Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Syllabus Structure and content of GAMSAT Entry Program/Examination

The purpose of GAMSAT is to assess your ability to understand and analyse material, to think critically about issues and, in the case of the Written Communication section, to organise and express your thoughts in a logical and effective way. GAMSAT questions are based on material drawn from a variety
of sources. They typically require you to read and think about a passage of writing, interpret graphical displays of information, use mathematical relationships and apply reasoning skills to tables of data. 

GAMSAT is divided into three separately timed sections designed to assess performance in the areas of:

I Reasoning in Humanities and Social Sciences
II Written Communication
III Reasoning in Biological and Physical Sciences

The following table shows the structure of GAMSAT by section and time.

table shows the structure of GAMSAT by section and time

Section I: Reasoning in Humanities and Social Sciences

The Reasoning in Humanities and Social Sciences section tests skills in the interpretation and understanding of ideas in social and cultural contexts.
Different kinds of text are used as stimuli, including passages of personal, imaginative, expository and argumentative writing. Although most of the stimuli
materials in this section are in the form of written passages, some units may present ideas and information in visual and tabular form. Materials cover a
range of academic and public issues, with an emphasis on socio-cultural, personal and interpersonal topics. 

Questions in the Reasoning in Humanities and Social. Sciences section demand varying degrees of complex verbal processing and conceptual thinking, logical and plausible reasoning, and objective and subjective
thinking. 

Questions that emphasise understanding involve the recognition of explicit and implicit meanings through close reading of words and phrases and global interpretations of text.

Questions that emphasise plausible reasoning involve interrelating, elaborating and extending concepts and ideas, and drawing conclusions. 

Questions that emphasise critical thinking require candidates to make discriminations and judgments in the realm of plausible reasoning. 

Questions in this section are in multiple choice format, with four alternative answers from which candidates choose the most appropriate.

Section II: Written Communication

The Written Communication section tests the ability to produce and develop ideas in writing. It involves two thirty-minute writing tasks. Each task offers a number of ideas related to a common theme. The theme will be general rather than specific in nature. The first task deals with socio-cultural issues while the second deals with more personal and social issues. In selecting topics for the writing tasks every effort is made to minimise factors which might disadvantage candidates from non-English-speaking backgrounds.

Written Communication is assessed on two criteria: the quality of the thinking about a topic and the control of language demonstrated in its development.
Assessment focuses on the way in which ideas are integrated into a thoughtful response to the task. Control of language (grammatical structure and
expression) is an integral component of a good piece of writing. However, it is only assessed insofar as it contributes to the overall effectiveness of the response to the task and not in isolation. Candidates are not assessed on the ‘correctness’ of the ideas or attitudes they display. However pre-prepared responses and responses that do not relate to the topic will receive a low score.
Criteria for the assessment of Written Communication

Section III: Reasoning in Biological and Physical Sciences

Section III is made up of questions in three discipline areas in the following proportions: 
Reasoning in Biological and Physical Sciences

Questions from the three discipline areas are integrated throughout the section and are in multiple choice format, with four alternative answers from which candidates choose the most appropriate.

Stimulus material is presented in a variety of formats including text, mathematical, graphs, tables and diagrams.

In addition to testing reasoning and problem solving within a scientific context, this section examines the recall and understanding of basic science concepts. The skills assessed include the ability to identify knowledge in new contexts, analyse and interpret data, discover relationships, translate knowledge from one form to another, formulate and apply hypotheses and make generalisations, deduce consequences from models, follow and evaluate a line of reasoning, evaluate evidence, categorise and select information relevant to problems, generate and apply strategies to solve problems, make comparisons, extrapolate, interpolate, estimate and recognise limits in accuracy.

The level of subject knowledge required for the Reasoning in Biological and Physical Sciences section of the test generally corresponds to the first year of
university studies in biology and chemistry, and A-level/Leaving Certificate/Year 12 in physics. The test however focuses primarily on problem solving and on the use of the prerequisite knowledge.

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