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The Ultimate Guide to GAMSAT Section 2

Please note that GAMSAT ‘Section II: Written Communication’ has been renamed to ‘Written Communication Section’. To ensure this article is easy to follow, we’ll refer to this section as ‘Section 2’ throughout. Read about the latest changes to the GAMSAT .

In our GAMSAT Section 2 guide, we’ll walk you through what to expect in Section 2 and how best to prepare for it. We’ll also go through a free example Section 2 task with expert guidance on how to structure this essay.

Just starting GAMSAT revision? We recommend building your GAMSAT knowledge by going through GAMSAT preparation material, such as:

• GAMSAT FAQ – view 30+ GAMSAT questions, including which dental/medical schools require the GAMSAT
• GAMSAT preparation tips – find out how to get the most from your revision
• GAMSAT preparation mistakes – explore common pitfalls to avoid while preparing
• GAMSAT timing – learn how to overcome GAMSAT time pressure

Once you’ve finished going through this article, we recommend reading the ultimate guide to GAMSAT Section 3 , to give you a comprehensive overview of the entire GAMSAT exam. If you missed the first article in this series, make sure you check out our ultimate guide to GAMSAT Section 1 too.

Table of contents

Gamsat section 2 structure, what does gamsat section 2 test, how should i approach preparation for gamsat section 2, free example task for gamsat section 2.

GAMSAT section

Number of GAMSAT questions

Section time

Time per question

Written Communication

Approximately 30 minutes

For GAMSAT 2024 testing, Section 2 will now be delivered via remote proctoring and will take place approximately two weeks before Section 1 and 3 (these sections will take place at a test centre as normal). Remote proctoring is a form of online remote test delivery which includes being supervised by a remote proctor via screen sharing and webcam monitoring. Learn more about how remote proctoring will work including top tips for ensuring it goes smoothly.

The purpose of GAMSAT Section 2 is to test your ability to effectively and logically express your thoughts. Essays marked will be judged on quality of thinking and how well you articulate this thinking through written language. In order to do this, you must identify the common theme running through the presented comments, and plan and structure your essay before you begin writing.

This section is split into two writing tasks: Task A and Task B. In each GAMSAT Section 2 task, you will read four or five comments on a common theme and must write an essay that responds to one or more of them.

• Task A tends to focus on socio-cultural issues, such as law, religion and economic narratives. It’s best suited to an argumentative essay style. 
• Task B tends to focus more on personal and social issues, such as emotions, feelings and the lived experience. Therefore, a creative or reflective essay could be the best option if you feel comfortable writing in this style.

For those with a pure science background, Section 2 can be the most daunting part of the GAMSAT exam. Not only this, the digital exam format means you’ll need to type out your responses (with no automatic spelling and grammar checks). If this is something you struggle with, we advise improving your typing speed and accuracy before sitting the GAMSAT.

For GAMSAT Section 2 preparation, we recommend that you break down the steps and timing for each task as follows:

• Assess the task (2 minutes)
• Brainstorm your response (4 minutes)
• Outline your essay (4 minutes)
• Write your essay (17–18 minutes)
• Review your essay (2–3 minutes)

As you can see, you should spend just over a third of the time limit planning and reviewing your essay, and allocate the rest to writing time.

According to the ACER GAMSAT Information Booklet , you’ll be assessed on ‘the quality of the thinking about a topic’ and ‘the way in which ideas are integrated into a thoughtful response to the task’. This means you should concentrate more on the depth and organisation of ideas, rather than breadth. A sensible guideline to follow for a non-creative essay is an introduction, a few body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

To perform well in this section, it’s critical that you demonstrate that you have correctly understood the theme, thought through different angles on the issue or topic, and taken a clear stance in relation to it. This can be achieved through analysing the task and brainstorming carefully.

In GAMSAT Section 2 essays, it’s a good idea to write about a few concepts that you understand, and communicate these in a logical and coherent way, rather than to present too many ideas in an unstructured manner. Also, some students can focus too heavily on individual quotes and end up missing the overall theme, or fixate too much on the theme and neglect the variety of opinions on a topic. Success in GAMSAT Section 2 requires a careful balance between the two.

Task A example essay question

Consider the following comments and develop a piece of writing in response to one or more of them.

Your writing will be judged on the quality of your response to the theme, how well you organise and present your point of view, and how effectively you express yourself.

Comment 1 The internet is an elite organisation. Most of the population of the world has never even made a phone call. Noam Chomsky

Comment 2 The internet is forever demanding that the real world be redefined to suit its whims. Terry Pratchett

Comment 3 The Web is a tremendous grassroots revolution. Tim Berners-Lee

Comment 4 The internet’s primary function is to allow people to hear what they want to hear.

Task A example essay guidance

Here’s a step-by-step process of how to approach this task:

Step 1: Assess the task (2 minutes)

1. First, assess the task by reading through all the comments and identifying the overarching theme. In this initial stage, your focus should be on determining which comments you can thoughtfully explore in relation to the theme. This will guide the subsequent decisions you make when planning and writing your essay. As we know that Task A will generally be on a socio-cultural theme, this can help with the first step of identifying the theme in the task. 

