Writing Sample - Example advice

[Anderson]

Hey guys,

 

I'm studying for the MCAT this summer and I was wondering if anyone had advice on how to go by generating examples for the writing sample. Did you guys research prompts from before and generate your own examples that way? I'm just a little confused as to how I can prepare most efficiently for this section.

 

Thanks a lot

 

Good luck to all writing and studying this summer

[nosuperman]

There are two things to practice. The first is learning to write the writing sample, i.e. whipping out an essay that will be scored and doing so in 30 minutes or less.

 

For this I just found prompts and wrote timed essays... then graded them/sought feedback to make sure they were ok. The Princeton Review books, I believe, have some pointers on how to write a decent essay as well as some prompts. There are also numerous threads on this forum to search with info on essay writing and examples of prompts. Even if you just Google some, the trick is learning to get proper descriptions and arguments organized and written in such a short period of time.

 

Prompts 1

Prompts 2

Prompts 3

 

The second thing to worry about is content. You can write an essay with a general thesis, anti-thesis and some sort of synthesis that describes when each one is true respectively, but now you want concrete examples.

 

For this I'd advise you read the news/**DELETED**/bbc/economist and just get a feel for things that are happening in the world. Actively read and try using the same examples/stories for multiple prompts. Putting different spins on the same story is, IMO, the most efficient way to do well.