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Week 18: Fit for purpose: Medical admissions tests
Many universities use ACER assessments to assist in selecting students for medical and health science courses so that each student is engaged in challenging learning opportunities appropriate to their readiness and needs.
With a yearly candidature of 30 000 or so students, ACER’s Undergraduate Medicine and Health Sciences Admission Test (UMAT), Health Professions Admission Test (HPAT – Ireland) and Graduate Medical School Admissions Test (GAMSAT) programs assist 33 universities to select competent and appropriate students for medical and health science courses at the undergraduate or graduate level.
With 20 of the universities we assist in Australia and two in New Zealand, plus six in Ireland and five in the United Kingdom, delivering UMAT, HPAT – Ireland and GAMSAT is a global effort. ‘The success of these tests is a testament to the hard work of the Higher Education team in Assessment Services and ACER as whole,’ says Senior Project Director in Assessment Services Veronica Vele. ‘It’s also due to the great relationships and networks we’ve forged with those 33 universities over the years.
‘The role of our team,’ adds Veronica, ‘is to oversee the smooth running of the programs. We work closely with colleagues in Assessment and Reporting, who develop the tests with support from Project Publishing; Project Services, who undertake the written communication marking; and Psychometrics, who undertake the analysis of assessment results. The medical programs team coordinates all the processes from the development of the tests to the provision of the final scores.’
The Information Technology team has recently assisted with the development of an online system to accommodate candidate registrations, manage candidates, and deliver practice materials and sample tests, as well as provide results to candidates and universities.
To administer UMAT, HPAT – Ireland and GAMSAT in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the UK the medical programs team has over the years built an extensive network of universities, schools and other organisations to operate testing centres, ‘But there’s more to the collaborative effort than that,’ explains Veronica.
‘Like ACER, our partners in the UMAT and GAMSAT Consortium universities are committed to research on the effectiveness of the tests in the selection of students wishing to pursue a career in the medical and health professions. The boards of both the UMAT and GAMSAT Consortium universities support some ACER research projects to investigate and validate these instruments to ensure they’re fit for purpose.’
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Week 52: State of the art psychometric and statistical analysis
Week 51: Assessing civics and citizenship
Week 50: International research into teaching and learning
GOAL 1
Learners and their needs
every learner engaged in challenging learning opportunities appropriate to their readiness and needs
GOAL 2
The Learning Profession
every learning professional highly skilled, knowledgeable and engaged in excellent practice
GOAL 3
Places of learning
every learning community well resourced and passionately committed to improving outcomes for all learners
GOAL 4
A Learning Society
a society in which every learner experiences success and has an opportunity to achieve their potential
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Pursuing Quality and Equity through Evidence
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