Step 2: Brainstorm your response (4 minutes)

2. After identifying the core theme and comments you wish to use, you should think about some pros and cons, as well as your own opinion. In this brainstorming phase, you should reflect on both sides of the topic and note down a few succinct examples for each side. Try to pursue ideas that you find interesting or exciting, as this sense of authenticity can develop your ideas and improve your writing. 

You can use any method to capture your thoughts in response to the task, such as a spider diagram or a table with arguments ‘for’ and ‘against’ the statement. By the end of this step, you should have comprehensive notes on many relevant ideas and examples, ready for organising.

Step 3: Outline your essay (4 minutes)

3. Now it’s time to decide how you would like to present all of this thinking to the reader. You should carefully select ideas that will strengthen your essay, and disregard anything that doesn’t contribute to the overall argument. Make sure you decide on your conclusion before organising your chosen ideas into a logical and coherent structure as follows:

• Introduction: Identify the theme and define the key concepts (use relevant brainstorming notes).
• Two body paragraphs: Explore one side of the issue in the first paragraph and explore the other side of the issue in the second paragraph. Provide examples in both paragraphs and arrange all your notes on comments, pros and cons, and examples.
• Conclusion: This is where you should state your own opinion. A strong conclusion accounts for everything that has gone before it (both pros and cons), and makes a logical deduction from that.

Step 4: Write your essay (17–18 minutes)

4. After assessing and planning your essay, it’s time to start writing! 

• Introduction: The purpose of the introductory paragraph is to provide a clear indication of what’s to come. Identify the core theme, briefly define any key concepts within this theme, and then finish by indicating the other side of the theme.
• First body paragraph: Present the first side of the argument as clearly and convincingly as you can, and include one or two points with supporting examples which connect to one of the comments.
• Second body paragraph: Present the other side of the argument as clearly and convincingly as you can, and include one or two points with supporting examples which connect to one of the comments. The key difference between this and the first body paragraph is that you’ll need to show an awareness of the previous paragraph, such as through terminology like ‘however’. 
• Conclusion: In the final paragraph, you should assert your own opinion – this means you need to pick a side. You could start by directly stating your opinion, and then give reasons as to why you come down on that side. Alternatively, you could briefly summarise both sides, then move swiftly to your opinion. Whatever approach you take, try to end on a strong note to show that you’re in control of the logic presented in the essay.

Note that you can easily adapt this structure to write an essay with a different number of paragraphs. For example, if you want to write one paragraph for all three comments in a task, you would simply plan for three body paragraphs instead of two.

Step 5: Review your essay (2–3 minutes)

5. If you’ve successfully carried out the first four steps, then this step shouldn’t take too long. You can use this time to proofread your essay, which includes checking the grammar, spelling and punctuation. If you have time, you could even add a sentence or two throughout to strengthen the essay if needed. However, by this point, your essay should be close to perfect. This time would be best spent reviewing your work rather than making any major changes.

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Don’t forget to check out our ultimate guide to GAMSAT Section 1 and GAMSAT Section 3 if you haven’t already!

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Section 2 GAMSAT Essays: Frequently Asked Questions

Every GAMSAT sitter  will have a different approach to preparing adequately for GAMSAT Section 2 . A common misconception that we come across is that a high GAMSAT score can only be achieved through unique and authentic ideas. While having a novel perspective on a particular subject is helpful, it is logistically difficult. More than 5000 students across the nation sit the GAMSAT . All of these students are given the same instructions, the same Section 2 quotes and the same fixed time limit to write two GAMSAT essays . Thus, it is extremely likely that there will be a degree of overlapping ideas and essay content, regardless of depth or how abstract your thoughts are.

Don’t strive to be unique, strive to have a well-thought-out, fluent essay that responds to both the theme and the comment.   

In March 2023, we found that students who reported failing to write a response to the S2 quote (‘s) suffered massively in their Section 2 GAMSAT scores compared to other students that were similarly positioned based on our internal rankings. Sometimes in striving for uniqueness, students ended up writing on topics that were far-fetched or incorrect. It is better to stand out with respect to the point of your ideas, examples, language and structure, but not the theme you write on, as your GAMSAT scores will suffer tremendously. 

What is the difference between GAMSAT Section 2 Task A and Task B?

ACER has clarified that both Task A and Task B in GAMSAT Section 2 are centered around prominent themes. Delving into Fraser’s GAMSAT insights, Task A predominantly focuses on socio-cultural matters, often exploring the realm of 'inter-personal' relationships. This encompasses areas such as legal systems, religious beliefs, economic structures, and prevailing societal narratives.

On the other hand, Task B leans towards the 'intra-personal' domain, highlighting individual experiences and emotions, cognitive processes, and personal journeys.

Can I just memorise an essay and rewrite it to different themes?

The short answer is no. An experienced marker who has graded countless essays will very quickly detect a pre-formed ‘template’. Similarly, memorised essays that do not address the question theme are very likely to be scored poorly. Don’t make these common mistakes in your Section 2 GAMSAT preparation .

How can the examiners so easily discern memorised essays?

Well, it will be clear that the focus is on adapting poorly thought out templates.

