The Medical School Admissions Test (MSAT) was designed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) in consultation with medical schools seeking to extend and make more rigorous their entrance criteria for potential medical students. MSAT seeks to complement existing academic study, addressing and measuring more general and personal skills not traditionally evaluated through A level or degree study, as well as observing written communication abilities. It also differentiates itself by virtue of the fact that there is no testing of scientific knowledge or reasoning, as with other tests currently used such as GAMSAT or BMAT.

MSAT is divided into three distinct components:

CRITICAL REASONING
The content in this section is drawn from wide ranging areas and is not expectant of previous knowledge or study. The perspective in which sections are presented could reflect aspects of general interest, or lie within the scientific or social science arena, whilst the information contained can be presented in different mediums such as visual, textual or tabular layouts. The focus is very much on applying reasoning, critical thinking and problem solving skills.

INTERPERSONAL UNDERSTANDING
ACER (the examining body) state that the outline is designed to ‘show insight into the feelings, motivation and behaviour of other people, and into issues related to helping or working with others’. The content represents dialogue or scenarios where the chosen responses reflect a candidate’s understanding of people and behavioural motivation and reactions, with the central focus on circumstances requiring empathy and teamwork.

WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
This aspect of the test addresses the ability to communicate coherently in a written sense when expressing thinking responses to various ideas, concepts or information.