YouTube Deep Summary

## Introduction [00:00] What's up everyone? Coach Tony here. Welcome back to another trading. In this session, we're going to talk about how to ace your personal insight questions. What admission officers and readers are trained to look for and what they want to see. If it's a very first time meeting, my name is Coach Tony. I'm actually a former UC Berkeley admissions reader. Read a lot of applications, said yes to some students, said no to a lot more. and be being behind the scenes, you start to learn a thing or two about how the admission process actually works, how the application looks like, and how it feels like, and what readers are trained to look for. So, in today's training, we're going to show you guys kind of working backwards, right? So, if you are a current junior about to enter senior year very soon, and you're like, "Hey, I'm going to preparing for my college applications, my UC essay questions." or if you're if you're watching this from the future and then you are a senior trying to use this as a reference to help you get started. Either way, welcome. Super excited to ## The Biggest Mistake Students Make on the UC PIQs [01:00] connect with you here today. I am going live. If you're watching me live on Zoom, I'm going live on Facebook. So, if you guys are here in Zoom and Facebook, help me out to make sure technology is still working. Go drop a little high in the chat. Let me know what grade you guys are in as well. So, I make sure we are good. Drop an 11. If you're an 11th grader, 10 for here, you got better 10. If you are a 10th grader, nine for nine for ninth graders. If you have some middle school friends, six, seven, eight. You guys are starting early, right? 678. And if you're a community college, by the way, it still applies if you are transferring. This process exactly applies to you as well, too. There's a little caveat. I'll talk about it in a little bit what the caveat is. If you're a transfer, it's a little small tweak at the end, but for the most part, everything is good to go and save to go. So, in the chat, I see here we got some 10th graders. We got some 11th graders. Uh, we got some ninth graders as well, too. Thank you. Thank you for everyone for tuning in and and joining as well. How many people do we have here right now? We have 121 people live. Thank you everyone for joining. Let me go ahead and share my screen really quick. Where's my screen? Right, let me know. Let me make sure uh Facebook can see that as well too. Facebook, I am sharing my screen. Let me know if you guys uh ski see see this as well too. So, what we're going to do, I'm going to give you guys a preview. So, this this event is a pretty cool one. This is training is a pretty cool one. I'm going to do two things. Number one, I'm going to teach you what you guys are hoping to who came here for. But number two, also give you a preview. If you preview because for our current juniors, current if you're watching this live in 2025, March, say today is March 31st, right? Starting this upcoming weekend and for the next like 12 weekends, we are hosting a special event just for our class of 2026 families called Kickstart. So Kickstart is a really really cool pro uh cool one-day event where your child will come into the event with nothing. Actually I lied. We we are going to ask them they bring a list of activities that they did in high school that would help speed up the process but technically nothing, right? They'll leave the one-day event with all of their first drafts completed. Means all four UC essays will be done. Their personal statement will be done as well too. So for those who have already registered, kudos actually all this month is is sold out. So for those who sign up for April, kudos. I'll be with you guys this upcoming week. So those who signed up for April 5th, I'll be ## The Activity + Experience + Identity Brainstorming Method [03:30] there. I'll be hosting that one uh as well. So super super excited as well. For those who haven't signed up yet, we still have a few weekends left in May and June. And that's it. After that, we don't we don't do this anymore, right? The goal is to literally give you a kickstart to help you get started at your assets, help you figure out the thing. So, our process for that weekend is literally step by step. And I want to go through it here, talk to you guys. So, again, it's dual purposing, dual purposing this training as well to for you guys there. Okay. So, kickstart again, what do we do first? and he gives a little sneak peek. Those who are interested little sneak peek little little sneak peek of the the process. Boom. Right. So that being said, let's go ahead and get started. Okay. So the first thing you do, right, first thing on how to write the PIQ's phase one, we call it phase one is called brainstorming. By the way, at this point, you should not be looking at any of the questions first. So if you look at it, no, don't don't do that. Right? So, first off, we want to brainstorm first and help figure out what you're going to be doing. So, the first thing we have our students do is we have our students list out their activities, their experiences, and their identities. These are the three things that you want to start with, right? So, one of the things again, if you guys want to do it on your own, feel free to, but again, you want to start listing out what activities were you involved in in high school. And again, this is why if you come with your activities, by the way, for those who are coming this upcoming weekend to hang out with me, right? You should have a list of your activities. I think we we wrote that in the email. Come with that. It'll help speed things along a little bit for us. You're going to share activities for this step. Every activity. Don't just pick and choose the best ones. Pick every single thing you've done. I want to know what you accomplished. I want to know what it is. If I read it, like people say, "Oh, I did uh STAR." I'm like, "What STAR?" Oh, the summer program. Oh, tell me that. I don't know what STAR is, right? Is there? And then tell me what positions you held. Tell me what years in high school you did. Was it all four years? 