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Queen's: Supplementary written response (Commerce / Health Sciences / Nursing)

335-word limit, 10 minutes to write

Respond to a randomly assigned prompt (often about a significant challenge you faced and how you handled it) in a timed written response on Kira Talent.
What it’s really asking

For Commerce, Health Sciences, and Nursing, this timed written response replaces the general PSE. You get a prompt at random, usually asking you to describe a significant challenge and how you approached it, and you write under a clock with a hard word cap.

Why they ask it

The written rubric prizes a clearly articulated challenge, thoughtful and creative problem-solving that 'shows planning or creativity,' and authentic reflection on what you learned. Under time pressure, structure is your friend: challenge, action, lesson.

Three ways in
Pre-load three challenges

Have three real challenges ready in your mind so you can adapt to almost any random prompt fast.

Lead with the challenge

State the challenge in your first sentence. You do not have time for a slow build under a 10-minute clock.

Bank words for the lesson

Spend at least a third of your words on what you learned and what you would do differently next time.

✕  Weak opening

“Throughout my life, I have faced many challenges that have shaped who I am today.”

✓  Strong opening

“Two weeks before our fundraiser, our venue cancelled and we had already sold 80 tickets.”

✦ Annotated example · Timed written: a significant challenge (335 words). Written by EssayLens to teach, not a real applicant’s essay. Tap a highlighted line →
The challenge I keep returning to is the term my father was laid off and I took on a part-time job while keeping my grades up. 1I was sixteen, in my heaviest course load, and suddenly working sixteen hours a week at a grocery store. For the first month I tried to do everything the way I always had: same study hours, same sleep, same commitments. It did not work. My first chemistry test back came home with a mark I had never seen before. 2Rather than push harder at a system that was breaking, I rebuilt it. I mapped my actual available hours on paper and accepted I had to cut something. I dropped from two clubs to one, moved studying to the quiet first hour of my shifts' off days, and started using the bus commute for flashcards. 3I also did something harder for me: I told my teachers what was happening. I had assumed asking for help meant I was failing. Two of them let me reschedule labs around my shifts, and that small flexibility kept my grades steady for the rest of the year. 4By the end of the term my chemistry mark had recovered, and we were steadier at home. What I took from it was not that I can do everything, but that I can decide quickly what matters most and let the rest go. 5That is the skill I lean on now whenever a week looks impossible: I stop, I look at the real hours I have, and I choose.6
  1. 1Under a 10-minute, 335-word limit there is no time for a slow build. The first sentence names the challenge directly so every remaining word can go to handling it, which is what the prompt grades.
  2. 2Concrete stakes and an honest low point. Admitting the failed first approach (trying to do it all unchanged) sets up real problem-solving and signals self-awareness, which timed prompts reward over a tidy hero story.
  3. 3Shows adaptability and initiative through specific, sensible actions. With limited words, listing a few concrete changes proves the trait faster than describing feelings about it.
  4. 4A second, more vulnerable choice (asking for help) adds depth and reframes a belief. Brief reflection like this is what separates a strong timed response from a plain list of events.
  5. 5Names the lesson plainly and resists overclaiming. A modest, specific takeaway reads as genuine under time pressure, exactly the reflection-over-narration Queen's wants.
  6. 6A short, punchy close that ties the lesson to ongoing behavior. Ending on a crisp line uses the last words efficiently and leaves a clear final impression within the cap.
Stuck? Start here
  • What are three genuinely hard situations I have navigated, with a clear decision in each?
  • In each, what specific steps did I take that a reader could picture?
  • What is the one-sentence lesson I now carry forward from each?
Before you submit
  • My challenge is stated in the first sentence, not the third paragraph.
  • I show a real decision and concrete actions, not just feelings.
  • I am under 335 words and I end on a forward-looking lesson.

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