National Education > GAMSAT
Gamsat Section B - Written Expression
VivaTequila:
--- Quote from: Tomw2 on August 04, 2012, 10:11:34 pm ---
--- Quote from: VivaTequila on August 04, 2012, 07:14:07 pm ---can I ask whether that was just generic info or was it in response to the esssay? I thought the links were tangible but I definitely think that what I wrote was stuck within the constraints of those two prompts...
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Mostly generic and to benefit others reading these posts.
That said, as mentioned it is difficult to critique considering it deviates somewhat from GAMSAT criteria and conditions. Too long, too much time in planning and writing.
I quite liked your response and like your writing, though here it could be shaved down dramatically and as others have said it will need to be. The language in SII needs to be sharp, brief and explicit while maintaining flow and sophisticated tone. You don't have time to build a lengthy series of ideas. It's a quick journey with high impact.
Planning should ideally be done in 2-3mins. High scorers tend to finish with a satisfying conclusion.
Clearly you write well, so the only thing left for you to do is practice the 30min per response format (maybe give it 20min if you're typing it out). I suspect you'll nail it quite quickly. Would be happy to provide some quote series and see what you come up with.
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Yes please, this is fantastic and highly interesting. Are you studying Med / have you done the GAMSAT? If I start preparing for this now then I think that I'd be facilitating a nice high S2 score for the GAMSAT without too much work later on when I need to be studying for the science part. An ability like this won't fade away too quickly once you've gained it. It's not something that I'd need to revise for, nearly as much as the other two sections, is what I'm saying.
If you can get me more prompts/quotes, then that would be fantastic! I'll start practising quick ones and put them up here!
Thanks for all of the advice too, I really appreciate it.
Russ:
http://www.ellipsoid.org/gmi/random-quote/
I only wrote enough practice essays to get my head around the writing style needed, so ymmv
VivaTequila:
--- Quote from: Baby Spice (.|.) on August 05, 2012, 08:34:36 am ---http://www.ellipsoid.org/gmi/random-quote/
I only wrote enough practice essays to get my head around the writing style needed, so ymmv
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Sweet website... I'll get started now.
Wth... this whole writing task is vague as ****...
How the hell are we expected to churn out some contention in 500ish words, and reach some obscenely profound conclusion about the world we live in? I'm reading through practise papers now and everything is so generic. It just seem like the task is all about piping up over nothing, and seeing how many words you can squeeze into it. The ideas are so low-key and have no substance to them. Have I got the right idea or am I not getting it?
--- Quote from: essay that took me about 40mins to write from prompts given in the gamsat practise link, essay #2, general practise ---
598 words including stimuli
1: A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely re-arranging their prejudices.
William James (1842 – 1910)
2: Prejudice is opinion without judgement.
Voltaire (1694 – 1778)
3: Opinions founded on prejudice are always sustained with the greatest of violence.
Francis Jeffrey (1773 – 1850)
4: Animals are such agreeable friends–they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.
George Eliot (1819 – 1880), 'Mr. Gilfil's Love Story,' Scenes of Clerical Life, 1857
5: Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices–just recognize them.
Edward R. Murrow (1908 – 1965), television broadcast, December 31, 1955
Prejudice – even the word has prejudicial connotations. Conceived and widely cited as the root of discrimination; the word itself has even been given a bad name now. However, the conception of “prejudice” has been warped out of context long ago, and is objectively misused in virtually every scenario.
I implore you to reason what prejudice actually is; where does it come from? If I were to posit that prejudice is a by-product of our evolution; that prejudice initially had a function only to facilitate survival in the wild when we needed to determine whether or not an entity was a threat (perhaps a tiger or a spider), then it would naturally follow that prejudice is an innate facet of our existence. Prejudice, really, is just a vital instinct that tells us whether or not we need to engage in a fight, or run in flight, from what is ostensibly something that poses to us a threat.
So think, momentarily, how this applies to our world today? If we are to examine what discrimination is – putting another person down for our disagreement with their characteristics – then it’s easy to see that prejudice is indeed the root of the problem. But does that necessarily mean that prejudice as it’s own temporal entity should have the bad name it’s been given?
It is objectively and wholly ethically wrong to discriminate against others, this is so because it is a breach of basic human rights. However, it is not wrong to have prejudice against others, because it is a vital survival instinct.
Those who claim to be free from prejudice and to treat everyone impartially tell half-truths. When everyone and anyone spies an individual, perhaps with an unfortunate affliction or some other factor that makes them stand out (neurodegenerative disorders, blind people with seeing-eye dogs, dress pertaining religious or other purposes i.e. Islamic practice; the KKK), they can’t avoid the intrinsic propensity of our subconscious psyche that rationalises that individual as being a threat. To show by antithesis, would such a person walk calmly past an individual wearing a veil as they would past a madman wielding a butchers knife soaking in blood? No. Why not? Because they’ve judged that other individual, and rationalised them as being either placid, or as being a threat.
Prejudice is inherently different to discrimination. Discrimination is when one acts on prejudice out of ignorance. Prejudice is solely the act of delineating and drawing conclusions of those around us. Prejudice can, of course, go outside the realms of ascertaining whether the foreign party is a threat or is peaceful, by the means of judging the individual and concluding certain things about it. Some of these thoughts might perhaps be derogatory. But this is not discrimination. This is an intrinsic part of our biology that we cannot simply turn off. Subsequently, it should not be viewed with distaste. The only crime on these grounds is discrimination out of ignorance; on the terms of what we conclude through prejudice.
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Tomw2:
--- Quote from: VivaTequila on August 05, 2012, 01:03:05 am ---Are you studying Med / have you done the GAMSAT
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I sat the GAMSAT twice, 2nd time scored in 80s in SII and received offers for both MD & DDS @ Melb. Currently in 1st year DDS.
--- Quote from: VivaTequila on August 05, 2012, 11:37:56 am ---It just seem like the task is all about piping up over nothing, and seeing how many words you can squeeze into it. The ideas are so low-key and have no substance to them.
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It's about what you do with the stimulus material and the way you employ language to present your ideas and thinking on the topics. It's not at all about quantity of words, though to fully demonstrate the skills they are looking for, practically speaking 400 words is the approximate minimum.
They will be looking for responses that employ effective writing to evoke imagery, feelings and sentiments. Good language mechanics, fluency, logical progression are also rewarded with marks.
The stimulus material offered in SII may seem trite, but they are always topics that a good writer can take to interesting places. It's generic in aid of leaving the door open for candidates to be creative and take liberties with how they address the theme/s and what form their response will take. It's also generic in an effort to avoid cultural bias.
The instructions are reasonably clear (albeit brief) on pg 5 of the GAMSAT Info Book, but feel free to ask any more questions about style, form etc.
Starlight:
^ Tomw2, was your first gamsat like a practice one, how did you go in your first attempt?
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