Gamsat Section B - Written Expression

[VivaTequila]

Hey guys. I wanted to make a thread just dedicated to this section.

It's been a lonely day at work, almost nobody has come in, so I decided to do some GAMSAT research and ended up reading through the criteria and downloading a practise exam just to flick through out of idle interest.

I actually ended up doing section 2A, and wanted to see if you guys could tell me how something like this would fly in the actual exam?

This took me about 2hrs from reading up on the GAMSAT to completing the essay with no prior knowledge, so as a first draft type-of-thing, I think there's still room for improvement and consolidation of ideas.

How would this one fair?

[DisaFear]

This guy...so this is what pro English essays look like

I have no idea of what is expected in the GAMSAT, so don't blindly accept anything I say.

You could mention the morality of bio-engineering, augmentation, etc as these relate to med (sort of?)

But overall, what a pro piece!

 

[VivaTequila]

This guy...so this is what pro English essays look like

I have no idea of what is expected in the GAMSAT, so don't blindly accept anything I say.

You could mention the morality of bio-engineering, augmentation, etc as these relate to med (sort of?)

But overall, what a pro piece!

 

bless your cotton socks, i'm flattered but spoken for <3

2nd paragraph was good imho but the rest of it was mediocre... somewhat anyway.

Does anyone with GAMSAT exp have anything to say on content matter?

[Russ]

I think your main problem here is that you spent 2 hours on it. I'm not sure how much of that was reading up on the essay methodologies and so forth, but even if you spent an hour doing that you're still wayyyy over time. Another problem is that you typed it and that's allowed you to write a much longer and subsequently more advanced essay, so I'm hesitant to give you feedback on its quality given these two things.

I don't completely buy your essay's connection to the two prompts, but they're pretty vague prompts so it's not that big a deal. You write well with your own particular style, which is good, since examiners are completely bored of essay format #283. In terms of content matter, it's not an academic essay so it doesn't require anything in particular. I'd stay away from anything particularly controversial (religion and IVF is borderline), don't comment on highly political events etc.

I'm sure you'll do well, most of the things I've highlighted aren't really substantial but are more about your approach and so forth. At the end of the day, you just don't have time to construct a detailed and complex plan for each essay, or write something that's a thousand words long. I just looked up one of my old practice essays and it was 500 words and I (bias alert) think it's pretty good. So be aware that given your 30 minutes per essay, less planning/thinking time, you're going to need to make sacrifices on what you've done today.

[VivaTequila]

I think your main problem here is that you spent 2 hours on it. I'm not sure how much of that was reading up on the essay methodologies and so forth, but even if you spent an hour doing that you're still wayyyy over time. Another problem is that you typed it and that's allowed you to write a much longer and subsequently more advanced essay, so I'm hesitant to give you feedback on its quality given these two things.

I don't completely buy your essay's connection to the two prompts, but they're pretty vague prompts so it's not that big a deal. You write well with your own particular style, which is good, since examiners are completely bored of essay format #283. In terms of content matter, it's not an academic essay so it doesn't require anything in particular. I'd stay away from anything particularly controversial (religion and IVF is borderline), don't comment on highly political events etc.

I'm sure you'll do well, most of the things I've highlighted aren't really substantial but are more about your approach and so forth. At the end of the day, you just don't have time to construct a detailed and complex plan for each essay, or write something that's a thousand words long. I just looked up one of my old practice essays and it was 500 words and I (bias alert) think it's pretty good. So be aware that given your 30 minutes per essay, less planning/thinking time, you're going to need to make sacrifices on what you've done today.

dude what, you get 30mins per piece? that's horrible, how can they assess you on that?

i probably spent a good 1 hr reading up and brainstorming and about an hour typing that up, and i can type pretty fast so that wouldn't have been an issue... it was all thinking and planning.

far out, that's really, really bad for me.

this is like the GAT all over again!

[Russ]

You get one hour and you have to write 2 essays in that hour. The obvious split is 30/30, I remember doing something like 35/25 or even a bit more, since it took a few minutes to really get in the groove and by the time I'd reached the second essay there were already ideas for it in the back of my mind.

But yeah, it's really tight for time if you want to go on deep ramblings, which is why I'd advise you to be as concise as possible and get your message across with key sentences rather than delicately constructed paragraphs.

[Tomw2]

An important point when it comes to the series of quotes/statements that are presented as stimulus material for each of the SII essays - you do not have to directly address the quotes and you do not have to link them. The requirement is to produce a written response that address the theme/s.

Either approach is fine, but people often feel boxed in by SII when in fact it's very open ended. The effectiveness, flow and persuasiveness of the prose is of primary importance with the quotes being just a guide. More often than not there are numerous (but related) themes in one set of quotes.

[VivaTequila]

An important point when it comes to the series of quotes/statements that are presented as stimulus material for each of the SII essays - you do not have to directly address the quotes and you do not have to link them. The requirement is to produce a written response that address the theme/s.

Either approach is fine, but people often feel boxed in by SII when in fact it's very open ended. The effectiveness, flow and persuasiveness of the prose is of primary importance with the quotes being just a guide. More often than not there are numerous (but related) themes in one set of quotes.

Great advice, but 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...

[abeybaby]

must say, i scrolled down your essay, and its WAY too many words compared with whats possible in the actual GAMSAT. you've only got 1 hour for 2 essays, so if you write non-stop, you could barely scrape two 700 word essays. this one was 1500 words, so its very unrealistic...

[Tomw2]

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...

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.

[VivaTequila]

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...

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.

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]

http://www.ellipsoid.org/gmi/random-quote/

I only wrote enough practice essays to get my head around the writing style needed, so ymmv

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?

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.

[Tomw2]

Are you studying Med / have you done the GAMSAT

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.

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.

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?