9, 10, 11, 12? How many hours per week, right? And how many weeks per year did you do this activity, right? So, you want to do this. It's a massive list. You're going to go ahead and talk about all the activities that you're going to be doing first, right? That's the first thing, listing out everything you've done in high school. Then, we're going to go ahead and have you guys talk about your experiences, right? So when it comes to experiences, right, things happen, right? Things happen. That's not an a that's not a activity that you did, but just life things happen, right? Life things happen to you. Again, here are some some areas that if you have no clue like what's an experience, right? Here is someone, right? Was a ch it's a period of like personal growth for the student or a family challenge, right? A struggle, an academic struggle or a win. Again, these don't have to be bad things, right? experience is not a bad thing. It could be a really good thing as well too. Mental uh or I think it's mental or mental or or physical health uh as well too. Travel, new environment, self-discovery, steep speaking up for yourself, right? Culture, right? Moving schools, changing schools, friendships, right? How your friendship changed, loss, grief, any transitions, some of you, some of us spiritual stuff and unexpected outcome or something else, right? So basically these are just things like as you go through high school what experiences did I go and we have our students kind of share that as well too right what what experience was it tell me why it matter why it happened right time frame and category as well too this is number two the third thing we do is identities as well too so maybe like again as the students become seniors they start to become who they are as a person right so now they're proud to be their who they are as a person so again these are just a few things you can start thinking about but right there's there's a list of a lot other identities out there. So we have our students start thinking about hey why David start checking start checking these uh as well too we have our students share more identities that they feel they want to uh describe themselves as a person as well too and that's the first step right the first step again we don't even look at the questions first step we want to identify what what do we do what activities did we do what experiences did we do and what uh what ## How to Choose 4 Non-Overlapping Topics [07:45] uh what uh identities do we belong to Right? So that's that's the first step. After that, we're going to do something we call the choose your four topics. Right? In terms of choosing your four topics, right? Is now that you have all of your things? You have your AC uh activities, your experiences, and your identities, we're going to go ahead and ask you, hey, which one is probably the biggest one? Meaning, uh everything you do, what if I took that away? What if you never did that thing? Right? Doesn't is that good or bad? I just mean that you'd be a different person, right? You'd be a different person based on the things you do or didn't do, right? Some of them makes a small difference. Like for example, this morning or sometime today, I'm hopefully you guys ate something, right? Ate something, drank something as well, too. Imagine you ate or drank something else that would have sh possibly shaped how life was, how life played out for you. Sometime it doesn't, right? Someone like, hey, I still drink my morning coffee the same every single day. Nothing changes there, right? Imagine you didn't change your drink a morning coffee. How different would life be? So every choice we make affects how we are. For some of our students, right, who are athletes who've been playing sports their whole life? I always tell our parents, what if they never touched that soccer ball, right? For those of you who love coding, what if they never uh took a coding class? What if you never volunteered at that one area? For some of our students, that's a big thing. That's a big moment for them. They're like, "Whoa, if I didn't do that, I definitely wouldn't be the same. I'd be a different person." That's not good or bad. Again, it's just a different person, right? I think that's the big thing. So, with this next one, once you have your three things, now you want to pull your four topics. You're going to pull your four topics. What four topics, right, makes you you is going to be the big thing here, right? Then once you have, and the tip here, by the way, also they should not overlap. You don't want to say, "I'm a tutor. I like math. I'm a math tutor. I like math because that's that's same math. That's the same one, right? You want to break it down to two different two like different things al together. Four separate specific things. Now once you have the four topics, we call this story time, right? So what story time is is as a as a human, right? Everything we do, we have stories, right? In in how you view stuff, you have stories in your head. So if I told you guys and you guys are watching me here and I say success ## What “Dig Deep” Really Means (And How to Do It Right) [10:15] in your head right now you are thinking of success. If I say failure in your head you're thinking of a story about failure right? If I tell you emotions if told you family you're thinking of something with family. So again but it's a story right? It's usually a story that plays out in your head. So I tell students, okay, cool. Topic number one really quick just just to use a live example. Can someone in the chat let me know what's an example of a topic