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by Michael Sunderland  

Task B Aesthetic in a 90+ GAMSAT Section 2 Essay

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January 12, 2021 in  Task B

Task B Aesthetic

By Michael John Sunderland, S2- 91

So what is an ideal Task B response?

An ideal response is one that achieves its intended outcome in responding to the task in the way that ACER wants you to. The only indication of what ACER want comes from the ACER information book in which it is designated that the essential quality that is being provoked is the “quality of thoughts and ideas.” ACER, of course, indicate that “language and structure” is assessed but “only insofar as it contributes to the thoughts and ideas, not in isolation.” I interpret that to mean that they are not testing what you write, but where what you write comes from or, loosely, you. Your writing is a reflection of you, but it is the degree to which you are able to think in high-order and high quality ways (in the first instance) and then your ability to show that you are able to do so to ACER (in the second instance) that is the origin of a high score.

Now your thinking and communication may both be brilliant, but if you are not writing in a style that enables you to showcase the various faculties within your intelligence or thinking that make it high quality, you have necessarily limited yourself and the ceiling value of your mark in Section II. It seems prudent, then, to develop (or use) a structure that removes these limitations and allows you to show what you can do to the marker. This is what I did. I have written out how to do it below.

How does an ideal Task A and an ideal Task B response differ?

Well, on one hand they don’t necessarily differ at all. Plenty of people have written two argumentative essays and done well. I wanted to get 100, so I abandoned that early on and learned two styles so that I could be agile in how I was able to deal with a given prompt if I felt that a particular set would perform better in one style or the other.

If a 90+ Task A is a tour-de-force of high-order thinking, logical internal structure, and surgical delivery; a 90+ Task B is a panoramic micro- and macroscopic inspection of a prompted dimension of the human lived experience. It structurally facilitates an examination the interiority of human subjectivities to a given theme, in acknowledgement that peoples’ lived experiences frame their perspectives (true of both ourselves and others). Our reflections then get expanded from the level of individual, to the level of other, to the level of society, and then ideally to the level of history, philosophy, psychology, sociology; or some other epistemological framework that aids in our investigation of the theme.

A disclaimer

Before I get stuck into it I want to foreshadow a later acknowledgement in this blog of the complexity of the subject matter. I write blogs like this because I get asked day and night on Facebook about how to do x,y,z when it comes to Section II; and it’s easier to just write about it and post it than answer every message. Also I feel it’s incumbent on me to leave behind a paper trail of how I did what I did, and what I learned as it appears to be of unique value to the next generation of GAMSAT-sitters. Even so, as I have written in each of my books there is no one way . You don’t need to listen to me or do it this way to be successful. It’s just something that has worked well. If you do this as I did it, you can get a 91 – this is known. But take it with a grain of salt, and don’t be overwhelmed. I will take care to explain why it is the way it is, rather than just say what I did, so that you can incorporate it into your existing writing if you wish to do so. I hope you find something of use; but equally don’t worry if it doesn’t all make sense on the first pass; and focus on the basics of language and structure if you have not mastered them, before moving onto some of the higher order things. Ok, moving on.

The context for a high-level Task B response: How does our unique lived experience mediate the validity of our perspectives?

I’ve created a pretty picture and done it in neon so you don’t forget it. You can see at the bottom that your lived experience as an individual is couched in your experience of yourself in relation to; others (your mother, father, partner, children); your community (workplace, university, social groups); and nation (the country you live in, or used to).

You could, if you wished, take it up to ‘species – human’, ‘living entities.’ When you see your perspective, psychology and mind as a subjective expression of the collective human perspective/psyche/intelligence, you stop being so fixated on your view and acknowledge that all views are necessarily limited by their unique subjectivity. If the collective human consciousness could be contained in a four-walled room with windows, your subjective experience of that collective intelligence would be akin to standing for your whole like looking out of one window. It’s not to say that you are seeing anything incorrectly, you’re just too close to the situation as a byproduct of your upbringing, beliefs, gender, experiences that you can’t see the whole picture.

As an outcome of the universal limitation on human perception due to our varied lived experiences; all worldview therefore all valid (and make complete sense!) within their respective ontologies. Perspective then becomes more interesting. Instead of relating to views or prompts as existing on a binary spectrum of right-wrong, it becomes more three-dimensional and interesting.

To my son’s puppy toy on the left – the teapot in the middle clearly has a handle, and no spout. To his dinosaur, it has a spout, and no handle. Both of these toys will swear blind that the pot either has a handle and no spout; or a spout and no handle. It is a function of their position, experience, perspective. And in each of these subjectivities they are 100% correct. Now both perspectives face inward on an estimation, but not a clear read, on the objectivity of the situation. Understanding other people’s perspectives allows us to calibrate our own. The point here is, there are multiple perspectives that are worthwhile considering to get a panoramic and multi-dimensional read on a situation.

So what’s the process?

A very high-level (as in, brief) and structurally-focussed overview of an ideal Task B response is as follows:

Introduction:

If the teapot is the theme, we look at it first through our lived experience via figurative narration; painting a picture of a situation or experience from our personal experience which gives us insight into the theme. This is the most internal view of the theme. We often experience our memories as if through squinted eyes. Unnecessary detail beyond that which is relevant to our experience of the situation is often obfuscated by the passage of time. A narration, then, deals with only an intra-personal, interiorly broad-brush, reflection of the theme. It is one level. The first level. We don’t stop here.

As discussed in great depth in my blog on The Task B Hook, you want to avoid being bleak or misanthropic. Not to say don’t explore these motifs, but be positive, optimistic, hopeful, and upbeat about the future. Use humour and self-awareness to frankly acknowledge your own weaknesses or bad qualities. Get the reader to like you, by being likeable, self-effacing. You are skin and bone; I am skin and bone. We are not so very different, you and I.

Be sure to tie the significance of your narrative specifically to the theme. I promise you, the link is not as obvious as you think it is; and even if it were, it helps concision and clarity to make it explicit. I have discussed somewhere else, I can’t remember where now, the benefit in limiting the connotative space in your writing, and being more denotative. What is meant by this is, for example, becoming aware of how there is a space around the use of the word Elon Musk in the phrase “Elon Musk examples this spirit of creative industriousness perfectly” in that you, the writer, rely on a similarity between our interests, understanding, prior experiences in order for your point to be conveyed. This is a connotative space. It should be limited. Better is, “Elon Musk, CEO of electric car company Tesla, is a paragon of creative industriousness.” This is denoting.

Body paragraph 1, part one:

Reflection from the altitude of your growing maturity

Have you ever used Google Maps or, particularly, Google Earth? You can hit the slider and zoom out.. from the level of individual (your house), to your suburb, city, country, and then to the whole Earth. This is what we do in an ideal Task B. So after reflecting on our lived experience in light of the theme, the opportunity is ripe for broadening the intra-personal reflection we have done by inspecting it through the lens of our breadth of experiences and maturity which (we hope) has deepened or broadened since that time. I’m reminded of Diogenes, ancient Greek Cynic philosopher who lived in a ceramic jar on the streets of Athens in pursuit of eudaemonia (literally “freedom from smoke,” or ‘mental clarity’) through asceticism. The Cynics shirked worldly possessions to turn into introspection and reflection on self. I’m not saying live in a jar to smash Section II, but for a moment be an ancient Cynic (note: the word has since shifted in connotation – I am not saying be cynical). Just cultivate the quality of self-reflection and express it in your writing to show an ability to view your behaviour and actions objectively and with maturity.

It is beneficial to write from “what I didn’t see at the time was how *insert link to the theme*. Reflecting back now, I can see that *further commentary on the theme that this example has enabled you to explore*”.

Following an in-the-moment narration chosen to facilitate a multi-dimensional exploration of the theme, and a reflection from your growing maturity; it becomes time to leave the self, and explore others’ perspectives.

Before moving on, for a clarification of what is meant by ‘theme’ in a 90+ response, please see this blog on how to correctly interpret the quotes – the theme does not mean the one word that crops up in each prompt; this is reductive and the surest way to write a low-scoring essay.

Body paragraph 1, part two:

Reflection from others’ perspectives

We now examine the theme from the perspective of the antagonist in our narrative. How did others experience you? How might they have felt about the situation or you?

It becomes necessary, here, to sprinkle in a psychometric awareness of situadedness. That is, an awareness of how the fact that behaviour and perspectives arise out of unique sets of beliefs, experiences, socio-economic circumstances, genders, ethnicities etc; is a limit to your empathy, and also something necessitating your sympathy with others that you necessarily are unable to fully empathise with. You can suppose how others might have felt, and where their behaviour or response to you came from; but to explicitly state it as something that is known, no matter how obvious it might appear to you, is to disenfranchise the infinite preciousness of the uniqueness of that persona and their experience by imposing yours onto it. It is to conflate two world views which do not perfectly cohere, and therefore to have reduced the world around you; and that person’s perspective and subjectivity into your own.

