GAMSAT Section II question

Annaroberts22

Just a quick question regarding section 2 (essays) for GAMSAT.

Do we have to mention the quote/quotes we've chosen in the actual essay or do we just write the essay and not have to directly mention the quote?

Particularly want to know from those of you who have sat it and did well in section 2 whether you mentioned the quote in your essay or not.

Thanks!

imported_guy

you dont have to, i got 57 though which is okay given that i hadn't written an essay in about 3 years before my gamsat study. you can adress the theme in general.

frigate gumption

i mentioned the quote in mine and kinda explained what i thought the author meant by it. i didn't put a title for it. i got 75 in sec2.


suppose the point is, if your essay is directly related to the quote you're writing about, you should naturally write it in your essay. not required but as long as you really engage with the 2 essay topics you'll do well.

bubbleking

As far as I remember all the essay titles are related to one theme so instead of focusing on one quote you should try and right about the theme that all the quotes relate to. In saying that no harm in quoting one of them if it fits in well to your essay

mgtp45

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mgtp45

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Roger_that

In my humble opinion a good generic plan for your essays will take you a long way. I stuck with the intro, 3 paragraphs with for and against statements, conclusion structure and I think it helped me greatly. Also spending a few minutes planning at the start so you don't lose your way. Get the simple things right! I got a jammy 81 and I didn't think my essays were anything great to shout about.

cliona88

I find that focusing on one quote rather then dealing with the general topic can make your essay more focused. I just put the quote as a title at the top of the page in September. I got 64 in that section which was okay but my terrible section three really brought me down.

I've heard about online essay correction services and i'm wondering if anyone has the name of a good website?

Wisco

If writing is not your strong suit, it's probably worthwhile practicing lots of them and if you don't want to pay for an online analysis service, get someone you know who's good on essays to read through it and give you suggestions.
If I remember correctly, I referred back to the quotation in one of my essays, as it seemed appropriate, and just talked about the theme in my other. I didn't think much of the essay section but got in the low 70s as a score.
Good luck. I'm glad it's not me this year!

tiredcity

I did refer to the quotation but it wasn't like a school essay where I said 'I will discuss x', it was woven into the arguments I was making. Only advice I really have is practise, practise, practise. I was an English grad but hadn't written anything in six years when I sat the GAMSAT. I ended up getting 87 but I did need to do a bit of work to get back up to speed! I read the New Yorker and Economist regularly, read the current affairs bits of the broadsheet Sunday papers (great excuse for a study break!) and wrote a practise essay under timed conditions every third day in the three months I was prepping for the exam based on a quotation on a broad topic. The extremely garbled essay bits I remember are here (http://www.revisegamsat.com/topics/essay-questions) under the name Zeppelin. Best of luck

whatsthecraic

Finding this section really tough to be honest. Every time I sit down to write an essay under timed conditions, 15 minutes in I'm finding myself thinking "This is absolute muck". Haven't really been reading the New Yorker or the Economist as suggested, I should probably start. At the moment my essays lack cohesion. I've only written a few at this stage, but planning to start writing one every day pretty much from now until the exams. A lot of this study craic is being left until the last minute! Anyone else in the same boat, or anyone got any advice?

Biologic

Hey whatsthecraic. I just started a thread in this forum with a few possible solutions. It should help.

lonelywanderer

I got 75 in S2 in September and I chose specific quotations. I didn't write the quote again, I just used the number and started writing. At the end I put a title on each of my essays which I thought best suited it, was intelligent, and would make the examiner actually want to read my essays.

I got quite lucky in that the first theme was something I'd written about before but for the second ("Humour - can it be considered an art?" - paraphrasing there!) I had to come up with a lot on the day. I listen to a lot of science/socio-cultural podcasts and these really helped, I think, and I'd definitely recommend something like the 'Stuff you should know' podcasts on howstuffworks.com . I was able to back up points with anecdotes from history and statistics from science (without going overboard obviously) because of this. I also tried to make sure I had a strong ending, particularly the closing sentence as I think this definitely influences the grade you get - I'm basing that on my experience as an English teacher - of course the whole essay should be considered equally but the reality is that it isn't, focus on a strong first half page, then get through the next page or so and finish with a strong conclusion/resolution of the points discussed.

eimear25

Hi. I am sitting GAMSAT this year and my practice essays so far have been mostly writing a general argument to the theme that the quotes present. however looking at GRADMED sample essays the author seems to write an essay by just focusing on picking the prompts apart. does anyone know which the best approach would be? thanx :-)

Briawalsh

I would say the first approach for prompt 1 and the second approach, ie. pick the quote apart, for the second, more personal, essay.

eimear25

thank you briawalsh

whatsthecraic

Can anyone tell us, in the ten minutes perusal before starting writing the essays, can put put pen to paper to start planning your essays? Or do you just have to plan in your head, then once the 1 hour starts, waster valuable minutes putting plan to paper???


Oh, and can we bring in a watch?!

Poppo4

whatsthecraic wrote: »

Can anyone tell us, in the ten minutes perusal before starting writing the essays, can put put pen to paper to start planning your essays? Or do you just have to plan in your head, then once the 1 hour starts, waster valuable minutes putting plan to paper???


Oh, and can we bring in a watch?!

Can't touch you pen/pencil until they tell you you can, also we're only given 5minutes to go over the quotes.

And yes you can bring a watch, but not a stopwatch.

kvw3835

Hi there, I'm new to this forum. When you say no stop watch, do you include a digital sport watch as well since any digital sport watch would have the function to act as count down timer? Thanks.

Gandalf The White

I'm a marginal writer, maybe slightly above average, but I've got a trick to bluff your way through essays on tests. Well, technically its not bluffing as much as it is a quick fix to appear to be a better writer, and to actually be a better writer.

Learn about 10 impressive words to that are easy to use for just about any topic (e.g. juxtaposition), essentially words that you and 95% of people don't use in daily casual conversation. You've got to write 2 essays. So I recommend hitting out with one of your impressive words in your intro, and one in your conclusion of each essay. Studies have shown people most remember the things they read first and last, and not so much the stuff in the middle.

So when then when your essays get graded it will stand out a bit from others and almost certainly add a few points to your score for each essay. I've been using this technique for years on all kinds of tests and it hasn't failed me yet.

Jammyc

I heavily endorse the idea of having a plan that you can mould the theme around. I'm not an arts student and was by no means an A-grade english student at Leaving Cert either and I still managed 70 in Section II in the GAMSAT.

My plan was taken straight from Griffith's.

Turn the quote/theme into a yes/no question. This took practice but you'll find it can be done eventually for every theme.