that your child will probably write about? What's something that's so significant that if I did if I took that away from them, they'd be a different person that that that activity that experience that I gained. Give me an example of one thing and we'll probably use that today just as the example. So in the chat again, Facebook, Zoom, let me know what's one example. one topic that if they didn't do this, they wouldn't be who they are today. People give me themes. Give me give me something specific. I want something specific. Right? Don't say problem. So someone say challenge. What what is the specific dance? Thank you. Thank you for that. Dance, right? Let's talk about dance. Right? They say dance is their specific topic. Right? Again, for those who have danced, right? Those who have performing dance when I say the word dance to that student boom a rush of stories come to their head right usually high of highs lows of lows right or some significant moment and point that comes to them cool now I tell them cool that story tell me the story in 10 seconds really fast I don't need to know details I just want to know what happened so here's Here's an example of one, right? I give you an example to make it easy, right? So this one here, so this example of this student, right, says robotics, right? So this student is at my school's robotics club meeting. It was the first time there. I felt out of place. I couldn't code. I watched others solve it. I hesitated to ask for help. The coach encouraged me. I practiced and then eventually the quick story was uh I became a project lead, right? I was like, cool, right? But the big thing here is that it's a story for this student probably. They talk about robotics and they're like, "Oh, what story?" Because they probably did a lot of things. I'm like but I I remember my biggest story I remember is me starting that that that me joining for the very first day that's the example quick to the point is number one right that's the damn thing as we call this part story time and once you finish story time that is the end of phase number one uh then we move on to phase number two so phase number two is something we call dig deep this is a credit to coach art shout out to coach art if you guys have met him he's incredible uh as well too, right? I think he's an amazing coach. I think he would argue he's even a more amazing dad as well, too. One of the phrases that he uses with all of our students a lot that we have just used now as part of our vernacular is the word dig deep, right? So, here's a good I I even put I'm going to read out loud for you guys as well, too. So, here is the part here, right? So, I'll read out loud. A student was writing about how she started a nonprofit during the pandemic. She described the steps she took. She built a website, created care packages, organized volunteers, and raising money. ## How to Reflect Powerfully Without Repeating Yourself [13:30] On paper, it sounded very impressive. She did do a lot, but right, something was superficial. It was so high level. It was missing something. It was missing that emotion or reflection. That's how it make your college essays feel real. Right? So, Coach R asked her a question. Why did this matter to you? Right? Then this is the dig deep part, right? She been on she said she lost her grandmother to co so she didn't feel in control, right? So starting a nonprofit was her way of fighting against the chaos. It gave her control again. It gave her a purpose, right? That's the story, right? That's underneath as well. So when it comes to writing these prompts, a little zoom out a little bit. The takeaway of this, the story is not going to be special, right? There's a lot of people who who's telling me we're here again. We have a hundred um say hi zoom real fast. Uh we have a hundred Where is my zoom button? We have 143 people here, right? What you do, I guarantee someone else has done it or will do it or has done it and will talk about the exact same thing. If you talk about sports, how many athletes have you have you known here? If you talk about a club, how many people have done a club as well, right? So all these different things. That's the so the what you end up doing is not that special. The key to all this, what makes these prompts so good is the why, right? And that's the big thing we call that dig deep. So that's how we kind of explore this kind of concept. And so when it comes to digging deep for our students, the big thing uh the big thing, here we go. The big thing that we ask for right is for these four questions right number one why why did you do what you did right think about kind of any activity so example earlier right someone's mentioned dance right cool you did dance there's a story boom story boom so now why why did you do what you did number two is how how has it made you who you are and number three who who have you become as a result of it and number four what is the biggest insight right into who you are as a person. Right. So the questions again the why made you take that action what was going through life that pushed you to do that thing join speak up help take a risk that thing that you did right how what did it teach you about yourself your values the kind of person you want to be number three is who how do you act differently now again keep in mind this is a before and after right so how do you are different before before the that's different than the you before how has it shaped the way you lead the way you show up the way you communicate the you make decisions and if you had to sum it up in one takeaway, what would that takeaway be? And was that truth reveal about who you are as a person? That's going to be the key of getting these personal insight questions the strongest it can be. Right? So, you're going to go ahead and do this step for each of your four topics. Each of your four stories. We have the topics