I have a lot of advice for general “why do you want to be an SLP” type essay questions for SLP grad school.
You can find some of it here on my blog or more of it here in my book SLP To Be.
But sometimes you get unique questions, and that advice won’t apply.
The technique I want to share with you in this post is different, and it should be used for different types of prompts.
Specifically, it is for situational essay questions.
What are situational questions?
Situational questions are also called behavioral questions.
They are an attempt to use past behavior to predict future behavior. In other words, they look at how you reacted in a previous situation and assume you’d react similarly in the future.
These questions are easy to spot. They usually start with…
- Tell me about a time…
- Describe a situation where…
- Have you ever been in a position where…?
They are common in interviews, and they’re not unheard of as essay prompts as well.
Here are examples you might see when applying to SLP graduate school:
- Tell me about a time when you had to manage multiple priorities.
- Describe a situation when you had to give someone difficult news.
- Describe an instance in which you failed and how you responded.
- Tell us about a situation when you faced an academic challenge.
- Have you ever been in a situation where you disagreed with a coworker on how to approach a challenge? How did you resolve the situation?
If you see one of those, chances are you’ve got a situational / behavioral question on your hands. If you do, consider the STAR method for tackling these questions.
How to Conquer SLP Interview Questions with the STAR Method
The STAR method is an acronym, making it easy to remember and naturally step-by-step.
Situation: Give some context about the what, where, when, who, and how for the situation.
Task: Describe your specific task within the situation: the thing you needed to do.
Action: Explain the actions you took and maybe how you felt along the way.
Result: What results did you achieve (or not!) and what did you learn as a result.
Some STAR Tips for SLP Grad School Applications
Try to use examples and answers from a range of situations, not just from things you think are SLP related. You can talk about clubs, out-of-field jobs, non-SLP classes, personal and family experiences, travel, etc. This has two advantages:
- It can help you stand out a bit from the crowd.
- It gives you more rich and meaningful experiences to draw from.
It is all about YOU. The focus of your answers should be on you and your experience. If the situation involved a group, don’t get distracted writing about other people.
Tell your story and explain what you learned.
The result does not matter… except when it does. The result of the situation doesn’t really matter; what really matters is what you learned from the situation.
Is this STAR method used for SLP personal statements?
Not really.
Personal statements (also called statements of purpose or letters of intent) are a different type of beast and need a different approach.
You’re more likely to see these type of behavioral / situational questions in interviews, used to obtain writing samples, and/or in written interviews.
Three (Short) Examples
I want you to see the star method in action. So I crafted 3 mini-example essays using the STAR method as my framework. They’re shorter than a real essay would likely be, but you’ll get the idea.
With each one, I also included some commentary on strengths/weaknesses at the end. These are intended to model how to analyze your own writing.
Also, I really want you to know that almost any experience can be relevant. And so, I’ve crafted each answer with a different candidate-background in mind: a candidate with no experience, a candidate with out-of-field experience, and a candidate with relevant experience.
I’ve answered these three questions in my examples:
- Tell us about a time you had to work with a difficult colleague/person/classmate.
- Describe a time you had to take on a large responsibility.
- Describe a situation in which you had to be very flexible to accomplish your goal.
These example essays (and many more helpful documents) are available for free on my free downloads page.
Get the password to it by subscribing to my email list.