Practicing essay-writing all day, every day, is only half the battle of Section 2 prep: You may be a competent chef, but to cook a great dish, you still need halfway decent ingredients. In the GAMSAT Section 2 Resources page, we explore where to find the ideas, opinions, anecdotes, and examples that will make your essay a thing of beauty.

Here, we will talk about the best GAMSAT Section 2 study topics to chase after, and why:

History

History is useful to learn about, especially in the format of:

1. What have they done
2. What happened as a result
3. What can we learn from it

That’s because history tends to repeat itself, and historical events can be used as evidence to strengthen your essay’s argument.

Quoting history can also create the illusion that you are an individual of taste and culture, compelling the examiners to adjust their spectacles and nod in approval – as long as you don’t be a pompous dick about it (like quoting exact dates and bibliography).

Philosophy

When people think of philosophy, they think people dressed in robes, writing in running cursive in scrolls, yelling at one another, terrorising poor bystanders with thought experiments and even more annoying questions (especially when you never stop asking “Why?”), and other public displays of anarchy.

Whilst philosophy involves all of the above, it is also a social, everyday occurrence that is useful to every one of us.

Chances are, there’s some philosophy in you already: Your thoughts and opinions about what good and evil is, what life’s all about, how to live your life, and anything that counts as your view of the world, is philosophy.

Without philosophy, we wouldn’t know what to think, how to act, when to lose our shit, who to pretend to be friends with, and where to head in our future.

Everyone’s philosophy is different, because we have different genes, different upbringings, read different books, ran with different homies, encountered different joys and tragedies, etc. We took all of these different backgrounds and experiences, and came up with a set of rules and expectations, whereby things make sense in the world.

When we learn about philosophy, we are learning different ways of making sense of the world: It might give you a more balanced view, a more interesting outlook (e.g. writing from the non-mainstream side of a quote), and a better understanding of others; it might even change the way you live – and it will definitely give you more to write about in Section 2.

Psychology

The brain weighs 2.5% of our own body (or less, for the more generously-portioned members of the population), yet enjoys up to 20% of the body’s blood supply, and runs pretty much everything up in that ivory tower HQ: Your brain is literally The One Percent of your body.

This pink squishy black box is also the least-understood organ of the body – and everyone, from neuroscientists, psychologists, New-Age luminaries, to the general public, has an opinion on how it works: How much of our brain are we using, why guys and girls think differently, how do I change people’s minds/mess with their heads for pleasure or pain, why we can’t stop thinking about pink eggplants, etc.

Psychology is significant to everyone’s lives – it seeks to explain why we can never stick to our New Year’s resolutions, why we can’t stop dating jerks, why we continue smiling even when we feel dead inside, why you shouldn’t stare lovingly into someone’s eyes (sorry ladies), why we laugh even though we know we’ll go to hell, and everything in between.

Everyone cares about it – and you should write about it. Don’t just talk out of your arse though – cite some famous research (e.g. pay attention, obey, and don’t get too excited) or recent findings.

#(You know what’s also pink and squishy? Pigs.)

World News

Aside from obvious global phenomena like the Olympics and Eurovision, you should check out the world news for several reasons:

• If you’re easily overwhelmed by how much news there are to follow, the world news acts as a “Best of” of news: If it’s important enough for The World, it’s important enough for you.
  • Pro Tip: That includes our own national news reported by other countries, in case wading through all the local/state/national news is cracking you the shits.
• Some countries have well-known political agendas (such as being big on censorship, or not so big on democracy, or have quite the beef with some other countries).
  • It can be eye-opening to read about an event as national news according to the country’s state-run news corporations, then as from World News from other countries.
  • This difference in perspective offers deeper understanding into a topic, as well as a more balanced and informed opinion – useful for Section 2.
• They afford an outsider’s view into our own country’s issues.
  • The opinions are likely to be insightful – or failing that, interesting.
  • Either way, if it’s a national or international event, it’s probably worth writing about.
• They’re not always that boring, you know.

Technology

In case you didn’t notice, new technology is shaping our lives (AKA “software is eating the world“): Twitter can spoil our spontaneous appreciation of natural disasters, you too can soon be pretty fly for a white guy, it’s not official unless it’s Facebook Official (or if you’re cutting-edge, or just not-old, IG-Official), and a lot of us would rather give up The Ramble than give up our phones.

At the extreme end of the spectrum, truly disruptive technology can reshape entire economies: Molecular sensors like the SCiO may soon tell you things like what your mole is up to, whether your drink is spiked, if it’s worth your health to get that cheaper brand, and what’s really in sweet and sour pork. This is going to shake up entire industries whose business model is based on you not finding out what’s in their products.

3D printing’s another biggie: In medicine, surgeons are already using print-outs to practice highly intricate procedures and replace bony structures. Crossed with stem cell research, future patients may get organs made on-demand, with perfect immune-compatibility, rather than die waiting for the right donor to die.

Meanwhile, with more and more applications for 3D printing, there might come a time when downloading a car stops being a laughing matter, and becomes an ethical matter. Especially since they’ve printed one already.

Familiarise yourself with technological developments and trends – especially ones with applications soon, or extensive philosophical issues, and you’ll have a whole extra domain to tie your essays to.

---

Want Loads More Tips and Strategies? Check out the FastGAMSAT ebook pack on the homepage! (Yes, that’s Snarksy on the cover) ( ^ΦдΦ^) Draw me like one of your French girls, Willeo.

Enjoyed the read AND learnt something useful? There’s more where that came from – check out other pages, and the FastGAMSAT official study guide!