If you would like to hear more on situatedness and an example is discussed in this podcast between myself and Fraser’s GAMSAT between minutes 33:52 and 35:48.

This brings us to the end of the first body paragraph, so far having examined the theme in light of your history and current understanding, as well as others’ perspectives of the same. Done correctly an idea or understanding about the theme should be beginning to develop/emerge.

These reflection have been necessary steps, but up until now we are too prominently situated in our own experience (in that the examination of others perspectives was still looking inward on an experience that was intimately related to you). We must now zoom further back.

Body Paragraph 2:

Tie to society more broadly

We now must tie our developing understanding and investigation into the theme, into contemporary affairs in light of sociology/philosophy/psychology (or another epistemological framework) ; including if possible a reference to history. We situate our ideas in their broader socio-economic, or geo-political, or historical contexts.

This paragraph essentiall yreads like a Task A body paragraph. You can find nearly a thesis worth of description on that in my books, but in particular “ How to Kick *ss in Task A. ” Alternatively, these two blogs are free chapter excerpts from the book and unpack this further:

The Ontology of Task A Structure – Logic (this was also explored in greater depth in on YouTube )

The Use of Evidence in an Ideal GAMSAT Section 2 Task A Response

Equally, my essays are available on the shop and I’ve posted one of my Task B essays free in my Facebook group where I work each day for free providing analysis to students’ essays and provoking deeper and more critical thinking into the world around us, so that it can be reflected in the quality of your writing.

So, the theme will have now been acknowledged, and explored at many levels – from the intra-personal lived experience, intra-personal reflection, inter-personal reflection, social reflection. We have scaled the series of consecutive circles mentioned at the beginning of the article from the bottom to the top and addressed each level in turn. Furthermore, we will have adroitly utilised a range of stylistic and intellectual devices: from figurative expression in the introduction, to an almost literary reflection in body paragraph 1, to logical critical analysis in body paragraph 2. This shows a panoramic view of your capabilities as a person and your understanding and integration of the world around you.

The conclusion

As far as the conclusion, I will leave that out of this piece lest it become unwieldy. For those familiar with my work, you can just do the conclusion as in the Task A style. There’s more about that in the aforementioned blog the ontology of task a structure.

Final comments – you can do it, too!

At this stage, if these ideas overwhelm you, I feel it is incumbent on me to relate to where those reading this may be at. There was a time in my GAMSAT preparation (in fact many times right up until I got my mark) where I was filled with doubt. Where it felt like success was reserved for a special elite who I could never academically look in the eye. The thoughts presented here are deep and complex, no doubt, but I am not a super nerd. I am just a normal dude . I’m a science student at Unimelb – I get good marks, sure, but that’s because I work hard. The point is I learnt this stuff during my preparation. I am now just giving it to you. There is nothing stopping you from using this as a light to guide you in a particular direction.

Whether you get to 90+ is not the point. For many, an extra five points would make all the difference. I also want to say again that there is no one way. You emphatically do not need to follow this aesthetic to be successful. In fact, you don’t even need to write a reflective or discursive essay. Two argumentative essays will do just fine. I know many people that score highly doing just that. I present this here principally because there are students in the group I run with the ability to integrate these ideas cohesively and improve their marks in doing so; not because I think this approach should be done by all people. My recommendation is to take it for what it is, but do not be moved by it unless it is constructive. The only relevant question is “what is the single thing that is currently holding my writing back the most, and how do I change it.” Address this in a vacuum as if nothing else existed. And then rinse and repeat. If you do this enough times, and take enough steps in a positive direction, you will be sure to do well.

Golly gosh, that was hectic to write.

I hope some of you find some benefit from it.

About the author 

Michael Sunderland

My name's Michael, I achieved 91 in Section II, and 82 overall, in the September '20 sitting. I'm here to show you how I did it. Let's get to work :)

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What a great read! Thank you for your effort, time, and commitment to helping those coming after you. I relate to your story quite a bit, so it’s inspiring to see how you have turned your life around. I am in the process of doing the same. I am sure your advice (if I manage to apply it well) will be immensely helpful in improving my SII score and general understanding of pieces of writing 🙂

Such amazing invaluable content, thank you so much!

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Section II Essay Structure

You don’t need to memorise a dictionary to score well in the GAMSAT Section II, it’s your expression of ideas that mostly dictate how well your essays are scored.

In general, I like to point students to consider blending  philosophy  into our essay writing, since doing so will introduce students to a vast array of ideas that often overlap with GAMSAT topics. We have plenty of resources to get you started . The only thing left to do is to incorporate our ideas into a fully-fledged essay. Not unlike an artisan cheesecake, there are certain steps that we must follow to arrive at the ideal outcome. Below is the  secret recipe  for how to structure your writing and score well.

*Don’t worry, I will explain this shortly. See Body Paragraph 1.

INTRODUCTIONS

The introduction should serve as a simple outlay for the ideas you will be discussing in your essay. To start you off, I suggest following a simple, 3 sentence format.

• Present your opening  Social Problem  and how it relates to the topic.
• How does this  Social Problem  impact the individual. Is it an urgent matter?
• Allude to your philosophical solution of choice; how can it solve the problem?

As your writing skills develop, you may find yourself adding more content to your introduction. However, always be sure you refer back to these core fundamentals within each essay. Below is a sample introduction written for a topic on “technology”  (May 2020 GAMSAT prompt ).

“ (1)  The unimpeded progression of digital transformation has revolutionalised the process in which we interconnect with family and friends, yet, the transparent nature inherent within this form of communication has encouraged uniformity in the way we express ourselves.  (2)  In many ways, technology has subdued our individual identities, to live in such a state that is bereft of true expression, is a heinous sin to ourselves and a disservice to our precious earthly time.  (3)  In alleviating this irrational phenomenon, introspection into our virtues can provide clarity in finding meaningful purpose within ourselves.”

BODY PARAGRAPH 1

I’ve been making constant reference to a  Social Problem , what exactly does it mean? A  Social Problem  is a problem that allows us to link the theme of the prompt, to a current-day issue. This helps give substance to our discussions, we’re also able to discuss content that we’ve prepared for. For  Social Problems  it is important to prepare issues that are generally applicable to a wide array of prompts.

What are some  Social Problems?

• Extravagance.  Materialistic goods and lavish spending habits are almost synonymous with a successful businessperson. Our addiction to this lifestyle creates severe interpersonal problems, especially when we begin to use money as a measure of self-worth.
• External validation.  Perhaps due to an increase in the capabilities of technology, the ease of communication between many individuals has potentiated the value of external opinion. Our society and in the individuals within are constantly plagued by anxiety and worry of meaningless comments and ‘likes’.
• Selfishness.

Critically, these discussion points can be applied to a wide array of GAMSAT prompts. Below is an example of how a prompt on “love” can be linked to the broad  Social Problem  of “extravagance”.

Our society promotes an insatiable love for consumerism and materialistic goods. This deeply ingrained habit has perpetuated countless disruptions to an authentic social order. As a collective, we often define ourselves and acquaintances by the number of extravagant gifts and exotic clothes we own; our perception of self-worth can be simply quantified with a dollar symbol. Moreover, our society sets this example for all individuals to follow, a life in pursuit of glamour and glitz, free from the ‘distractions’ of meaningful relationships and passions. Those who follow this path are condemned to an insincere lifestyle that would ultimately yield unrewarding results. Love is an essential element to a fulfilling and sustainable life, a crucial component that is underappreciated within our era.

BODY PARAGRAPH 2

Here, the main goal is to make your examiner  care  about what you have to write. I mean, it’s all  great  to say that we live in a consumerist, sexist, racist, selfish, and overall problematic society, but why does any of that  matter ? Why should you (or your examiner)  care  about any of this?

To solve this riddle, I usually have one key suggestion.

• Authenticity.  We should care, simple because we only have one life to live.  We need to make the most of the time that we are given, to maximise the meaning and true gratification within our lives.

Here is how you can incorporate this simple idea into a GAMSAT prompt on “success”.

“The transient nature of our existence, necessarily hastens the need for us to redefine success. With each waking moment diminishing, how wasteful must it be, to spend our times fulfilling society’s norms of successful life. The subjective opinions of others, will often corrode our own resolve, leading us to choose regretful actions in the pursuit of success and prestige. We don’t want to live out own later years with regret, reminiscing of missed opportunities that could have brought us meaning within our lives. We must realise in earnest, that to find forms of long-lasting gratification, would be the only true success worth pursuing.”

BODY PARAGRAPH 3

This is the fun part, pick and choose some  philosophical ideas  to provide a solution to all the problems you were previously discussing. I give some advice on curating philosophical evidence  here.