to the stories. Now, we're going to answer this why question. The why, the how, and the who. Okay. Once ## The 30/70 Story vs. Reflection Rule That Works Every Time [17:00] um that's it. That that's all. That's that's just so deep. It's a whole section itself. Right. So after you get that, once you figure out the topic, the story, the dig deep, then we're going to go ahead and assign the questions. Right? Now, you're going to go and look for the question that you can answer. Right? And we make it a little easy for our students as well, too, because we we teach our students that, hey, things that you are talking about, there's probably a general theme, right? Again, yes, we are special. Yes, parents, you tell your kids are special, but we're all humans, right? We're all humans that go through very similar stories, very similar experiences, very similar traumas, very similar pathways. So, for us, we kind of mapped out a bunch of the archetypes that usually students kind of go through of what they learn, of how they grew as well too. So we tell our students, hey right that that that takeaway that takeaway that what you're uh doing it usually falls under one of these themes as well too right so it might be leadership let's say for example going back I'm I'm making up the dance one right let's say the dance student talked about oh the story that I remember was I choreographed I choreographed a performance for my team cool why why was that whatever. Oh, and the why for this too maybe cuz like hey I'm actually a really shy person deep down inside I'm a I'm like an introvert. I'm like always like the ones following and taking the class but this one I felt so compelled that I wanted to go and like then go lead this right maybe the theme of that one is leadership you guys seeing it down right again something else let's say and then there there different themes leadership creativity talent skill education operator barrier life challenge obstacle inspiring subject idea topic blah blah blah all this down right and again we don't start here we start with the our topics first we start with our stories first right topics Our stories are deep. Dig deep. Then we go into and find these themes that we want to talk about, right? And again, can it be multiple? Yes. Right. Again, hey, I'm doing dance. Right. Dance is also, I think, creativity. Hey, I'm actually pretty good at this. That's also talent or skill. Probably not educational barrier, right? Meaning the dance group is probably not going to be this, right? Is it life challenge? Not really, right? I don't think it's a big obstacle, right? Maybe inspiring, maybe. Right. For me, I am inspired, right, by uh I'm inspired by uh by by dance. So maybe that might be something for me, right? Community. Yes. Because I'm helping my community by growing them and doing that as well too. Personal belief, probably not. Impactful probably not. Personal growth. Yes. Right. I remember I was someone who was a little shy, a little quieter. Now I'm much more outgoing. Right. Resilience? Not really. Kind of not really. Self-esteem, eh? Kind of. Not really. Right. take initiative maybe right maybe I was the one who volunteered to say hey can I go ahead and lead this thing can I choreograph this dance curiosity maybe if I angle like hey maybe like hey what if I can right at the love of this maybe it's that right change not really charity doors not really so you see how some of them you can say yes to some of them is a no right so what we usually have our students do after that is we go hand which which ones right what themes would match this the best based bas on your your topic, right? And you can pick multiple, right? Because now we just kind of brainstorm. We're brainstorming, try to match a few things here. Okay? Then once our students get to this stage, right? Something really cool that we do is we help you guys match this to a prompt, right? So once we match it, now this is when you look at the prompt. So again, today's topic is the PIQ's. ## Matching Your Topic to the Right PIQ Prompt [20:45] There's the common app we do as well too, but I want to focus more on the PIQ's uh for today, right? So there's eight there's eight PIQS that there are that they will let you pick from. There are eight for the UC essays. You pick four. You pick four of the eight specifically. Okay. So I'll run through them real quick. Number one, right? Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you gain you have positive influence others, help resolve abuse, resolve disputes or contribute to group efforts over time. Before I go in really quick tip real fast here. Every question has two parts to it, right? I'll go through I'll try to show you two parts, right? It's part one and a part two. Some of them have three, but it's usually part one, part two. Part one of this question is tell me the example of the leadership experience. Part two is the word or. With the word or you pick one. You don't talk about all three. You pick the influence others. You pick the resolve disputes. You pick the contribute to group efforts over time. Not all three. Pick one, two, or three. Right? Number two, every person has a creative side. Express many ways, right? Describe how you express your creative side. Part one of this question is tell me your creative side. Number two is describe right how you express it. Why does it matter to you is the second piece here. You see how each part has two parts as well too. Number three, what was your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that over time? Key word here is the word and. So part one of this question is what is your greatest talent or skill. Okay, pick one. Then de developed and demonstrated is together. You want to talk about both of those there. Okay. Number four. How have you taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced? Heads up for this one though. There's two questions