How To Get Into Medicine in Melbourne, Australia – GAMSAT Vs UMAT

There are many things to consider if you would like to do medicine. It’s best to start thinking about these things as early as possible to avoid headaches later on.

At the Year 12 level it is important to take as many science subjects as possible to get a head start on scientific critical thinking and to prepare yourself for what’s to come. Ideally you want to take VCE biology, VCE chemistry and potentially VCE Physics. VCE Physics is less important, but still required to some degree and will help you solidify your understanding of experimental technique and may even overlap with chemistry.

While at VCE it is also important to think about how you want to enter the medical program. Medicine has 2 streams: the first is graduate and the second is undergraduate. Monash is the only university in Melbourne that offers undergraduate medicine.

Both have advantages, however undergraduate medicine will save you a lot of time and money as you won’t need to complete a bachelor degree before starting medicine, and will save you from doing the dreaded GAMSAT (more on this later).

How to apply for undergraduate Medicine

To apply for undergraduate medicine, you will need to have an extraordinarily high ATAR, but you will also need to sit the UMAT. The UMAT is an undergraduate medical exam that largely revolves around logic thinking and empathy- skills that doctors are expected to have.

How to apply for graduate Medicine

To apply for undergraduate medicine, you will need to have an extraordinarily high ATAR, but you will also need to sit the UMAT. The UMAT is an undergraduate medical exam that largely revolves around logic thinking and empathy- skills that doctors are expected to have.

When applying for graduate medicine in Melbourne, you will need to do several things. First you will need to have finished a bachelor degree. In graduate medicine, universities will consider 3 things: your GPA, GAMSAT result and interview performance.

The final 3 years of your degree will be counted towards your GPA, so if you flunked first year you will need consider taking a graduate program (honours or masters). Don’t party too hard, it will cost you! Some universities, such as the University of Melbourne will require you to pass certain subjects such as biochemistry, physiology and anatomy. Otherwise the degree that you choose will not affect your ability to qualify.

The GAMSAT is a brutal graduate exam that consists of 3 parts: reasoning in humanities (reading and comprehending complex text multiple choice), essay writing, and reasoning in biological and physical sciences (multiple choice for biology, chemistry and physics). It’s a 5.5 hour exam and it will make you regret not applying for undergraduate medicine.

The interview result is part of most university’s entrance criteria. It’s usually made up of many small interviews where you will be challenged by various questions and theoretical situations.

Most university’s in Melbourne spread their criteria evenly, and allow for 1/3 of the result to be dictated by each of the 3 criteria.