Writing Sample advice (I know nobody cares, but still ;) )

[ttac]

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I took the MCAT twice. The first time, I got an 'N' on the writing sample. The next time (3 years later, after my scores expired), I got an 'R'.

I didn't really do any extra studying for the writing sample section, so I tried to think of what it was that I did differently.

After thinking long and hard, I realized that one thing that I DID do differently was (and this is going to sound really dumb) use big words.

I have a pretty large vocabulary, and when I want to, I can use a much larger vocabulary than I do in normal, daily conversation.

The first time I took the MCAT, I wrote my essays and refrained from using any words beyond the high school level. The second time, I intentionally used the full range of my vocabulary, and I scored much better.

As the writing sample is the only subjectively graded part of the MCAT, I would guess that the graders might be influenced in part by the apparent vocabulary of the author. Perhaps they might be influenced to give the essay a higher grade without even knowing it.

Now if you don't have a large vocabulary, I wouldn't suggest randomly throwing around large words in your MCAT essays, because you probably won't use them exactly as they were meant to be used. But if you already have a large vocabulary, and a good grasp on the subtle nuances of words, I would certainly suggest incorporating them into your essay.

This is, of course, only my own half-baked theory, and YMMV, but who knows?

ttac

 

[indo]

Originally posted by ttac
I took the MCAT twice. The first time, I got an 'N' on the writing sample. The next time (3 years later, after my scores expired), I got an 'R'.

I didn't really do any extra studying for the writing sample section, so I tried to think of what it was that I did differently.

After thinking long and hard, I realized that one thing that I DID do differently was (and this is going to sound really dumb) use big words.

I have a pretty large vocabulary, and when I want to, I can use a much larger vocabulary than I do in normal, daily conversation.

The first time I took the MCAT, I wrote my essays and refrained from using any words beyond the high school level. The second time, I intentionally used the full range of my vocabulary, and I scored much better.

As the writing sample is the only subjectively graded part of the MCAT, I would guess that the graders might be influenced in part by the apparent vocabulary of the author. Perhaps they might be influenced to give the essay a higher grade without even knowing it.

Now if you don't have a large vocabulary, I wouldn't suggest randomly throwing around large words in your MCAT essays, because you probably won't use them exactly as they were meant to be used. But if you already have a large vocabulary, and a good grasp on the subtle nuances of words, I would certainly suggest incorporating them into your essay.

This is, of course, only my own half-baked theory, and YMMV, but who knows?

ttac

They score you on how well you follow the directions they give you, the fluidity of your writing response, and the completeness of your ideas. I wouldn't sweat the whole "large vocabulary" thing. But you're right, people sound goofy when they throw in huge words.