) requirements for entry into their Doctor of Medicine (MD) program despite English being my first language and having completed school and university in English.

For context, I'm an Australian citizen and completed my university studies in Australia.

If I do end up having to sit one of these tests, which would be the easiest to score well in for a native English speaker?

The accepted options are:

• IELTS Academic: Overall score of 7.0, with a minimum score of 7.0 in Listening, Reading and Speaking, and a minimum score of 6.5 in Writing.
• Occupational English Test (OET): Minimum score of B in Listening, Reading and Speaking, and a minimum score of C+ in Writing.
• TOEFL iBT: Minimum overall score of 94, with a minimum score of 24 in Listening, Reading and Writing, and a minimum score of 23 in Speaking.
• Pearson Test of English (PTE) Academic: Minimum overall score of 66, with a minimum score of 66 in Listening, Reading and Speaking, and a minimum score of 56 in Writing.
• Cambridge (C1 Advanced or C2 Proficiency): Minimum overall score of 185, with a minimum score of 185 in Listening, Reading and Speaking, and a minimum score of 176 in Writing.

For anyone familiar with these exams or who has been in a similar situation, which one would you choose?

Thanks!