I’ve seen a lot of common questions surrounding S2 and the nature of what’s expected. Let’s clear them up here! If you feel there are some others that I’ve missed, shoot me a message on my instagram or send me an email and I can put it up
Nope! There are no explicit instructions in the ACER GAMSAT info booklet that state a need for a title on your essays. I think they are optional in that they may add to framing your thesis a little better and solidifying your message but if it’s off, it might actually be a distraction.
There is no requirement to directly respond to any of the prompts, meaning you do not have to adopt, defend or form a rebuttal to the opinions presented in the prompts. Think of them as a source of inspiration on the topic for your own perspective. So long as your idea is still related to the themes, you’re good!
Totally up to you. You can focus more narrowly on just one, you might take inspiration from a couple or you could take bits and pieces from all four. Heck, you don’t even have to reference the quotes in your essay so who’s counting right?
This is a common myth, that a good GAMSAT essay has to have exceptionally profound ideas. The focus of GAMSAT writing is on the quality of what is said and the quality of expression. The idea itself does not need to be all that complex (and neither does the language). It needs to demonstrate a considered and balanced position that articulates reason and communicates the way in which you make sense of the idea presented. My advice to students is always that a simple idea put simply is always more valuable than a complicated idea put complicatedly. (see the ironic demonstration of this very concept in the sentence itself?)
This one is a bit of yes and a bit of no. By pure numbers, I’d say ‘no’ because you can sit the GAMSAT (ignoring financial burdens for a moment) multiple times to improve your S2 score, but your GPA is a much greater investment. The risk of taking a subject outside of your usual academic strengths that lends itself to essay writing for assessment is probably disproportionate to the potential benefit to a S2 score. That being said, there are some single subjects that might be more accessible and broaden your critical thinking if you’re willing to take the risk. I unintentionally did this during my second year with a philosophy subject as part of my science degree and found it to be immensely helpful in taking away the very strict boundaries of academic writing in science and allowing for greater creativity and confidence in writing in alternative structures.
There’s a lot of talk about following ‘step by step’ essay guides that will “guarantee a <name your score> in section 2”. This is utter rubbish usually spewed by prep companies to drive the narrative that you can ‘buy the secret formula’ to GAMSAT. There are some tried and true features of organised writing like having a clearly stated contention and evidencing or justifying your position but there is no one size fits all for GAMSAT essay writing. From my experience, the best scoring essays are the ones that are most genuine and naturally written on topics that you are personally passionate about. This often means that the structure of the essay moulds to the writing rather than the other way around. This of course, is very broad advice but then again, so are the instructions of Section 2. The value in writing is in its clarity, and while structure and organisation plays into this, ACER are not checking boxes on a TEEL sheet when they mark essays.
Nope. There is no required structure for either Task A or B. You can choose and you won’t be explicitly penalised or rewarded for your choice of structure. Task B often lends itself to personal reflections and GAMSAT offers the opportunity to use personal experience as a focus of discussion, unlike other formal essays. If like me, you lean towards the classic analytical and persuasive models of writing, you can use this in your Task B essay.
Absolutely. Being able to apply philosophical reasoning is a complex process but also not a necessity for success in Section 2. Plenty have attested to this and I myself have written plenty of essays that didn’t approach any philosophical concepts or reasoning. In fact, I lean towards pragmatism over ideology as it leads to a more genuine piece.