GAMSAT Essay Writing Tips

GAMSAT Essay Writing Section A  Social-cultural  More objective  Discourage first person writing  Take an approach that is more global Section B  Personal and social issues  Work in a personal way like a reflection  More subjective Identifying the theme #1   

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Don’t think you need to write about one quote or all of them Look at the whole and then identify the theme and write a response to it Always do right. That will gratify some of the people and astonish the rest – Mark Twain o Key word: always  Could be about time tasking  And go on to next quote and try to pick a synonym  But next quotes don’t have it thus find another word o Key word: right  There are more synonyms in below quotes o Use key word method to find common theme Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Am above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something. – Henry David Thoreau He who is too busy doing good finds no time to be good – Rabindranath Tagore Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall – William Shakespeare A healthy appetite for righteousness, kept in due control by good manners, is an excellent thing; but ‘hunger and thirst’ after it is often merely a symptom of spiritual diabetes. – C D Broad Part 2

Identifying the theme #2  What do you write about simplicity?  Practice writing essays where you see quotes like this and have to come up with material  Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. – Leonardo da Vinci  It is far more difficult to be simple than to be complicated  Everything is both simpler than we can imagine and more entangled than we can conceive  Seek simplicity and distrust it  Everything that is simple is short

Essay Essentials  2 types of essays o Task A – argumentative o Task B – reflective  Time – 5 mins reading + 1 hour writing o Reading time: recognise the theme + brainstorm  Writing time o 5-10 mins: resist the urge to write  essay plan o 25-30 mins - Task A o 20-25 mins – Task B How to plan your essay 1. Theme – Identify the theme 2. Bulls-eye sentence – Write down your point of view/thesis 3. Points + examples – identify the supporting evidence you will use taking care on how you will organise it into paragraphs 4 steps to essay success 1. Written expression 2. Structure 3. Content 4. Originality Written expression  Keep it simple  Direct, clear language  Stay away from academic jargon  Ensure you utilise correct spelling, grammar and punctuation  Select your vocabulary appropriately  Need to be able to express/convey ideas clearly Structure  Argumentative essay vs reflective essay  Argumentative essay o Thesis o Supporting evidence o Antithesis  Good technique to use  Counter argument  If do that, make sure you don’t run out of time  Need to bring synthesis together in the end  But don’t need to have one o Conclusion  Reflective essay o No strict requirements o Cohesive and interesting o If you want to creatively write then make sure you practice

o Otherwise keep a structure  You don’t necessary have thesis and examples to prove the over-arching theme  It can be your ideas and opinions but supported by your reflections, anecdote from a friend etc  can be more personal  But make sure you’re still talking about the topic  Make sure you have something interesting to say o ACER says that you should respond to the overall theme  So don’t use the quotes in your argument  Just use them as a guide Content  This starts with identifying the theme correctly Content – The ‘ideas bank’  Need an area of general knowledge  Build up little summaries on a whole range of discrete topics