Here is an example of how Confucian philosophy can be applied to a prompt on “space travel”.

“Whilst space exploration seeks clues outward toward the infinite oblivion, to find true meaning within our lives we must turn inward toward our personal chasms. Classical Chinese philosopher – Confucius once mused, “The virtues of courage and sincerity are bedrock to a wholesome lifestyle.” Just like how the first astronauts courageously boarded the spaceships, we must also show courage and faith in pursuing our dreams. These Chinese virtues denounce a life in pursuit of materialistic goods, opting instead for time spent in pursuing the subjective ideals of each individual. By acting with these virtues in mind, we take the first steps in fabricating an exploration of our most sincere desires, whatever they may be. In doing so, we act as role models for those around us, promoting meaningful lifestyles that are worth exploring.”

CONCLUSIONS

Keep it simple, you’ve done all the hard work already. Follow a similar 3 sentence structure to your introduction, aim to summarise your ideas in a captivating way.

Below is a sample conclusion for a topic on “government control”.

“Whilst the Government aims to promote the interests of most, it’s actions paradoxically detract from the freedom to make our own choices. When such circumstances could adversely effect the fulfillment we find within life, we ought to reject the oppressive ideologies of massed Government thinking. To do so, the teachings of virtue ethics elects us to find the courage to lead our own path, one that is tailored to our own wishes. Whilst breaking into an authentic and individual lifestyle may prove daunting, we are eternally rewarded with knowledge that our efforts are condensed on a noble cause, ourselves.”

FINAL WORDS

Follow this structure and you’ll be well on your way to scoring 70+. All these components are complete in our high scoring  sample essays .

If you’re after a more detailed explanation, including expertly  collated  philosophical ideas,  quote banks  and even  more  sample essays, check out our   essay guides . The September 2020 edition has a completely  new  refresh of  philosophers  so you can rest assured you’ll be writing on something unique.

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Fraser's Section 2 AI GAMSAT Tutor

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Learn how to navigate the tool, from selecting prompts to writing and submitting essays for AI-powered feedback. Whether you're starting from scratch or have a specific topic in mind, our AI Tutor is designed to accommodate your needs and help improve your writing.

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Fraser's AI Marker is a specialized feedback tool for GAMSAT essay writing. It leverages a database of over 45,000 essays collected over the last 10 years, offering structured and balanced feedback to enhance students' writing skills.

While the Fraser's Section 2 AI Tutor is an invaluable tool for enhancing your writing skills, it's not a substitute for a human tutor. The AI Marker serves as a supplemental aid, accelerating your learning curve and complementing traditional tutoring methods. For personalized guidance and advanced tutoring, we recommend exploring our GAMSAT Tutor Marketplace , where you can find expert help tailored to your specific needs.

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No, Fraser's Section 2 AI Tutor is completely free. We're committed to providing accessible, high-quality feedback to all students. We absorb all associated costs to ensure that everyone can access this sophisticated tool.  By combining Section 2 AI Tutor with our Fraser's Learning Academy , we're making GAMSAT learning more accessible to everyone

Fraser's Section 2 AI Tutor is excellent for offering structure and organization in your essays. However, for deeper insights, like developing complex ideas or enhancing the depth of your writing, we recommend seeking guidance from our Section 2 expert tutors .  The Section 2 AI Tutor provides a solid base, but the nuanced understanding and personalized feedback that a professional tutor offers are irreplaceable.

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Struggling with your GAMSAT Section 2 preparation? Get study tips on how to prepare and write the perfect GAMSAT Essay under time pressure, and expand your essay idea bank with our GAMSAT Reading List.

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GAMSAT Section 2 Essays: How to Prepare in 2024

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Section 2 of the GAMSAT ® exam, also known as ‘Written Communication’, assesses your ability to express your thoughts in a logical and effective manner in response to two sets of stimuli. According to ACER , it is meant to be a reflection of your ability to produce and develop ideas in writing. Section 2 is more often than not the bane of most students sitting the exam, particularly those with a pure science-background. As the only written section of the exam, students commonly struggle with both their writing skills as well as the need to write under time pressure, skills that may have been neglected since high school. This guide aims to provide you with an overview of how to prepare for and approach Section 2 of the GAMSAT ® exam.

• What is GAMSAT ® Section 2?
• How is GAMSAT ® Section 2 marked?
• What is the purpose of GAMSAT ® Section 2?
• What to expect from GAMSAT ® Section 2
• How to prepare for GAMSAT ® Section 2
• GAMSAT ® Section 2 Essay Topics
• GAMSAT ® Section 2 Essay Study Guide
• GAMSAT ® Section 2 Essay Tips
• Building a GAMSAT ® Essay Idea Bank
• GAMSAT ® Section 2 Reading List
• GAMSAT ® Section 2 PDF Checklist
• What is a good GAMSAT ® Section 2 essay score?

Further Preparation Materials

Feeling overwhelmed with all the information available and not sure how to improve your essay writing skills for GAMSAT ® Section 2? Our expert tutor, Catarina, has summarised the contents of this page in this GAMSAT ® Section 2: How to Prepare video guide.

What is GAMSAT Section 2?

Gamsat section 2 timing.

With 60 minutes in total for two essays, this means 30 minutes per essay. In terms of breaking down your time, a common piece of advice is to follow the below:

• 5 minutes to plan
• 25 minutes to write and review

GAMSAT Section 2 Structure

Section 2 of the GAMSAT ® exam consists of written responses to two sets of stimuli, commonly referred to as Task A and B. You will be presented with two set of quotes that are each related to a common theme.

GAMSAT Section 2: Task A

Gamsat section 2: task b.

This section is strongly believed to be where you can demonstrate to the markers how strong your understanding and comprehension of human emotion is, an obviously critical skill in the profession of a doctor.

GAMSAT Section 2 Essay Length

ACER does not provide any guidelines in regards to a minimum word count, or how long your Section 2 essays should be. However, a maxim that holds true even for the GAMSAT ® Exam is Quality over Quantity.

The quality of what you write is much more important than the quantity and as such, you should focus on what you write about and your expression and organisation of ideas. A good guideline is to aim for:

• An Introduction
• 3 Body Paragraphs
• A Conclusion

Note however that this example structure is not necessarily applicable to every type of essay. If you were to write a creative piece, the structure of your GAMSAT ® essay could certainly be more flexible. The main factor to take into account is how best to organise your ideas to ensure that your arguments are conveyed logically and coherently.

A common piece of advice is to aim for about 500 words, but the most important point is to focus on the quality of your essay rather than the quantity. If you can express an idea clearly and effectively in less words then do it.

For further tips on Section 2 of the GAMSAT ® exam, download our Essay Writing Guide today – our guide includes a summary of the key principles needed to help you develop your essay writing skills along with 3 example Marked Essays featuring a low, medium, and high quality response.

For general tips and strategies on how you can prepare for the GAMSAT ® Exam, visit our Guide to GAMSAT ® Preparation.

How is GAMSAT Section 2 marked?

Gamsat section 2 criteria.

According to ACER , your Section 2 essay is assessed on two main criteria. The information in the table above is taken from the GAMSAT Information Booklet.

Unfortunately, ACER does not provide a clear essay marking criteria or rubric but does note that assessment is based on:

Control of language, i.e. grammatical structure and expression, is not assessed as an isolated criteria but incorporated into the assessment of the overall effectiveness of the response. Your GAMSAT ® essays will also be assessed on the depth of the ideas presented rather than their breadth so it is often more effective to take a few concepts and analyse them in depth rather than inundating your essay with different arguments.

Finally, ACER also notes that candidates are not assessed on the ‘correctness’ of the ideas or attitudes they display – it is not your opinion that matters but the way in which you express it. Each individual essay will be assessed by three independent markers.

If you’re struggling with your writing, consider getting your GAMSAT ® essays professionally marked. GradReady has a GAMSAT ® essay marking service where you can get 10 essays marked by our expert Section 2 tutors with personal feedback within 72 hours.

What is the purpose of GAMSAT Section 2?

If Section 1 of the GAMSAT ® exam aims to test your comprehension and interpretation skills, Section 2 is all about how you construct your ideas and communicate effectively.

Communication skills are paramount in any medical profession. Medical professionals are expected to communicate verbally and through written material regularly to patients, colleagues and the broader community. The ability to convey information succinctly and clearly is essential to a professionals’ ability to provide care, especially when you are discussing complex scientific ideas.

In addition to challenging your written communication skills, Section 2 of the GAMSAT ® exam provides students an opportunity to demonstrate the way they build and present their ideas. This is an interesting way of assessing your ability to think logically through a problem. While the link may not seem immediately obvious, having the ability to communicate your reasoning in a logical manner under time-pressure is essential to the demands of a medical professional. You may use this skill when explaining your decision-making to patients and colleagues, or when justifying community health measures to the general public.

