Testimonials

I am in Year 6 Sem 2 now, my last semester of school. Which means I'm currently in the process of sorting out my uni apps, and I'd just like to share about some aspects of my (currently limited) experience.

Testimonials. Start writing your testimonial early. For those of you who don't know, a testimonial is written by your mentor and included in your graduation package. It's basically a list of all your achievements in prose form, and some good comments about your character.

In Year 6 Sem 1, teachers will start telling you to write up a list of the achievements in the past few years that you feel are the most important and beneficial. This will be used later by your mentors to write your testimonial. Some mentors will allow you to write your own testimonial, because it makes their job easier, they just have to edit it.

Whatever it is, write it before the end of Sem 1, because it not only gives you good practice, it's also the simplest "essay" out of the way. If you think writing your testimonial is difficult, trust me, application essays are much worse.

Testimonials are also a very good way for you to reflect on what you've done in the past few years, which will make it easier when you write your essays later on, because the examples will be fresh in your mind and you can use to them show your interests.

If you have a lack of material to write in your testimonial (it should be about 3/4 page long), then it's good to start doing something to put in it. This is another reason why you should do it early, because if you wait until Sem 2 to do it, you'll realise you have no time left.

In summary, a testimonial is one of the easiest things you have to write. Yes it seems difficult at first because most of us find it difficult to blow our own trumpet, which is basically what you're doing in a testimonial. But it will definitely make it easier for you to write about yourself in your essays for uni applications, so do start early, and give your mentor enough time to edit it.