Rather than addressing the dominant themes and related themes based on the given prompts, pre-written essays deploy concrete insinuations that are very much out of harmony with the pertinent themes that are being assessed. That is, the focus will always be on the template, and thematic relevance will be an afterthought. It simply stands out. Memorising the essay is more likely to result in failure as they are inherently flawed approaches—if not fraudulent. Let your honesty, integrity and humility shine through by being organic, responsive, quick witted and insightful.

If my essay has more ideas, will I get a better score?

Most students will become trapped by the thought that the more ideas the essay incorporate, the higher your GAMSAT score will be. This is entirely unfounded. In fact, candidates will score higher in Section 2 by favouring quality over quantity . This means that writing a three-page essay examining five individual evidence points at a very baseline level with little-to-no extrapolation of deeper meanings will score less compared to an essay that uses one or two pieces of supporting evidence.

Moreover, the supporting evidence should vary between a theory and actual examples to substantiate your claims, flowing into a deeper exploration of meanings and implications behind the evidence. Keep in mind that you have roughly an hour to come up with two pieces of writing - the examiners don’t expect you to rattle off countless ideas. Rather, successful students focus on the few, not the many. Have a clear message that you want to convey in your writing. Don’t convolute your essays with obscure and weakly formed ideas. 

Does Task A have to be more argumentative, and Task B more reflective?

All too often, students hear that Task A should be approached in an argumentative manner and that Task B should be written as a reflective piece. This is pure hearsay. You should be authentic in your approach no matter which writing style you choose to use – whether you elect to write a narrative, monologue, poetry, commentary, exposition, feature article or an amalgamation of multiple writing styles. If it has fluency, structure and responds to the task, you’re good to go.

With what little ACER reveals, in consideration of this, candidates are assessed on:

• The quality of thought and content in your essay
• The shape and form of your essay
• The effectiveness and fluency of the English language

One of the biggest challenges you face in Section 2 GAMSAT writing is the writer's block. While you may not address the elephant in your GAMSAT prep, it can be a huge obstacle if not tackled in its early stages - read our elaborate piece on beating the writer's block !

I didn’t do well in high school English, can I still write a good GAMSAT essay?

How you performed in high school has little to no bearing on your performance in GAMSAT Section 2 . The truth is that most students pursuing a career in medicine do so because they have an aptitude in maths and science as opposed to the humanities. Furthermore, a high school English curriculum has little relevance to the style of writing required to succeed in Section 2 of the GAMSAT . In high school , you typically were asked to write an essay on a piece of literature that had likely been studied extensively in the past.

Consequently, it was much easier to anticipate the kind of essay prompts you were likely to get on the day of the exam. You had the benefit of pre-determining what kinds of quotes and writing template you were going to utilise in order to maximise your mark. In this respect, students who were able to memorise pre-written essays and write a large amount within a specific time period tended to perform well.

This is in stark contrast to the GAMSAT exam structure . You are much less reliant on a predetermined template which you can simply adapt to a given prompt. Rather, you are posed with the challenge of coming up with an organic reflection in response to a particular theme in real-time. Also, why structure is undoubtedly an important component of performing well in Section 2 - you have much more flexibility than you did in high school. This is why we advocate for each student to practice, perfect and implement their own unique writing style.

Sure, some students may prefer to stick to the introduction - 3 body paragraphs - conclusion approach, which is absolutely fine. However, you can also opt for use of creative writing or personal anecdotes if that is more appropriate for the message you want to convey. We have seen students perform remarkably well who come from English as a Second Language background, performed poorly in high school English and never saw themselves as ‘good’ writers. It was through persistent practice and the freedom to express themselves in a way that they felt comfortable that allowed them to achieve a fantastic score in Section 2 . 

How long should a GAMSAT essay be?  

With respect to length, there is no hard and fast rule as to the perfect length of a strong GAMSAT essay . What is most important is to clearly describe your point of view on the particular topic that you will be writing about. With that being said, we know that we have 65 minutes dedicated to Section 2 . We suggest that you use at least 5 minutes for planning purposes, which realistically leaves approximately 60 minutes of actual writing time. Historically, we have encouraged candidates to aim for about 500-600 words per task.

However, now that the GAMSAT is online , some students can comfortably write more in the allocated time period. During your Section 2 GAMSAT preparation , you should be assessing how you require to collect your thoughts and write two coherent essays. As you continue to progress, you will get an estimate of how many words this means for you as an individual. If you can write two high-quality essays that are less than 500 words for each, that is completely fine. Again, there is no magic word count that will ensure success. The deciding factor on the day of the GAMSAT exam will be the quality, rather than the quantity, of your writing. Continue to practice and find your own sweet spot. 

Do I have to address all of the quotes to get a high score in GAMSAT Section 2? 

The quotes tend to cluster around a particular theme, rather than separate prompts to be addressed individually. While you are certainly able to incorporate some, if not all, of the quotes into your writing - doing so is not sufficient to guarantee a high score in GAMSAT Section 2 . As you are reading the quotes, hone in on the pertinent idea or subject that they attempt to address such as war, friendship or conformity. You will often find that the quotes presented to you have varying positions on the overarching theme.

