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Posts by Holt [Educational Consultant]
Name: Mary Rose
Joined: Oct 17, 2016
Last Post: 6 hrs ago
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Posts: 15929  

School: British Council Teaching English Certified / Cambridge Global Preparation Certified

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Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 27, 2024
Scholarship / It's not about authority - chevening leadership and influencing skill [2]

Leadership is not about authority; it's about influence. It involves inspiring others to take action, innovate, and strive for excellence.

Do not talk down to the reviewer. You are not being been seen in a good light with this definition. It would be better not to provide your definition and instead, just show them how you embody the definition of leadership and being an influencer. Why? It is one thing to have a personal definition of the terms, it is another to prove that you actually embody unique leadership and influencing traits. It is better to show than to tell.

If you do not have any professional leadership and influencing skills to fall back on, then focus on your community leadership instead by developing the Olode Progressive Youth Group discussion instead. There are confusing information in that paragraph. Were you the founder of the group? If so, then discuss how you led thing to create this effective group. Focus on only your participation in the group. Do not discuss the "We" because it is the "I" that the reviewer is interested in. Prove that you led and influenced the youth to a great extent in the new essay.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 26, 2024
Scholarship / Medical field and politics - Chevening leadership essay [2]

So, This is a leadership and influencing essay where you are asked to prove that you are a person who embodies the leadership, inspirational, and mentoring characteristics of a future Chevening scholar. Expect that the reviewers will anticipate reading about proof of these qualities in your presentation. They will not appreciate being told that you embody these traits without the supporting situation and actions taken leading to the teaching or influencing moment and situation resolution. This essay, though interesting in a narrative form, does not focus on highlighting the aforementioned traits. There are several situations presented, but there is a lack of a specific situation that would highlight how you used these skills. They are not interested in several experience per se. They are interested in seeing how you handle a stressful command situation wherein your leadership and influencing skills are tested or questioned, where you successfully resolved the issue. This essay does not do that any of that even though it does discuss your perceived leadership and mentoring skills in several non-explosive situations. It might not be enough for them once they compare your narrative to other applicants.

I would also avoid stressing that you too part in protest rallies and supported certain political groups and opinions. This could be taken against you in the scheme of things since Chevening is a neutral scholarship that does not participate in these sorts of activities.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 25, 2024
Scholarship / "The quarantine" - Leadership and influencing Chevening [4]

You do not need to use several references for leadership and influencing discussion. You should focus on developing your most important and admirable leadership experience instead. From the way the presentation was done, I believe that you should have focused on the innovation hub experience alone. Revise the essay to focus on that career leadership and influencing presentation. Expand on the current discussion so that you can better develop your leadership qualities presentation while expanding on the influencing experience later on. These information can easily fill 4 paragraphs for the explanation. It does not have to be a long essay. It has to be an informative essay. So introduce your leadership foundation for the opening paragraph, then proceed to leadership in the next paragraph, with the influencing expanded explanation right after (in the next paragraph). The concluding paragraph can explain your unique definition of leadership and influencing in a combined manner, effectively closing the paragraph on the strongest possible note.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 25, 2024
Letters / Information Engineering - Letter of Motivation for Bachelor [3]

There is too much of a personal statement focus in this essay. The only explanation I can think of is that the writing guide you were provided asked you to write the motivational letter in this manner. That is the only way that this type of information would be acceptable in a motivational letter. If you were not provided with a writing guide, then I suggest that you edit the essay to remove the academic history and other personal information which redirects the focus of the reviewer from the actual motivation target. Unfortunately, you do not have a real motivational target that would relate your future career plan with the choice of your course and university. You are only repeating information that the public already knows about the university, which indicates that you are not familiar with the course requirements for admission, as well as the student criteria the university uses when screening the applicants. Your interest in the course and academic abilities need to align with the university requirements. Target the student identity they are looking for and connect that with your academic interest in the course as taught by the university.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 25, 2024
Writing Feedback / IELTS writing task 1: The pie charts below show the percentage of five kinds of books sold [2]

Kindly be conscious of the summary overview sentence requirement. In order to score well in terms of preliminary TA, C+C, and GRA scores, that portion should be comprised of 40 words divided over 2-3 sentences. Each sentence must represent one specific data from the provided image. This will help to increase the scoring considerations in the aforementioned sections as the English transliteration abilities of the student will come into full view of the examiner.