here, right? So just case I'm pull up. There's two questions. The first one describe how you take advantage of a significant significant educational opportunity. In this, if you choose to answer this question, there's two questions from here. Number one is what was the educational opportunity? And then you describe how you took advantage of it. The second question here is most significant the overcoming educational barrier. Part one is what is the barrier? Part two is how have you overcome? You guys see that? So that's how it splits up that way. Number five, I'm assume people on Facebook cannot see. Right. Number five, uh, describe the most significant challenge you faced. Uh, the steps you overcome. How has it affected your academics? So, when it comes to this question, right, two parts again. Number one, describe the challenge. Number two is the steps you took to overcome it. You do, by the way, want to acknowledge the third the third mini question, which is, how is that affecting your academic achievement? People skip that. They're like, "Oh, it's not relevant to like my greatest challenge is lifting weights and then because I lift weights, it doesn't apply." You have to acknowledge it as a reader. I'm looking the first thing I tell students, answer the question, right? For you, if you skip answering that, you didn't answer the question. That's why I'll say things. So, you got to say this didn't affect my academics. Wow, this didn't affect my academics, comma, whatever next part is. Okay. Number six, to think of a subject that inspires you. Describe how you first inside and or outside the classroom. So again number one top part A is the subject part B is inside outside inside and outside right so this one has three options you pick so if you done a lot of things inside school talk about that inside the classroom do that if you did a lot of things outside the classroom do that the best ones usually though is a mix of both I've done this in the classroom but I've also done this outside the classroom as well too number seven what have you made what have you done to make your school or community a better place. This one is a fun tricky one. So, uh let me do a little pop quiz real fast in in the chat. What is what I'll give you the spoilers. Part two is what have you done? So, what's part one? Does anyone know what part one of this question is? If part two is is what have you done, what is part one? Oh, no one got it yet. Part A is what's wrong with your ## Final Tips from a Former UC Admissions Reader [25:00] school or community? Because for you to make it uh to fix it, something has to be off, right? Something has to be a little little little not to your liking for you to do it. So that's the first part. You have to acknowledge you have to acknowledge what that thing is first and then what you do to fix it. Right? Last one. What beyond what has been shared in your app? What do you believe makes you a strong candidate for the University of California? This is the one prompt that we tell our students. Don't touch it. Don't touch it. Don't look at it. The question is really asking why are you special? Read it, right? That's it's asking why are you special, right? And you're saying I'm special because I'm because of this. Here's why. Right? Realistically, in today's world, none of us is rare. Not none of us. Very, very, very rare of us are that special. Right? I've done this 16 years. I've read thousands per year of of students, seeing their profiles, talking to students every single year. I've only recommended eight to five students total. Like that's everybody put together. Only five. One of them was Olympian, right? The la the the student I talked to a few years ago, they're still probably in in the system, so I don't know share their story, but the last one I did was a few years ago, his story was holy moly. I guarantee you if I say it, none none of you would know anyone who knows anyone who would even say that this is them. It's a crazy like scenario that they were in, right? So I was like, wow. As well, too. So for you to answer number eight, that needs to be you, right? So to make it strong because if you're like, I never give up. Never give up is not that special, right? Everyone here never gives up. I'm going to try my best, dude. Everyone here tries their best, right? Uh as well, too. So again, think of that. Could could someone else say it? And for you to use number eight effectively, you have to say out of the 150,000 out of 250,000 people applying, I'm probably the only one who can say this. And if you can, if you're that confident, then yes, use number eight. That's kind of our little takeaway for that. But again, statistically, that's really, really rare. Really, really hard, right? So that's that. So again, we have this. By the way, for those who are attending the kickstart, we give you little tricks like if these two words, these are the how you match it up. You can see we're there as well too. So we have all your things there, right? So we match it up and you help you there, right? After you get that done, right? After you get that done, phase number four for us is called the messy draft. The reason why we call it the messy draft is students, you have a problem of being too perfect, right? You try to make it really, really good. The reason why our students for kickstart you come in with nothing, you leave with your drafts done is we don't have you think too much. We literally think for you, right? Hey, do boom boom boom boom boom boom boom. You just got to write free. We we uh there's a few ways all of us call different things. I call it word vomit. That's what I'll do. Just word vomit out. Say out loud is not supposed to be pretty. We're giving you permission. Do not make it sound super pretty. Go straight to the point. Right? So, we give our students time to write this out and do it. And we give them again