GAMSAT Essays

[heavenlyjohnson]

Hi all, lots of people seem to have written some really interesting essays in their GAMSAT exams. I'd be hugely interested to know what other people wrote and how they scored, not the full text, just a précis.

I scored 70 in the essay section.

[heavenlyjohnson]

Here's my first, to paraphrase as I can't remember the details:

The individual freedom vs legislation in society essay

1. Governments must strike a balance between individual freedom and legislation, individualism and collectivism.
2. In a society like the UK we tend to legislate over health matters such as smoking since we have an NHS and therefore effectively collective ownership over the nation's health (I don't necessary agree with this point). Quote from CS Lewis about battle ships in a convoy. If one misbehaves the whole convoy is at risk.
3. The US errs more towards individual freedoms and has no NHS. Quote from Ayn Rand about individual achievement being the highest good.
4. Conclusion there's no one best way, it depends on the social context.

Here I show one example and then a counter example and conclude that neither is perfect, it depends on the social context.

[Manana]

I think I've blanked out Gamsat day as I don't even remember what themes I wrote my essays on! I scored 79 in Section II which was a surprise.

[heavenlyjohnson]

I think I've blanked out Gamsat day as I don't even remember what themes I wrote my essays on! I scored 79 in Section II which was a surprise.

I would love to know what you wrote in your 79 essays

[astronaut]

I got 70 in Section 2, as far as I can remember I used the Jefferson quote to argue in favour of federalism, and the second one was about how it's our pastimes and hobbies rather than our professions which better define who we are (can't remember the quote)

[heavenlyjohnson]

Second Essay:

My second set of quote were to do with the media. Looks like different people got different sets of quotes.

The media produces only rubbish and we are drowning in it essay.

1. The rise of the internet has reduced the budgets available to commercial broadcasters resulting in reduced standards and sensationalism.
2. The internet allows people to produce their own media, most of which is also rubbish.
3. There is therefore a lot of rubbish.
4. New media allows us to filter rubbish. The same technology that created the problem also solves it as producers are also critics, moderators, voters and retweeters, eg twitter, technorati, etc.
5. Conclusion: the media does produce a lot of rubbish and this is due in large part to new technology. However the same technology allows filtering so we are not drowning in it.

So the statement, though part true is irrelevant.

[cd.thomson]

I got 71, my first essay title was "is libertarianism a viable political alternative?" and second was simply "Are news broadcasts a form of entertainment?"

I can't remember much of the content, but I got quite ranty in both!

[zepplin]

i got 87 but my memories of the actual content are quite hazy!

think my first essay was about what constitutes a good government or something along those lines. brought in stuff like the lisbon treaty in ireland (is a govt putting a treaty to election twice because first time we gave the 'wrong' answer appropriate even if the end result of that treaty may have beneficial - and arguably also detrimental - effects on our current flailing economy?) and also the american debate about healthcare (surely a good government is one which ensures healthcare is available to all citizens, yet what happens when a certain proportion of those citizens disagree, particularly when they've elected these individuals to represent them?). discussed the need for balancing often opposing interests without either being irresponsible, overbearing or self interested. etc.

did this one too:

The media produces only rubbish and we are drowning in it essay.

but took the opposite argument and said stuff like the media has always had a sizeable interest in 'rubbish' and things like celebrity, technology has just increased our exposure to it. improved technology has ensured that anything we are interested in is now immediately accessible and allows us to engage with a multitude of our interests without a fear of conflict or reproach. also talked about the role of new media and how immediate they can be in contrast to the traditional media routes which are losing the ability to recruit or pay staff to investigate things properly but that role is being taken up by the bloggers etc whose very existence - for the good ones anyway - depends on chasing up the details and inviting debate. the return of the 'community journalist' even if that community now skims the globe and may be slightly myopic in viewpoint. what constitutes 'news'? becoming a much broader and yet individually specific term and defines anything which we personally find newsworthy. people are complex beings who enjoy engaging with all kinds of information; i read perez hilton but i also read the economist etc.

sorry, it was put together better then that but i basically used a couple of examples and argued the second essay fairly informally and personally

have to say i enjoyed the titles on the paper far more then the acer titles but it's definitely all about practice! mine weren't the most academic or wordy by a long shot but i think they got the point across and i read broadly (particularly about current affairs and culture) which came out in them.

[heavenlyjohnson]

Interesting. I think being abreast of current affairs is really key to a good score. I used TED: Ideas worth spreading extensively while I was revising (and also for fun) so I was able to talk about how twitter prevented the chinese authorities from denying the last earthquake.

When I'm writing an essay I always try to have a contiguous argument that develops over the course of the essay, something that can be said in a few sentences but which gets fleshed out with examples and counterexamples. I'm starting to think that this sort of structure is less relevant in the Gamsat because of examiner time constraints. What do you think?

[Spin doctor]

Something about that the government has to interfere to some extent, then something about the media being a reflection of society. Thought i'd bombed as by 'media' i just spoke about tv a lot, and actually thought my essays were pretty poor and devoid of structure or any real direction, but got 70. If I was marking them it'd probably be more like a 30!