Geography Admissions Test (GAT)

This admissions test is taken for some Oxford courses.
Last updated: 8 months ago

Description

The GAT forms part of the application to study Geography at Oxford

How to Prepare

Here are some general resources related to the Geography Admissions Test (GAT). Use this page as a hub to branch off and use other resources!

Overview

The GAT is a brand new Geography Admissions Test, and will be used for the first time in 2023. It is a 1 hour 45 minutes long online test, comprising 3 parts which test the skills that the School of Geography like to see in successful students:

  • Part A: 30 mins long with 2 sub-sections to test your critical thinking skills. Each section has a passage to read, and multiple-choice questions to answer.
  • Part B: 30 mins long with 2 sub-sections to test your problem-solving skills. Each section has some information to look at, and multiple-choice questions to answer.
  • Part C: 45 mins long. There will be a passage of text to read, and you will need to answer an essay question.

Unlike the TSA, which asks questions about lots of topics, the questions in the GAT will be Geography specific and will straddle human and physical geography. They will not be testing prior knowledge, but instead all of the questions and answers will be based on the information provided for you.

GAT information from the University 🔗 🌟 This page describes the format of the test in more detail and provides practice materials. Currently there are two specimen papers. The amount of practice tests available will increase in future years.

Make sure to practice on the online test platform before your test, so you spend the time in the actual test answering the questions rather than trying to learn the online system!

More information

Information from the Faculty of Geography about the GAT can be found here 🔗 🌟.

Video from Jesus College 🔗 In this video, students discuss what it's like studying Geography at Oxford, and have some general advice for preparing for admissions tests

The Faculty of Geography uses the GAT to give you another opportunity to demonstrate your academic potential, but there is no minimum GAT score you need to achieve to get an offer, and they also take into account the rest of your application information. More information from the Faculty about why you need to sit the GAT and how they use it can be found here 🔗.