MSAP EXAM

bananamama

Hey I was just wondering if anyone had any hints or tips for sitting the msap exam?
I am a 26year old mum of one(a four month old boy)so getting the time to sit down and do one of the essays is pretty limited!! I'm afraid that my essay writing skills are not up to standard,while I know the structure of the essay and am pretty good grammar-wise, I fear that my knowledge of public affairs might not be so great!!:eek: Also I don't think that my vocabulary is that varied!!
I am wondering if there are any books that I might be able to buy that would cover such topics, that may be aimed at sitting the MSAP!? I bought the book that you have the option to buy when you register for the test, but there are only eight different prompts on that and all relating to more or less the same topic.(2 different topics for each essay) Also I was wondering if there was anywhere I might buy or find more of the short questions in the second part of the test??
I am a bit frazzled at the moment, as this is something I desperately want to succeed at. Any help or advice will be very much appreciated.
Thank you.

Bobby42

Hi, I sat this exam last year so I know what you're going through!
The first essay is on education, it's usually about your experience of education or why you want to return to education. So give it some thought on what your answer could be to these questions. Some books on essay writing would definitely help. There's a book called writing better essays, that could help with grammar and how to write during exams.
The second essay is on a social isssue- not much you can prepare as they don't really hint at all but once it has a good structure you should be fine.
The second part of the exam is quite different, the only way to prepare is to practice with the sample paper and maybe order the extra paper. The best way to do well in this section is to manage tour time. Only spend around a minute and a half per question, don't read the whole text, pick out the parts that the questions relate to.
Best of luck.

bananamama

Bobby42 wrote: »

Hi, I sat this exam last year so I know what you're going through!
The first essay is on education, it's usually about your experience of education or why you want to return to education. So give it some thought on what your answer could be to these questions. Some books on essay writing would definitely help. There's a book called writing better essays, that could help with grammar and how to write during exams.
The second essay is on a social isssue- not much you can prepare as they don't really hint at all but once it has a good structure you should be fine.
The second part of the exam is quite different, the only way to prepare is to practice with the sample paper and maybe order the extra paper. The best way to do well in this section is to manage tour time. Only spend around a minute and a half per question, don't read the whole text, pick out the parts that the questions relate to.
Best of luck.

hey bobby42, thanks a million for that information. I have the book here that I got when I registered, on it it has sample prompts and the two different categories have four different prompts, all relating to similar topics in each prompt!!
The first prompts lead to you writing an argumentative type essay on social issue ie. violence in media should be prohibited and censored and the second set of prompts would lead to you writing a personal essay. but I would have thought that it could be on anything, as the four different prompts are regarding childhood being difficult and children being mean, that sort of thing.
So there definitely will be an essay type question on returning to education and why or something along those lines??!
Thats great if I knew that for sure I would be much better organised for at least one essay!!:D

Bobby42

When I did it the personal response was going to be on education as all the sample papers had something on education but that may have changed so don't tie yourself to it. The first part of the exam is only an hour long so realistically you're going to get 2 to 3 pages per essay so focus on quality rather than length.

[Jackass]

Where / what time is this held in Dublin on 19th? I registered but got no information on anything...

Bobby42

Where you're doing your exam should be on your ticket which gets sent to you about a week before the exam.
I did mine last year in the Blackrock UCD campus.

GSOIRL

I don't want to sound like an ass or put you off applying to college but if you don't have the time to practice for one essay you're going to be in big trouble when you start college. There will be lots of times when you'll need lots of work in and exams to study for. I'd start getting used to time management now to have the best chance in college.

Best of Luck. It's tough but worth it.

bananamama

GSOIRL wrote: »

I don't want to sound like an ass or put you off applying to college but if you don't have the time to practice for one essay you're going to be in big trouble when you start college. There will be lots of times when you'll need lots of work in and exams to study for. I'd start getting used to time management now to have the best chance in college.

Best of Luck. It's tough but worth it.

I understand the time and commitment that comes with college! I don't know if you have kids,but the first couple of months are quite difficult (i imagine the rest of it won't be a walk in the park either) but there are routines to get in place, feeding patterns to establish,teething and weaning! Throw into the mix that i'm flying solo and just recently moved house,then you might be able to understand my predicament further! Finding time at this moment in time is hard,but i've managed somewhat!

Wineport

The MSAP test will go well for you. You sound determined and focused. Best of luck to everyone on Saturday.