Finally, Section 2 of the GAMSAT® exam is the perfect chance to show examiners your capacity for empathy and your understanding of the world. Medical professionals do not work in a bubble! It’s important for any person working in healthcare to show an interest in broader societal systems, especially those that may have an impact on community health. The essay section of the GAMSAT ® exam is a relatively open platform for you to discuss ideas and problems that are important to you - whilst also illustrating your written communication skills.

What to expect in GAMSAT Section 2?

There are three main challenges you can expect for this section of the GAMSAT ® exam.

• Being able to identify a general theme from the prompts.
• Having evidence and substance to support your ideas
• Writing under time pressure

Let’s begin with the first challenge - You’ll need to be able to quickly and effectively analyse the provided prompts and generate themes and ideas around which to focus your response. We go into more detail about this process in the section below. While this can seem like a really difficult task at first, this is a skill which almost all students become confident in through practice.

The second is having evidence and substance to support your ideas. Many students forget that even when writing reflectively, it is important to explain and substantiate your ideas with examples, analogies, imagery or any other writing tools you have available to you. The easiest way to improve this aspect of your writing is to read widely and regularly, whether that be reputable journals or short stories, and to essentially build an ideas bank.

Finally, and possibly the greatest challenge, is the time pressure. Thirty minutes is an extremely limited amount of time in which to write an essay and this is often something students initially struggle with. Nonetheless, this is also an aspect of the task which is greatly improved with practice.

How to Prepare for GAMSAT Section 2

Your preparation for GAMSAT ® Section 2 can be seen as having several key steps:

• Begin writing GAMSAT ® essays regularly – whether this be once a day or once a week, the key is to get into the habit of doing this. Remember, the earlier the better.
• Generate an essay writing process and get into a rhythm.
• At the same time begin building an idea bank – try and cast the net wide and look at a variety of issues, and from viewpoints outside your comfort zone.
• It can be useful to develop a list of resources to read or view - You can learn more here: GAMSAT ® Section 2 Reading List.
• As you begin to write, don’t feel as though you need to stick to the time limit immediately. It’s better that you develop a process and gradually apply time pressure.
• Make sure that you get feedback. Use friends, family, other students, anyone else willing to read your essays. Accept their feedback and criticism and use it to improve your writing.
• Consider getting your essays professionally marked if you’re able to – GradReady has a GAMSAT ® essay marking service with personal feedback from our expert tutors.
• As you near the exam begin to write under realistic conditions to stimulate the time pressure on the day.

For further free advice, sign up for our Free Trial which includes a GAMSAT ® Study Guide with an in-depth, day-by-day study schedule for Section 2 along with a recording of our GAMSAT ® Essay Writing Workshop. You’ll also get access to 50 MCQs from our Intelligent MCQ Bank and a wealth of other free resources.

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Get a study buddy, upcoming events, gamsat section 2 essay topics.

As noted above in the What is GAMSAT ® Section 2? , Section 2 consists of two different essays (usually called Task A and Task B), each in response to their own set of stimuli. These prompts are presented as a set of 5 quotes, with each set centred around a common theme.

GAMSAT ® Section 2 Task A Themes:

Gamsat ® section 2 task b themes:.

• Originality

GAMSAT Section 2 Questions

Theme: truth.

• Gossip, as usual, was one-third right and two-thirds wrong. (L.M. Montgomery, Chronicles of Avonlea)
• The truth is rarely pure and never simple. (Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest)
• Truth is a matter of the imagination. (Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness)
• You don't destroy what you want to acquire in the future. (Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay)
• To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow - this is a human offering that can border on miraculous. (Elizabeth Gilbert, Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage)

Theme: Justice

• Being good is easy, what is difficult is being just. (Victor Hugo)
• I don't want tea, I want justice! (Ally Carter, Uncommon Criminals)
• It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one. (Voltaire, Zadig)
• Right is right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it. (William Penn)
• Keep your language. Love its sounds, its modulation, its rhythm. But try to march together with men of different languages, remote from your own, who wish like you for a more just and human world. (Hélder Câmara, Spiral Of Violence)

Theme: Choice

• There seemed to be three choices: to give up trying to love anyone, to stop being selfish, or to learn to love a person while continuing to be selfish. (Lydia Davis)
• My mother's menu consisted of two choices: Take it or leave it. (Buddy Hackett)
• Love is a choice you make from moment to moment. (Barbara De Angelis)
• Gay marriage rights coming and going, always being an issue for the voting public when it should be an individual‘s private choice. (G.A. Hauser, Being Screwed)
• I wish sometimes that the gods would either choose better, or make their wishes clearer. (Jacqueline Carey, Kushiel’s Choice)

For more essay topics, take advantage of our free and comprehensive GAMSAT ® Quote Generator with over 90 Section 2 Essay Prompts, covering 40+ themes.

GAMSAT Section 2 Essay Study Guide

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 10 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, you must read it out loud to yourself, and listen if it makes sense.
• 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.
• You need 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.

For more tips on Section 2 of the GAMSAT ® exam, download our Essay Writing Guide which includes 3 example Marked Essays of low, medium, and high quality to help you develop your essay writing skills.

The below is an abbreviated strategy guide provided by our Section 2 GAMSAT ® Tutors and essay markers. The guide is meant to act as a step-by-step guide to writing the best GAMSAT ® Essay.

Step 1: How to plan your GAMSAT Essay

• Understand the Theme: Read the quote and make sure that you look for the related ideas, not just the main theme.
• Brainstorm Ideas: Use whatever techniques you find the most useful and make the most of the Idea Bank that you’ve prepared.
• Create a Thesis: What is your main message? Is it clear? Is it communicated regularly?
• Choose a Structure: Consider what is most appropriate for the theme and explore your options.
• Plan Body Paragraphs Thematically: Plan your topic sentences and the main points of your thesis.

Read on for a breakdown of what each step involves:

Understand the theme

Read the provided quotes, determine the theme, and argue for or against one/some of them. Whilst this is a common approach, it’s not always the one that will stand out. Always look for related ideas associated with the main theme of the quotes. There’s rarely just one theme in the quotes provided, and this raises the point of the brainstorm.

Brainstorm Ideas

By whatever means most accessible to you (mind maps, lists or drawings), flesh out the main theme of the quotes into related information and sub-themes and sub-ideas. This process, as part of your Section 2 preparation at home, can take some time, but on the examination day, you’ll need to work fast! Work out which groups of ideas can be linked together most easily by a recurring argument, or can be substantiated the best, and use these for your writing.

For advice on how to build up your idea bank, visit the section below: Building a GAMSAT ® Essay Idea Bank

Create a Thesis

This is a statement that should be maintained or proved in your writing. A thesis is essential to all forms of writing, no matter the format (including essays, argumentative or reflective, and creative pieces including short stories, diary entries, letter-to-the-editor, etc.). The thesis, or main message, must be communicated regularly, explicitly, and implicitly throughout your writing. The best theses (plural of singular thesis) address the theme, are creative, sometimes witty, and often make meaningful commentary on the issues(s) at hand, i.e. the theme.

Choose a Structure

Select a medium to write in that is most appropriate for the theme of the quotes. Many formats can be chosen for the Section 2 of the GAMSAT ® exam: your task is to select the most appropriate medium to effectively and engagingly communicate your thesis.

For example, if the theme of the quotes refer to ‘political governance’ in general, an argumentative essay is likely to be an effective and easy format to support a line of argument on this topic. If the theme however, refers to ‘relationships’, some students may wish to demonstrate the value or importance of relationships through a more reflective, personal, or emotional format that resembles a narrative, such as diary entries or a short story.

These forms of writing are likely to be less familiar to many students, and the different styles of writing can make some students feel uncomfortable. Nevertheless, if an alternative format suits your writing style (or you feel it is more appropriate for the theme), you should make the judgement call. Playing with different writing styles and formats is a task that should most certainly be undertaken during your preparation for the GAMSAT ® Section 2 Essay.

To read an example of a Creative GAMSAT ® Section 2 Essay written by one of our essay markers, click here: Writing the Creative GAMSAT ® Essay

Plan Body Paragraphs Thematically

Using those ideas that you came up with in brainstorm, plan a number of ‘topic sentences’ that form the main idea for each paragraph, or chunk of writing, in your piece. Each paragraph should address one idea only and should be directly related to the thesis. Each idea should continue to build and extend the thesis, convincing and compelling the reader of your overall contention (opinion) on the issue.

On the big day, planning your essay should take no longer than five minutes. Practice makes perfect, and most importantly, improves your speed.

Step 2: Write your GAMSAT Essay

Now’s the time to put pen to paper and etch those stupendous ideas into a fully-fledged piece of writing.

Be Clear & Succinct

Write in logical and well-phrased sentences that can be easily understood by a marker who will be reading your essay at a fast pace because that’s the reality of it.

