MCAT Writing Sample Explanations Thread

lorelei: To prepare for these essays, you probably want mostly examples. (As Q and Shrike point out, you don't have to be a fantastic writer, but you do have to follow the directions, and having a mental library of examples makes it easier to do that.) For that, just following the newspaper can be fine. You can also make examples up, of course, and history or any other area you're familiar with works just as well as (or better than) news.

QofQuimica: Good examples can come from several sources. Obvious places to get examples are from history and current events, but you can also use biographies, science, politics, literature, modern fiction, movies, personal anecdotes, and even hypothetical examples to help you illustrate your assertions. The most important things to keep in mind are that your examples should be relevant to the topic, and they should be specific and well-explained. This point may seem obvious, but it is worth reiterating: The source of your examples is not nearly as important as your ability to relate those examples to the topic, and your ability to explain the examples in a specific, unified, and clear manner.

The questions for the WS always follow the same format:

{prompt: some sort of opinion statement}

Write a unified essay in which you perform the following tasks. Explain what you think the above statement means. Describe a specific situation in which {the opinion in the prompt would NOT hold true}. Discuss what you think determines whether/when {the prompt is true or not}.

So basically you have three tasks:

1. Explain the prompt.
2. Give a counterexample.
3. Determine when the prompt applies.

In addition to doing those three things, you want to create a unified essay, in which each task works together as a whole. This might mean using related examples, focusing on one particular aspect or criterion, and/or coming up with an overarching theme.

In general, doing the tasks in the order described is a good idea - you want to make it as easy as possible for the grader to score your essay. One paragraph per task is a general rule, but you can have additional paragraphs if you'd like. A good essay isn't necessarily long though, as long as it fulfills all the tasks!

Some comments on the individual tasks:

1. Explain the prompt: defining key words (e.g. what is "society"?) can be helpful here. An example is also useful.
2. Choose a counterexample that's neither trivial nor extreme - you want it to work with your eventual conclusion, so don't use something really contrived or something that's so strong it makes it seem like the prompt can never be true.
3. Resolving the contradiction can be the hardest part. One thing that can be helpful is to develop a list of standard criteria: health, safety, education, that sort of thing.

You don't have to write a definitive answer. Focusing on one aspect of a situation can be OK, as long as you complete all the tasks. Basically as long as you follow all the instructions and your writing is competent enough to be understood by the grader, you are almost guaranteed a 4 (which corresponds to approximately a P overall).

Nutmeg: In my time on SDN, the two most commonly misspelled words seem to be:

Argument (not arguement)
and Definitely (not definately)

Usually the spell checkers get hassled for being pedantic, but on this thread it seems appropriate to point out spelling errors. You don't want to make these mistakes on the test.

Also, some people tend to become complacent and depend on MS Word to sort out their "to, two, and too" mix-ups and their "there, they're and their" mix ups. All of these are important things to keep an eye on (or "important things on which to keep an eye," if you want to get technical). Which brings me to the point that there are a lot (not alot) of instances wherein we generally end a sentence with a preposition (looking at, going to, etc.) If rephrasing the sentence in the above manner makes it sound clumsy (as in the above example) a good idea is to rephrase the matter entirely; e.g., "It is important to keep an eye on these" or "Beware of these common errors,' etc.

Another important point: sentence fragments. (did you catch that that last sentence is a sentence fragment? ) Make sure that every sentence has a verb, and preferably, a subject.

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lorelei: Several people have pointed out common spelling and grammar mistakes. It's always a good idea to try and correct these in your writing. However, it's important to know that the MCAT Writing Sample is NOT a spelling or grammar test. Your score is based on how well you fulfill the three tasks and write a unified essay.

If your spelling or grammar is so poor that the grader has a difficult time following your essay or determining whether you did fulfill the tasks, you will lose points. But spelling "definitely" as "definately" should not lose you any points.

Of course, you want to make your essay as easy to follow as possible, and give the grader the general impression that you know what you're doing, and correct spelling and grammar will help with that, but I wouldn't waste time studying grammar when you could be studying, say, physics.

(As an example, I had a friend in college who suffered from a learning disability which caused him to be a terrible speller - it was so bad that the spellchecker in Word didn't help him because Word couldn't figure out what words he was trying to spell, so I always proofread his papers. He actually outscored me on the MCAT writing sample.)

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QofQuimica: Students sometimes ask why some people who are great writers score poorly on the MCAT WS, while others who make grammatical and spelling mistakes score higher. It may seem like the WS scoring is completely subjective, but it isn't. This section does not really test people's grammar and spelling, as long as their mistakes do not interfere with their ability to make their points clearly. People who score poorly in the WS do so because they do not follow the essay instructions, which are very specific. You must explain what the statement means, give a specific counterexample, and give specific criteria for when the statement holds or does not hold. Also, your essay must be unified. If you do not complete one of the three tasks, your score drops precipitously (bottom half). If you do not make your essay unified, ditto. But if you do not have perfect grammar, you can still score well as long as you do a good job at answering the three tasks in a unified way. See Post 02 for more information about the three tasks on the MCAT WS.

When I was practicing for my MCAT, I found that having a good running list of examples basically let the essays write themselves. So I thought that having a list of topics would be a good idea. That way you can avoid using cliches like Hitler and MLK

Here's a few that I really liked that you can research and use for your own essays:

1. Triangle Shirt Waist Fire:
Crappy conditions in the factory based on utility and lack of safety concerns for the employees resulted in a massive fire that killed a lot of workers.
Uses: Speedy economic development, lack of government restrictions, money vs safety.

2. Bombing of Coventry*
Brits crack Enigma and discover that Coventry is going to be bombed. Churchill wrestles with the idea of whether to let Coventry be bombed or tell people to evacuate and reveal that they have cracked the code.
Uses: Greater good vs. the immediate gain, sacrifice, governmental control.
*This never actually happened (the cracking of the code at that time), but the story is such a widely held misconception (lots of books written saying it was true) that I would not hesistate to use it since it would be an honest mistake at worst.

3. Nelson Mandela (good replacement for MLK)
Fought against apartheid, led a violent uprising which resulted in his jailing, then became the big cheese through peaceful means
Uses: MLK replacement if you need an antiracism example, achievement of political aims through peaceful means, reformation of idealogy, one person vs. government/system/"the man"

4. Qin Shi HuangDi, First Chinese Emperor
United China through war and basically beating the crap out of everyone. Developed standard system for language, measures, money. Developed dynastic system
Uses: Argument for possible big government (antithesis most likely). Safety over liberty. Greater good over personal freedom.

5. Stalin (good replacement for Hitler)
Major dingus
Uses: Anytime you feel like using Hitler, use Uncle Stalin instead.