Confused2011

Hi bananamama hope today went well for you!

[Jackass]

How did people find the exam today?

I thought the multiple choice part was pretty tough. It felt more like a vocabulary exam than an apptitude exam. I didn't think it was as much a case of taking information from the text and applying it to the suggested answers as it was a case of understanding the context of what was being asked...

I thought the essay part was ok, but really didn't enjoy that exam one bit!! haha

jackthelad321

[Jackass] wrote: »

How did people find the exam today?

I thought the multiple choice part was pretty tough. It felt more like a vocabulary exam than an apptitude exam. I didn't think it was as much a case of taking information from the text and applying it to the suggested answers as it was a case of understanding the context of what was being asked...

I thought the essay part was ok, but really didn't enjoy that exam one bit!! haha

Yea, I honestly flew threw the prep questions online and in the extra booklet but I found this test particularly hard. II had the bookley one finished in around 45-50 mins. This one as much toughter imho.

Plus the exam in Galway had lots of tiny distractions, like bloody phones ringing in bags left at the end of the hall (how can people not remember to switch phones off... how many years are mobile around now?)

Ah don't mind me anything would have distracted me.

I got bogged down on the puerto rico part in sec. 2, was more like a diagrammatical problem than anything else. that thing threw me completely, and then i had to rush the end. I honestly don't know about the results I fear i may have done badly-- am a bit down, had expected things to go much better.

Essay part was ok, ah pretty good, was happy with the questions overall, the first essay I did had a decent structure, i did waffle a bit towards the end of the second one but got off an ending in both.

Well, to all who took the test well done and I hope everyone gets the results they want.

jackthelad321

woops

honru

I did the test this morning. I was satisfied with the second section however I feel I did poorly in the first section. My mind went blank on several occasions while writing the essay. Being meticulous with my written English I generally don't work well off the cuff under a small time constraint. At least I feel I didn't make too many spelling or grammatical errors.

jackthelad321

f®eak s©enery wrote: »

I did the test this morning. I was satisfied with the second section however I feel I did poorly in the first section. My mind went blank on several occasions while writing the essay. Being meticulous with my written English I generally don't work well off the cuff under a small time constraint. At least I feel I didn't make too many spelling or grammatical errors.

I completely understand about working under constraints. Most people work better knowing they have time to edit sloppy grammar etc. and the test pressure really makes you write amateurly (well in my case) although in retrospect I'd say a prudent move (and a very disciplined aproach, too) would have been writing out 3-4 really general essays for each section. Bit harder for the first section but if you covered things like progress, human society, and one or two borader themes you could probably work in well crafted paragraphs.

But I, being young and lazy, would not do it. (yeats would be happy with that :rolleyes:)

As i said in prev post above, very dissatisfied with myself overall performance in section 2, prob ensured i got a few middle questions right but at the cost of the whole paper. I used to read widely, and now have become lazy, and the difference is obvious as you lose little tricks and shortcuts to clarity and understanding. I learned something about myself today: i'm not half as smart as i had always assumed.

[Jackass]

Were spelling and grammar that important in the test?

I was sure they weren't, and neither were the subject content of your essay, it was mainly to do with how you structure and present it?

I don't know. Feck it, it's done now, so all I can do is wait it out.

Best of luck to everyone who took it, hope we all report back getting the courses we wanted!

samo2011

hey guys how did the test go today?? i was thinking of doing next years test, im travelling this yr but i was looking at the sample paper on the MSAP website and i was wondering what prompts they gave for the 2 essays?? i might be doing a similar test very soon to get into college abroad and this cud be good practice material!? hope you can help me out and hope the test went well for u all!

sineadoc

Hi,
I have done the test today as well... I thought it was very tough, but I am a non-Irish, so you can imagine how difficult I have found it to fully understand what I was reading. Overall my comprehension was ok, but as somebody else said, it was not simply looking at the text and getting information from it, there was some "guessing"..
Essays were fine

The prompts were about technology... I don't remember the others, but the one I have developed was something like "the car has been as much of a curse as it has been a benefit".
The second one was about friends and family... the one I have done was "the family is the basis for growth and development, but it can also be a limitation"

Anyway I think essays are not half as difficult as section 2... that was really hard. I also did well on the sample questions I have seen on-line, so I was quite reassured, but the real one.. I don't know.. there are very few answers I am sure of.
Good luck!

samo2011

hey i was wondering how people got on today doing the MSAP test how did they find it? im thinking of sitting it next year as i am not around this yr but may be doing a similar test abroad and want to use the essay prompts as practice as well as being curious as i was going to do it!? if u can let me know it would be very helpful ! thanks john!

