Interview preparation

We’ll begin by helping students define their ‘reason for being’: why, beyond academic opportunities, do they want to attend a selective school? The goal of this session is to ensure our students understand what their interviewer is actually looking for in a potential student. 

We will discuss the values that selective schools share and which values are unique to each, helping students understand where they might fit in and how their current accomplishments might be presented in the best light.

In this class, we discuss what questions will likely be asked during the selective school interview. The insights we learned in Session 1 will give our students the foundation they need to define unique, personal answers to these questions.

We will also teach students the STAR interview format, in which answers are structured with a situation, task, action and result that demonstrates the students’ real-world experience and problem-solving skills.

Now that students have a solid understanding of how selective school interviews are run, we will teach them how to present themselves in a professional, courteous manner. 

We will discuss body language and professional language, including how to dress confidently and avoid colloquialisms and slang.

Now, we help our students put everything they’ve learned together in a mock interview. Our educators, who have been through the selective school application process, will use their direct experience to gauge each student's performance.

We’ll use the insights we uncover to create tailored interview preparation plans for the one-on-one classes students will attend next.

At our first individual session, we will help our student further define their raison d’etre. Following the group sessions, we find it helpful for students to revisit the goals they defined in Session 1. 

This class aims to define a more personal, unique and honest goal for seeking acceptance into an entry school. Honesty and clarity alleviate students' anxiety when they step into the interview room.

Having previously studied the STAR interview technique, the students will now be familiar with how to structure complex answers cogently. Now, we’ll develop their abilities further and teach them to answer with captivating stories and examples.

Assessors sit through hundreds of interviews; rote, unengaging answers immediately fade from memory, even if they are well structured. We teach students to engage their audience by evolving from passive interviewees to active interlocutors.

Think of this as a mock ‘mock interview’, in which we review the questions students are likely to be asked, and discuss how they might be answered using the personal insights and advanced techniques the students have now learned.

The goal of this class is to contextualise students’ learning, allowing them to hone in on what is most valuable in their answers to each question.

This final lesson is a staged mock interview, which we will conduct in the same style and format as the real thing, with no further guidance from our educators. Now, the students can put everything that they’ve learned into practice. 

After the prior seven classes, we know that the students have the knowledge to answer the questions. The true goal of this session is to help them overcome their anxieties and realise that they are fully prepared and capable of acing their interview.