Three Practical Ways to Answer Challenging Prompts

Scholarship applications that ask the question: “Tell me about a challenge that you overcame” can send shivers down your spine. This is especially true when you feel like the biggest challenge you have had to face is the time the heater went out in your swimming pool and you had to swim in 70-degree water.

challenge essay In all seriousness, if you feel like you have never faced any real adversity or challenges in your life, here are three ways to handle these types of questions. With a little bit of thought and some creativity, the question is not nearly as hard as you think.

Consider the Purpose of the Question

First, there is some type of challenge that everyone faces at various points in their life. The purpose of this type of questions is to learn how you will respond to and handle challenges you will face in college. Believe me, you will face challenges. The question is also designed to show something about your character, through your ability and willingness to solve problems.

This question itself poses a challenge because most think in terms of life altering challenges. However, you do not have to have faced a life filled with adversity and loss to answer this question in a thoughtful manner. All you need to do is keep the purpose of the question in mind. It’s all about showing how you handle and respond to difficult circumstances and challenges. Here are some ideas to get you thinking:

A goal you set that was difficult to accomplish.
An oral report you had to give, that made you nervous or embarrassed.
A difficult or challenging subject that you had to work a little harder at.
Think of a difficult teacher that was hard on you or had an unusual teaching style you had to adjust to.
What about a difficult sport or activity where you struggled for competence. Maybe you played volleyball and are only 5’2.
A competition that was very demanding and required many hours or your time.
Were you involved in a community service project while seeking to excel in academics?

You see there are may challenges that you have faced, pick one, and answer the question with its purpose in mind.

Highlight Your Ability to Navigate a Challenging Situation

You want to show the reader of your application how you will deal with obstacles that will come up in college. College is itself challenging, assure them that you will not fall apart at the first setback you may face. You can write a great essay about a relatively mundane challenge. Perhaps you had a challenge with schedule conflicts in being able to schedule all the classes you wanted to take or had to choose between two activities you really liked. How did you make that choice? Let the reader know how you navigate through a difficult situation, without giving up or falling apart.

You can write a great essay about a relatively mundane challenge. Perhaps you had a challenge with schedule conflicts in being able to schedule all the classes you wanted to take. Write about having to choose between two activities you really liked, that can be a huge challenge. How did you make that choice? Let the reader know how you navigate through a difficult situation, without giving up or falling apart.

Let the reader know how you navigate through difficult situations, without giving up or falling apart.

Show How You Have Regularly Challenged Yourself

Again, to answer this question your challenge does not have to be a major life hardship. Resist the temptation to make something sound like a worse obstacle than it was. My daughter’s admission essay was all on overcoming challenges in learning to surf. You simply want to show

My daughter’s admission essay was all about overcoming challenges in learning to surf. You simply want to show
that you have actively sought to challenge yourself in some manner. Your challenge can come from pursuing higher academic classes, sports, community service or a leadership position.

Show how you were resilient in overcoming the obstacles involved in those challenges.

I hope you see that this question is not the most challenging thing you have had to overcome. But rather it can be a simple question to answer with just a little bit of thought.

Now go and do something to make today your Favorite day!!