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BMAT Section 3 Essay - Everything you need to know · BMAT Tips series

2017-08-30 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 15:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Medicine and his doctor years · mode: Explanation and tutorial · tags: Aimed at students

In a BMAT Tips video, Ali walks through BMAT Section 3, the essay: the small answer sheet, how it is scored, choosing a question, planning with a brain dump and an organisation phase, small neat writing and checking; to prepare, he says two or three timed essays and planning past-paper essays are enough, and extra reading gains little.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Section 3 seen as the easiest part of the BMAT; plan of the video

00:00:29 — Space on the answer sheet and how Section 3 is scored

  • ★★ Ali says the BMAT Section 3 answer sheet is about an A4 page whose top quarter holds name and candidate number, with a border you may not write outside, leaving under three quarters of a side. — 00:00:29 · BMAT (admissions)
  • ★★★ Ali advises thinking of BMAT Section 3 as writing three or four paragraphs, all the answer box has room for, which he finds more psychologically manageable than writing an essay. — 00:00:58 · BMAT (admissions)
  • ★★ Ali says a BMAT Section 3 essay gets a number out of five, with half marks, for its content, and a letter grade from A to E. — 00:00:58 · BMAT (admissions)
  • ★★ Ali says the BMAT Section 3 letter grade is for grammar, spelling and punctuation: most candidates get an A, some a B, very few a C, and a D or E takes real effort to earn. — 00:01:28 · BMAT (admissions)
  • ★★ Ali says each BMAT Section 3 essay is marked by two examiners, who tend to be graduate students at Cambridge. — 00:01:28 · BMAT (admissions), University of Cambridge
  • ★ Ali says the Admissions Testing Service emails Cambridge students each year inviting them to mark BMAT essays, paying about 18 pounds an hour. (hedged) — 00:01:28 · Admissions Testing Service, BMAT (admissions)
  • ★★ Ali says the two examiners' BMAT Section 3 marks are averaged, and a large discrepancy, such as a 5A against a 2D, sends the essay to the senior examiner. — 00:01:57 · BMAT (admissions)
  • ★★ Ali calls a 3 in BMAT Section 3 pretty reasonable and a 4 or 5 pretty good; most candidates get an A or B for grammar. — 00:01:57 · BMAT (admissions)
  • ★★★ Ali understands that most universities use a BMAT Section 3 cutoff of about 2.5C, so a 3C or above is fine. (hedged) — 00:02:22 · BMAT (admissions)
  • ★★★ Ali says a 3 in BMAT Section 3 comes from simply answering the question; nice language and well-explained points take an essay to 4 or 5. — 00:02:22 · BMAT (admissions)
  • ★★ Ali says BMAT Section 3 gives half an hour to write on one of four essay titles. — 00:02:22 · BMAT (admissions)
  • ★★ Ali says one BMAT Section 3 title is usually a medical question, such as treating obese people on the NHS, euthanasia or abortion, and another usually a vet question. — 00:02:22 · BMAT (admissions), NHS

00:02:51 — The four kinds of essay titles, sub-questions and choosing a question

  • ★★ Ali says the third BMAT Section 3 title is usually a current-affairs topic, such as freedom and liberties or education policy, and the fourth a quote by someone famous such as Nietzsche, Aristotle or Socrates to interpret. — 00:03:09 · BMAT (admissions)
  • ★★★ Ali says each BMAT Section 3 title has two to four sub-questions: answering all of them almost certainly earns at least 3 out of 5, while missing any caps the mark at 2. — 00:03:30 · BMAT (admissions)
  • ★★★ Ali's team recommends spending at least two or three minutes actively choosing the BMAT Section 3 question, rather than rushing in after the time pressure of Section 2. — 00:03:54 · BMAT (admissions)
  • ★★ Ali says BMAT Section 3 is not very time-pressured: of the half hour, writing in the answer box takes only about 10 to 15 minutes. — 00:04:24 · BMAT (admissions)
  • ★★ To choose a BMAT Section 3 question, Ali advises going through each title, thinking what points you would make for each sub-point, and picking the one you have most to say about. — 00:04:24 · BMAT (admissions)

00:05:04 — Planning: the brain dump phase and the organisation phase

  • ★★ Ali says choosing an unusual BMAT Section 3 title, such as the quote by Aristotle, earns no favour: examiners do not care which one you answer, so pick the one you can answer best. — 00:05:04 · BMAT (admissions)
  • ★★★ Ali calls planning by far the most important part of BMAT Section 3; he spent about 15 minutes planning his own essay. — 00:05:04 · BMAT (admissions)

  • ★★ Ali's team tells candidates to treat the BMAT Section 3 answer sheet as sacred and not touch it until the essay is planned and they know exactly what they will write. — 00:05:33 · BMAT (admissions)

    “treat this answer sheet as if it's sacred”

  • ★★ Ali says BMAT candidates used to be given only one Section 3 answer sheet, so spoiling it was the end; he is not sure whether the rules have changed. (hedged) — 00:05:33 · BMAT (admissions)

