Writing Sample Feedback

[mrlise]

Hey everyone, I am now onto the part of my MCAT studying where I am trying to prep for the writing sample. I was wondering if there were any suggestions on how to practice it. I am just going over a bunch of writing prompts and trying to do the initial 5min outline just to practice how to set up the essay, and then I will try a few full length ones, but it all still seems overwhelming and confusing.

 

Any suggestions on how you prepared would be much appreciated. Did background research on some main events help you as examples? Did you use specific historical and political examples? Can you use just regular made up ones and are those strong enough to have in your essay?

[newcanmeds2011]

Hi there,

For the writing sample, preparing is a process. You should initially attempt to go through the potential categories that the prompt can fall into (business, politics, etc) and look for broad examples. You can do this along everyday when you get tired of reading science theory, doing VR or practice questions/tests. These can be recent news stories, historical events, etc. Try to find examples that are broad and unique to stand out. After you have a bank of examples try to write some full lenght essays. The examples, if broad enough can help with alot of different prompts but obviously not all, so you may need to think on the fly. Try to ask students who have either written the mcat, or individuals who have experience with the unique MCAT WS format for feedback. After that, depending on time you can do more outlines as you focus on other MCAT areas.

 

Hope that helps