Support What You Write

Each topic sentence needs to have some form of ‘evidence’ or reasoning to support what you contend. Depending on the form you have chosen to write in (e.g. essay, short story), this may occur in the style of real-life events, personal narrative, creative narrative, experience, or logical reasoning that is theoretical.

Always Come Back to the Thesis

If in doubt, word your paragraph in such a way that the ‘supporting evidence’ demonstrates the topic sentence AND the thesis. Your aim is to persuade the reader such that they truly believe what you have written.

You can find some further writing tips below: GAMSAT ® Section 2 Writing Tips

Step 3: Review your GAMSAT Essay

Review what you have written and ensure it makes sense. There’s not much time to do this, so it’s a quick fly-by of your writing to ensure it is logical and communicates what you are actually thinking.

GradReady has a GAMSAT ® essay marking service where you can get 10 essays marked by our expert tutors with personal feedback within 72 hours.

GAMSAT Section 2 Essay Tips

Students often ask for specific pieces of advice to improve their essay writing, but such advice is most effective when it is specific to the individual. However, below are some general GAMSAT ® Essay Writing Tips:

• Sentence Structure: Keep it concise and vary your sentence length to create cadence.
• The Rhetorical Question: Commonly overused by students. Make sure that you use it in the appropriate context.
• Creating a Narrative: Keep the reader engaged and organise your writing as a series of causal steps.
• Using Analogies: A great literary technique to explain difficult concepts and to trigger emotions.

Sentence Structure

This aspect can be divided into the two following features:

This is about those long wordy sentences which have several ideas packed into a single sentence. This veils the meaning of your sentence and makes your point difficult to decipher. As a rule, it is better to have just one idea within a single sentence. This makes it easier for the reader to understand your point in the sentence.

Sentence length should also have variety. Long sentences interspersed with short sentences create a good cadence for the essay. Cadence means rhythm, it is the way the words interact and show meaning. Lengthy sentences all together can make an essay monotonous and the meaning would be blurred. Think about making short and sharp statements before or after a long sentence. Variety in sentence length helps to put out your point in fewer words but with more impact.

The Rhetorical Question

Use this as sparingly as you would with a future patient.

At one point or another, most students feel the impulse to use a rhetorical question – sometimes to the detriment of their essays. The GAMSAT ® Section 2 essay usually requires a response that is reflective or argumentative. The latter may engender the use of the rhetorical question to make an argument persuasive by asking the reader to consider a point, while providing an underlying response to their concern.

As far as persuasion goes, the rhetorical question is quite effective but only when backed up with appropriate argumentation throughout the essay. Your argument itself should be the most effective feature of the essay. If the rhetorical question only distracts from the argument, it is better to use it carefully. A quick checklist can be used to confirm its appropriate use:

• Is my argument strong enough to leave out the rhetorical question?
• Do I want to introduce a counter argument?
• What effect will the rhetorical question create?
• Does the question fall flat because the answer is obvious?

It is rarely necessary to use a rhetorical question. There are usually other ways of conveying the point without using a question. If, however, you feel strongly about it, use the checklist above to confirm that your rhetorical question is contributing to your essay effectively. Each word in your essay should have a purpose, and there is nothing more problematic than having a question that does not achieve its desired effect. Nevertheless, used appropriately, the rhetorical question is an emotive device which can make reader’s question themselves and their actions.

Creating a Narrative

With a limited amount of time and a less-than-captive audience, it is important to make as big an impact as possible, as quickly as possible. This is so you distinguish yourself from the hordes of competitors and improve your chances.

One way to bring colour to your writing is in forming a narrative and the use of metaphors.

Humans as a part of their cognitive evolution will always seek out patterns to make sense of any information that they are presented with. More so than patterns, they will also seek out narratives to establish causal relationships.This is something that can be used to your advantage. By simply presenting your writing as a sequence of causal relationships, you will grip your reader as they seek to understand the pattern and keep reading to determine the endpoint.

This can be accomplished in both creative and analytical writing. The former should be obvious, but in the latter by starting at the beginning of a chain of evidence and slowly building from causal step to causal step, your ultimate conclusion will be all the more persuasive.

Using Analogies

Analogies are a great tool to help readers understand abstract or unfamiliar content. By linking abstract information to a concrete concept, it becomes easier for people to understand the information.

How many times have any of us had the experience when a concept we were familiar with but never understood was explained in a slightly different or novel way, leading to an immediate, illuminating understanding – this is the power of an analogy. Whilst precision and technical language are all well and good, it can sometimes be inaccessible to those who do not have a grounding in the field. In these cases, analogies can be invaluable by couching unfamiliar concepts within familiar, or at least intuitive examples.

Not only this, analogies can also be very effective for triggering emotions. This is valuable, because if people experience some elevation of emotion during their reading, not only will it make their experience more enjoyable, but also more memorable compared to the many other examples of essays. Emotions not only make your design appealing to people but also more effective, enjoyable, and memorable.

For more specific feedback, GradReady has a GAMSAT ® essay marking service where you can get 10 essays marked by our expert tutors with personal feedback within 72 hours.

For further tips on Section 2 of the GAMSAT ® exam, download our Essay Writing Guide today. The guide includes a summary of the key principles needed to help you develop your essay writing skills along with 3 example Marked Essays featuring a low, medium and high quality response.

Building a GAMSAT Essay Idea Bank

Having a wide-reaching, dynamic and interesting idea bank for GAMSAT ® Section 2 is crucial to your overall GAMSAT ® Preparation. Having interesting topics to write about can ultimately make or break the essays that you write. ACER states that originality is one of the modalities they assess, and so being able to create a piece that the essay marker enjoys reading greatly enhances your marks and it’s not hard to see why.

For example, if we look at the microcosm of a single city where GAMSAT ® essays are being marked, imagine a set of stimuli for the exam were about standing up to tyranny and oppression. A large proportion of people will likely fall into the trap of writing about clichés such as Hitler, WW1, and similar high school history topics. Therefore, the essay markers in that single city could mark literally hundreds of similar essays. Not only does it get repetitive and boring, they are then subconsciously comparing your essay to every similar essay, something you’d likely want to avoid. If you can pull strong, unique examples to support your arguments you will demonstrate a large knowledge base and will stimulate the essay markers.

Note however that examples should directly relate to the theme and your discussion regarding it. If your example only makes up one sentence in the whole paragraph, that usually means the example is not detailed enough.

Furthermore, many students like to use personal examples in their essays. These can be quite good as people can reflect on their lives and write about them in length. These are great when they are paired with descriptive language about specific incidents and events in the life of a person.

Nevertheless, in generating an Essay Idea Bank, it’s important for you to cast your net wide and look at a range of different issues. Some ideas include:

• Business/Finance/Economy
• Environment
• Medicine/Health

These categories allow you to build ideas in a deliberate way, covering a broad spectrum of topics. While making sure that you cover all your bases is important, don’t get too caught up if you find yourself gravitating towards specific areas. Remember, this is only one aspect of your GAMSAT ® preparation, and it’s important that you concurrently dedicate time to practicing essay writing, argument development, and working under time pressure.

It’s a synthesis of efforts across these different areas over an extended period of time that makes a great GAMSAT ® essay. Be sure to check out our GAMSAT ® example essays page for more examples of a good GAMSAT ® essay.

GAMSAT Section 2 Reading List

To help you build your GAMSAT ® Essay Idea Bank, we’ve compiled the below Section 2 Reading List. A common piece of advice is to read widely in order to expose yourself to different media in preparation for Section 2 of the GAMSAT ® exam. However if this is not performed mindfully in a systematic manner, it is next to useless and may in fact harm you as it will essentially become busy work with limited gains.

It is therefore important to have in mind what you are wanting to achieve out of your readings and use these goals to ensure that you read actively.

Below are some guidelines on how to achieve this:

• Read in detail rather than prioritising quantity. Sometimes the more time you spend with a piece of writing, the more likely it is to elicit a profound response from you, allowing you to build a more developed perspective on a particular issue.
• Practice developing a personal response and opinion on a theme or subject. GAMSAT ® Section 2 requires students to display critical thinking and actively developing an opinion on what you read will help with this.
• Push yourself to expand your boundaries and look for views outside of your bubble. Not only will this offer insight into differing views and experiences, but it will also allow you to practice argument development.
• Embed your reading into different aspects of your everyday life to maximise your time. For example, read the news with your morning tea break instead of scrolling through social media. Find ways to expand your idea bank in your leisure time.

If you’re looking for a reading list specific to Section 1 of the GAMSAT ® exam, visit our guide to preparing for Section 1 here: GAMSAT ® Section 1 - How to Prepare

Section 2 Reading List

To appreciate current affairs, social issues, and how good (and bad) argumentative writing may appear, reading the news/newspapers is a good idea. Stay away from anything that is known for sensationalism, such as The Courier Mail, A Current Affair (TV), Today Tonight, the Herald Sun etc.

