Mastering School Admission DSA Interviews: Essential Tips (Part 1)

Preparing for a school admission interview can feel daunting, but with the right strategies and preparation, you can excel and leave your interviewers with a positive first impression. In this article, we share essential DSA school admission interview tips that will help your child formulate and articulate swift and outstanding responses in any interview setting.

Due Diligence: Understand the Interview Process and Setting

If possible, try to familiarize your child with the interview process, such as doing discovery regarding the setting of the DSA interview – e.g. is it going to be a one-to-one setting or a panel of interviewers, or will there be other interviewees joining in the group interview. Online or face-to-face. Any essay writing component? Any video-recording of self-introductory speech. Knowing what to expect can alleviate anxiety caused by uncertainty.

If it’s a panel, your child will need to take into account the inclusion of the other interviewers when giving his or her responses in terms of eye contact distribution and hand gestures. If it is going to be a group interview with other competitors offering their responses in the same period, your child will have to know how to evaluate the opinions of others and know how to value-add to those ideas in order to stand out instead of just parroting “I agree/ disagree.”.

Due Diligence: Research the School’s Values, Culture, and Niche Areas

Another key tip is to thoroughly research the school’s values, history, and educational philosophy. For example, Xinmin Secondary School’s motto is X=Q. What does that mean? Interviewers of XMS would be more impressed with interviewees who took the effort to learn about what Xinmin = Quality mean (quality/ excellence in what areas etc.). ACSI would be intrigued by interviewees’ own interpretation of their motto “The Best Is Yet To Be”. All these are being publicised by schools themselves through their YouTube, Facebook, Instagram channels and official website. Understanding what the school stands for allows you to tailor your responses to align with its mission.

If you’re applying to a school that emphasizes community service and leadership, be prepared to discuss your volunteer work or instances where you’ve taken the lead in school projects. If you’re applying to a school that has a strong focus on mathematics and science, accentuating your Olympiad experience will be salutary.

Prepare Your ‘killer’ Personal Story (i.e. your keynote speech)

A strong personal narrative can set you apart from other candidates. Sharing your interests and goals is required but also common, therefore, making it hard to be outstanding in terms of the response. Knowing how to weave in obstacles and challenges and the hero’s journey in a way that is both engaging and genuine – THAT will be outstanding! You may learn more about storytelling here – but that will be taught in our DSA Interview Workshop (learn more here).

Stay tune for part 2 where we share the other DSA interview tips – 1. Practice common interview questions, and 2. Showcasing achievements without being haughty, and body language and more!

Please bear with us – as yes, the following will be a brief product plug for our ISM (Interview Skills Mastery program for children, ONLY during March Holidays):

Our interview workshop is not just another event on your child’s academic calendar—it’s an opportunity to build interpersonal communication skills, speaking confidence, refine body language cues, and learn the interview techniques that can help your child succeed during the DSA or University school admission/ internship/ scholarship process. The many benefits of attending a quality interview workshop include – helps demystify the interview process, imparts practical strategies for preparation, and clocking in the effective rehearsals and practices through mock interview sessions.