It can be seen

Looking at the chart for more details

Do not make references to the image as you can see it. The reader is assumed to not have a copy of the image. Therefore, you are required to effectively explain the content and relevance of the image, without requiring the reader / examiner to have the image on hand for reference.

An academic paragraph is comprised of at least 3 sentences. Your paragraphs have only 2 sentences representing the image information. There is a clear lack of analysis and comparison in your presentation as required by the scoring system. There needs to be more analysis provided other than just a straightforward presentation of facts. You are being tested on your English analytical abilities in this test so you have to provide more than just a superficial information listing for the presentation.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 24, 2024
Undergraduate / AI markets - Chevening Study in the UK Essay [6]

The discussion that you are presenting does not carry the balance of information that the reviewer will be looking for. You do not need to outline the information about the course you wish to study at the University in such great detail. The reviewer will actually be looking for proof of your relevant studies and experiences as these relate to the courses that you are indicating. Each university has a criteria for the student that they will be accepting so explain how you academically and professionally meet these requirements. Then make a quick reference as to how you will be applying these studies in your profession. What are your professional goals, aside from learning, for each masters course indicated?
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 24, 2024
Scholarship / SOP - Erasmus Mundus Joint Master in Managing Art & Cultural Heritage in Global Markets (MAGMa) [2]

My background in both design and art management positions me uniquely for this program

It does not. You are not the the only applicant who will have this or a similar, or even better background. Do not make boastful comments as that could be considered a negative by the reviewer. While you must not be humble or too humble, you must phrase this in a manner that is not going to make you seem like a braggart.

My research

What research did not complete? Is there a way that it could be used to show continuous studies on your part? Perhaps there is a possibility this could be continued by your masters thesis somehow? Reviewers give points for applicants who show an increasing interest in a specific field through research. Adding information to already existing data is better than finding information and developing it from scratch.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 24, 2024
Scholarship / GKS-G - love for arts and vision [2]

If you are planning to enroll via the university track, then you should be writing a shorter draft of the personal statement at the moment. You need to leave enough room in the essay to discuss your university choice and why you believe that you would make an excellent addition to their international student community.

I encountered an Instagram artist

Cite the name of the artist or the Instagram page name. The reviewer might want to check on that information.

Through dedication, I achieved an intermediate level of English within three years.

Remove this paragraph as this is more relevant to the language study plan essay.

My decision to apply for the KGSP scholarship at _______University

Do not discuss this yet. Work on this when you have chosen your university because you will need to present a longer comparative discussion with your academic and professional goals in a stand alone paragraph. Do not use generic discussion points since you are using the university track.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 24, 2024
Letters / Environment and Economics - motivational letter for University of Eastern Finland [2]

The letter is too long. A motivational letter should not have more than 400-600 words in its entirety because the reviewer will not have the time to read an extremely long letter. Make sure that you indicate your motivations for applying for admission to the university, based on a quick run down of your academic and professional goals, within the first paragraph of the letter. This is not an academic background and experience essay. The idea here is to prove that you are aligned with the university requirements with regards to their chosen masters candidates. I do not feel that you know the university well enough beyond the information on their website. You cannot claim to be aligned with the university when you do not specifically connect those dots in your motivational presentation. This is not an effective motivational letter in the sense that the reviewer will not be interested in reading beyond the first paragraph. You must review their requirements for masters students and ensure that you better represent the connection within your presentation. You might stand a better chanc eof improving this letter once you mdofiy the last paragraph to become your opening statement instead.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 23, 2024
Writing Feedback / Most career choices demand vocational skills or specialist knowledge. [2]

ccupational skills and specialized awareness play an important role in recruitment criteria.

Do not place your personal opinion at the start of the prompt restatement. That will create a topic alteration, leading to an assessment of your paraphrasing as not being related to the original content. The prompt deviation will also make you stray in some way from the original discussion points. Nobody will stop you from providing a personal opinion provided it is related to the actual discussion so, the personal opinion should be the basis of your writer's opinion and thesis statement instead. Include the reference in that paragraph.

