mattg Posted June 2, 2010 Report Share Posted June 2, 2010 who legitimately prepared for the MCAT WS? I wanted to, but couldn't bring myself to write practice essays... I think I tried writing 1 lol Almost everyone I talked to said the same thing as well - that they found it very difficult to bring themself to prep for the WS note: this isn't an endorsement to not prepare for the WS lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nosuperman Posted June 2, 2010 Report Share Posted June 2, 2010 I wrote like... 2 or 3 practice ones before writing the real MCAT. Not sure if that counts? Got an 'R'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
igeorgex Posted June 2, 2010 Report Share Posted June 2, 2010 I wrote maybe 5 with my TPR course, wrote about 9 on practice diagnostics, and then prepped the framework for 5-6 a week for 2 months... <.< definitely wound up making up an example or two anyway haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
small_town_girl Posted June 2, 2010 Report Share Posted June 2, 2010 who legitimately prepared for the MCAT WS? I wanted to, but couldn't bring myself to write practice essays... I think I tried writing 1 lol Almost everyone I talked to said the same thing as well - that they found it very difficult to bring themself to prep for the WS note: this isn't an endorsement to not prepare for the WS lol hmmm depends on what you mean by "legitimately". I wrote maybe 1 or 2 essays completely, just to see my timing. But everyday I went through a few sample prompts, and just went through in my head what my points would be. I also made sure to keep up-to-date on the news and such, and made sure I had 2-3 examples for each category (business, arts, education, etc). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattg Posted June 2, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 2, 2010 yea i guess the 'legitmately' was pretty vague lol... i guess i meant wrote more than a few (i.e. 5 or something) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOC_Ma Posted June 2, 2010 Report Share Posted June 2, 2010 Wrote 2 and one of them was exactly the same as my real MCAt prompt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_horrible Posted June 2, 2010 Report Share Posted June 2, 2010 I didn't write any practice essays, and kinda prayed my prompts wouldn't have to do with business/econ. Come MCAT day, I had one essay on higher education, and a second on music...lucked out for sure! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
claire_tea Posted June 2, 2010 Report Share Posted June 2, 2010 Definitely. Through my prep class we are doing 9 "real" MCATs including marked writing samples, and there is a whole study book devoted to increasing our WS mark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndreaM Posted June 2, 2010 Report Share Posted June 2, 2010 I didn't study for the WS at all and it showed (I got an O). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meddyaddict Posted June 2, 2010 Report Share Posted June 2, 2010 What is MCAT WS? And what's the prompt thing that people are talking about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyleh Posted June 2, 2010 Report Share Posted June 2, 2010 Writing sample (WS) is a section on the MCAT. For this section you are give two prompts and have a to write an essay response examining each. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFonz Posted June 2, 2010 Report Share Posted June 2, 2010 Define "legitimately". I didn't go into the MCAT and wing it, but I also didn't study for it anywhere near as much as the other sections. I think I did 3-4 practice essays on my computer, and all the essays in the MCAT practice series (through AAMC). I would also say I made about 10 outlines for practice prompts using the Princeton Review "method" for WS. Ended up with an S. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shannn Posted June 2, 2010 Report Share Posted June 2, 2010 Nope, I am a pretty good writer (or at least I like to think of myself as a good writer), and I got a Q the first time, then an S the next 2 times without any prep All I did was look at the examples on the AAMC e-mcat site for good writing samples, saw their structure and followed suit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamer Posted June 2, 2010 Report Share Posted June 2, 2010 I did a bunch of practice prompts (analyzed how I would answer) but only wrote about 6-8 essays I think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEggman Posted June 2, 2010 Report Share Posted June 2, 2010 The first time around I didn't do very much practice and got an N so for my second MCAT I wrote all the AAMC practice essays (10+) plus a couple extras from my MCAT book, ended up with a Q. Writing isn't really my forte and the WS was the reason I didn't get any interviews the first time I applied, so I went all out the second time. I also took first year english, that helped with writing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bj89 Posted June 2, 2010 Report