here's the outline. Here's the piece for you to write as well too when it comes to writing it. Here's the big key, right? There's two parts to the PIQ's. The first part is the what, right? We call the storytelling, right? The what, the story plan. This should only be 30%. So for a UC prompt at the end, at the final result, the U each UC essay, each UC prompt is 350 words, right? So you want to spend like a hundred words, a 100 words on the story. The rest of it, the 70% of it, excuse me, is the reflection, right? It is the why it matter how it change. Again, this is the why, how, who insight. That's what the 70% is. What most students do wrong. And by the way, little spoilers, right? So you guys don't fall in this trap. This week alone, I've had so many families reach out to us and say, "Hey, Coach Tony, I'm frustrated." Right? As well, too. I don't know why my kid didn't get in as well, too. This is from the the Facebook group. We run we run literally the largest UC Facebook group. So a lot of DMs of this come in nature. I wish I saw to you guys earlier says the other thing. But I'm like show me your essays. Show me your essays. I'm curious. Huh? Your your stats look pretty good. Right. But I wonder what happened. And usually in the essays is where I like ah that's why you probably didn't get a yes. Right. And it's usually this is one of the big culprits of it. Right. Because again students usually tell a big story. Right. the dance. I uh I was in dance class growing up. I have always been part of dance. I've been doing dance for 20 years. Uh one day the the dance teacher said, "Who wants to be the choreographer? I raised my hand. I stepped up. I choreographed the dance. Uh it was hard, but I was like, I can do it." And so I did it. And wow, it was great. I did it. We performed. We won first place. the end. That is a massive story, right? And that's like then we it's like a fun little joke, but a lot of you guys write that way. A lot of students will write that in their stuff and they like, "Wow, it's so good." Right? That's a what that's all that is what you did. As a reader, in theory, that's a lot of students applying to college. How many other students could have a very similar story to that? A lot. Therefore, that needs to be condensed down to a 30%. going back with us. You guys remember that we say brainstorm only 10 seconds, right? Because we're trying to prevent that. Again, this this structure works because we're going step by step by step by step. Just the point I tell them, hey, tell write this in a paragraph. Boom. Right? Boom. Write the paragraph as well too. Right? Is it now let's talk about reflection. Right? Then we go back to the dig deep. Right? Let's pull this part. Your why, your how, your who, your insight. Boom. There's your paragraph two. Boom. Paragraph two. talk about that, right? Number three, did you answer the question? What's what's the prompt? Cool. Let's answer the question. Boom. Now you have your rough draft done as well, too. People over complicate this process too much, right? It's not supposed to be that complicated. It's a first draft. You're going to do many drafts after this. The goal is to get it down on paper first because again, I can't read your mind. I don't know what you're trying to do is the biggest thing there, right? Once you put it down on paper, I'll skip you. I won't go through this, but you guys will see step five, we review. Our coaches will actually go in and edit our students prompts during that weekend. We also work on the personal state. We teach them how to take go from the four PIQ's over to the personal statements as well, too. Uh, and then we do another round of editing for our students to help them edit, get them more done. And then by the end of the event, they'll be submitting their prompts to us, and we're going to go ahead and help them uh edit uh their essays officially with our team. and we send you guys back a revised first draft. So you guys can go and take it and run with it afterwards. That is the exact structure, right? There is no there is no people talk a lot about like, hey, you have a sample and I'm like, no, you don't need a sample, right? You don't need to copy anybody, right? You guys talk about you. Even I show you a sample that's not even about you. How is that even helpful if it's not about you? The key here again is not about the specific what you did. It's the who you are. And again for we I know we have a lot of younger students here like the freshman's the sophomores as well too right like how does this apply to me because again if you if you've been following our videos right on YouTube feel free to subscribe us drop a like subscribe on YouTube right we teach a lot of do what you love right the reason why you do what you love is there is a why behind that when you do things I'm going to cough cough students and parents who do stuff that look good usually my my buzzwords by the way research internships, right? Uh summer programs. I'm not saying they're bad. We have students who do them too, right? But the idea is usually if you do it, I ask them, hm, why' you do it? Right? Then again, some students who do it appropriately do it appropriately. But some people you're like, real talk, you're doing you want to look good for college, which is not bad. It's just that's your answer. But imagine how can you write 70% about looking good for college. This is why we say what we do. Again, everything fits in each other, right? So, as a eighth grader, ninth grader, 10th grader to prepare for this in the future because again, we like to work backwards. Eagle lock, the word college backwards as well, too, right? To work backwards from where you want to go. I'm trying to make sure you can find your wise really fast to find it really fast. As long as you start with the end in mind, here's what do I like to do? Cool. That perfect keep doing that. Because the