This essay will illustrate

This reference will not increase your preliminary writing score. Always include the 2 reasons for your opinion in a simple sentence. That way the thesis statement or foundation of the discussion is clearly established in relation to the writer opinion scoring considerations.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 23, 2024
Scholarship / Msc Artificial Intelligence - Chevening Networking Essay Review [2]

There is a key phrase present in the writing guide that you have overlooked:
a professional capacity
The professional capacity means that you are creating, building, and maintaining a professional network, all work or job related. Your narration contains the same problems as when you first posted this essay. There have been no significant changes that would even bring it remotely close to the professional networking requirements of Chevening. The first sentence in your essay is also of no importance to the reviewer. What you think about networking does not matter. He needs to see evidence of a work related network that you used to address significant professional issues. That means he doesn't care about sending birthday cards. That is not a professional problem. You are not qualified for the scholarship when based on the networking requirements.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 22, 2024
Scholarship / Environment, Politics and Development - Leadership and influencing Chevening [3]

This is a tremendously weak leadership and influencing essay. It does not meet the Chevening requirements at all. You are not focused on representing your professional leadership and influencing skills in this essay. The basis of your skills cannot be on academic experience because you are going to be competing with internationally trained applicants whose leadership and influencing abilities can be proven by their professional track record and attachment to professional companies that allowed them to develop their leadership skills. There is nothing in this essay that would make you a competitive applicant because you misunderstood the leadership and influencing information requirements. This essay should highlight your importance as a leader on the job and prove that you are a future leader in your country. There are too many "WE" references in this statement that should solely be based on "I" since you are supposed to prove that you have the ability to lead either a small group or a large unit in relation to professional task requirements.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 22, 2024
Writing Feedback / Freedom to dress, agree and disagree [2]

I am not sure if you wrote this statement as a part of your English writing exercise or if you wrote this as a task 2 essay response. Either way, the logic behind your discussion is sound. It is relevant to the topic and allows the reader to assess your ability to clearly express yourself in written English. This is a good starting point for a task 2 essay draft. I am just worried though because you started off the discussion as something based on an everyday wear discussion. You suddenly shifted to a uniform discussion, which, I am unsure of in terms of relevance to the discussion topic. Were you supposed to discuss uniforms or simple and ordinary clothes? The clarity of the essay discussion and its relevance will depend upon the topic that you are responding to. Right now, I am confused by the discussion presentation because 2 different dress codes are being discussed in separate paragraphs. There is no continuity in the discussion presentation.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 22, 2024
Letters / Motivation Letter - M.Sc. Mechatronics [4]

The content of this essay comprises a personal statement rather than a motivational letter. I am not sure if you were given a writing guideline for the content which is why you ended up writing the letter in this manner or, if you do not know the difference between a motivational letter and a personal statement. If there was no provided writing guide, then this essay is totally useless as a motivational letter. Regardless of your word count. You do not need to write 500 words for a motivational letter. As long as you have a short term career goal and a long term career path to discuss in relation to the masters that you wish to study, you will have a proper motivational letter for presentation. I guess you may use the last paragraph as a basis for your revision. Develop a more motivation centered letter based upon that consideration.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 22, 2024
Writing Feedback / The graph below shows the changes in UK birth rate of women in 6 different age groups [2]

There is a 40 word minimum requirement for the summary overview of the task 1 essay. In order to meet this requirement, the overview must be comprised of 2 sentences that contain 20 words each at a minimum for the summary representation. This paragraph does not meet that requirement so it may not be possible for the essay to receive a passing preliminary TA score, even when the trending statement is complete and containing 3 sentences. Always remember, do not paraphrase the original description / instruction. Always restate things in your own words and do not copy the format that was provided for the instructions. That is how you fail the meet the summary scoring requirements.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 22, 2024
Scholarship / Networks for positive impact - Chevening [2]

The essay does not prove that you are capable of building a professional network. The networking essay requires the applicant to prove that he has attended relevant conferences, seminars, and even webinars, within his professional field that have proven to be useful in the performance of your duties and responsibilities as a leader and influence. There needs to be a consistency and connection between the two. The network needs to have been developed in a manner that showcases your ability to cultivate and use the web of professional contacts. These contacts need to be useful to both you and Chevening in the long run since you will be expected to share these contacts with the other graduates of the program. The presentation is sorely lacking in proper networking representation. It will actually be a disqualification factor since it is not going to be comparable to the other candidates who truly have a useful local, national, and international network to speak of as proof of their networking abilities.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 22, 2024
Writing Feedback / In some countries, secondary school aims to provide a general education across a range of subjects. [2]

I believe that the prompt you are trying to respond to is as follows:

In some secondary schools, students are provided with a general education across a range of subjects.
In others, however, they focus on fewer subjects related to a particular career.
Which do you think is appropriate in today's world?

