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GAMSAT Section 2 quote prompts: Progress

2 GAMSAT-style prompts on progress. Each gives you five comments that disagree, so your job is to find the tension and argue a clear position. Give yourself about 30 minutes per essay.

Task A · ArgumentPrompt 1 of 2

Consider the following comments on progress.

  • Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.

    George Bernard Shaw

  • Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.

    James Baldwin

  • What we call progress is the exchange of one nuisance for another nuisance.

    Havelock Ellis

  • We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works.

    Douglas Adams

Write a piece in response to one or more of these comments. Your essay will be assessed on the quality of your argument and the way you express it.

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Task A · ArgumentPrompt 2 of 2

Consider the following comments on progress.

  • Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

    George Santayana

  • Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.

    George Bernard Shaw

  • Not everything that is faster is better, and not everything that is new is an improvement.

  • Every age believes itself the summit of history, and every later age smiles at the conceit.

  • We measure progress by what we have gained and rarely audit what was quietly lost to obtain it.

Write a piece in response to one or more of these comments. Your essay will be assessed on the quality of your argument and the way you express it.

A way into this prompt

Argue that progress is a real phenomenon but a treacherous word, because it smuggles a value judgement into what is often merely change. Begin by conceding the genuine gains that mark modern life, in medicine, literacy and the reduction of casual cruelty. Then press the harder question: progress for whom, and at whose expense, since advances are rarely distributed evenly and some come with hidden bills. A strong third move separates technical progress (we can do more) from moral progress (we treat one another better), which do not always advance together. Caution: avoid the reactionary trap of romanticising the past, which forgets how much of the good old days was only good for a few.

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More themes to practise

AcceptanceAgeingAmbitionAngerArtArtificial intelligenceAuthorityAutomationBeautyBelonging
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