Your point of view may agree with some of the quotes and disagree with others, in which case it would not be wise to incorporate the phrases that are seemingly contrary to your opinion. High scoring essays in Section 2 are often well-formulated pieces that demonstrate a high tier of writing expression and abstract thinking. Quotes from the stem, as well as real-world examples with which you may be familiar, can be used to substantiate your viewpoint, but not as the foundation of your writing. Use our quote generator tool , practice including quotes if and when they are appropriate rather than mindlessly including them in your essays.

Where to from here?

GAMSAT Section 2

How to Beat Writer’s Block in Section 2 GAMSAT

GAMSAT Section 2 Quote Generator 

GAMSAT Section 2 - Example Essays   

Perfecting your Section 2 Introduction

GAMSAT AGE: Am I too Old for GAMSAT?

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Resources For Gamsat Section 2

Resources for GAMSAT section 2

When I was studying for Gamsat I spent hours looking for resources for section 2. If you're looking for your own resources for Gamsat section 2 I've written this short article to help you out so you can save yourself from spending hours like I did.

So a good strategy for section 2 is to get a good overview of current ideas and theories in a range of broad topics.

This way you'll be able to work them into your arguments in your essays and appear well informed and able to relate your arguments to the real world.

So if you can have a reasonably good idea of the most important historical ideas, plus the latest developments in a range of commonly discussed disciplines such as philosophy, politics, economics, art etc. that is a good strategy to adopt for section two.

Here's three useful resources which will help you achieve just that.

The first resource on our list is a website which has literally thousands of videos covering many topics.

This is TED which is a non profit organization which is devoted to spreading ideas in the form of short talks presented by experts in their fields from every discipline and culture who seek a deeper understanding of the world.

The average length of these videos is about 20 minutes so you can watch them in easily digestible little chunks.

The Meaning of Things

This resource is a book written by well known British philosopher A.C. Grayling.

It consists of a series of brief articles which aim to help the reader think about life, common human dilemmas and universal difficulties. Encouraging introspection into life and experience to help us achieve a life worth living.

Some of the topics covered include include courage, love, betrayal, ambition, cruelty, wisdom, passion, beauty and death.

This book will help you generate concepts to support your arguments in your Gamsat section two essays.

50 Big Ideas

Another great book - 50 Big Ideas You Really Need to Know by Ben Dupré is a concise, accessible and popular guide to the central tenets of Western thought. Every important principle of philosophy, religion, politics, economics, the arts and the sciences is profiled in a series of short illustrated essays, complemented by an informative array of timelines and box features. Platonism, The Soul, Communism, Aristotelianism, Faith, Fascism, The Golden rule, Atheism, Racism, Altruism, Secularism, Feminism, Pluralism, Fundamentalism, Islamism, Liberty, Creationism, Capitalism, Toleration, War, Globalization, Scepticism, Duty, Classicism, Reason, Utopia, Romanticism, Punishment, Liberalism, Modernism, Materialism, Democracy, Surrealism, Relativism, Conservatism, Censorship, Utilitarianism, Imperialism, Big Bang, Existentialism, Nationalism, Chaos, Evil, Social contract, Evolution, Fate, Republicanism, Relativity, Quantum mechanics, Gaia.

These three resources are great way to get going with your Gamsat section 2 practice.

Quote Generator

The final resource on my list is a quote generator which will help you to generate an unlimited number of quotes on hundreds of topics in a format virtually identical to the real test.

When doing your practice essays I always recommend typing them under timed conditions as in the real thing so you can practice your timing skills and also improve your typing speed and accuracy.

The second thing I recommend is to always write two in a row one directly after the other to replicate test conditions so you can develop the mental agility to quickly switch from one topic to another.

Further Resources

For more detailed help with your GAMSAT essay writing please refer to Griffiths GAMSAT Review which contains an essay writing model which practically allows you to have your essays pre-written before you even walk into the test.

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Google Rich Snippet Description: Learn more about GAMSAT Quote Generator. The best way to use the GAMSAT Random Quote Generator is to emulate the real exam as best you can.

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Free GAMSAT Quote Generator - Section 2 Essays

One of the key steps in preparing for Section 2 of the GAMSAT ® exam is getting into the habit of writing GAMSAT ® essays regularly - The earlier, the better. To help you do this, we’ve put together a free and comprehensive GAMSAT ® Quote Generator with over 90 Section 2 Essay Prompts, covering 40+ themes to help you generate Quotes for GAMSAT Section 2 Essays.

Take advantage of our GAMSAT ® Quote Generator to get you started on your GAMSAT Essay Writing Preparation - Click the generate button to display a new random essay prompt!

Theme: Love

• It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages. Friedrich Nietzsche
• A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you. Elbert Hubbard
• It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not. Andre Gide, Autumn Leaves
• Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. Neil Gaiman, The Kindly Ones
• We accept the love we think we deserve. Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

How to make best use of GAMSAT Quote Generator

The best way to use the GAMSAT ® Random Quote Generator is to emulate the real exam as best you can. This means limiting the materials you have available to you, putting on a timer and trying your best to treat the essay like the real thing. This will help you build up important examination skills, whilst also improving the writing itself.

You don’t have to do this from the start - but rather build up to this kind of situation gradually. This will allow you to focus on getting the quality of writing first, and then achieving this same quality under pressure.