Confused2011

Hi jack the lad! What puerto rico part? I can't remember seeing anything about puerto rico! Thanks

jackthelad321

Confused2011 wrote: »

Hi jack the lad! What puerto rico part? I can't remember seeing anything about puerto rico! Thanks

The informal/formal peice, you know where you had to identify wheither the speaker communicated formally or informally. Totally fecked me up.

samo2011

thanks sineadoc! i hope u did very well and u get what u want in the end! can any1 else remember what the prompts were that they wrote about???????????????????????????????

sineadoc

just curiosity, samo2011, what test are you going tomorrow and where do you live?

xlaurenx

I have been waiting on someone to put a post up on this. section 1 was grand , there is no right or wrong answers as its your opinion on whatever topic / prompt u choose to write on. As for the diagram in section 2 HAHA (the diamond one) ..... i dunno

trollster

Hi alls, did the MSAP at UCC yesterday, some of it was double edged.....the Puerto Rico question looked like a science table equation lol.

The essays were not too bad......altho I made a counter argument as to the prompt statement on travel being the greatest advancement of the 20th century.........wasnt sure whether they wanted compliance or debate, so being a kranky old git I went with debate....have to see what way that goes.

honru

I thought the Puerto Rico schoolchild question was confusing at first. I got the gist of the thing after re-reading the terminologies for each of the terms within the triangles.

Overall I felt the second section was not as hard as the one on the sample paper on the MSAP site, and I was glad to not see any poetry.

Confused2011

jackthelad321 wrote: »

The informal/formal peice, you know where you had to identify wheither the speaker communicated formally or informally. Totally fecked me up.

Oh yes I remember now! I was totally confused when I first looked at it but I think I made it out at the end but on saying that I could have been totally wrong!

Mona Olsen

I found the second part of the test ok-ish, although I found myself making a guess more than I did on the sample paper online. I was delighted not to see any poetry as that's my weak area. I thought the question on Porto Rico was pretty straightforward, as long as you understood the diagram there was a very clear right/wrong answer! But I spent ages on the one with quotes on experts, and the passage about science/hypotheses; I found there was just subtle differences in the answers and changed my mind a few times!
The essay titles didn't suit me. I though my first one was good (by my own standards!) but my second one was terrible, really childish writing and I kept drawing a blank.

dozydora

Anyone who thought it was easy must be genius or else I am thick as two planks. I thought the paper itself was rather difficult compared to the sample paper which I had purchased. The two graph questions were double dutch to me but having said that I am out of school more than 30 years. I made some sense of one, the other I just took a guess at. The first part was fine even though I know I could have done much better, should have put in some practice writing essays. I dont think anyone can really judge with the 2nd part, not unless you had the paper in your hand to analyise it which one doesn't as they take everything back so you dont really get a chance to do a postmortem. Anyway will just have to wait and see. Would be interested to know how everyone else got on.

bananamama

I too, am super disappointed with my approach to the whole exam!!I done too much on the first essay,leaving me short of time for the second one! That question on the puerto ricans just had me completely bamboozled!!I couldn't figure it out!!I'm not holding out much hope in getting a college place and am already looking at other options!!

Mona Olsen

bananamama wrote: »

I too, am super disappointed with my approach to the whole exam!!I done too much on the first essay,leaving me short of time for the second one! That question on the puerto ricans just had me completely bamboozled!!I couldn't figure it out!!I'm not holding out much hope in getting a college place and am already looking at other options!!

Hey, don't lose hope. Nobody seems to have come out thinking they did great. You're graded in comparison to the rest of the applicants, so you don't have to do great - just better than the others!
Plus your personal statemnt is also taken into account. Don't write yourself off just yet.

Hunchback

I thought the essay prompts gave plenty of scope and variety, but i thoroughly agree that section 2 was extremely difficult. i too had purchased the sample papers and this years exam was substantially more difficult then they were. as mentioned, the 'diamond' diagram seemed completely impenetrable to me, i could NOT grasp it, so i left it blank, came back to it at the end of the exam, and answered the questions based on common sense and a bit of guesswork, and actually just totally ignored the graph itself. i am not overly confident on how my results are going to go as there was a significant amount of guesswork going on.

