PREWRITING
The best way to prepare for writing this type of focused essay is to brainstorm and come up with an outline.

• Plan: Begin early enough to allow you time to prewrite, write and edit before the application is due.
• Brainstorm: Make a list of your strengths and outstanding characteristics. Focus on your personality, not things you’ve done.
• Discover your Strengths: Do a little research about yourself. Ask parents, teachers and friends what your strengths are.
• Create a Self-Outline: Now, next to each trait, list pieces of evidence from your life — things you’ve done that prove your point.
• Pick a Point: Match your research with the question presented in the application and make a choice about your topic that best represents you.

Do:

• Get Their Attention: The first paragraph should grab the reader’s attention so that he or she wants to continue reading.
• Keep your Focus: Your essay must prove a single point or thesis. The reader should identify your main idea in the introduction and follow it from beginning to end.
• Prove It: Develop your main idea with specific details including events, quotations or examples that you found in your prewriting.
• Be Specific: Avoid clichéd, generic and predictable writing.

Don’t:

• Tell Them What They Want to Hear: Bring something new to the table, not just want you think they want to hear. Be original. Think outside the box.
• Write a Résumé: Don’t include information that can be found in the rest of your application. Don’t list your activities or accomplishments; not only will the essay be boring, but it will be a repetition of what they already know.
• Use 50 Words When Five Will Do: Eliminate unnecessary words.

Grammatical errors and typos can be interpreted as carelessness or just bad writing. Don’t just rely on your computer’s spell-checker! Try some of these error-proof tips.

• Take a Break: After you write your essay, take a break and come back to it in a few days. You will be better able to read it with fresh eyes and judge what’s working and what’s not.
• Get Feedback: Have someone that will tell you the truth — a parent, friend or teacher — read the essay and proofread it. Also, make sure he or she understands and can follow your main point.
• Edit Down: Your language should be simple, direct and clear. This is a personal essay, not a term paper. Make every word count.
• Proofread More: Proofread your paper at least two more times. Mistakes will make your paper memorable — in a bad way.

BE PREPARED

Get ahead of the game by practicing on these essay questions, which have been used at universities and colleges across the nation:

1. Please complete a one-page personal statement and submit it with your application.

2. How would you describe yourself as a human being? What quality do you like best in yourself and what do you like the least? What quality would you most like to see flourish and which would you like to see wither?

3. Describe any interesting experience you have had during the college admission search.

4. Creative people state that taking risks often promotes important discoveries in their lives or their work. Discuss a risk that has led to a significant change (positive or negative) in your personal or intellectual life.

5. Describe the most challenging obstacle you have had to overcome; discuss its impact and what you have learned from the experience.

6. To learn to think is to learn to question. Discuss a matter that you once thought you knew “for sure” that you have since learned to question.

Source: Collegeboard.com.