Scouring the opinion columns of reputable news sources can be helpful to get some ideas as to how you may approach the argumentative essay, and the news will generally help you stay relevant with your writing (and assist in using real-world/contemporary examples). The newspapers listed here arguably offer some of the least biased and fairest reporting:

Free Resources:

• The Conversation
• The Economist
• The Guardian
• Australian Financial Review

Books & Short Stories

Reading excellent writing is crucial. There is no better way to expand your vocabulary than to sit down with an excellent fictional novel, poem, or play, along with a dictionary – and then look up each word you are unfamiliar with. Utilising a dictionary as you read will help develop your vocabulary, and reading is just beneficial overall to help expand your thoughts and enhance your own personal development.

It is best to focus on authors who have mastered the short-story modality, such as those listed below. However, reading any book at all is going to help you in both Sections 1 and Section 2 of the GAMSAT ® , and it is purely just crucial to expanding your thoughts and enhancing your own personal development.

• Oscar Wilde
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Noam Chomsky
• George Orwell

Again, take advantage of the shorter texts allowing you to read one a day.

• Humanities Open Access Journal
• Arts and Letters Daily
• Australian Humanities Review

TV Programs and Visual Media

Often forgotten as a legitimate channel through which you can expose yourself to new ideas and issues, this medium can be readily incorporated into your daily routine. For example, you can move away from regular TV programs and switch to any of the below resources. Any program or medium that has a certain amount of depth and substance to them can be beneficial.

GAMSAT Section 2 PDF Checklist

We’ve provided quite a few tips on how to prepare for GAMSAT ® Section 2. If you’re finding it difficult to keep track of all the information, download this free GAMSAT ® Section 2 preparation checklist PDF file today. It’ll help guide your Section 2 studies and essay writing practice.

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What is a good GAMSAT Section 2 score?

As always, it’s useful to have a solid understanding of how GAMSAT ® scores work in general, and our guide is a great place to start. The same percentiles that apply to the overall exam scores apply to the specific section scores. As such, a score of roughly 59 will place you around the 50th percentile, that is to say the average score for Section 2. A score of around 65 will place you at around the 75th percentile, or the top 25% of students. Students should typically aim for a score of 65 and above as this is generally considered a good score, and anything over 70 is considered excellent.

That said, what determines a good score for Section 2 is highly dependent on your performance across the other sections of the exam. Section 2 can be a difficult section for many students, particularly those from a pure science background, and as such, a lower score can be deemed ‘good enough’ provided you do well in other sections to counterbalance a low Section 2 score.

Your ‘good score’ is also dependent upon the university for which you are applying. Whilst the university cutoffs may be low, the average mark for acceptance at a particular university may be significantly higher and will vary from institution to institution. If in doubt, the best course of action is to contact the universities for which you are applying and inquire directly about your chances of acceptance.

What is the GAMSAT ® ?

Everything you need to know about the GAMSAT ® exam from structure and overview to which universities require the GAMSAT ® .

Understanding your GAMSAT ® Results

Covers everything you need to know about your GAMSAT ® results – How the scoring works, result release dates and even GAMSAT ® score cutoffs.

How to study for the GAMSAT ® Exam

A breakdown of how to approach study effectively and how to set up a GAMSAT ® study schedule

Free GAMSAT ® Example Essays

Download our Essay Writing Guide and read through our free Example Essays featuring low, medium and high quality responses.

Free GAMSAT ® Quote Generator

Take advantage of our free and comprehensive GAMSAT ® Quote Generator for over 90 Section 2 Essay Topics covering 40+ different themes.

How to prepare for GAMSAT ® Section 1

An overview of what to expect in Section 1 of the GAMSAT ® exam, and how to prepare

How to prepare for GAMSAT ® Section 3

An overview of what to expect in Section 3 of the GAMSAT ® exam, and how to prepare for each of the topics: Biology, Chemistry, & Physics.

GAMSAT ® Non-Science Background: How to Prepare

Tips on how to prepare for the GAMSAT ® if you come from a non-science background.

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A Beginner’s Guide to GAMSAT Section 2

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Prepping well for Section 2 is arguably the best and easiest way to boost your overall GAMSAT score. But there are a number of pitfalls people fall into.

Experienced writers can be overconfident and be caught out by the restrictive time limit.

Inexperienced writers can neglect this section in favour of prep for the more intimidating Section 3.

But if you want a nice score boost, I recommend you get serious about Section 2!

Essential Info

Section 2 is the “Written Communication” section for which you need to write two essays in response to two “tasks”. ACER want to see what kinds of ideas you can come up with on the fly and how well you can express them in writing.

Each task will consist of 4 “comments” or quotes (in the past it was 5) from which you can ascertain a common, general theme. Feel free to respond to one quote, 2-3 of the quotes or the whole general theme.

It isn’t necessary to give your essays titles. But it might help YOU to do so! More on this later…

Timing info

Number of essays: 2

Reading time: 5 mins

Writing time: 60 mins

Writing time per essay*: 30 mins

*You can actually spend more time writing one essay than another because you have a total of 60 minutes to write both.

Task A ( socio-cultural issues)

Writing style: argumentative, academic

Example topics:

• Government / democracy

Task B ( personal and social issues)

Writing style: emotional response, reflective

• Forgiveness
• Intelligence

Official advice from ACER

Each essay will require you to “produce and develop ideas in writing” meaning they’re testing your ability to come up with ideas off the cuff and express them effectively.

ACER warns that “pre-prepared responses and responses that do not relate to the topic will receive a low score.”

It might be comforting to know that you will not be assessed on the “correctness” of your point of view. So whether you’ll be expressing right-wing, left-wing or middle-ground views, in theory it should not impact on your score.

Unlike what you may have come across in your academic journey so far, you will not be asked to respond to a specific question or be given a title. Instead, you will need to ascertain a common theme FIRST from the comments/quotes provided and respond to that.

You will be marked on the “organisation and expression” plus “thought and content” of your essays…

Thought and content ( quality of what is said)

• “What is made of and developed from the task” (e.g. depth provided for each idea you present, shown you can understand both the explicit and implicit meaning in the quotes, backed your ideas with evidence and examples)
• “The kinds of thoughts and feelings offered in response to the task” (e.g. considered both sides of an argument, provided original and unexpected ideas)

Organisation and expression ( the quality of the structure developed and the language used )

• “Shape and form of the piece” (e.g. paragraphs, linking of paragraphs, logical order of ideas)
• “Effectiveness and fluency of the language” (e.g. grammar & spelling, jargon-free and appropriate wording, varying length of sentences)

Unfortunately, that’s all the detail you can get out of ACER about how exactly they will assess you!

You will notice, though, that knowledge per se (e.g. regurgitating political/historical facts) is not credited.

How to prepare

Firstly , read around gathering ideas and build an ideas bank . Many people are a fan of the book The Meaning of Things by AC Grayling because each chapter is essentially a little essay in response to a likely Section 2 theme!

In supplement to AC Grayling’s book, read widely and make sure to consider opinions that may not align with your personal beliefs.

Seek to develop an understanding of different viewpoints and reflect on insightful or surprising ideas you come across. This is far more useful than memorising facts to regurgitate.

Free sources of Section 2 ideas include TED Talks , The Guardian: Opinion and The Conversation .

Secondly , decide on the structure you’re going to use (including if you’re going to use one at all!) and the phrases and language you’ll use as part of that structure. I provide example essay structures later in this blog post…

Thirdly , PRACTICE. You cannot get better at writing if you do not write! I recommend at least 20 practice essays , at least 16 of those timed (5-10 mins planning, 20-25 mins writing). Do not under appreciate the value of using 5-10 mins to plan your essays. This will help ensure quality over quantity.

Tips for practicing

• Naturally you’ll want feedback on your essays but, as I mentioned earlier, ACER (who administer the test) aren’t very open about their marking criteria. However, you can get your essays marked by ACER’s official marking system if you have some spare cash. Link: https://gamsat.acer.org/prepare/preparation-materials
• You could also form an essay exchange group with some study buddies. How does this work? You take turns setting the quotes each week using a quote generator. Every week you all write an essay in response and have your best go at marking each other’s work. I did this and it was a great help for me (plus I was able to steal some excellent ideas from other people!)
• On my FREE GAMSAT Resources Master List page I link to free quote generators and practice essays that you may find helpful.

My approach to Task A

This is your chance to show you can generate interesting, original (i.e. unexpected) ideas and arguments on the fly. This is the step-by-step approach I used to score 67 in section 2.

1. Ascertain the theme

Read all 4 comments/quotes. Look for keywords, sentiments and topics that are in common between them, as well as contrasts and paradoxes. It may not always be obvious, but a common general theme is always in there e.g. democracy, technology.

