<p>@knoxandonyx yeah, that’s a good choice if it gets you across better. I feel like mine doesn’t have quite enough personality - I wrote about what really upsets me beyond just ignorance - people who willingly CHOOSE to be ignorant about the environment because it’s easier than attempting to decrease their negative impact - but right now my personal statement sounds more didactical than personal.</p>
<p>Got my personal statement down to 480 words from 820!! I’m feeling very accomplished right now ;)</p>
<p>@lindzmm wooo! congratulations!</p>
<p>It’s quite difficult to keep up with you guys especially as your time zone means you post during midnight and I can only post during the day-while y’all are asleep. Albeit, all I have to do is recap in the morning. </p>
<p>So, has anyone started school again? I started today and let me tell you advanced trig ain’t easy!</p>
<p>@Stuffzhappenin: Wow, lucky! (Not the advanced trig part, though.) I went back to school last Wednesday already. My IB Chemistry I is your advanced trig, and because of the way my school operates, end of Semester I means end of Year I of the class, so there’s a huge push to get everything done. Are you having more luck with essays now? I’ve cleared my writers’ block for all but one, but I’m getting more nervous about that one, and the more nervous I get, the less I can think.</p>
<p>@knoxandonyx Oh believe me I am not lucky! Wow, IB Chemistry? Are you a junior or a sophomore? I’m a sophomore and yeah I feel your pain with the Chemistry, it’s a pretty hard subject. How does the whole: “end of year 1” work? Do you start the school year in january or is it just that class? Sounds very complicated.</p>
<p>About the essays, yes I’ve pretty much annihilated my writers block (although looking back at yesterday I don’t think I should have drank 4 cans of monster). All that’s left is to get my English teacher to look over it, make the changes and voila! </p>
<p>The thing that helps me a lot when writing essays is playing background music through some headphones or speakers. Not too loud, almost like elevator music level. I find it helps me concentrate more. I’m not sure if it’ll help but it’s worth a shot!</p>
<p>@Stuffzhappenin: Haha, yeah, it is kind of complicated. My school has this thing called a Block Schedule, which is basically a fancy term for 90(ish) minute classes. So I’ve got some classes that are all-year long for 45 minutes a day, and some that are the “blocks” for a semester. Chem is one of those Block classes, so I have it for one semester, 90 minutes a day, and it ends up being equivalent to a year long class, stuffed into a single semester. It’s a bit stupid, really, and certainly inconvient for a lot of stuff like maths (which I haven’t had since the end of last year, but will have to start again next semester) and languages, which you should really be in every single day. (Fortunately I managed to get languages every day, but that’s a whoooooole other story …) </p>
<p>So yeah. That was much longer than it needed to be, but hopefully you get the picture. </p>
<p>Thanks for the tips. I’ll try it (any port in a storm!) but I’m not usually this way. I don’t get writers’ block often, but I guess it’s because I’m nervous and want to do well. I’m a junior, by the way. So this is my one shot at UWC, because I didn’t know about them last year. </p>
<p>Good luck with your editing!!!</p>
<p>@stuffzhappening I completely agree with the background music suggestion. My soundtrack for this application process has been, for some strange reason, Good Time by Owl City and Carly Rae Jepsen and Radioactive by Imagine Dragons. Just the two songs. I have no idea why I can write to them so well - they’re completely opposite in mood and very different styles, and they’re not really my usual music taste, but I love writing to them.
@knoxandonyx which one are you having a block on? I keep approaching 2 and 3 from different angles, but I think I’ve finally figured out 2 (which was giving me more problems, because I’m kinda bad at remembering past thoughts. I live in the present :/).</p>
<p>@lunascreatures: 3. I keep trying to figure out how to make it genuine and not super cheesy.</p>
<p>@knoxandonyx</p>
<p>I totally get where you’re coming from on how to make it genuine and not super cheesy. I talked about an activity I help host as part of my Student Council, and how it promotes transformational learning. In that, I went more in depth to one of my extracurriculars and talked about a passion of mine. Try tying it in with something specific you’re passionate about!</p>
<p>Hey, OK so wow, I know I’m pretty late to jump onto this wagon, but I just realized there was an actual forum for this stuff. I’m just so relieved I’m not the only one who is so worried about this… I think I’ll be sick on the day we find out whether or not we got accepted for an interview, haha… I actually had to skip school today because I was feeling so stressed about finishing my application as perfectly as possible! But reading this forum makes you all seem more human, so I feel a little better 
Even though on the first few pages, there was some intimidating stuff…</p>
<p>I’ve heard mixed things about the 150 word limit for the short response questions. This thread has said two extremely different answers. Someone said the 150 word limit was just a guideline, while another person said it must be 150.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if we can go slightly over the 150 word limit? </p>
<p>How much are you over the 150 word limit?</p>
<p>@carpediem this should clear it up - a post directly from UWC:
[Hi</a> I have a quick… | Facebook](<a href=“Redirecting...”>Redirecting...)</p>
<p>Lol, I made all of mine 150 words or less (most are exactly 150). I cut out a lot, and am now feeling like I could have showed off more of me if I knew before they could be longer. Oops. I thought maybe they were trying to see how well you could follow directions and what not. Oh well :/</p>
<p>@lindzmm</p>
<p>I did the exact same thing, and submitted it yesterday, so now I can’t go back and fix it! Argh. Oh well, I guess the they’ll be impressed that we can follow directions <em>and</em> express ourselves well :)</p>
<p>@lindzmm and @mirvinvitela same, and even though I haven’t submitted yet, I feel like I can’t change it now, because I finally got the words right!</p>
<p>@lunascreatures and @mirvinvitela It’s what they asked for and we are standing by the rules so I believe we’re fine! I wouldn’t worry too much about it!</p>
<p>Hi everyone, I read this thread for a while, and I’m little worrying about my chances. I’m mostly a 4 (D) student, and I don’t have any ECs at all, mostly because there aren’t much around where I live. The only thing I can tell is that I’m really mature, and intelligent, that I’m intrested in politics, economics, global concerns/diplomacy. In my free time I try to improve myself, reading news, classical and ideological books, wikipedia, and several blogs. It’s sounds nice, but it’s not really a thing you can hold in your hand or something.
Do you think I could get in? (I’m from Hungary)</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone and have a nice day!</p>
<p>Got my PLAN back finally!! I did wayyyy better than my PSAT and scored in the 99th percentile, so I feel so much better! I’m going to make some quick changes to my personal statement and send it off 
I’m getting pretty nervous!</p>
<p>I know this is a pretty dumb question, but under “Activities,” it says Activity 1, etc, and under each activity are “Grade 9” “Grade 10” and “Grade 11” with boxes next to them. Do we just have to check the grades during which we participated in said activities? Thanks guys!!!</p>