Graduate Skills Assessment (GSA)
Summary
The Graduate Skills Assessment (GSA) has been designed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) to help final year students identify their mastery of skills that employers value. Students will receive an official record of their results, which may be a useful addition to their CV.
The GSA test is just over three hours long. It comprises both a written (one hour) and a multiple choice (two hours) component.
The GSA assesses a student's ability on tasks in the following four areas considered important by employers and universities alike:
- Critical thinking
- Problem solving
- Interpersonal understanding
- Written communication
There is no cost to students to sit this test and receive their results. To register for the GSA test please contact the Exams Team at exam_unit@uow.edu.au.
International students please note that this is not a formal skills assessment for applications for skilled migration. Please refer to DIMIA for a list of skills assessment bodies.
Timetable
The next test will be held on 31 October 2008, starting at 9:00am, in a venue to be advised. Once you have registered you should report to the supervisor at this venue by 8:45am. Students arriving late will not be given extra time, and no student will be admitted to the exam venue after 9:30am.
Required materials
You will need a pencil, preferably 2B or B, and an eraser for the multiple choice component, and a black or blue pen for the written component. A simple calculator is permitted but is not absolutely essential, and you may bring a bilingual dictionary if your first language is not English.
You should bring your student ID card, or other form of photo ID.
You cannot bring bags, blank or scrap paper, or other prohibited items into the exam venue.
Test format
Critical Thinking
In the GSA, students are asked to comprehend, analyse and evaluate statements and passages that present viewpoints of the kind they would come across in the real world. Materials used in the GSA tend to be generally accessible.
The material in GSA Critical Thinking can be categorised as follows:
- Comprehension in order to identify explicit and implicit meaning,
- Analysis in order to identify elements such as definitions being applied, claims being made, points of view, key issues, lines of reasoning, evidence, conclusions, arguments, assumptions, logical flaws, logical implications, missing information, rhetorical devices, ambiguity, inappropriate analogies, etc.
- Evaluation in order to judge aspects such as the strengths and credibility of evidence and the validity of lines of reasoning, conclusions and arguments, etc.
Problem Solving
There is an enormous range of problem types and approaches. The GSA approach has been to focus on generally applicable and accessible everyday problems that vary in complexity.
The following aspects of problem solving are addressed:
- Identify, comprehend, restate the problem
- Identify and analyse information relevant to the problem
- Translate and represent features of the problem
- Reorganise, synthesise and apply information relevant to the problem
- Conceptualise/generate/identify problem solution
- Evaluation of solution strategies and their outcomes
Interpersonal Understandings
Interpersonal Understandings material in the GSA focuses on the ability of students to:
- Show insight into the feelings, motivation and behaviour of other people, and into issues related to helping or working with others
- Recognise how such insight may be applied in order to effectively help or work with others, including effective feedback, listening, communication, teamwork and leadership.
Written Communication
The Written Communication component of GSA involves two tasks - a Reporting task and an Argument task. Each task is assessed on each of:
- Language and Expression (eg control of language conventions, clarity and effectiveness of expression)
- Organisation and Thought (eg effectiveness and purposefulness of organisation, depth of analysis of issues and information)
Sample questions can be accessed from the ACER web site at http://www.acer.edu.au/gsa-uni/sample.html
Results
You will receive a score for each of the four GSA components. These scores will be accompanies by some descriptive information explaining your scores in terms of the skill levels they demonstrate. Your GSA results will be confidential and will be sent to you by mail by ACER.
Employers are increasingly looking for graduates with general, transferable skills in addition to good academic skills. Employers will be able to use the individual reports that you receive as an additional measure of your suitability as a graduate.
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