Based on this original prompt, it would appear to the examiner that you did not understand the discussion requirements. You discussed the essay based upon an advantage v. disadvantage comparison format, when a single opinion based representation was required. Therefore, your restatement and writer's opinion is incorrect, resulting in a failing preliminary TA score on the basis of an incorrect response format. You altered the original prompt by indicating "numerous countries" when this wa not stated in the original presentation, and you referred to advantages and disadvantages as the discussion format for the reasoning paragraphs, which was not the content of the original writing guide. The starting preliminary score of this essay will be a failing one and thus, almost ensure that the additional deductions will result in a non passing score.

The overall formatting for the representation is also incorrect. There should be a space between paragraphs so that the examiner will clearly see that all the paragraph requirements have been followed. The essay is not in a scannable format at the moment, which will result in a problem overall for the final score.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 22, 2024
Undergraduate / Journey with food - personal essay [2]

I would open the essay with a story about how my distaste for food negatively affected my health. Discuss any mental, emotional, and physical problems that being a picky resulted in. Try to share your international food experiences and how the problem of food often led to your missing out on things related to culinary adventures that left you out of family bonding time. Doing that would show the basis of your desire to change your food eating habits and why you made it a priority for yourself specially after hearing about Nigeria. Since this is a metaphor for your personal growth, you should highlight the situation that led to you deciding to be adventurous when it came to food experimentation. That would probably help enliven an otherwise long, but almost boring essay. Try to do all of these within 500 words if the maximum word count is 700 - 750.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 22, 2024
Letters / Clinical experience - Erasmus Mundus motivation letter [3]

including Nigeria, according to the WHO.

The reviewer will be doubtful about this. Remove the WHO reference and use actual data from your health department instead. Focus on Nigeria because that is where you will be using the skills you will develop during the masters course.

Paragraph 5 should come before paragraph 3, with a little editing and adjustments to make that discussion flow smoothly as a connected realization on your part. The current 4th paragraph is lacking in strength and information. It can be made stronger by simple editing of the entries in the aforementioned paragraphs.

Paragraph 4 should come in after the current paragraph 7, That way it becomes more relevant in presentation to your academic background and research strengths. Evidence of clinical experience and future career aspirations require more work. I cannot find it in the essay. It should be more obvious to the reviewer
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 22, 2024
Scholarship / Human Behavior - Stipendiary Hungarian Essay [4]

The essay lacks a personal attachment to the major you plan on pursuing. The content actually sounds so generic, it could be mistaken for a cut and paste of researched information about psychology and various interests behind it. There is no driving force behind your instinct to study Psychology aside from the obvious reasons, which are generally referred to as foundations of almost all applicants for this course. There needs to be pivotal point in your presentation that made you realize this is your calling as a future professional. Do not confuse the reviewer by suddenly including an interest in English later on. It sounds like you are undecided about your actual major. Find another way to frame that insight, without mentioning the choice you made between majors.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 22, 2024
Scholarship / Chevening: The Meaning of Leadership for An Entry-Level Employee [5]

You only provided influencing actions in this email. There is no leadership involved since you worked on all aspects of the project alone. It was a solo side project that did not require you to lead a small group or engage a group into cooperating with you for the benefit of the program by sharing work responsibilities leading to a positive final outcome. Your response to the Partnership department also required influencing rather than leadership. Leadership and influencing are not synonymous in this case due the basis of the work that you did. It is not reliable as an example of strong leadership skills. This would have been more believable as a leadership and influencing example if you had been given charge of a team for the improvement of engagement when you brought up the problem and was given a month to show how it could be improved.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 22, 2024
Writing Feedback / The graph shows the production levels of the main kinds of fuel in the UK between 1981 and 2000 [2]

The summary overview is incomplete and improperly formatted. This paragraph should have a minimum of 2 sentences in it. You can avoid that error by making sure that you present 2 separate ideas in 2 sentences each time. Compressing the information into one sentence will result in a run-on sentence that will cause deductions in your preliminary GRA score and affect the C+C score for that paragraph as well.

19-year period, starting from 1981.

Always remember to give the ending year or date whenever you provide the start year/date. Complete the information for the benefit of the reader at all times.

