What if you get cut off while writing?

[gogopogo]

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When writing the WS, I have ran out of time once or twice while practicing. While this has never stopped me from finishing the tasks (I think) it most often cuts my closing sentence in half, jarring the end of an otherwise reasonable essay.

For those people who wrote and were interrupted, how did this impacted your essay marks? Obviously I am trying to improve this but in the worst case scenario, would they consider the third task incomplete if the essay didn't end clearly, with a nice summary sentence?

Input is always appreciated! 🙂

 

[Raryn]

What I did is try and finish my "essay" with 10 minutes to spare and spent the rest of the time expanding on examples and rewording stuff. If you have a decent conclusion ahead of time, its much easier to finish editing quickly than writing quickly.

Note: My conclusions were both identical: "Both the pro and con viewpoints of the prompt have validity depending on the situation, and one should examine the circumstances of each case individually." Just expand that a bit and tie your examples back in, and you should be gold no matter what the personal opinion of the reader is. I pulled off an S at least.

 

[bonoz]

How long should a writing sample be? I've seen that mine is anywhere between 300-500 words.

 

[Marcus Brody]

Quickly end the paragraph Forrest Gump style, "and that's all I have to say, about that."

 

[gogopogo]

bump

seriously though, is there anyone who was cut off while writing their actual MCAT? How did this impact your scores?

 

[DrMattOglesby]

i got cut off mid-correction.
as a result, there was an extra word that messed up the syntax of the opening sentence in my last paragraph of one essay.

i think i may have gotten a T without that error.

 

[Vihsadas]

How long should a writing sample be? I've seen that mine is anywhere between 300-500 words.

500 words is a reasonable size essay. You should always, always begin by making a short and dirty outline that contains the intro/ couterexample and the synthesis. Then if you have time you can elaborate. That way, you get into the habit of writing the intro and then writing 1 or 2 sentences for the synthesis right away. That way you always have a concise and complete essay (although rough) even if you run out of time.

 

[gogopogo]

500 words is a reasonable size essay. You should always, always begin by making a short and dirty outline that contains the intro/ couterexample and the synthesis. Then if you have time you can elaborate. That way, you get into the habit of writing the intro and then writing 1 or 2 sentences for the synthesis right away. That way you always have a concise and complete essay (although rough) even if you run out of time.

Thank you for this. I tried a few practice essays and it has worked like a charm. I was not comfortable with typing the outline first, I simply dove right in and tried to pace for each task. This way, no matter what, the tasks are accomplished and on paper, and to boot, I've been finishing with a few minutes to spare. Amazing!

Thank you very much!!!😀😀😀