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One of the key steps in preparing for Section 2 of the GAMSAT ® exam is getting into the habit of writing GAMSAT ® essays regularly - the earlier, the better. To help you do this, we’ve put together a free and comprehensive GAMSAT ® Quote Generator with over 90 section 2 essay prompts, covering 40+ themes to help you generate quotes for GAMSAT Section 2 Essays.
Take advantage of our GAMSAT ® Quote Generator to get you started on your GAMSAT essay writing preparation - click the generate button to display a new random essay prompt!
The best way to use the GAMSAT ® Random Quote Generator is to emulate the real exam as best you can. This means limiting the materials you have available to you, putting on a timer and trying your best to treat the essay like the real thing. This will help you build up important examination skills, whilst also improving the writing itself.
You don’t have to do this from the start - but rather build up to this kind of situation gradually. This will allow you to focus on getting the quality of writing first, and then achieving this same quality under pressure. How can you build this up? Start by timing yourself for five minutes to read the prompts, identify the main themes, and to come up with a central argument or central idea. Then, push yourself to also think of two to three supporting ideas for your central argument in these five minutes. Then you can time yourself to write an essay introduction in 5-7 minutes, and build up the rest of your essay from there.
The other essential ingredient in practicing for this section of the GAMSAT ® exam is to have your essays read and critiqued by people other than yourself. Although sometimes daunting, getting feedback on your writing is one of the most effective ways to improve. The more people you share your work with, the more likely you are to receive valuable and memorable feedback for developing your ideas and limiting your mistakes. It is worth consulting the GradReady GAMSAT ® essay marking service, where you can get your essays marked by our expert tutors with personal feedback within 72 hours.
In each of the two tasks in GAMSAT ® Section 2, you will be presented with two tasks, each containing five quotes that relate to one or more themes. Your task is to identify one of these themes and write a piece in response. Thus, it is important to remember that the quotes are there as a prompt or a guide, rather than a traditional essay question. It is not necessary to respond directly to any or all of the quotes, but rather to respond to the themes and ideas contained in the quotes. Note that you are not required to directly reference the quotes in your essays.
The first step to writing your GAMSAT ® essay is to dissect and understand the themes presented to you. This is not always as straightforward as it seems - there are often multiple themes included within a set of quotes. A possible strategy for approaching this is as follows:
After this process you should have a “word cloud” that points to the key overarching theme - however, it’s important to note that the stimuli are often designed such that there are a number of sub-themes that may be relevant. The point here is not to limit the scope of your writing but to expand it and bring in other relevant ideas - in fact, it’s fine to draw on either the overarching theme or a sub-theme, so long as you demonstrate that you have actively engaged with the stimuli.
Let’s look at a worked example below:
What are some themes you can identify? Let’s break it down quote by quote:
| Quote | Themes |
|---|---|
| I don’t know half of you half as well as I shouldn’t like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve. |
Relationship & Friendships
Community & Social Norms Commentary on modern relationships |
| After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations. |
Family
Forgiveness & Reconciliation Conflict |
| Water cannot be cut and blood is thicker than water. |
Family
Loyalty |
| It is an absolute human certainty that no one can know his own beauty or perceive a sense of his own worth until it has been reflected back to him in the mirror of another loving, caring human being. |
Relationships
Self-worth Commentary of social interaction |
| Isn’t everyone a part of everyone else? |
Community & Society
Individualism vs Collectivism |
As you can see there are multiple themes that you could draw from the above stimuli - it’s important to note that you don’t need to write about a theme that is presented in all of the quotes provided, you can choose a theme that may only appear once or twice in the stimuli.
Now it’s time to implement all the above steps in practice! We’ve prepared a GAMSAT ® essay writing PDF checklist you can download below. It contains a step-by-step checklist to help you identify the themes and write a high-scoring GAMSAT ® essay.
Developing and practising your essay writing skills is arguably the most important aspect of your Section 2 Preparation, and something you should aim to start from early on. Indeed, a lot of the preparation for Section 2 of the GAMSAT ® Exam should revolve around simply writing a lot of essays, at least one a week. However, this advice comes with several caveats:
You need to get feedback on your essays. It is vital that you get your friends, family, tutors and anyone else to read these essays, and be modest and inviting of critique. It is of utmost importance to be criticised and then learn from your mistakes. GradReady has a GAMSAT ® essay marking service, where you can get your essays marked by our expert tutors with personal feedback within 72 hours.
You need to possess a great deal of self-critique. After every essay you write, try to read it out loud to yourself, and listen to see if it makes sense. You can find some free example Marked GAMSAT ® Essays here.
Don’t feel the need to write under time pressure from the word go. It’s more important that you develop and improve your essay writing skills before gradually applying realistic time pressure.
Try to vary the type of essays that you write! You should make sure you try argumentative, personal reflective essays, fictional creative essays, poetry, and any other medium that can work in the GAMSAT ® exam. Even though it’s recommended you write an argumentative essay, you are able to write in almost any style in the ‘reflective’ essay segment – this is meant to be a creative endeavour and demonstrate that you can identify, and express emotions of the characters involved.
Make sure to also sign up to our GAMSAT ® Free Trial to watch a recording of our GAMSAT ® Essay Writing Workshop! Check out the 10 minute excerpt below:
For more free advice and materials make sure to check out the list below:
A breakdown of how to approach study effectively and how to set up a GAMSAT® study schedule.
An overview of what to expect in Section 2 of the GAMSAT® Exam, how to prepare and how to perfect your essay technique.
Download our Essay Writing Guide and read through our free Example Essays featuring low, medium and high quality responses with feedback from tutors.
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