Guest skiboot Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 Anyone out there who has yet to start preparing for the writing sample yet?? So far I've been more worried about getting practice in orgo/bio/chem/physics instead, since every time I attempt another set of practice questions, it seems as though my mind goes blank, or I end up making silly mistakes, so I end up spending a whack of time reviewing the material over again and again (I'm hoping some of it will start to stick soon, otherwise the last 2 months will have been a complete waste of time). I think I can write a decent essay :eek , but I always seem to freeze up when time constraints enter the picture. Does anyone have any ideas on what best to review in terms of subject matter? and are all essays graded by Americans? Or are the essays written at test centres in Canada graded by Canadians? (What I'm getting at is as follows: should I be reviewing current events / history / government from an American point of view, and if so, what would be the best books/magazines, etc. to review (Maclean's / Time / Economist, others??) Also, what are the backgrounds of the graders? Are they undergrad / grad students? History Majors? English Majors? (Or is this question futile?? :\ ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dopetown Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 Sup, I can't offer you any advice in preparation seeing as how I've been doing jack this whole term, but I have read about the markers. From what I gather, they're usually English profs doing this on the side. I doubt they're students of any kind. If you were AAMC, would you pay some shmuck to grade essays when they're just learning this themselves? I'm not going to believe that the fate of my WS mark rests in the hands of some drunken undergrads, or even grads. Dopetown Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Steve U of T Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 I was told by my Princeton Review instructor that the writing sample markers are English Ph.D.s. She also said that most of them are women from the Northeast U.S. It seems a little unusual that she'd be so specific, but I don't think she would have mentioned anything like that unless she had knowledge about the issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Salkh Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 I'm pretty sure the markers are all American, whether you write in the states or in Canada. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 2 plus 2 is 4 Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 Hey skiboot, There really isn't any way to 'study' for the writing sample. The best preparation is to just practice under timed conditions, which will get your mind into the WS mode and prevent you from freezing up and panicking under time constraints. I found it helpful to go through the WS prompts provided by the AAMC and think of cases that would support my arguments. If you do this, you will notice that the prompts fall into one of a couple of themes - technology, economics, politics etc. Try to research via the internet a couple of events/people for each of the themes. It really doesn't matter if your examples aren't American, in fact, it may be to your advantage not to use American examples because, let's say you're not completely accurate with the facts, the American marker may pick up on this and mark you down as a result. Reading magazines, newspapers and other news sources will also give you a lot of good examples. I personally read the Toronto Star, but I'm sure the other sources you mentioned should be fine. Also, keep in mind that if all else fails, you can still use a hypothetical example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest skiboot Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 Thanks for the info. I guess that I'll just have to do some topic research and try to prepare some topic ideas beforehand. It's Interesting that many of the markers are female. The reason I asked about the markers is that someone mentioned that they are grad students and that American subject manner woud make a difference. I guess that if I get the facts wrong though, that it would work against me in the end anyway. Countdown is on. Can't wait till its over! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest aneliz Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 Don't try to memorise examples...this is a waste of time. What I did was to randomly pick a prompt from the AAMC booklet and then write the essay with a 30 minute timer going. The more you do, the better you get. Examples don't need to be stellar...as long as there is an example in your essay.... you can make them up if you need to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dopetown Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 Sup fellas, Why don't you people just make up some garbage that will support your argument? American or not, your examples can not be verified if they are obscure enough. I don't even think they care if the examples you use are real. They're marking you on your writing. Pick a fictional name of a town and a mayor. This dude can do whatever the hell you want him to do. Who's with me on this one? Who's done it? Dopetown Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Salkh Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 hypothetical examples can sometimes be best because then you don't have worry about having the facts straight, and you can also tailor them to fit your argument. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest skiboot Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 I think I like the idea. Sounds a bit wishy washy though. I'll try writing a few completely hypothetical pieces and let you know how I think they stand up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 007 Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 I don't think I EVER used a real example in any of my practice essays or the real deal. It is so much more convenient and less time consuming to create examples to fit how you have defined your terms....or at least I thought so. Good luck! 007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest geckoUBC Posted July 23, 2004 Report Share Posted July 23, 2004 I'm glad to hear fictional examples are good - I was getting the impression that I should be reading up on history and current events in my spare (hahahahaha) time as well. When you do this, do you think it would be best to state "as a hypothetical example", or is it better to just pretend it actually happened, somewhere? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Salkh Posted July 23, 2004 Report Share Posted July 23, 2004 I would not pretend that it actually happened - if you make something up but write that it actually happened during, for example, WWII, they might frown upon that. It is probably fine to state that it is a hypothetical example, but it may not be necessary. You could say something along the lines of "Imagine that in country x, a law exists that blah blah blah". Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest studentz Posted July 23, 2004 Report Share Posted July 23, 2004 Real examples are always better than hypothetical ones, but hypothetical ones are better than none at all. You basically said "you can make up a hypothetical example for any prompt." Well, the people marking these things know that. If you use a well known current or historical event, the reader won't be left guessing about what the hell you're talking about and how everything is wrapped up in the third task. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dopetown Posted July 23, 2004 Report Share Posted July 23, 2004 Studentz, I disagree with you on that. Your writing ultimately determines how well the marker will understand your point. Just because your example is well-known, doesn't mean your essay will be clear and coherent. You can use hypothetical examples that are tailored to the subject of the main statement and still have a well developed essay. It's all in how you write Dopetown Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest studentz Posted July 25, 2004 Report Share Posted July 25, 2004 You're right, how you write is most important. I never said a poorly written real example will score higher than a well written hypothetical one. I said that all other things equal, a real example is better than a made up one. People come up with hypothetical examples when they can't think of real ones. The people marking these responses will know that anyone can make up an example to suit any prompt. It is much harder to find real examples that are appropriate and to explain how they illustrate the priciples of the prompt and the criteria you are using in task 3. Including myself, I know probably 5 people who scored an S or T on WS section last year and none used a single hypothetical example. Real examples contain many important details as well as background imformation that can be included in order to develop the depth necessary to score over a 5 on an essay. To do this with a hypothetical example you would have to create a plethora of fictitional details. Moreover, I have either taken or taught the two main prep courses, and both mention the same thing. Think about it, what sounds better for a prompt dealing with nations interefering in other nations' affairs, a well written documentation of the lack of action in Rwanda or now in Sudan, or a paragraph that said, "Imagine that in a country there was one group of people that was killing another..."? As another example, one of my prompts last year was something like "Education makes everyone equal." For the second task, I used the examples of apartheid South Africa and a recent study I read on how elite education programs (law, med, business) are filled with kids from elite backgrounds, perpetuating class divisions. Anyone could have made up an example about a pretend society that discriminates on race, or a pretend legal system, but would it be as powerful as an anecdote about my best friend's family being forced to leave the country because his educated parents were still forced to live in horrible areas with horrible jobs because they weren't white? You need not look any further than your own replies in the "mcat writing sample" thread to see this--you gave two stong, real examples to the original poster's question. You didn't tell him/her to forget thinking of a real one and make one up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dopetown Posted July 25, 2004 Report Share Posted July 25, 2004 That's a good point studentz. I never thought it made any difference, but a real example would give way for a more indepth analysis. What would the difference in score be between essays with real and hypothetical examples be? If your friends got an S or T, what would they have scored if they used hypothetical examples? Would it have dropped down to the MNO range, or are we talking about a couple of letters of difference here? A Q is really all anyone needs if they shoot for Ontario schools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest studentz Posted July 27, 2004 Report Share Posted July 27, 2004 I don't know, because it's a holistic grade. I think the important point of real examples is the depth you can get out of them. Who knows, the people I know who did really well on it are all good writers so they may have been able to develop even made up ones, but I don't think to the same extent. Once you've completed the 3 tasks, your writing style and depth of analysis pretty much determine your score. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest physiology Posted July 27, 2004 Report Share Posted July 27, 2004 Dopetown, I lied to the American markers and told them that Canadian food banks are "businesses that do not take advantage of their customers in order to succeed." I could not think of any organization that doesn't take advantage of its customers in order to do well. If you boil things down, all businesses do that. Why does World Vision show you pictures of pot-bellied kids with flies whizzing around them? Or why does Canadian Blood Services play that stupid, sad music, and tell you that blood "is in you to give?" Then I thought of food-banks and treated them as businesses, and at least in my community, they do not advertise, publicize, or self-promote themselves. They do have fundraisers but they are targeted to specific groups and do not generally involve the public (at least where I live). In short, they don't care about your examples. However, examples related to American issues, IMHO, can spark the marker's interest (very important, given the time they spend marking). They mark your essays EXTREMELY quickly and do so on a holistic basis. The only problem with hypothetical examples is that you may catch yourself in a lie, and this may become very evident in your essay, and thus discredit it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest orange Posted August 2, 2004 Report Share Posted August 2, 2004 Sorry this may be a silly question. Is there a strict rule whether we should write in every line in the essay? I tried to search this in the MCAT regulation but I can't find anything related to that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UofT Student Posted August 2, 2004 Report Share Posted August 2, 2004 Hey orange, I don't think it's a requirement that you skip lines. However, you are given limited space for your essays (3 pages per essay), so the instructions recommend that you don't skip lines, in order to ensure that you have enough space for your essays. You won't be allowed additional pages if you run out of space. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest seonagh Posted August 2, 2004 Report Share Posted August 2, 2004 Hello all, I found that the guideline document on how the essays are graded available on the MCAT web site was pretty direct about the inclusion of hypothetical examples. They state directly in fact that The second task will require you to explore the meaning of the given statement by considering a circumstance in which that statement might be contradicted or judged not applicable. This task will require that you describe a specific example of a situation that illustrates a viewpoint opposite to the one presented in the statement. The example you discuss may be either real or hypothetical (my emphasis.) In my opinion all of the marking examples stress one thing... express yourself exquisitely. I think that the precise content is not considered other than with respect to its relevance and the extent to which it supports or fails to support the points and illustrates a mastery of form and clarity. The marking examples they offer also show examples of writers that failed to adequately develop an example but no consideration is ever given to the "strength" or "impressiveness" of the example. It looks like the markers are looking only for the extent to which the example was defined, supportive of the overall essay's focus and well introduced. I have never thought about the idea that the details behind a real life example would help you say more with less and initially I thought... hey good point. Thinking further though I think that one would want to be careful about assuming that you have describe the facts about the example well enough to let it do its work in the eyes of the reader. What I mean is that in citing something that is common knowledge such as a Gandhi example etc etc. one could make the mistake of assuming they were clear when they were not. just my two cents, Seonagh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest physiology Posted August 2, 2004 Report Share Posted August 2, 2004 I skipped lines for my writing sample. They give you a booklet of 3 or 4 pages. I figured that 3 pages double-spaced would have been adequate and that's what I wrote (2.5 pages to be exact). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Agent999 Posted August 3, 2004 Report Share Posted August 3, 2004 With regards to the real example argument, yes we all know for a fact that it's always better to use a real example as supposed to a hypothetical one. But not all of us are politically and historically aware all the time. So it comes down to with all the pros and cons in mind, if it's more cost-effective to spend time memorizing or learning historical examples to put on the essay, or to practice writting style and expression techniques that are more heavily weighted to the markers. I mean afterall, we are marked for our ability to communicate our opinions through words, and not our historical knowledge, am I right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest seonagh Posted August 3, 2004 Report Share Posted August 3, 2004 With regards to the real example argument, yes we all know for a fact that it's always better to use a real example as supposed to a hypothetical one. I don't really agree that this is true (see my comments above). So I'd say spending too much time worrying about content is where some people may go wrong with their prep and form form form, style style style is the way to go!! Seonagh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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