The other essential ingredient in practicing for this section of the GAMSAT ® exam is to have your essays read and critiqued by people other than yourself. Although sometimes daunting, getting feedback on your writing is one of the most effective ways to improve. The more people you share your work with, the more likely you are to receive valuable and memorable feedback for developing your ideas and limiting your mistakes. It is worth consulting the GradReady GAMSAT ® essay marking service, where you can get 10 essays marked by our expert tutors with personal feedback within 72 hours.

How do GAMSAT Essay Quotes work?

In each of the two tasks in GAMSAT ® Section 2, you will be presented with five quotes that relate to one or more themes. Your task is to identify one of these themes and write a piece in response. Thus, it is important to remember that the quotes are there as a prompt or a guide, rather than a traditional essay question. It is not necessary to respond directly to any or all of the quotes, but rather to respond to the themes and ideas contained in the quotes.

Understanding the Theme

• Read the first two quotes
• Compare both quotes - Are there any related words or ideas?
• Note down any common words/themes
• Read the third quote - Are there any common ideas you can add to your list?
• Repeat with the rest of the quotes

After this process you should have a “word cloud” that points to the key overarching theme - However, it’s important to note that the stimuli are often designed such that there are a number of sub-themes that may be relevant. The point here is not to limit the scope of your writing but to expand it and bring in other relevant ideas - In fact it’s fine to draw on either the overarching theme or a sub-theme, so long as you demonstrate that you have actively engaged with the stimuli.

Let’s look at a worked example below:

• I don’t know half of you half as well as I shouldn’t like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve. (J.R.R. Tolkien)
• After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations. (Oscar Wilde)
• Water cannot be cut and blood is thicker than water. (Malaysian Proverb)
• It is an absolute human certainty that no one can know his own beauty or perceive a sense of his own worth until it has been reflected back to him in the mirror of another loving, caring human being. (John Joseph Powell)
• Isn’t everyone a part of everyone else? (Budd Schulberg)

What are some themes you can identify? Let’s break it down quote by quote:

As you can see there are multiple themes that you could draw from the above stimuli - It’s important to note that you don’t need to write about a theme that is presented in all of the quotes provided, you can choose a theme that may only appear once or twice in the stimuli.

Now it’s time to implement all the above steps in practice! We’ve prepared a GAMSAT ® essay writing PDF checklist you can download below. It contains a step-by-step checklist to help you identify the themes and write a high-scoring GAMSAT ® essay.

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GAMSAT Essay Writing Tips

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. You can find some free example Marked GAMSAT ® Essays here.

Don’t feel the need to write under time pressure from the word go. It’s more important that you develop and improve your essay writing skills before gradually applying realistic time pressure.

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.

Make sure to also sign up to our GAMSAT ® Free Trial to watch a recording of our GAMSAT ® Essay Writing Workshop! Check out the 10 minute excerpt below:

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For more free advice and materials make sure to check out the list below:

How to study for the GAMSAT ® Exam

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

How to prepare for GAMSAT ® Section 2

An overview of what to expect in Section 2 of the GAMSAT® Exam, how to prepare and how to perfect your essay technique.

Free GAMSAT ® Example Essays

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

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How to ACE GAMSAT Section 2 Quote Interpretation – Task A

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December 20, 2020 in  Free Chapters

How to ACE GAMSAT Section 2 Quote Interpretation

GAMSAT Section 2 writing is not normal essay writing. I’ve said this before, I’ll no doubt say it again. The origin of a 90+ Section 2 response is what is made from the task, or in other words how you approach quote interpretation. It’s very hard to write a poor response with quality, sophisticated ideas; and very hard to write a good response to simple, pedestrian, or reductive ideas.

I like to think of quote interpretation as the ceiling value of your writing. It sets the upper limit of what you can achieve. How you then deliver the thoughts you’ve had is the degree to which you capitalise on the potential you have created through your quote interpretation. In my experience, 95% of students turn that ceiling into a glass ceiling, and shoot themselves in the foot before they begin by approaching perhaps the most crucial element of the task in the most rushed, and pedestrian manner. This does not bode well for a high scoring response.

ACER’s words

Let’s begin first with ACER’s own words from the GAMSAT information booklet so we can be sure that I’m not pontificating about something I just made up. The underlining is my own, the rest is a direct quote.

“Written Communication is assessed on two criteria: the quality of the thinking about a topic and the control of language demonstrated in its development. Assessment focuses on the way in which ideas are integrated into a thoughtful response to the task. Control of language (grammatical structure and expression) is an integral component of a good piece of writing. However, it is only assessed insofar as it contributes to the overall effectiveness of the response to the task and not in isolation. “

There is an emphasis here on quality of thinking, and integration of ideas thoughtfully. That is, in part, to place the prompts in their broader cultural, psycho-social, politico-economic, or philosophical contexts; but also linearly and deliberately developing an argument or position (see my post The Ontology of Structure – Logic for more on this). Structure, language, and other things that traditionally are thought of as the foundations of a good essay are almost explicitly said here not to be assessed in isolation, and that they contribute only insofar as they contribute to the aforementioned criteria (quality of thinking). This is why traditional methods of approaching writing are only sufficient to get you to a 75. There seems to be a huge paucity of information and discussion about how to improve your quality of thinking, or how to telegraph an improved quality of thinking in a GAMSAT section 2 context.