The types of fuel should also be listed either in the summary of information or within the trending statement. It will add to the clarity of information when you discuss the comparison paragraphs later on. Lack of information results in a confusing overall essay, which will increase the GRA and C+C deducted points.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 21, 2024
Undergraduate / Autobiography - College Essay (Taiwan) [2]

Sunce you are supposed to write an autobiography, you should be starting at the very beginning. Talk about your parents, not their romantic story but rather who they are as individuals leading up to your birth and their influence on your life. Who is your role model? Why? How supportive are they of your studies? If you can talk about your grandparents that you are closest to, that would be appreciated as well. Any other people who may have influenced your decision to enter into this particular field of study will be greatly appreciated by the reviewers.

The rest of the essay is good enough to be included but I would avoid discussing why you want to study in Taiwan and your expectations about studying there. That is a future consideration that is not part of your autobiography. The biography should only cover your life up to the present moment.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 21, 2024
Scholarship / Mastercard Foundation Scholarship at the University of Edinburgh [5]

I believe that it would be better for this essay is you open with a statement about the Sustainable Development Goals of your country for 2030. Which aspect of that goal directly relates to your interest in Environmental Sustainability? Doing so might make it more interesting for the reviewer who will be looking for truly forward thinking students who could be possible scholars for the program. Discussing your previous experiences are not really relevant in this essay, unless you can somehow prove that the work you did there affected the way that your career planning, both for the long and short term, were affected. You must understand that the essay is asking you to think forward rather than backward. A discussion about the current SDG goals and how the UK has supported achieving that, then relating it to your plans to further expand on that work should help improve the relevance of your career choice and development time frame.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 21, 2024
Scholarship / Biology, mathematics, and technology - academic objectives and your long-range goals [5]

Is this a word count limited statement? I am wondering why your response is so curt when the question requires you to develop a full blown response statement in essay format. All I have taken away from this is that you are brainstorming the possible content of your response. Which turns out to be pretty generic and not really well thought out in terms of academic objectives and long term goals. The response should be divided into 2 paragraphs. The first being the academic objectives which should discuss your current academic shortcomings, what your evolving interests are, and how these combined to create a unique academic focus / objective for you. As for the long range career goals, you do not really reflect any. That is the sad part about this response.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 21, 2024
Undergraduate / "Fascination with Architecture"- CommonApp Personal Statement Rough Draft [2]

The content of the essay is too scattered. You are trying to introduce too many facets of your personality all at once, in relation to your chosen major. Since you are writing an open topic essay, you do not need to confine yourself to adding information about the development and pursuit of your college major. Rather, you can present yourself apart from the possibility of you becoming a student at the university. Talk about something else that interests you. Something that makes you a standout person either in extra curricular or non major related academic activities. Even community service would be a better theme for this essay. Something that will remove the fatigue of the reviewer when it comes to reviewing your application in terms of relevance to your chosen major.

If you wish to stick to the discussion about design, then I would suggest the Burj Khalifa reference more than anything else that you have presented in the essay. This seems to be the better developed presentation out of all the paragraphs present.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 21, 2024
Letters / Motivation letter for Radboud University Artificial Intelligence [4]

I am afraid this is more of a personal statement than it is a motivational letter. Yes, you are motivated to study the course and you have the relevant background to prove that you can excel in this field of study. However, the actual application of the masters course, in relation to your current profession is missing. The motivational letter must always highlight the work you are doing the field and how this course can help you advance either through helping you move your research forward or, helping you to upskill in relation to your career advancement. The essay is lacking in relevant substance when it comes to motivation. You are merely reiterating your academic accomplishments of the past, there is nothing that can prove that you will have an actual professional application for this study after you have completed the course.

I am guessing that your motivation, which should be built upon is the following statement:
creating AI solutions that closely emulate human cognitive processes.
That is the theme around which the motivational letter should be developed.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 21, 2024
Undergraduate / My history with mathematics! [2]

Are you some sort of Math major? The reason I ask is that the subject you chose for this essay is very specific. It appears to somehow tie in with your interest in Math / your major, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It is just that your interest and success in math, if related to your major will be considered based more upon your transcript of records than anything else. I am not sure which common app prompt you are responding to. If you are writing about something that will complete your story, then try to talk about something other than Math. The reviewer would like to know more about your character and preparedness for college. How you think using logic and reasoning in your daily life or how you deal with people. It does not need to be something that will relate to your chosen major. He pretty knows everything he needs to consider about your application in relation to that.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 20, 2024
Writing Feedback / Some people regard video games as harmless fun, or even as a useful educational tool. [2]

The essay will receive an automatic failing score since it only has over 230 words in it. By not meeting the 250 minimum word requirement, the essay will miss out on a preliminary passing score due to the percentage deductions that will be applied to the word count. This is the most common problem of early task 2 writers. Specially those who are self-paced with their studies. This does not seem to be a well known fact among the exam takers. The word deductions + the other deductions based on the rubic will definitely result in a failing final score for this essay.