2. Create an essay title / question to answer

Once you have determined the theme (see above), you can choose to either respond to one comment/quote, or create your own essay title or question to answer based on that theme. Pick a title or question that you could imagine two people disagreeing over.

3. Pick a side

Now you have a self-made essay question to answer, or a title to respond to, decide which side of the argument you sit on. It doesn’t matter if it genuinely aligns with your actual views. No one is going to check!

4. Brainstorm

Come up with 3-4 supporting ideas for the side you have picked PLUS supporting evidence (e.g. recent news piece, historical fact, research finding or a quote from a notable person) for the assertions you will use. You may only find time to include 2-3 main ideas, but that’s fine. Lastly, come up with at least 1 idea that supports the opposing side of the argument to show you can foresee and understand different opinions.

5. Plan around a structure

The structure I used is below. Feel free to use it or a variation of it.

Style tips:

• Your idea bank should have breadth. But your essays should have depth!
• Link your paragraphs together.
• Vary the length of your sentences. Use both short and long ones.
• Use active words instead of having a passive voice e.g. “Teachers believe that…” vs “It is thought that teachers believe…”
• Aim for 300-500 words maximum. Depending on your handwriting, this could be the equivalent of 2-3 sides of A4 paper.
• It’s a myth that you need to memorise quotes and regurgitate them.
• It’s a myth that you can’t use “I”. Feel free to if it suits your writing style.
• Aim to be clear and persuasive. Stick to clear, plain language that gets your point across. There are no bonus points for sounding pompous!

Phrases you may find handy:

• Starting argumentative paragraphs: firstly, one reason for this, first of all, secondly, thirdly, finally, another reason is
• Contrasting: however, in contrast, despite, nonetheless, nevertheless, yet, on the one hand, on the other hand, on the contrary, in spite of this
• Emphasis: clearly, indeed, in fact, most importantly
• Providing examples: moreover, similarly, furthermore, in addition, besides, also
• Concluding: consequently, in conclusion

7. Proof-read & edit

Leave a few mins at the end of each essay to read through them. Check writing is legible, there are no missing or duplicate words and that it all generally makes sense.

My approach to Task B

Task B is your chance to show you understand emotions and can learn from and reflect on experiences. This is the step-by-step approach I used to score 67 in section 2.

1. Ascertain the theme:

Read all 4 quotes. Look for keywords, sentiments and topics that are in common between them, as well as contrasts and paradoxes. It may not always be obvious, but a common theme is always in there e.g. love, ageing

2. Create an essay title / question to answer:

Once you have determined the theme (see above), you can choose to either respond to one comment/quote, or fashion an essay title or question to answer based on that theme.

3. Think of a relevant personal experience you learnt from:

This does not have to be a genuine experience of yours. You could adopt the experience of a friend, family member or even a character of a TV show or movie!

4. What did you learn from this experience? How could this relate to society as a whole?

Include a paragraph before your conclusion explaining an implication for society.

5. Plan around a structure.

Because this a reflective, more personal essay than Task A, definitely feel free to use “I” and delve into what you have felt and learnt. Analytical, argumentative writing is not as suitable for this task.

Otherwise, similar to Task A…

7. Proof-read and edit

• DO NOT MEMORISE TEMPLATE ESSAYS AND REGURGITATE THEM IN THE EXAM. You are setting yourself up for a bad score. ACER warn against this in their official advice! Develop the skill and confidence to respond effectively to whatever is thrown at you on test day instead.
• Back up every point you make with evidence.
• Consider an unexpected approach to the theme and individual quotes.
• Aim to come across as an expert (even if you’re not!). You must write with confidence.
• Read your practice essays out loud. This will help you spot awkward grammar and phrasing.
• It’s fine to write as if you are talking to the examiner for both tasks e.g. part-way through the essay you could share that you’ve changed your mind! “It now occurs to me…”
• Feel free to share how much you agree or disagree with certain comments/quotes.
• Don’t take comments/quotes at face value. Consider intended meanings i.e. read between the lines!
• Some people don’t recommend using a structure at all! Instead they suggest writing as if you are arguing a point in an email/text message/forum post. It’s important to find what works best for YOU and YOUR writing style.
• Keep your writing LEGIBLE. You won’t get any marks for writing that can’t be read!
• TheMedicBlog has produced a free essay marking guide. I didn’t use it myself but as it’s free might be worth checking out.
• Gather a wide range of ideas e.g. via The Meaning of Things by AC Grayling and TED Talks.
• When writing the essays, provide depth to a few ideas, rather than lots of ideas that you barely explain.
• Decide on the essay structure you’ll use (if you’ll use one at all).
• Practice either alone or with an essay exchange group of study buddies.
• Mark your own or study buddies’ essays to help improve your ability to critique writing, and in turn improve your awareness to improve your own writing.
• The only way to improve writing is… by writing! So write!!

Further reading:

• Marking sheet to use with your own essays or study buddies .
• Writing an introduction advice by GAMSAT English Tutor.
• Essay writing tips by GAMSAT Edge .
• Example essays on beauty on the Gold Standard GAMSAT forum .

Good luck!  Sign up to my mailing list  to get more tips in your email inbox.

Have some feedback on this article? Did I make an error?  Please contact me via the  contact  page or leave a comment below.

You might also be interested in my article A Beginner’s Guide to GAMSAT Section 3.

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GAMSAT English Tutor

Specialist S1 and S2 | Australia

GAMSAT Sample Essays

PART A: TECHNOLOGY

PART B: CHOICE

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Essay for Task A section 2. Feedback is greatly appreciated!

I've just written my first ever gamsat essay and would appreciate it if someone could give me some feedback for it! I do feel like I've gone off-topic a little as I was writing it but I thought I'd put it out here anyways. Maybe you guys could learn from my mistakes as well. Thanks!

Quote: “If there is technological advance without social advance, there is, almost automatically, an increase in human misery”.

Often, technology has been deemed as a separate entity, simply a tool used by organic organisms such as human beings in order to fulfill a purpose, ranging from the most basic tools such as screwdrivers used to build a shelf, to advanced artificial intelligence systems that are able to replace humans in certain job areas. The quote “if there is technological advance without social advance, there is, almost automatically, an increase in human misery”, further emphasizes this as it draws distinctions between “artificial” technology and “organic” social interactions, and how if technological advancements exceed our social advancements, it will cause adverse effects in our social interactions. This essay will attempt to explain why I do not agree with this point of view on technology.

“Technology is making us antisocial”. This is a quote I am sure many of us have heard before, maybe even preached to others. A walk into a café in Melbourne and one could immediately see groups of friends ‘hanging out’ without even speaking a single word to each other. They are all so engrossed in their phones, one would wonder why even bother meeting up in real life in the first place, and thus it is no surprise that feeling of loneliness and depression is becoming more prevalent in our society. Expanding on this issue on a much larger scale, an increasing number of youngsters in china has been struggling with online gaming addiction, to the point where these children had to be sent to rehabilitation camps in order to “rewire” their brains and get them back to society. One could view this and conclude that in these cases, technological advancement is indeed exceeding the social capabilities of these people, and thus is leading to increased human misery.

However, technology at the same time has made us more interconnected than ever before in history, and this is especially prevalent in the 2020 pandemic where people all over the world were put into quarantines and lockdowns, and this vastly decreased human misery throughout this period. There are no signs of an increased social advancement here, yet the use of technology in a different manner has increased happiness and wellbeing.

Therefore, this shows that there is indeed a fallacy to the idea that technological advancement and social advancement are separate entities. Instead of simply viewing technology as a tool, technology should be viewed as part of us, in other words, organic. It is part of these social advancements that we speak of, so deeply integrated in our lives that it is simply unrealistic to separate the idea of technological advancements from social advancements. A better way to view it would be from the perspective of how technology can be used to improve our social advancements, and how social advancements can be used to improve technological advancement in order to increase wellbeing.

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Applying 5G Cybersecurity and Privacy Capabilities | New White Paper Series August 15, 2024

5G technology for broadband cellular networks will significantly improve how humans and machines communicate, operate, and interact in the physical and virtual world. 5G provides increased bandwidth and capacity, and low latency. However, professionals in fields like technology, cybersecurity, and privacy are faced with safeguarding this technology while its development, deployment, and usage are still evolving.

To help, the NIST National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) has launched the  Applying 5G Cybersecurity and Privacy Capabilities  white paper series. The series targets technology, cybersecurity, and privacy program managers within commercial mobile network operators, potential private 5G network operators, and organizations using and managing 5G-enabled technology who are concerned with how to identify, understand, assess, and mitigate risk for 5G networks. In the series we provide recommended practices and illustrate how to implement them. All of the capabilities featured in the white papers have been implemented in the NCCoE testbed on commercial-grade 5G equipment.