ACER also explicitly says in their information book

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

Which, if this is what is being assessed, begs two questions..

1. How can I improve the quality of my thinking about the prompts 2. How can I be sure to be relevant to the topic

I come bearing gifts.

How not to approach quote interpretation

Let me first deal with what not to do. Almost everybody I come across conflates the prompts into a one word “theme.” They tell me, “oh the theme is conformity” (or “punishment”, or “government”, or “death”, or “space”, or “boredom” etc). This leads to simple and low level thinking responses which lack direct relevance; and therefore often score poorly. Here’s two reasons why.

It’s reductive

In the first instance you have reduced five incredibly complex, nuanced, sophisticated world views – which have arisen in many cases from 60+ years of expert experience and study, and if not, still from within a valid ontology and set of human experiences, thoughts, and ideas – into a simple world. You have reduced what could have a book, or hundreds of books in many cases, written about it to a word. It’s like thinking that the words “harry potter” is the same thing as everything that happens in those seven books (is it seven, idk?), plus the movies, plus the childhood experiences reading and interacting with those materials, plus the popular culture around it etc. There is a whole world behind it which is not conveyed in proper depth by its placeholder title.

And then, you’ve grabbed four other equally complex and nuanced and sophisticated world views, and conflated them – suggesting that they all more or less say the same thing when, in truth, this word does not adequately describe even one of the prompts, let alone all of them. And this is done simply based on the criteria that this word happened to have cropped up a number of times in the prompts. This is already to have made ten odd errors. Because it is to say that 1 is the same as 2, 3, 4, 5; and 2 is the same as 3, 4, 5 and so on.

Perhaps you’re thinking “no that’s not me,” and that you’re being really sophisticated because you contrast the ‘positive’ side of the theme, with the ‘negative’ side – which is still to have reduced a quote to one word: either ‘positive’ or ‘negative.’ Many of you will then flatly say that one of the prompts is false, or even relate to that view in a belittling manner suggesting it “is completely wrong” or “a ridiculous misinterpretation of the democratic foundations of modern life” (very fancy), and think you’re doing the right thing by arguing forcefully in an argumentative essay. I don’t blame or judge you, I’ve done the same thing. But what you’re really saying to the marker when you do that is that you, in a psychometric test on an unprepared topic, in thirty minutes, know better than someone who has dedicated their whole life to having that viewpoint. A major misstep.

Lastly you are then forced to generate a whole essay from a single word; rather than to focus highly nuanced and sophisticated ideas into a powerful single point (contention). It’s hard to write a bad essay from sophisticated ideas. And very hard to make a good essay from reductive or pedestrian ideas.

The reductive approach


single word theme < essay

A high scoring approach

Five highly complex ideas > focused in the introduction to a sharpened point (contention) > thrust forward and upward into the armor in Body Paragraph 1 > twisted in Body Paragraph 2 > graceful psychometric validation of the other sides and the contexts in which those truths arrive as you stand over the defeated opponent

It also lacks relevance

A reductive approach to quote interpretation often leads to writing that fails to “directly respond to one or more of the prompts” which is one of the only things ACER tell you explicitly that you are supposed to be doing.

This final error occurs not in the quote interpretation, but in the very next moment after it. Let us suppose you have thought to yourself “the theme is conformity.” You then think “hmm, what do I have to say about conformity.” You then come up with some idea and go off and write about it. Your writing will then be in the domain of conformity, but this will often lack relevance to conformity to begin with (as you’re under time pressure and writing whatever comes out); and furthermore, as we have established, ‘conformity’ wasn’t, in many cases, directly relevant to the prompts to begin with.

Ok, so what is the best way to approach quote interpretation?

What you make from the task, which essentially is what is being examined, arises from how you confront the ideas in front of you and situate them in their broader contexts.

I always recommend to re-write the five quotes in your own words. This takes some time, and needs to be practice, it’s also mentally draining. But the rest of the essay stems from this moment. In time you will be able to spot quotes that you think won’t lead to good outcomes, or may include traps you want to avoid, so you can save time by only re-writing/interpreting the quotes you eventually want to involve in your response. I wouldn’t recommend doing it in your head, it’s too hard to remember the other ones by the time you finish. But almost always when you see the five interpreted versions you can see links that weren’t evident before. I physically write 1 to 5 under every set of prompts. Towards the back end of my preparation I found time saving approaches, but to begin with it’s a good exercise.

Also, by “write them in your own words” I don’t mean repeat the exact thing the prompt says in different words. I mean to interpret what they are saying. Imagine a teacher said the prompt to one of your friends and then your friend turned to you after and said “that made no sense, what do they mean” and then you responded to explain it to your friend so they understood. That interpretation is what you need to be writing down. When you receive the real implications of what the quote is inviting you to consider, you will relate to the prompts very differently, and answer in a more embellished and insightful way. I will have a case study later in the chapter, so hold that thought for just a moment. First:

Do I respond to the one or all of the quotes; or do I interpret a theme and respond to that?

