Essay writing during the Interview!

[prem_baba]

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how do admission committee members evaluate the essay that some schools have you write during the interivew session? How much do you think this matters compared to the actual "interviews"?

 

[chemguy79]

(1) SPAM!

(2) Professional essay writing won't help when you have to write the essay on the spot and you don't know the essay topic before hand.

Posting FAIL!

OP, I have heard that the only reason why they have you write the essay is to determine your communication skills. I wouldn't stress about it too much.

 

[johnep34]

Well, I would have failed immediately, my writing is very bad. Would gave to take in a portable computer and printer.
johnep

 

[bananaface]

Schools have interview day essays to ensure that you are able to communicate effectively in written English. You don't need to write the best essay ever. You just need to put your thoughts together coherently using proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation. You should concentrate on making your ideas clear, getting your thoughts across effectively, and being reasonably organized in your answer. Do not worry too much about having the "right" answer to the prompt. Often, there is no right answer.

 

[delano2000]

Schools have interview day essays to ensure that you are able to communicate effectively in written English. You don't need to write the best essay ever. You just need to put your thoughts together coherently using proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation. You should concentrate on making your ideas clear, getting your thoughts across effectively, and being reasonably organized in your answer. Do not worry too much about having the "right" answer to the prompt. Often, there is no right answer.

This.👍

 

[All4MyDaughter]

Personally, after working with certain people this year, I think this is the BEST IDEA EVER. I favor an automatic weedout for people who can't communicate effectively (written or verbal). This is professional school, not remedial English class. What mystifies me is how people made it this far in their education without being able to communicate in English. [/rant]

 

[confettiflyer]

Personally, after working with certain people this year, I think this is the BEST IDEA EVER. I favor an automatic weedout for people who can't communicate effectively (written or verbal). This is professional school, not remedial English class. What mystifies me is how people made it this far in their education without being able to communicate in English. [/rant]

Agreed, weed out those idiots who use professional services or "friends" who clean up (write) their essay.

 

[crazybob]

Agreed, weed out those idiots who use professional services or "friends" who clean up (write) their essay.

Some people actually do that? 😕

 

[All4MyDaughter]

Some people actually do that? 😕

Absolutely. I have also seen someone write a "newsletter article" by pulling entire sentences from random websites and copying them verbatim into the student's "work." Every once in a while there would be a sentence or two that the student had come up with on her own, and invariably that sentence would be a bit nonsensical. That was clue #1. The next clue was that the copied sentences didn't quite fit together so the flow of ideas wasn't totally logical. Transitions were absent or awkward. I pasted that crap into a plagiarism checker and it lit it up. Then I Googled random sentences. Eventually demonstrated that almost 75% of the student's submission was not her own work. I thought to myself, "Damn, it takes some EFFORT to cheat like that!"

But I guess if you are pretty much unable to write in English, you gotta do what you gotta do. 🙄

 

[medicalCPA]

Some people actually do that? 😕

Yes.

I also favor the weedout approach.

 

[Notecard]

During my interview the interviewers actually had the essay I wrote only an hour earlier and asked me questions from it. It was unexpected but really not too terrible. If you can write about a topic off the top of your head it's not very difficult to talk about it either. I wouldn't worry.

 

[ugadawg74]

I remember mine. Four of us received 4 different topics. I ended up writing 5 paragraphs in 30 minutes. One girl wrote an entire page... of 1 paragraph, 10 sentences, big letters... Another girl recieved the topic "what is your favorite color", which I am so glad I did not get. I mean, how would you be able to write an entire essay on your favorite color?

 

[Electrode]

+1 also for this "weed-out" method. At least, it makes more sense to me than the PCAT.