We are pleased to announce the release of the first two papers in this series: 

• Applying 5G Cybersecurity and Privacy Capabilities: Introduction to the White Paper Series explains what you can expect from each part of the series: information, guidance, recommended practices, and research findings for a specific technical cybersecurity or privacy-supporting capability available in 5G systems or their supporting infrastructures.
• Protecting Subscriber Identifiers with Subscription Concealed Identifier (SUCI) describes enabling SUCI protection, an optional capability new in 5G which provides important security and privacy protections for subscribers. 5G network operators are encouraged to enable SUCI on their 5G networks and subscriber SIMs and to configure SUCI to use a non-null encryption cipher scheme; this provides their customers with the advantages of SUCI’s protections.

You are invited to review the drafts and submit comments by September 16, 2024 . See the 5G Cybersecurity Project for more details.

Related Topics

Security and Privacy: general security & privacy

Technologies: mobile

Applications: communications & wireless

Sectors: telecommunications

Gamsat Review Blog

Everything you need to know about GAMSAT by Dr Peter Griffiths

GAMSAT Example Essays Section 2

Below you can find one of our Gamsat example essays for section 2 which was sent in for marking and detailed feedback as part of our Gamsat Essay Marking service.

The essay has been annotated by the marker.

Students who sign up for the Gamsat Review Home Study Course get a full 100 marked example essays for section 2 like the sample below as a standard part of the course.

Included are essays set on ten different sets of quotes and we show examples of both high scoring and low scoring essays to allow students to see what makes up a good essay and what a bad essay looks like.

Students who wish to get their own essays marked can then also sign up to the Gamsat Essay Course.

If you'd like to get a full 100 marked essays like the one above please sign up to the Griffiths GAMSAT Review Home Study course.

Included in the Section 2 BLUEPRINT you also get a plan which shows you step by step how to produce a high scoring essay from any possible set of quotes.

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How to Write Essays for GAMSAT Section 2

For those that are sitting GAMSAT for the first time or with an ESL background, essay-writing is not as hard as it seems. Rather, it is something that can be well thought out and planned ahead of time. To do superbly well (80+), focus should not be placed merely on the depth but also the organisation of your ideas. It doesn’t have to be based off obtuse philosophical ideas, but simple and logical ideas that are insightful and reveals that you understand socio-cultural and personal issues are not just black and white – that is, there are always layers of grey.

ACER specifies that ‘ your writing will be judged on the quality of what you have to say in response to the theme’ . This means that your essay will be marked based on:

• Thought and content – the quality of what is said
• Organisation and Expression – quality of structure developed and language used

This post will outline how to tackle the quotes, generate ideas and structure your writing so that you can receive a stellar score! In GAMSAT, time is of the essence and your essays are a way of showing whether you think under pressure and communicate your ideas well.

Analysing Quotes

You will be given with a list of quotes to start (4-5) and asked to produce an essay on one of these quotes – which may be esoteric, abstract or contemporary in nature. The first step is to identify the theme that is present across the quotes and then think of an argument or personal experience you’ve had regarding this. There is no limit on how many quotes you can use but I would advise that you stick to one that you connect with and generate ideas regarding this. Other quotes can be used as idea generators.

Think about:

• What is being said?
• Why is it being sad?
• What does the quote reveal about the role of (theme) within society?

Hang on to the quote you’ve chosen as we’re about to reference it throughout your essay!

Generating Ideas

On the day of the GAMSAT exam, generating ideas for an unseen topic can be nerve-wracking. To overcome this, preparation is key . This means that a few months before the exam, focus on coming up a with a lost of as many socio-cultural and personal topics that can possible be asked in either Part A and B. You want to focus on creating an ‘IDEA BANK’ where you outline topics of interest and write down topic sentences as well as evidence (historical or current affairs) that help to support what you wish to say.

An example is given below. Your GOAL is to create essay structure outlines for all possible topics. Whilst practising essays are still an important part of GAMSAT preparation, it saves you having to write 100 essays for all the possible topics ACER can ask! You will realise that after doing there are many ideas that overlap.

Click here to buy Part A Idea Bank

Click here to buy a step-by-step study guide to mastering GAMSAT essay writing

Structure Overview

Having a structure in your head is one of the most important preparation that you can do before entering the exam. This is the structure I used to formulate my essays:

This is very much a rough guideline and not a fixed rule! They are a myriad of other ways to write a fantastic essay – and many of them have been written as editorial or opinion pieces in newspapers!

Introduction

Don’t   begin with a very general opening statement: “Technology has had many beneficial impacts on our world…” or “The definition of virtue is something that philosophers have debated for centuries…”

Don’t  introduce your argument within a grand historical narrative

Do  outline your argument and what your main thesis will be.

The most important aspect of the GAMSAT introductions is that it should engage and roadmap – i.e. offeran outline or sketch of the essay. Here, it’s important to be specific about the arguments and positions that will be taken. It should also explain to the reader why it is important to care about your argument/issue.

Body Paragraphs

Your arguments take centre stage here. Develop a response to the quote you have selected and make clear what evidence you have to support this. Stronger essays will give a critical appraisal of the issue presented and its implications not only for the individual, but also for society.

Avoid making unsupported assertions – back up your claims with evidence, and connect up your ideas so that they progress logically toward your conclusions. Whilst it is good to consider various objections to the idea you have presented, don’t go too far as to completely obliterate your own arguments.

An example of how an argument was presented and analysed within the context of an example. Note that I did NOT just merely recount.

This is a body paragraph in response to the quote, ‘‘Imagination is one of the most important kinds of thinking” .

“Aside from this, imagination can be utilised to be able to better understand other people and their cultures. From watching the film, Parasite (2019) by Bong Joon-Ho, … The film showcases how there is a clear gap in living between those of different socio-economic groups contrary to the technologically advanced and superior façade that Korea depicts. In following the journey of the Kin clan, we see how their greed for money coupled with the arrogance of Park family ultimately leads to both their demise. It reveals not only the disproportionate living conditions of the poor and rich but also provides a commentary on the illusion of privilege. We are far often too caught up in our own world and our desire for progress to realise how our actions might affect others or that we have the power to change someone’s life – the Park family have the privilege to pay the Kin family and the Kin family in having a relatively normal family yet they do not realise this. This ultimately highlights how books, films and even music can be utilised as a means to educate and expose, to the broader society, about topics and ideas that they may not realise or understand in a way that is also entertaining.”

Click here to buy sample 80+ Part A and B essays

Don’t feel as though you must summarise all of your results. You only have 30 minutes to complete one essay and this would be a waste of your time.

Don’t  end with a hedged claim like “Though technology has had many beneficial effects on our society, its ill-effects still remain largely overwhelming”

Do  find some nice way of wrapping up your essay.  It is unlikely you have addressed every facet of this issue, and your conclusion can set out problems that still remain. You might provide a potential solution, criticism or recommendation for the short, or long term future.

Once you have a draft

The principal virtue in GAMSAT essay writing is clarity.  As you reread each sentence and paragraph of your draft, ask yourself: “Is this point expressed clearly?”  Your essay should be simple and direct.

Organisation – Look for opportunities to improve your paper, considering whether you could add an example in some areas or rewrite an awkward sentence.

Proofread – spelling mistakes and grammatical errors can distract and diver the marker from your argument.

Ultimately, the distinguishing factor between an excellent and merely decent essay is the depth and quality of one’s explanations.  The decent paper may not make any obvious mistakes; it often just does not provide a unique insight or communicate its message as clearly and effectively as the excellent essay does.  Always try to find ways of strengthening your explanations and providing examples to support your thoughts.

Section 2 Score & Final Remarks

Remember that greater effort  ≠ grades.

Focus on the right things, work hard(er) according to your own abilities and let’s get a great GAMSAT essay score!

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Exploring Liquid Cooling and Digital Twin Technology in Today's Data Centers

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Mark Seymour

Mark Seymour is a Distinguished Engineer at Cadence , where he leverages his entrepreneurial and technical expertise of 30+ years in the field to develop its products and services. Previously, he co-founded and served as Chief Technology Officer at Future Facilities, driving its growth and innovation before its acquisition.

Cadence is a pivotal leader in electronic systems design, building upon more than 30 years of computational software expertise. The company applies its underlying Intelligent System Design strategy to deliver software, hardware, and IP that turn design concepts into reality. Cadence acquired Future Facilities in 2022 for its expert 6SigmaDCX and 6SigmaET simulation software suites to expand its electronics product portfolio and facilitate energy efficiency and performance optimization for the data center industry through digital twin technology – now Cadence Reality DC .

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A Memoir Offers an Insider’s Perspective Into the Pentagon’s U.F.O. Hunt

In “Imminent,” the former intelligence official who ran a once-secret program shares some of what he knows.

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By Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean

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