Hunchback

just briefly aswell,
i asked a supervisor if it was acceptable to write the essay part of the exam in pencil, and she said yes i absolutely could if i preferred ( i was fully aware the front page was NOT to be filled out in pen, pencil ONLY ). exactly seven minutes through the exam the lady on the stage with the microphone says "make sure your essay is in pen, pencil will not be accepted". this was categorically the first mention of it. my hand shot up and i complained to the supervisor lady and she said " i'm so sorry" twice, and then just walked off. by the time i re-wrote what i had in pen, ten minutes of the half-hour were gone and so was my concentration.
really annoyed by this. i prolly should have just completed it in pencil and then left a note saying that an official said it was permitted. i hope i haven't scuppered my chances

jackthelad321

CKonetheonlyone wrote: »

just briefly aswell,
i asked a supervisor if it was acceptable to write the essay part of the exam in pencil, and she said yes i absolutely could if i preferred ( i was fully aware the front page was NOT to be filled out in pen, pencil ONLY ). exactly seven minutes through the exam the lady on the stage with the microphone says "make sure your essay is in pen, pencil will not be accepted". this was categorically the first mention of it. my hand shot up and i complained to the supervisor lady and she said " i'm so sorry" twice, and then just walked off. by the time i re-wrote what i had in pen, ten minutes of the half-hour were gone and so was my concentration.
really annoyed by this. i prolly should have just completed it in pencil and then left a note saying that an official said it was permitted. i hope i haven't scuppered my chances

Jesus that's awful, I know exactly how offputting any distraction is. I probably lost a minute three times when phones went off. It only lasted 10 seconds or so each time but the effect is that you lose time regaining your focus.

I don't know about scuppering your chances, it's certainly the last thing you needed in a tight exam that hasn't any time for messing around with nonsense like that.

I seriously hope it didn't affect your chances much, I know I would have been enraged had that happened to me, but I have a short temper. Still, I suppose if your essay score isn't as high as you had hoped you can put it down to the mistake of the invigelator and not your mind. I came out feeling like a moron, and I only had myself to look at.

After a few days though the sting of the exam has faded and I am somewhat optomistic again;when i came out of the exam I felt tipsy-drunk, but that type of drunk you feel when your having a terrible time.

Hunchback

jackthelad321 wrote: »

Jesus that's awful, I know exactly how offputting any distraction is. I probably lost a minute three times when phones went off. It only lasted 10 seconds or so each time but the effect is that you lose time regaining your focus.

I don't know about scuppering your chances, it's certainly the last thing you needed in a tight exam that hasn't any time for messing around with nonsense like that.

I seriously hope it didn't affect your chances much, I know I would have been enraged had that happened to me, but I have a short temper. Still, I suppose if your essay score isn't as high as you had hoped you can put it down to the mistake of the invigelator and not your mind. I came out feeling like a moron, and I only had myself to look at.

After a few days though the sting of the exam has faded and I am somewhat optomistic again;when i came out of the exam I felt tipsy-drunk, but that type of drunk you feel when your having a terrible time.

Where did you sit the exam Jack, if you don't mind me asking? i sat it in galway, i don't know how many people were there exactly, but i do know according to the galway examiner that applications for mature student places are down on last year, probably attributable to the hammering that grants etc. have taken in the budget.

btw i emailed the people at acer(MSAP) and they said that my situation was most regrettable, but ultimately there is nothing that they can do regarding my mark. which i expected, but it's a tiny bit dissappointing anyway.

were you able to make head or tail of that diamond shaped diagram?

jackthelad321

CKonetheonlyone wrote: »

Where did you sit the exam Jack, if you don't mind me asking? i sat it in galway, i don't know how many people were there exactly, but i do know according to the galway examiner that applications for mature student places are down on last year, probably attributable to the hammering that grants etc. have taken in the budget.

btw i emailed the people at acer(MSAP) and they said that my situation was most regrettable, but ultimately there is nothing that they can do regarding my mark. which i expected, but it's a tiny bit dissappointing anyway.

were you able to make head or tail of that diamond shaped diagram?

Lousy, but as you said that's to be expected.

Complete guesswork for the diagram, as well as parts of others. I found the preparation material far easier, though i still made mistakes aplenty.

