One GAMSAT, two sittings: what test day actually involves
The essays were sat remotely in August; the reasoning papers are one in-person day on 11-13 September. How two sittings become one score - and what to settle now.
Essays
22–23 Aug · remote · done
The fortnight between
reasoning practice · logistics
In person
11–13 Sep · both papers
Results
mid-Nov · ACER's month
If you picture the GAMSAT as one very long day, the September 2026 sitting is not that. The two Written Communication essays were sat remotely on 22-23 August; the two reasoning papers are sat in person on 11-13 September. One registration, one score - two events, about three weeks apart.
If you sat the essays, half the exam is finished and out of your hands. What remains is a single day at a test centre, and a fortnight to get ready for it.
| Sitting | When | Where | What you sit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Written Communication (Section II) | 22–23 Aug 2026 | Remote, online-proctored | Two essay tasks · 65 minutes |
| Reasoning papers (Sections I & III) | 11–13 Sep 2026 | In person, test centre | 62 questions in 100 min, then 75 in 150 min |
The two sittings do not look alike
The essay sitting happened wherever you set up your laptop, under remote proctoring, and it was over in a little over an hour. The September sitting is the opposite in almost every practical respect: a venue you travel to, a reporting time you have to meet, identification that has to match your registration, and a room you do not control. None of that is harder than the exam itself - but it is the part that can go wrong before a single question is read, and it is the part you can settle early.
Two sets of names for the same papers
Three quarters of your overall are still in front of you
ACER reports a scaled score for each section plus an overall, and the overall weights the sciences paper twice: (Section I + Section II + 2 x Section III) / 4. The essays account for one quarter of it. The in-person day accounts for the other three - one quarter from the humanities paper, two from the sciences. Written Communication comes back as a single section score; ACER publishes two assessment criteria for it, no rubric, and no per-essay mark. The full mechanics, including why raw marks are not your score, are in our how the GAMSAT is scored explainer.
What the in-person day holds, in numbers
The humanities paper is 62 questions in 100 minutes - about 97 seconds each, with the reading doing most of the work. The sciences paper is 75 questions in 150 minutes, a 2-minute average that hides wildly uneven questions, and no calculator. Everything else about the shape of the day - the order the papers are sat in, breaks, and what is provided at your desk - belongs to ACER's instructions for your booking, not to a blog post or a forum thread. Confirm it there.
62 in 100 min
humanities paper · ~97 s a question
75 in 150 min
sciences paper · ~2 min average
×2
the sciences weight in your overall
0
calculators — the arithmetic is yours
The fortnight between sittings is not neutral time
The essays are sealed. Re-reading what you wrote, or reconstructing it to grade yourself, changes nothing and spends attention the reasoning papers still need. This stretch is the last one in which preparation can still add marks rather than merely protect them: a gap you close now is closeable, a full mock sat now has room either side to be reviewed properly, and pacing rebuilt now has time to become automatic. From roughly the final week that all inverts, which is what our exam-week checklist is about.
Settle the logistics now, not in exam week
Three things do not need to wait: photo identification whose name matches your ACER registration, your test centre address and how long the trip actually takes at that hour of the morning, and your reporting time. Your admission details come from ACER, not from us - watch the account and the email address you registered with, and confirm the reporting time, the identification requirements and what you may bring against ACER's own instructions rather than against anyone's summary of them, this one included.
Confirm against ACER, not against a summary
Where practice fits between now and then
Both papers reward the same habit: timed sets at exam pacing, reviewed for whether each miss was knowledge, reasoning or the clock. If you would rather just sit something than plan it, our free 15-minute practice test puts twelve questions from both papers in front of you at exam pace, with the reasoning worked through after every answer - and inside Aptavia, timed practice and the per-question pace read are free to use.
Practice that fits the fortnight
The honest caveat
The dates here are ACER's published dates for the September 2026 sitting, checked on the date shown under Sources. Everything about logistics is a prompt to check your own booking, never the answer for it - centres, reporting times and rules differ, and yours are the only ones that matter.
What is verified here, and what is not
GAMSAT® is a registered trademark of ACER. ACER is not affiliated with, and does not endorse, Aptavia.
Key takeaways
- September 2026 is two sittings: the essays remotely on 22–23 August, both reasoning papers in person on 11–13 September.
- One registration, one score — the overall is (S1 + S2 + 2 × S3) / 4, so the in-person day carries three of its four quarters.
- The in-person day is 62 questions in 100 minutes, then 75 in 150 minutes, with no calculator.
- A fortnight out, preparation can still add marks; from the final week it can only protect them.
- Settle ID, centre and travel now — and confirm every logistical detail against ACER's instructions for your own booking.
Frequently asked questions
Is the September 2026 GAMSAT sat on one day or two?
Two separate sittings. The two Written Communication essays were sat remotely under online proctoring on 22-23 August 2026. The two reasoning papers - ACER calls them Reasoning in Humanities and Social Sciences and Reasoning in Biological and Physical Sciences, and most candidates still call them Section I and Section III - are sat in person at test centres on 11-13 September 2026. It is one registration and one set of results.
How do the two GAMSAT sittings combine into one score?
ACER reports a scaled score for each section plus an overall, calculated as (Section I + Section II + 2 x Section III) / 4 - the sciences paper counts twice. The Written Communication sitting supplies one quarter of that overall; the in-person day supplies the other three.
How many questions are in the in-person GAMSAT sitting?
62 questions in 100 minutes in the humanities paper - about 97 seconds each - and 75 questions in 150 minutes in the sciences paper, an average of about two minutes, with no calculator permitted.
What do I need to have ready before GAMSAT test day?
Photo identification matching the name on your ACER registration, your test centre address and realistic travel time, and your reporting time from ACER's admission details. Confirm the identification requirements and what you may bring against ACER's own instructions for your booking.
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