  • ★★ Ali's team recommends splitting BMAT Section 3 planning into two parts, the first being a brain dump phase. — 00:05:33 · BMAT (admissions)
  • ★★ In the brain dump phase of a BMAT Section 3 plan, Ali writes as many points as he can for and against and works out his conclusion. — 00:06:10 · BMAT (admissions)
  • ★★ Ali expands some brain-dump points with one or two extra bits of information, such as the NHS budget, which he says can turn maybe a 3 essay into a 4. (hedged) — 00:06:39 · BMAT (admissions), NHS
  • ★★ In the organisation phase, a few minutes long, Ali picks one or two points from each section of a BMAT Section 3 plan, as there is no space for more. — 00:07:01 · BMAT (admissions)
  • ★ As a sample plan for an essay on not treating obese people on the NHS, Ali would argue that a self-inflicted condition should not take limited funds from cancer care, then that obese people pay taxes and have an equal right to free care at the point of need. (hypothetical) — 00:07:30 · NHS

00:08:28 — Writing small and neat, timing it, and checking the essay

  • ★★★ Ali advises writing the BMAT Section 3 answer in really small, really neat handwriting: smaller fits more points, and examiners may not want to or be able to read untidy writing. — 00:08:28 · BMAT (admissions)
  • ★★ Candidates with atrocious handwriting, Ali says, should give themselves more time for writing the BMAT Section 3 essay and a little less for planning. — 00:08:28 · BMAT (admissions)
  • ★★★ Ali advises practising timed BMAT Section 3 essays on a printout of the official answer grid, timing how long you take to fill it small and neat, to plan your time for the exam. — 00:08:57 · BMAT (admissions), Admissions Testing Service
  • ★★ Ali timed himself at about 12 to 13 minutes to fill the BMAT Section 3 space in small neat writing, leaving 15 minutes for planning and two for choosing the question. — 00:08:57 · BMAT (admissions)
  • ★★ At the end of BMAT Section 3, Ali suggests checking through the essay, for example that no stray "not" in the conclusion reverses its meaning. — 00:09:35 · BMAT (admissions)
  • ★★ Ali advises avoiding crossings-out, asterisks and arrows on the BMAT Section 3 answer sheet. — 00:10:10 · BMAT (admissions)
  • ★★ Ali says a BMAT Section 3 answer cannot continue overleaf, as only the front of the sheet is scanned. — 00:10:10 · BMAT (admissions)
  • ★★ If a BMAT Section 3 essay is about to miss a part the question asks for, such as the conclusion, Ali says to do whatever it takes to get it in. — 00:10:10 · BMAT (admissions)

  • ★★★ Ali's one takeaway for BMAT Section 3: answer the question and address every subsection; with reasonable English that gives at least 3 out of 5, over any university's cutoff. — 00:10:39 · BMAT (admissions)

    “please answer the question”

00:11:09 — Preparing: reading for Section 3 and how many timed essays to do

  • ★★★ Asked what to read for BMAT Section 3, Ali says it does not matter: most candidates have only a month or two, and essay-writing skills can improve only so much in that time. — 00:11:38 · BMAT (admissions)
  • ★★ For medicine applicants Ali says it is useful to be vaguely up to date with healthcare news, from the Guardian or BBC Health; he finds New Scientist quite good and likes the Student BMJ. — 00:11:38 · BBC Health, Student BMJ
  • ★★★ Having marked many BMAT essays over five years of teaching courses, Ali says a good one states the basic points a bit more nicely than others, rather than adding a rogue point from a treatise on medical ethics. — 00:12:14 · BMAT (admissions), 6med
  • ★★★ Ali calls a timed BMAT Section 3 essay every day overkill: two or three timed essays show your timings, and then, if you find Section 3 hard, plan past-paper essays without writing them out. — 00:12:44 · BMAT (admissions)
  • ★★ Ali says most Cambridge students revising for essay exams do not write whole essays: they think them through and plan them. — 00:12:44 · University of Cambridge
  • ★★ Ali says BMAT Section 3, the essay, is in his opinion the easiest part of the BMAT, though many candidates worry about it. — 00:13:13 · BMAT (admissions)

00:13:27 — Recap, next video and sign-off

  • ★★ Ali says candidates need no essay subject at A-level to write the three or four paragraphs of BMAT Section 3: answering the question and making points clearly gives at least 3 out of 5. — 00:13:41 · BMAT (admissions)
  • ★★ Ali says another BMAT Tips video, on 30 or 31 August 2017, will cover how to come up with Section 3 points, how in-depth examples must be and whether facts may be made up. (hedged) — 00:14:11 · BMAT (admissions)

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Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: BMAT (admissions)

Also: 6med · Admissions Testing Service · BBC Health · New Scientist · NHS · Student BMJ · The Guardian · University of Cambridge

Only in the description or credits: BMAT Ninja (website, bmat.ninja)

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