Tips for MCAT ws prompt

[yuan.chu13]

I am an undergraduate looking to apply to medical school soon. I recently began cracking down on the writing sample section, but I'm not sure if my practice essays are med-school-caliber. Any tips, suggestion, and/or critiques on the following essay would be very helpful. Also, would anyone give me an approximate grade ?

 

 

A student's academic success depends more on hard work than on intelligence.

Write a unified essay in which you perform the following tasks.

Explain what you think the above statement means. Describe a specific situation in which a student's academic success might depend more on intelligence than on hard work. Discuss what you think determines whether a student's academic success depends more on hard work or on intelligence.

 

Time: approx. 35-40 minutes

 

Typical high school and college students define their peers who excel academically as intelligent. Most of the time, this is an accurate assumption, but the student's work ethic is often overlooked. It is unlikely that he or she excels by relying on intelligence alone. Hopefully, the student has a nice combination of hard work and intelligence. These students are the ones who continue to excel academically and are not stopped short because of their lack of one or the other. However, I believe work ethic would prove more beneficial in the long run. It is more likely that a hard-working, less intelligent student obtains a higher GPA than a smart, lazy student. However, the misconception lies within the definitions of the words. Especially intelligence.

 

Intelligence can be interpreted in two ways. Primarily, intelligence is measured as the rate at which one is able to retain information and connect mental bridges that lead to problem solving. As concepts quickly accrue, these students are able to apply their previous knowledge to increasingly higher levels. An academic subject such as math is a good example, considering it usually has a cumulative curriculum. If a student does not understand basic integration, for example, he or she would have difficulties calculating the area under a curve. Unfortunately, the rate at which this student is able to grasp math concepts does not fully cover the criteria for intelligence. Another, very underestimated form of intellect exists as well: one's ability to perceive the world in a unique way and challenge conventional thought. Contending with an idea or belief takes an immense amount of critical and analytical thinking. To think 'outside of the box', so to speak, demands ingenuity and confidence. The two founders of the structure of DNA, for example, portray this type of intelligence. Watson and Crick devised an original plan for cracking the genetic code, and they applied their intelligence, which did not necessarily meet the standards of other scientists at that time. These types of situations convey intelligence, but they are limited by the students' work ethic.

 

It is reasonable to assume that hard work always has the potential to lead to intelligence when relating to academics. For this reason, it contains more value comparatively. This occurs because for the rate at which the lower learner--classified as the less intelligent--will eventually reach the point where the intellect is. Contrarily, intelligence rarely transforms into hard work. Therefore, in an academic setting, hard work overrides intelligence.

[Kyleh]

In the future I would try to complete two essays in 1 hour. This will simluate what you will be doing on test.

[yuan.chu13]

Yeah . . I need to start writing samples back-to-back to get comfortable with time constraints and the topic switch. But as far as this individual essay, I don't know if it is up to par. I'm not so sure I went deep enough into my examples first of all. And I also don't like two different explanations of intelligence for my anti-thesis. Seems scattered, and a waste of time. Oh well. I'll keep trying.