I was near to the back. I remember 3 phones going off, with invigelators scrambling for the jackets or bags. That ticked me off, just that people wouldn't bother turning their phones off. mind boggles.
good news on turnout i guess, and he harder people foung it the better. maybe there is still hope

Know your annoyed about the essay but maybe you did beter than you thought. Hard to accept it but it might still all be ok. maybe your luck leveled out and you ticked all the correct boxes in the guesswork in sec. 2
EDIT: no, diagram messed me up. and .... ahh feck it tis done now.
EDIT: 2, I was in Galway also. Yer wan reading out the instructions didn't instill confidence in me.

Confused2011

Hey everyone I just logged into my cao application there and my msap scores are there!

This is what it said!

CAO was provided with the following data with your ACER score. If you have received
a better valid score then you should forward them to CAO immediately.

The CAO have no information explaining these scores. Any further information
should be sought from ACER.

Should I take that as my score? Thanks

[Jackass]

I guess!! I got mine too...

I don't know if it's good or bad

This page helped: http://msap.acer.edu.au/results/hpat-ireland-scores

Anyone care to share? I got 125 - from what I can tell that's pretty good, but still doesn't stop me being nervous as hell about it!

Confused2011

Well done jackass! I got 104 not sure if it's enough especially when it doesn't show the percentile ! I really thought I did terrible especially in the written section I just went blank! I suppose all we can do is wait and see!

cajun

108 for me guys. I'm going for UCC Arts. 2009 cut-off mark was 87. Anybody know what the cut-off was for 2010? I'm sure there were a lot more applicants for 2010 and 2011 so it should be higher.

I'm not happy with my result but it could have been worse.

[Jackass]

Confused2011 wrote: »

Well done jackass! I got 104 not sure if it's enough especially when it doesn't show the percentile ! I really thought I did terrible especially in the written section I just went blank! I suppose all we can do is wait and see!

Thanks! To be honest, I hadn't a clue what I was doing in the second half of the exam, so might have got lucky ticking a few of the right boxes!!

Where do you find out the cut off points for entrance to UCD?

Wow, Economics in UCD is my first choice, would be absolutely ecstatic if I got in to that!

Confused2011

Well done Cajun! I'm sure I saw on a previous thread that last year arts ucc was 100 but I could be wrong!

Jackass I think you have to contact the college that's what other posters were saying on last years msap thread hope that helps!

cajun

Confused2011 wrote: »

Well done Cajun! I'm sure I saw on a previous thread that last year arts ucc was 100 but I could be wrong!

Jackass I think you have to contact the college that's what other posters were saying on last years msap thread hope that helps!

Oh, I hope you are wrong That seems like too close for comfort. It went up 13 in a year.

Good luck with your applications, guys.

Confused2011

Ya sorry the poster was referring to the cut off for social work which means I probably will be kissing my first choice good bye! Have a look at last years result thread I can't post the link I'm on my phone!

Mona Olsen

Score 1 - 137
Score 2 - 144
Overall - 141

I guess that's really good right?
I didn't expect to do that well so fingers crossed!!

Hunchback

overall i got 120, which is 80%. i'm not delighted but it should be enough for arts in nuig, i think? btw, are the MSAP points requirements for various courses available anywhere?

jackthelad321

Mona Olsen wrote: »

Score 1 - 137
Score 2 - 144
Overall - 141

I guess that's really good right?
I didn't expect to do that well so fingers crossed!!

That's incredible!

Hunchback

agreed, thats an abolutely rockin' score Mona, hats off to you

Mona Olsen

Anyone know what we're scored out of?
My friend just got scores of:
Score 1 - 117
Score 2 - 158
Overall - 138

I thought we were scored out of 150?

Mona Olsen

CKonetheonlyone wrote: »

agreed, thats an abolutely rockin' score Mona, hats off to you

Thanks - I really thought my essays were terrible so wasn't expecting anything like that!

jackthelad321

Mona Olsen wrote: »

Anyone know what we're scored out of?
My friend just got scores of:
Score 1 - 117
Score 2 - 158
Overall - 138

I thought we were scored out of 150?

As did i. Maybe she scored perfect on section two, and the number of questions went into 158.? though that seems unlikely doesn't it!

i can't remember the questions but Jesus she did brilliant as well. I got 118, made a balls of the second section was guessing 10 questions or so at the end... needless to say it didn't pay off. Oh well, it's better than i expected considering the horrid feeling in my stomach afterwards over the next day opr two...i had thought i was going to be lucky to get 100

EDIT: i don't know why i'm presuming your friend is a 'she' but I am!