We’ve already discussed that reducing it to one word is not the thing to do. You are welcome to respond to complex, deeply, highly considered and thoughtfully interpreted theme if you think you are up to it. When I started I would interpret each quote, and then think to myself “if these five ideas were in a news article, what would the heading of that article be?” .. and it would often be something like “the relevance, function, and limitations of punishment in contemporary Western societies” or something to that effect. Now this was (is) high order thinking, however, it comes with some challenges.

This approach does lead to sophisticated responses, however the marker 9 times out of 10 won’t follow what you’re saying or the implied connection to the theme very easily. Because you are responding to something that took a great deal of thought, the marker can be left wondering which prompt you’re responding to. They won’t have engaged with it in the level of detail you have (or have interpreted the quotes in quite the same way), so it can lose points for relevance (even though it’s highly relevant). This circles back to earlier times when I’ve mentioned that it is crucial to be both generous to the marker, and aware of how you position yourself in their eyes (which I discussed in further detail here ).

So, I personally don’t recommend writing to a whole theme (either one word, or correctly interpreted) because it can fail to translate in a very generous, direct, and clear way. Or if you do write to the correctly interpreted theme, be prepared to be VERY explicit about what you’re saying, why you’re saying it, and how it relates to the theme (and how the theme you have interpreted relates to the prompts, and which one).

Regarding responding to all of the quotes. I’d encourage you guys to think of the five prompts as being facets of the same diamond. There is something that coheres them. Reality and truth is not absolute. All perspectives happen to tend toward, or converge from many directions on, an approximation of the truth. Knowing this is essential. The prompts are deliberately chosen for this reason. They look at issue from many directions. Early in my preparation, addressing each of these perspectives was essentially the essay written for me. I just made each point a paragraph (or lumped a couple together in one; and the others in another) etc. Again, fine, although I frustratingly had markers ask me “which prompt was this in response to?” which eventually annoyed me enough that I came to the final iteration of my prompt-addressing strategy.

I pick one prompt (or two if they happen to exist within the same ontological or epistemological frameworks) and I address it/them directly , and clearly . I don’t use the quotes from the prompts in my writing directly (you should have plenty of other examples and evidence to bring up such that you wouldn’t want to waste space on one from the prompts – when others zig; you zag!), but I do use key words or partial phrases from the prompt in my essay, especially in the introduction to make it clear what I am talking about. This greatly helped the concision and clarity of my writing.

A final note: it is essential to display a comprehension and respect for the complexity of the theme and how other, diverging, viewpoints contribute to it equally and validly (even if you disagree with them). You need to show that you have situated the prompts in their broader psycho-social or politico economic or philosophic contexts to show an appreciation for these contexts.

A case study

I’ve included below a case study of an analysis I did of a response to a set of Task A prompts. In this particular case the essay had written above it “against capitalism.”

The prompts were:

1. “Socialism states that you owe me something simply because I exist. Capitalism, by contrast, results in a sort of reality-forced altruism: I may not want to help you, I may dislike you, but if I don’t give you a product or service you want, I will starve. Voluntary exchange is more moral than forced redistribution. ” – Ben Shapiro 2. “Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.” – Alexis de Tocqueville 3. “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” – Winston Churchill 4. “Democracy is indispensable to socialism.” – Vladimir Lenin 5. “We’re going to fight racism not with racism, but we’re going to fight with solidarity. We say we’re not going to fight capitalism with black capitalism, but we;re going to fight it with socialism.” – Fred Hampton

You’ve left here “against capitalism.”

This suggests to me that there’s work to be done on how you confront the prompts before you begin writing. Most people look for the common word in these quotes (in this case socialism, or capitalism) and they say “ah, the theme is capitalism” and then they pick a side and off they go. The problem is that you will then only be writing in the domain of the prompts not in specific response to the prompts. You will lose marks for relevance and precision. The theme is not capitalism here.

The first quote says “capitalism is pragmatic, and more moral than socialism.” The second “democracy (an adjunct of capitalism) and socialism share only a desire for equality, but differ in approach.”

Note: we see already a link to first quote, a mini theme is developing here which is ‘the similarities between socialism and capitalist democracies in their attempt to provide equality or equitability.’ If you wrote an essay contrasting democracy and socialism in how they achieve equality, and to what extent they are successful/moral in this you would be not only scoring far more highly for relevance, but also for “what was made from the task.” Furthermore, this frames your essay to be of much higher sophistication and quality. If you have made a reductive or simple interpretation of the quotes you are forced to expand and write an essay from a small point. This can feel wavering, or unfocussed, or repetitive, and will always be elementary. If you, on the other hand, spend some time really looking at what each quote is saying (I re-write each quote in my own words and then examine them… i stopped doing this toward the end to save time, but the discipline of doing so for my first 30 essays was invaluable) you will have a complex and nuanced understanding of what is being said and the issue at large. The essay, then, becomes not an expansion from a small point (along with inevitable psychometric faults), but a narrowing and focus of a very large and complex issue (necessarily winning psychometrics points for you) into themes and components of that issue that you wish to discuss and give a focussed opinion on.

