Open Essay Prompt: Reminiscing College Essay Questions
Feel free to respond to any of these A-Level prompts!
It’s been 4 years since I’ve graduated from college. One of the most memorable subjects — I’ve to painfully admit — was General Paper. It was a dreaded subject all college students needed to take. And it’s a paper that (sort of) determines your fate for university. (Ask yesnodunno, she knows.)
General paper is a subject as vague as its name implies. Even now, I can’t really describe what it is or what it’s supposed to be. Different people give different answers. But, as a philosophy student, I can’t help but see General Paper as a portal to philosophical thinking. In fact, it got me into philosophy in the first place.
General paper consists of an essay question (where teenagers are expected to engage in borderline scholarly discourse) and a comprehension paper (where we get most of our marks from). And it’s the only subject I’ve never gotten anything more than a C until my actual A-Levels.
Nevertheless, it’s one of the very few subjects in school that ages well with time. I remember most of us hated the subject when we were edgy teenagers. Mostly because it’s very difficult to get a passing grade. But more so because the “global” and “general” topics we discussed in class were, honestly, far too complicated for us young minds to comprehend.
The subject changes and matures as we change and mature. It’s like fine wine. As such, when one of my friends shared this year’s A-Level General Paper essay questions, I can’t help but feel a sense of nostalgia. Also, it reminded me of how much I’ve changed over these short four years.
Medium’s been dead recently, and I’ve been struggling to find inspiration to write. So, I thought I’d share these essay prompts with this beloved community.
I’ll be responding to some of these prompts. In the meantime, I’d like to invite everyone here to pick up a prompt and respond to it. If you decide to, please tag me: Wei Xiang, so that I don’t miss out on your wonderful work!
Without further ado, here are the prompts:
- How far is the pursuit of happiness the most important human goal?
- To what extent has social media devalued true friendship in your society?
- To what extent is charitable giving desirable?
- Films are concerned with escaping from the problems of everyday life, rather than addressing them. Discuss.
Of course, there’s a total of 12 prompts. But the rest are, quite frankly, boring. I’d like to invite yesnodunno and Squeeze the Avocado to get the ball rolling. Please do invite your friends and acquaintances on Medium to respond if you think they’re interested.
- Editor’s note (AVO), tagging others that may be interested in participating: Angelina Der Arakelian, Reece Beckett, Carlos Garbiras, Will Hull, Christopher Robin, Arthur Dewson, kasey sparks
