MCAT-Writing Sample Advices and Tips

[medhopefuls2016]

Dear All,

 

As a follow up to my previous post on advices and tips to the physical sciences section, I will now write a post about my experiences with the MCAT Writing Sample (WS).

 

Again, as with the physical sciences section, please take everything I write with a grain of salt. These advices only reflect how I studied for my MCAT, and they are by no means the best advice or the best way to study for the MCAT.

 

A quirky fact about me: I am one of those weird sciences kids who love writing. I am also an immigrant (came here about 9 years ago). I got a R in writing sample.

 

For writing sample

 

1. Keep everything structured. A paragraph has one idea and one idea only. You start with your main premise, follow by the supports, and conclude by emphasizing your premise again.

 

2. Transition words. Don't overuse transition words!! Also, transition words often are awkward sounding and make your writing slightly a bit less mature. As a result, learn to use them efficiently. Here is a trick. Put transition words in the middle of a sentence instead of the beginning. Also, learn to use transition phrases (i.e Despite of blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah happened)

 

Instead of writing

 

blah bah blah blah. However, blah blah blah blah.

 

Write.

 

blah blah blah blah. blah blah, however, blah blah blah blah.

 

3. For MCAT WS you should write 3 paragraphs. 1st paragraph discusses the prompt (again. premise, support, re-state the premise). 2nd paragraph discusses the count-prompt (again, premise, support, re-state the premise). 3rd paragraph should resolve the issue.

 

4. If you have not taken a logics class, it might be a good idea to take one and learn about the common logical fallacies. When I read my friends' essays, they are often full of logical fallacies. Here is a common one

 

If blah blah blah, then duh duh duh

 

If not blah blah blah, then duh duh duh won't happen.

 

This is a logical fallacy....something known as a denying the antecedent. There are at least 20 common logical fallacies that you should know. Trust me, knowing them will help you write and argue a lot better.

 

Similarly, understand what premises, conclusions, and assumptions are in philosophical discourse. The reason is that structure is everything in MCAT writing. Again, every paragraph has one idea and one idea only. You start by stating the main premise, then you support that premise, and finally you conclude by re-wording the premise again.

 

5. Review your grammar if need be.

 

6. Here is something that many people don't know. MCAT writing is about testing whether the candidate can argue. It's not about how much the candidate knows in regards to a given issue. As a result, whatever that you write down as a support for a given prompt does not have to be the truth.

 

For instance, as my instructor told me, suppose that you want to argue that democracy is good for the economy, you can make up your own statistics to support your prompt. Obviously don't go overboard with this (i.e writing something like a study done by the Justin Bieber Association of America showed that 99.999% of all democracies enjoyed prosperity....lol).

 

As a result, there is ABSOLUTELY NO NEED to memorize a random bank of facts. You should spend the time working on other section of the MCAT. Again, MCAT writing is about how well you can argue for your stance. It's not about how well you know world history or world politics.

 

7. Here is how I prepared for writing sample. I started out by giving myself 45 minutes/prompt for the first 2-3. Slowly, I dropped the time down to about 30 minutes/prompt (2-3 minutes brain storm, 25 minutes writing, 2-3 minutes check grammar check). I always write at least two prompts together in one seating. It's good to train your endurance for the MCAT.

 

Best of luck! I hope that everything I put down here will benefit the future premeds/MCAT test takers.