Share Posted June 2, 2010 I didn't write any practice essays, and kinda prayed my prompts wouldn't have to do with business/econ. Come MCAT day, I had one essay on higher education, and a second on music...lucked out for sure! we must have written on the same day! i really thought i was god-struck to have such easy prompts haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_horrible Posted June 2, 2010 Report Share Posted June 2, 2010 August 25th ftw I never thought I'd get to write about the Beatles and the Backstreet Boys on my WS. we must have written on the same day! i really thought i was god-struck to have such easy prompts haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylamonkey Posted June 3, 2010 Report Share Posted June 3, 2010 LOL- I wrote about Arnold Swartzenegger's early bodybuilding career! I wrote more than a few, but I used them more as study breaks than anything. I got an R and an S. I like writing, so I would throw one into my study day once a week or so, and every second day or so near the end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DXO Posted June 3, 2010 Report Share Posted June 3, 2010 As an aside.... I think they should have options for the MCAT writing prompts! As much as they like to say that all you need is "general knowledge" to write an essay, I find some of the topics are much more difficult to discuss than others. Given that they are trying to evaluate our ability to WRITE and not our ability to spew sh*t or give facts... I think that having options and giving us a choice to write about a topic we are more comfortable/confident with makes sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nemesis Posted June 3, 2010 Report Share Posted June 3, 2010 ...you spelled Schwarzenegger's name correctly on your MCAT Writing Sample! ...I wrote about Arnold Swartzenegger's early bodybuilding career!... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattg Posted June 3, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 3, 2010 As an aside.... I think they should have options for the MCAT writing prompts! As much as they like to say that all you need is "general knowledge" to write an essay, I find some of the topics are much more difficult to discuss than others. Given that they are trying to evaluate our ability to WRITE and not our ability to spew sh*t or give facts... I think that having options and giving us a choice to write about a topic we are more comfortable/confident with makes sense. i agree... especially when it comes to politics or history, many people don't have "general" examples Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cgy_guy23 Posted June 3, 2010 Report Share Posted June 3, 2010 I quite enjoy literature and writing in general so I didn't prepare and got a T the first time and an S the second time...I definitely had a more difficult time coming up with examples the second time I wrote which is probably why my score dropped slightly...BUT I think the main way to do well on the writing sample is by being a strong writer as well as skilled at making a concise argument in a limited amount of time. For the second MCAT I used Michael Moore as an example and he is a fat piece of biased crap, so the examples are not necessarily essential to scoring well; how you use whatever you can come up with to defend you thesis is. Obviously this is within reason though; if you are unable to come up with an even remotely sensible example(s), then your argument kind of falls apart so it always helps to be well rounded in random knowledge about the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thatonekid Posted June 3, 2010 Report Share Posted June 3, 2010 I guess I did. I'm with Jamer on this one. I did a bunch of practice prompts (analyzed how I would answer) but only wrote about 6-8 essays I think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiderpig Posted June 3, 2010 Report Share Posted June 3, 2010 I was overconfident about my writing skills the first time around, and didn't prepare at all. I read a couple of sample essays in my MCAT prep book, and that was it. I ended up with an O. Moral of the story: prepare for the WS. The second time, I still didn't have much time to study, but I spent a little more time on WS by writing several sample prompts. I still found difficulty coming up with examples on the second go at the MCAT, and ended up with only a Q. I think something that is really important to do, is come up with examples and counterexamples for every category of prompt that appears on the MCAT, by catching up with the news and stuff. That, and practice writing the 3-paragraph structure of the essay that they're looking for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sohini10 Posted June 3, 2010 Report Share Posted June 3, 2010 I wrote the MCATs twice.Never practiced even a single essay either time.Went from a O to Q without doing a thing.Goes to show the randomness of the WS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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