more I do that, the more I'm tapping into my why, right? And the more I'm tapping into my why, the stronger my why is going to become. So when students struggle with their essays and I'm like why did you do I'm like I don't know right. It's 99% of time because oh cuz you thought it looked good for college or parent you your parents told you it look good for college to do it is the thing there. So again keep in mind when it comes to the prompts the biggest biggest takeaway again for juniors about to be seniors or seniors watching this video right once you come to the end answer the question number one. Number two, 3070 is the big ratio, right? How you write it doesn't matter. Oh, I lied. One one more fun tip for you guys. Do not write like an essay. Do not use a hook. Do not use an intro. Do not use a conclusion. Those things just tell me how good of a writer you are as a reader. Don't care how good of a writer you are. I look at your grades. You have an A in English. You're a good writer. Right? So, the the key here is tell me who you are. The best way by and I'll close up. We're not going to do open Q&A. So, those who ask your questions, go and start dropping them in the chat. We'll we'll stick around for a little bit, answer some questions for you guys. But the big takeaway here is wait, what's my what's my takeaway? Do I have question about questions that how you know you wrote a a decent PIQ is if you looked at me and you read your PIQ out loud to me, it sounds normal. If you read if you looked at me and you asked me that, you read and it sounds weird. I mean, it sounds like a like like an essay, then you're not doing it absolutely right. Right. you're doing it, you're writing more like an English paper and that's not the intention of this. This is a narrative. It's it's a new writing style that a lot of students aren't used to writing about in their prom specifically. Okay, that being said, really quick in the chat to make me uh know is it was this good training? Let me know in the chat yes, no, if this was a good decent training for you guys. Drop a yes in the chat if that was good. If not, write a no and I I'll shed one tier for you guys if it if it was no. I'm going to go ahead and open up the Q&A and see if I can answer any questions for you guys uh as well too. Uh question one, is this call recorded? I hope so. It is recorded. If you're watching this live, it will be recorded. It will be good. Uh you guys will be within 48 hours. Give us 48 hours. It'll be good to go for you guys there. Um yeah, that's that. Uh someone asked, is there a topic you shouldn't talk about? So that's a good question as well too. For me, again, if you go through the exercise, right, and you pick the right question, meaning the topic was something that's important to you, the story is something that's important to you, your insight talked about yourself. There's no wrong topic there. It's bad if you try to do stuff, you try to force it in terms of like, hey, I'm going to make them cry. I'm gonna make them laugh, right? You don't want to do that stuff. It should be natural. It should be natural who you are as a person. Don't try to angle one way or another. um as well. So again, the topics is up to the student, right? We don't really there's no really offlimit topics per se. There's nothing that's like too bad, too good as well because it's how it affects you. Again, if you're focusing on the topics, that's the what part. That's not the big key of this problem. It's the why as well, too. Okay. Uh someone say, can you do the slides? The slides is actually our kickstart workbook. So, if you are coming to Kickstart, you guys will get your own very copy. Fun fact, we are doing one in-person Kickstart this year. This is our first time trying out an in-person Kickstart. It will be on May 31st. It will be our May 31st one. It'll be in San Jose. Those who are coming, I know we have like already 50 people signed up for that one. Limit is 100. Uh 50 people signed up for that one. That one I'm going give you guys a physical workbook. Uh for those who are coming for that one as well, too. But you guys should bring your computers. Helps easier and faster there too. Uh is all okay. Perfect. Someone asked, "How do we learn about kickstart?" Good question. Um, two ways, right? Number one, you can go to collegeappointensive.com or you guys can text me. If you guys can someone help me in the chat, can you write the number 714 uh live cross cross 949 949 uh 775865. One more time, that is 949775865. can help me write that in the chat uh really quick. But if you guys are interested, thank you. Thank you friends on in chat. If you guys want to text, write the word kickstart uh on the on the chat uh on the chat. Text the word kickstart to that number and our team will will help you out. They'll help you get registered in case you guys are interested in that event as well. Just to give you guys a preview for those who are attending Kickstart, that's part one. It's a three-party event, right? A three part two three-day event. Kickstart is day one. Kickstart you come in with nothing. You'll leave with your first drafts done and our team will edit it. So, you'll leave leave with your first drafts edited. Part two of the event is called Accelerator, right? So, Accelerator is a two-day event in summer, July, August, September, in person and virtual. Uh that one we we hopefully in between you're editing your drafts, right? Then we take where you're at, we take you to final draft that weekend. So, that's that's kind of the goal of that event. If you guys are interested, again, text the word kickstart um to our team and they'll help you out with that as well. Um, someone says color workbook for uh someone said I asked in the Facebook group. I did in the UC admission seekers group. I asked, "Hey, drop a color. I'll drop a thing for you guys, right? Uh to drop to get a