In this case, I think of the ontology of Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao Zedong – who’s behaviour was illustrative of a utilitarian calculus wherein violence was justified in the name of achieving a socialist utopia. Suffering, the transgression of individual liberty, famine, even mass murder were all justified within the grand narrative of the promise of communist utopias in China, the Society Union, and Cambodia. Mao killed more than 5 times as many people than did Hitler. Humans were reduced to a number, or a flesh bag of chemicals and a physiological set of reactions as the body struggled to fight against emaciation due to poverty in gulags in the soviet union – each person’s unique individuality reduced to a cascading, brutal homogeneity. Where is the morality in this? Is this why Ben Shapiro (quote 1) says capitalism is more moral?

The third quote: a critique of socialism, so we have further re-enforcement for our suspected theme. These people do not think socialism is the most moral way of achieving equality, no matter its intentions.
The fourth: tbh I don’t get this. next. (although Lenin was a Bolshevik and was responsible for the Russian revolution and establishment of socialism in Russia pre-soviet union, so perhaps you could simply use that for support of the similarities between the two political ideologies) The fifth: I would skip this entirely. I doubt ACER would give you this prompt. It requires context, and it’s just a weird prompt. Using this would be a red herring in my view.

So, in short, if you dont correctly interpret the quote, and situate it in its broader historical, sociological, psychological, politico-economics contexts, you will struggle to make something profound of the task, and lose points on relevance. Everything that follows is necessarily going to flow from that initial reduction. Your essay is necessarily limited and framed by what you made (or failed to make) of the quotes. Most people go : 5 quotes > one word theme
you want to go
5 quotes < essay. Like the quotes are the thinnest part and you make them expansive by developing on them in insightful ways, rather than reducing them to one word and picking a side.

An 80+ essay requires partially agreeing or disagreeing with the obvious interpretation of the comments, rather than flatly. Qualify its limits or contexts in which it arises. Situate the comment in their wider cultural contexts . Body paragraphs are a logical analysis of these ideas. Don’t let this make you fence sit, though. Choose your viewpoint clearly and argue strongly for it, but try situating it off centre of one of the implications of the quotes.

See more writing on 90plusgamsat.com/blog/

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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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Justice Department Sues RealPage for Algorithmic Pricing Scheme that Harms Millions of American Renters

The Justice Department, together with the Attorneys General of North Carolina, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Minnesota, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington, filed a civil antitrust lawsuit today against RealPage Inc. for its unlawful scheme to decrease competition among landlords in apartment pricing and to monopolize the market for commercial revenue management software that landlords use to price apartments. RealPage’s alleged conduct deprives renters of the benefits of competition on apartment leasing terms and harms millions of Americans. The lawsuit was filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina and alleges that RealPage violated Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act.

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“As Americans struggle to afford housing, RealPage is making it easier for landlords to coordinate to increase rents,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “Today, we filed an antitrust suit against RealPage to make housing more affordable for millions of people across the country. Competition – not RealPage – should determine what Americans pay to rent their homes.”

The complaint cites internal documents and sworn testimony from RealPage and commercial landlords that make plain RealPage’s and landlords’ objective to maximize rental pricing and profitability at the expense of renters. For example:

• RealPage acknowledged that its software is aimed at maximizing prices for landlords, referring to its products as “driving every possible opportunity to increase price,” “avoid[ing] the race to the bottom in down markets,” and “a rising tide raises all ships.”
• A RealPage executive observed that its products help landlords avoid competing on the merits, noting that “there is greater good in everybody succeeding versus essentially trying to compete against one another in a way that actually keeps the entire industry down.”
• A RealPage executive explained to a landlord that using competitor data can help identify situations where the landlord “may have a $50 increase instead of a $10 increase for the day.”
• Another landlord commented about RealPage’s product, “I always liked this product because your algorithm uses proprietary data from other subscribers to suggest rents and term. That’s classic price fixing…”

The complaint alleges that RealPage’s agreements and conduct harm the competitive process in local rental markets for multi-family dwellings across the United States. Armed with competing landlords’ data, RealPage also encourages loyalty to the algorithm’s recommendations through, among other measures, “auto accept” functionality and pricing advisors who monitor landlords’ compliance. As a result, RealPage’s software tends to maximize price increases, minimize price decreases, and maximize landlords’ pricing power. RealPage also trained landlords to limit concessions (e.g., free month(s) of rent) and other discounts to renters. The complaint also cites internal documents from RealPage and landlords touting the fact that landlords have responded by reducing renter concessions.

The complaint separately alleges that RealPage has unlawfully maintained its monopoly over commercial revenue management software for multi-family dwellings in the United States, in which RealPage commands approximately 80% market share. Landlords agree to share their competitively sensitive data with RealPage in return for pricing recommendations and decisions that are the result of combining and analyzing competitors’ sensitive data. This creates a self-reinforcing feedback loop that strengthens RealPage’s grip on the market and makes it harder for honest businesses to compete on the merits.

RealPage Inc., is a property management software company headquartered in Richardson, Texas.

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Could you explore both sides to an argument in two distinct paragraphs, without being penalised? I find its easy to discuss both positions and then conclude with a moderate position. Im just concerned about the depth of the responses and whether it seems that I havent explored the options correctly.

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