Missing from the presentation is a properly developed prompt restatement and writer's opinion. The discussion paragraphs are under developed. the writer's opinion is not properly represented in the introduction and is even less clear in the discussion paragraphs. This lack of clear opinion presentation will cause a failing GRA score.

Improper formatting of the paragraphs, as well as the lacking 40 words / 2 sentences in the concluding summary also contributed to the overall deductions leading to the final failing score for this essay.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 20, 2024
Writing Feedback / International tourism - Advantages/Disadvantages [2]

I do not fully agree

This response. which is not aligned with the target format for the task accuracy considerations will get the essay an automatic failing score. You have deviated from the original discussion point which is simply to discuss the advantages and disadvantages in a comparison format. The examiner will see that you have not understood the discussion requirements, have changed the discussion parameters / topic, and therefore, did not pass the reading and comprehension considerations for the task 2 essay. There is no need for me to review the rest of the paper since the theme you have chosen to discuss will not be given a passing consideration during the actual test. If you do not understand the instructions or topic for the essay, it is best to ask questions while you are still reviewing rather than making mistakes such as these which would lead to a failing score in an actual test setting.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 19, 2024
Undergraduate / "Restart" - Emerson College - what would you title your story and why? [2]

I would suggest that you use the title of the essay at the very beginning. Use a title header "Restart". Doing so will clue in the reader into the focus of your story, but not the entire story. From there, you can use a strong introduction, not a generalized introduction like you have now. One that actually focuses on the subject and theme of your essay. I don't suggest trying to cover too many topics in this case due the word count limitation. Pick the one that matters to you the most. The one that truly reflects the restart of your life. It is not important to connect it to a movie you saw on Netflix. The reviewers appreciate original writing ideas as opposed to one that may have been inspired or, as is often misunderstood, copied from the movie. Make this your own. Focus on the restart you had with your mother and why it matters the most to you.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 18, 2024
Undergraduate / Don't make up more trash - Math COMMON APP [2]

I believe that you are trying to discuss the evolution and development of your interest in the Math and Science field right? It is evident from the activities that you were discussing as having engaged in while you were a child. There is a problem with the time frame of your presentation though. It has to be spoken of in the past tense of the events, not the present. You are going to have to go back and rephrase all of the paragraphs relating to your childhood activities. Basically, edit the presentation for grammatical purposes so that the reviewer will not be confused by your presentation. You might also want to consider bringing up the closing paragraphs to the start of the essay because those are far more interesting as opening references than a dialogue from your mother. Try to introduce the full basis of the essay from the very start. Your mother's dialogue can be placed in a later section of the narrative. It does not read right to have that scenario at the beginning of the essay. Reframe it for later usage.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 18, 2024
Undergraduate / Ramen noodles - Personal Essay for College [2]

Ramen noodles are supposed to be a part of the lesson that you learned during this time. However, that got lost in the story telling. The focus of the essay was on the cooking process of the noodles and your father. How you factored into the story aside from a few comments here and there was negligible. The death of your father was the focal point of an essay that is supposed to be telling your story in relation to noodles, your relationship with the noodles, and how the noodles represented your relationship with him. At least that is what I think you were trying to aim for with this story. Since I do not know what common prompt you are responding to, please do not expect a targeted review of this essay. I can only make assumptions due to the lack of proper writing information or topic from you.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 18, 2024
Writing Feedback / The given line graph compares the quantities of three companies' waste output for 15 years [2]

Please be guided regarding the word count when accomplishing the task 1 essay. You should be writing within the 150-200 word limitation given the 20 minute writing allowance for this exam. Since you will be self-timing, you need to be conscious of this fact or you will run out of time to complete the task 2 essay in the manner it should be completed.

Please limit your use of the Oxford comma. It does not help your GRA score in terms of punctuation usage. You are not writing a real mix of simple, complex, and compound sentences, which you would score better by writing, when you use the comma excessively. Try to properly vary your sentence structures instead of constantly trying to connect discussion points in a run-on sentence.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 18, 2024
Undergraduate / Common App Essay—Grandfather's watch [7]

I have to tell you that I cannot review this for validity in terms of responding to the common app prompt. You did not give the writing guide topic that you were supposed to be explaining about using this narrative so my comments will be general and focused on what I know regarding the point of view of the reviewers.

