GAMSAT Essays

[music-->medicine]

I did one essay and 1 paragraph of the other, and somehow got 61. Wish I'd applied to more GAMSAT unis now....

Rehashed a load of stuff from my BA about the high art : low art dichotomy in the good one, the other was going to be a discussion of society and freedom but just ended up being a wanky paragraph or so about the relative modernity of the notion of social freedom.

[goldhawkgonk]

I think HeavenlyJohnson is bang on with the need for the essays to be really sort of current-affairsy. I think it's the concrete examples to support your arguments that make it a good essay for GAMSAT markers - I think as soon as you start talking in the abstract (or according to one guide I read, start making big sweeping statements or trite rhetorical questions like 'Is this all humanity is good for?), this is what loses marks.

I got an 85. My essays were:

Big Government vs Small Government
- I made a massive generalisation (!) and talked about the UK Government - labour as 'big state', Tories as small state, to place it in a current context
- Argued for big state as legislation would have prevented current financial meltdown
- Argued for small state as lowering taxes, on flip of a coin, would remove fiscal deficit the financial meltdown has caused
- Talked about healthcare - big state legislation for smoking, broader benefit
- Talked about small state - places onus on individual, and individual responsibility
- whacked out a thatcher quote
- concluded for big state as preferable as duty of the wealthy to provide for the poorer, as individualism removes collective responsibility for those less able to provide for themselves

Is the media nothing but rubbish and does this damage democracy?
- Media is, in the main, owned by corporations who must derive shareholder value from advertising -eg. NewsCorp
- To create more ad impacts, the media must be absorbed by more people
- To drive readership, media has often become obsessed than entertainment and trash - eg. free newspapers distributed in london, obsessed with celebrity
- By failing to cover and interrogate the news, this hinders democracy
- HOWEVER the media cn still hold democratic institutions to account
- Telegraph in MPs exes scandal
- Guardian in the G8 police beating
- Therefore not all media is rubbish and it does act to uplhold democracy
- But there's still entertainment value in these stories - especially MPs expenses - 'worthy' journalism is still entertainment
- To conclude, there is a lot of rubbish, but there's also decent journalism
- But centrally, newspaper readerships are defined by what we as an audience want to read - if we are obsessed with celebrity that's what WE'LL get, and the damage to democracy is public fault, not the media's.

PHEW!

[heavenlyjohnson]

So it seems the tricks to writing a great Gamsat essay are:

1. Make sure it scans well
2. Include lots of politics and current affairs
3. Make it fairly shouty

[Callaghan]

I am preparing to sit the gamsat next autumn and this is the section I am most worried about.

I like heavenlyjohnson's approach

[omlette]

I can't for the life of me remember the quotes that I used, but agree on the current affairs point. I'd been spending a lot of time leading up to the exam procrastinating on Reddit, so the Obama health reform/teabaggers posts that kept appearing on there came in very handy. I believe that the quotation was something like you can't have freedom and a strong government, or something vaguely along those lines.

The second quote I used a load of psychology stuff for. I think the quote was something like people choose their entertainment and these choices make them who they are. Which I argued was a good example of the social learning concept of reciprocal determinism. Gave a few examples of studies showing that behaviours are not purely nature/nurture, threw a load of jargon about and tried to sound intelligent. Must've worked, because I got 70, though at the time I was thinking "omg, this is crap..."

[heavenlyjohnson]

Do you guys mind if I cross post your essay plans on my blog? I'm trying to write something to help future GAMSATers with their essays.

[mrdell]

Do you guys mind if I cross post your essay plans on my blog? I'm trying to write something to help future GAMSATers with their essays.

HeavenlyJohnson,

After reading many of your posts, I can now see you becoming a great doctor!!!!! Good luck!!

[heavenlyjohnson]

HeavenlyJohnson,

After reading many of your posts, I can now see you becoming a great doctor!!!!! Good luck!!

Thanks MrDell, that's really kind!

[zepplin]

my essay plan was totally half assed there but if you want it use it go ahead! your site is a godsend to future gamsat-ees and i concur with mrdell, you seem like a thoroughly nice human being/dr in the making!

[heavenlyjohnson]

my essay plan was totally half assed there but if you want it use it go ahead! your site is a godsend to future gamsat-ees and i concur with mrdell, you seem like a thoroughly nice human being/dr in the making!

Thanks Zepplin, that's so kind Would you like me to credit you in any way? Provide a link back to your profile page here or anything?