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St Andrews  /  Essays  /  Prompt 2

St Andrews: How your studies prepared you

Part of the 4,000-character total; minimum 350 characters

How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?
What it’s really asking

St Andrews wants you to connect your formal coursework (A-levels, IB, AP, high-school courses) to the skills and content the degree demands, showing you understand what the course will actually ask of you.

Why they ask it

This is where you prove academic readiness. International applicants especially need to translate their system (AP, IB, US GPA) into evidence that they can handle a rigorous, specialised UK degree.

Three ways in
Mine one class

Pick one or two courses and show a specific skill they built that the degree needs, like proof-writing or source analysis.

Use a real assignment

Describe a piece of assessed work (an essay, an EPQ, an IB extended essay, a lab) and what it taught you about working independently.

Cross your subjects

Explain how combining two subjects you study gave you a perspective the degree will use.

✕  Weak opening

“I am currently studying maths, physics, and chemistry, which are all very relevant to engineering.”

✓  Strong opening

“My extended essay forced me to defend a 4,000-word argument under questioning, which is the closest I have come to the independent work a degree demands.”

✦ Annotated example · How my studies prepared me. Written by EssayLens to teach, not a real applicant’s essay. Tap a highlighted line →
My A-Level History coursework asked who lost the Cold War, and I made the mistake of trying to answer it honestly. 1The deeper I read, the less the question held together, so I rewrote it to ask how Soviet citizens experienced the system collapsing around them. 2History taught me to distrust tidy narratives and to chase the source under the claim. 3Politics gave me the frameworks, but Mathematics, which I almost dropped, turned out to matter most: it taught me what a model is, that it simplifies on purpose, and that its assumptions are where the argument actually lives. 4My Extended Project on sanctions against Iran forced all three together. 5I had to read economics I barely understood, weigh contradictory data on whether sanctions change behaviour, and accept a conclusion I disliked: that they mostly punish the governed, not the governing. 6That project is the closest I have come to doing the work this degree asks for, and it is why I am sure I want more of it. 7
  1. 1Opens with a specific academic artefact (a coursework question) rather than listing grades. Self-deprecating phrasing signals genuine engagement.
  2. 2Shows the applicant reshaping a question, which is exactly the analytical habit IR rewards. Demonstrates initiative within formal study.
  3. 3Extracts a transferable skill from the subject rather than just naming the subject.
  4. 4Connects an unexpected subject (Maths) to IR methodology. Reflection, not a transcript dump, and it anticipates the quantitative side of the degree.
  5. 5Uses a concrete capstone (EPQ) to show synthesis across subjects.
  6. 6Shows intellectual honesty by reaching an uncomfortable, evidence-led conclusion. Demonstrates the reflective maturity St Andrews looks for.
  7. 7Ties preparation directly to the demands of the course, closing with motivation grounded in experience.
Stuck? Start here
  • Which assignment most felt like real university-level work, and why?
  • What skill does this degree need that one of my classes actually built?
  • How would I explain my grades or system to a tutor who does not know it?
Before you submit
  • Have I named specific work, not just subject titles?
  • Did I show a skill the degree genuinely requires?
  • Have I translated my qualification so a UK tutor understands it?

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