The essay focuses too much on the watch and your grandfather. It barely focuses on you and the actual experience that the watch relates to in terms of your development or point of view as a person or new owner of the watch. For that reason, I believe that the reviewer will not be interested in pursuing the content of this essay beyond the first paragraph. You lost his interest totally by the second paragraph where you failed to refocus the essay on yourself. The essay is all about your grandfather instead of you. Being deceased and not the applicant for admission, he should not have factored so heavily in this presentation.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 17, 2024
Undergraduate / The chart shows the total distance travelled by passengers on five types of transport in the UK [2]

Sadly the report veers more towards and automatic failing score since it does not meet the 150 minimum word requirement. This normally results in the examiner giving the examinee an automatic failed score. You will receive point deductions for the missing 4 words. Believe me, when you are ESL trying to pass the IELTS test, every deduction is not good for your overall score.

You are also getting your images confused, which means you will leave the reader with much confusion, leading to a failing GRA score. your grammar range and vocabulary are not up to the passing requirements for those rubics. However, you did analyze the image in a quick manner which is something that shows your potential to pass the test.

Kindly remember to follow the task 1 format next time which is 3 paragraphs of comparative analysis discussion, with proper image identifiers but no request for the reader to look at the image since the reader does not have a copy of the image. I look forward to reading your next practice essay.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 17, 2024
Undergraduate / Tintin comics were my favorites - common app essay [2]

I am not sure which prompt you are trying to respond to with this essay so my advice regarding its content and how to improve upon it will be severely limited. I could have structured a more responsive one if you had included the common app topic with your post.

The information itself is interesting but too wide in scope and involving too many characters. This is a journey of self discovery right? So you need to limit the participation of your father in the story. You cannot say "we" in an essay that focuses on "I". That means, the 11 year old you will have to figure out how to discuss the culinary adventures without constantly referring to Tintin and your dad. Focus on the development of your character through cooking rather than the adventures you had. The adventures are good fillers, but do not necessarily focus on how it helped you develop as a person. Your character development should be the highlight of the narrative.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 17, 2024
Writing Feedback / Living in a country as a non-native language speaker [2]

Avoid referring to people using pronouns in a Task 2 essay. That is because you must write from a general standpoint wherein your opinion presentation should be all inclusive. There is no Me and You or You and I. There are only people and their opinions. Good work on your writer's opinion and thesis statement though. It clearly shows the discussion path you want to take with this essay defense. The non-reference should be an overall part of the essay. You often refer to the reader in the presentations, which will be a problem since you are referring to the examiner, who is not supposed to be included as a reference target. This is a good effort at writing a task 2 essay. You actually did a good job of discussing the basis of your opinion. It is the pronoun presentation that proved to be its problematic aspect. Otherwise, it was a good job on your part.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 17, 2024
Letters / Motivation Letter for Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering at TU Delft [2]

Your essay does not flow as a solid document because you have divided it into chapters or discussion points based on the writing guide. The writing guide is just that, a tool to assist you with the continuity of your written information. It should not be seen in any form within your response statement. Format this essay properly or the reviewer will assess you as a non professional who is trying to get into one of the most difficult universities in the world. This is the work of a college level person, not a college graduate and professional looking to gain enhanced knowledge and skills. Your hypothetical project is non-existent. Though you wrote a response to the prompt, you did not offer a solid project that could be seen as proving you know what you are getting into with this course and how to apply it professionally.
Holt  Educational Consultant  
Oct 16, 2024
Letters / Motivation Letter - MSc In Quantitive Finance ETH UZH [3]

My academic journey began

There is no helpful information in this paragraph. There is no proof of tertiary academic strength since you are not presenting your accomplishments in the form of honors and recognition received. All of which prove that you have a formidable academic foundation in relation to your MSc studies.

significant turning point in my life

Remove this part. The admissions committee is not interested in your personal drama. It does not help move the essay forward in any way. It does not respond to any written interview information or expectations.

I reflect my commitment

They do not need to know hour positions held. You should not be extending your resume in this discussion. Unless you can show how these responsibilities have helped you gain traction in the field and led to your decision to take the MSc overseas, then there is no reason to tell them about something they will read about in your resume anyway.

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