workbook. Has it been sent out to folks yet?" Not yet. It's on me. That's my apologies. I'm missing one thing and then uh I'll go ahead and get that. So, probably tomorrow that don't the team has been asking me to. I apologize that's on me uh as well. But then they include the Rex you gave today. Yes, that the what uh the Rex today will be in there as well too. Yeah. So those who don't know uh in the Facebook group UC admission secrets if you guys haven't joined that definitely join there as well. Uh we go I I went ahead and I'm giving a free gift to 2026 families. If you're not 2026, I'm sure you can get it too. But then uh it it'll be more applicable because it's more like prep for admissions. Uh so again we again our goal is to try to help as many people as we can with this with this process as well too. We do have like services in case anal is interested in pesa but again we in case you don't want to buy in case you uh lack of funds as well too. We're not going to say no still I want to help you guys out as well. So we have put together a little uh I think we call it our success kit our 2026 success success kit as well. So again apologies that's on me supposed to be done last week probably done today probably done tomorrow. So then our team will start sending it out for you guys tomorrow there. Okay. Awesome. Awesome. Someone asked as well too, how is grammar when it comes to this prompt? So when it comes to these prompts as well too, readers don't care too much about grammar. Of course, if I don't understand what you're writing about, that's that's hard. So make do judge it a little bit. But the big takeaway here again, just make sure it's readable and you should be good to go there. Okay. Uh, someone asked, "No, I already answered that question already." Cool. Perfect. Any other questions? Going once. Looks looks like we are good. It's a fun, easy training for you guys. Um, as well, looks like Facebook is good. Looks like FA uh Zoom is good as well too. Perfect. Cool. Like I mentioned, if you guys are interested, go ahead and text our number one more time. It's 9497750865 and our team will go ahead and text the word kickstart. Our team will send you the link. uh for that as well too. Okay, that's pretty much it for me here today. Uh to give you guys little teasers, by the way, little teasers for this week. We are this is our training. For those who are new, welcome. This is Coach Tony. We do trainings on a daily basis. So, every single day we do a training material for you guys. So, if anyone is interested in joining us the rest of the week, tomorrow is going to be a very fun one. Tomorrow, I have two special guests that are joining me. Two of our top coaches, Coach Sarah and Coach Kristen. You're gonna love them. They are incredible working with our students. They are going to be doing a complete walkthrough step by step of the common application. So, those of you guys are applying to private schools, out of state schools. Uh that one's a great training for that as well too. Again, if you want access, just text our team and then they'll go grab it for you as well too. Text like common app and they'll they'll send you the link for tomorrow on Wednesday. And if you are 2026 right now, Coach David is going to do a special financial aid training for you guys. is it's called 2026 you need to be preparing now. So for the for those of you guys who are thinking about hey my child needs to get in but I gota figure out how to pay for this is the other part also definitely again join that training there just type in like oh no um uh money as well type in money and our team will send you the link to join that one and then on Thursday uh coach Victor is going to be going live and he'll be doing a training on summer classes and activities so if you guys are like what do I what should my child be doing for summer. That's a perfect training for it's good for all grades as well too. So coach Victor's doing that and if you guys are interested that one type with summer and then the team will grab you the link. So they all those those will be all private uh zoom links not live stream like this one. Uh so definitely do that. One question popped in. Do you think the pi keys will change for next year? No, I do do not think they have not changed in many many many years. They probably would not change for I don't think uh I well I think many years as well too. That's that. Cool. That's J. Quick little recap. If you guys are interested in kickstart, text the word kickstart to our number 9497750865. If you're interested in joining our training tomorrow, Wednesday or Friday went to Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Tuesday is going to be a walkthrough of the Common App. Text the word common app. Wednesday, financial aid uh prep for incoming seniors. Type the word money. Number three is summer classes or summer classes and activities, summer planning. I type the word summer to our team. They'll grab you the the special links for you guys there. One more question. Can you take uh very unrelated by the way this is a very unrelated question compared to anything else, right? Can you take a math out of Cal State if you finish community college math? Can you? You can. Should you? Is up to you, right? And then if you're one of our coaching families, reach out. Our team can recommend yes or no for you. Uh for me, I'd ask why. There's probably other things you can do instead of doing that level high of a math. Um, I think there's other things that might be more beneficial to do um than that specifically. Okay, cool. Cool. That is it for me today. Thank you everyone for joining. We still have 104 people here. So, thank you every for tuning in all the way to the very end. Um, that's it for me and I'll see you guys next for those in Kickstart. I'll see you guys in Saturday. For everyone else, I'll see you guys next uh next Monday. Chat soon. Bye.