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A fictional student's second draft for Common App prompt 2. Tap a score, click a highlight, tick off the plan.

Common App · Prompt 2 · Draft 2

Application prompt

2. The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

6.3 / 10

+1.3 since Draft 1

A vivid, honest failure story with a genuinely mature ending — held back by a generic middle and a lesson that's stated instead of shown.

Prompt fit: Partially aligned — Clearly recounts a setback and what you learned; the 'how it affected you' part is the thinnest.

Essay Profile

Read-through

Click a highlight to see its note.

The night before the regional science fair, our water filter made the creek water browner.¹ I had promised my team it would work. For six weeks I had layered sand, gravel and charcoal in a two-liter bottle, and for six weeks the water had come out clearer every time. Now, at 11:40 p.m., Maya held the jar up to the kitchen light and said nothing.² I learned a lot about teamwork and never giving up that night.³ We took the filter apart layer by layer on my mom's kitchen table. The charcoal was the problem: I had crushed it into powder to "increase surface area,"⁴ and the powder was washing straight through. Maya suggested we rinse it first. Dev, who had barely spoken all project, asked whether we could rinse the charcoal first.⁵ At the fair, a judge asked why our results table had a crossed-out row. I could have hidden it. Instead I told her about the brown water, the powder, and Dev's question.⁶ She wrote something down and moved on. We got third place. But that is not what I think about now. I think about how close I came to presenting the version of the project where nothing went wrong, and how much less interesting that version would have been.⁷ Everything changed for me after that night.⁸ I started showing my work in every class, including the parts that failed.

Notes

1. Cut the two summary sentences
High impact · Reflection
Delete the teamwork summary and 'Everything changed' lines. They state lessons the story already shows.
2. Expand the judge scene
High impact · Detail
Spend 60–80 more words on the moment you chose to explain the crossed-out row.
3. End on a concrete example
Medium impact · Detail
Replace the last paragraph with one specific moment from a class after the fair.
4. Show how you changed the team
Medium impact · Contribution
Add a line about what you did that let Dev speak up.

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