WS examples

[Guest mcater2006]

Dear all:

 

I'm reading through these 6-pointer essay in my Princeton hyperlearning book and noticed that they used lots of fancy, "politically-correct" examples that were very relevant to the prompt.

 

I'm wondering if someone has already done a compilation of suitable examples for use for most of the WS prompts that is available somewhere on the Internet.

 

Thanks.

[Guest GundamDX]

there is no need to prepare examples not for me at least. Hypothetical ones work fine. You can easily get a good mark as long as you address the 3 parts of the WS.

[Guest piratefan]

mcater,

 

if you received your hyperlearning book as part of a princeton course, you will definitely spend time brainstorming eg's with your classmates during writing/verbal sessions -- don't worry too much about finding eg's just yet.

 

if you aren't taking the course, just reading the daily news will likely provide you with more than enough material to support your essays. i'd recommend reading bbc online, it's my favourite for international (read: diverse) coverage.

 

best of luck,

 

~pf

[Guest dopetown]

I believe that strong examples will help build a better argument. There's really nothing more convincing than real-life examples. I'm sure hypothetical examples will work fine for some, but for those who may not be as familiar with such a broad range of issues (me), more concrete examples will provide a clearer foundation from which to base your reasoning. Personally, I would be much more inclined to agree to an argument if the author said "this has happened before, therefore the statement is true" as opposed to "it would happen like this when the statement is true." Kudos to those of you who can write some badass essays with hypothetical examples, but I ain't that good; I can't cover the different angles.

 

Besides, practicing to mold different situations into something that can advance your point is, well, good practice! You can totally learn to think deeper into an issue or a statement when you think of what applies, and what doesn't.

[Guest dopetown]

I also don't agree with simply keeping up with current events as a way to build up your collection of examples. I tend to forget some important detail when I'm reading the newspaper. I retain much more information by starting with the prompts, and researching what would apply.

 

If you want real-life examples, you should get them the hard way and dig them up yourself. Pick a prompt that makes you cringe, and think of @#%$ that applies.

 

It's preferable that you share what you find...

[Guest piratefan]

sorry, maybe i should clarify what i meant when referring to current events:

 

i found that reading the news helped me to develop a series of examples for the writing sample, but this required reading the news with the MCAT in mind. i would come across an interesting story (for example, the same-sex marriage bill that passed last summer), and then think about how it could be incorporated into an essay. in this case, the prompt might be about how politicians should be required to represent their constituents, regardless of whether or not the opinions and beliefs of their constituents are identical to their own. (ie i might discuss an example when a politician voted in favour of the bill after discussing the issue with their constituents, despite the fact that they are a practicing catholic. or something.)

 

reading the news passively will not help to develop a series of strong examples, but actively searching for pertinent, memorable examples will prove very useful. taking notes on them will help further.

 

good luck,

 

~pf

[Guest 4shattered4]

I'm having a lot of trouble thinking of any examples to do with politics due to lack of a background and interest. It's obviously too late to develop a deep background, but besides reading news articles, is there anything else I can do?

 

Would anyone mind sharing the Princeton Review strategy (how do you guys brainstorm ideas, i.e. just randomly come up with ideas and jot them down during class or something)? Kaplan doesn't really help with this grr....

 

Anyone else having this problem? I find that sometimes I can think of an example, but then it'll either be too controversial or I can't expand on it. For example, in this prompt, "Politicians too often base their decisions on what will pelase the voters, not on what is best for the country".

 

My anti-example is that in order to decrease the national debt, politicians may increase the taxes, which is best for the country, but not to the interests of the majority of the voters, but I really can't expand on it since it's only hypothetical. I suppose I could go on and on and describe how horrible the national debt is, but seems kind of pointless to me.

 

I could try to think of a real example, but wouldn't that be controversial? I think the definition of the the "best of the country" is very subjective. Some may even say that Bush's choice to fight Iraq is "best for the country", but obviously that can't be used.

 

Thanks for the help, this is so frustrating

[Guest ComplacentTragedy]

For writ samp examples, I kept a list of like, the 12 topics that most prompts are under. Then, when I found a story I liked or found easy to remember, I would write it down on this. I reviewed it the lunch before the WS, and was satasfied with how that worked out. If you'd like them, PM me.

 

PR taught us to spend 5 minutes brainstorming. Then we go into

 

1) Thesis

2) Antithesis

3) Synthesis

 

It's cute cause the word thesis is in all of them.

 

Thesis is essentially, "This is true because lah lah lah." Antithesis is "... but this is wrong because lah lah lah." Synthesis is "When this condition is true, this promt is true - when the condition is not true, this prompt is errorneous."

 

PR also said hypothetical was fine, although I felt uncomfortable with it.

 

Now the awesome part - know your audience.

 

MCAT's, from what PR taught us, are marked in the 'Bible Belt' of the USA. What this means is stay away from abortion, gay marriage, and uh, I dunno, talking about hybrid cars or something. (for those who don't catch my tastelessness, I'm joking about hybrid cars). But in all sincerity, this leads to some important points.

 

As objective as they are trying to be, there is a level of personal bias (this is the medical school admission way). So therefore, talking about how "Bush is teh s0x0r" may not score you points with a Republican enthusiast.

 

Which leads into more awesome: as Canadians, any discussion we give is already considered international by AAMC standards. PR told us that this was usually good for us, as it showed some diversity... or something... anyway, it was encouraged.

 

It also gives us an edge to stand out from more tpical subjects. I dunno about you, but when it came to bringing up terrorism, I felt my paper was be alot more original (and stronger) discussing FLQ as opposed to, well...

 

"I think that Osama Bin Ladin is bad. Terrorism is bad. No one has said this before, but me. Give me a T. T for terrorism."

 

And as a preference note, I discussed what I knew. A prompt on business led me to talk about Sony and Betamax, instead of Enron, cause I knew the subject matter more thoroughly, and therefore was able to analyze it better.

[Guest mcater2006]

Thank you for all your feedbacks.

 

mcater2006