Application Advice – 6 Tips for Doing Your Best on Minerva's Challenges

Tests can be intimidating, especially when they focus more on strategy than on accurately measuring a student’s abilities. Exams like the SAT, while frustrating, remain a requirement for many competitive universities in the United States, despite not always reflecting a student's true intellectual potential.

Minerva’s admissions process was designed to address these shortcomings, offering a fairer and more accessible alternative. For instance, the Challenges—an integral part of our process—evaluate your ability to think critically across various dimensions, rather than testing your capacity for memorization, expensive tutoring, or test-taking techniques.

Given how distinct the Challenges are from traditional university admissions requirements, applicants often ask how best to prepare.

CHALLENGES OVERVIEW

Here are the top 6 things to remember to ensure you do your best on the Challenges:

YOU CANNOT STUDY FOR THE CHALLENGES

This may be surprising, but once you complete the Challenges you will understand. There is nothing you should (or could) study beforehand. This is not because the material is too difficult, but rather because the tasks do not require that you memorize information.

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DO NOT USE ANY OUTSIDE RESOURCES

The Challenges are specifically designed to reflect your unique thinking, not the input of AI, websites, or other external sources. It’s important that you do not translate any part of the Challenges—they must be completed in English. While using outside aids is prohibited, you’re welcome to use paper and a pen or pencil for note-taking. Be aware that we verify all submissions, and any applicant found using external resources will be immediately disqualified.

HAVE A WORKING WEBCAM AND MICROPHONE

We are committed to allowing all students to apply without a fee and take the Challenges whenever it’s convenient. We are also proud that we admit only those students who truly meet our standards for admission. But, that means we must be confident that no one cheats. Please help us continue to uphold these fair practices by taking the Challenges without additional support, and by having a working webcam and microphone.

BE WELL-RESTED

You will complete the Challenges faster than you think. Though you can’t study for them, you can give yourself the advantage of being fully awake and alert so you can perform your best. You can complete the Challenges all at once, or at your own pace. Just remember you need to complete all of them before the admission cycle's deadline.

PROTECT YOURSELF FROM DISTRACTIONS

All challenges are timed, and the time goes by quickly! Optimize that time by avoiding potential interruptions: a) Turn off notifications on your desktop computer and your phone, b) close all the tabs you are not using to make sure you have a stable internet connection, and c) let people around you know that you need some privacy. The Challenges can be fun so friends or family walking by may be intrigued and want to ask you questions. Don’t let others’ curiosity disrupt you.

DO NOT PROCRASTINATE

It’s something we all do, but if you have a webcam, microphone, and 1.5 hours of quiet time, you can complete all of the Challenges in one sitting! You cannot study, so putting them off won’t give you any extra advantage. Completing the Challenges, however, means you will be done with the largest section of Minerva’s admissions process.

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We hope these tips were helpful. Remember: you can do it! In fact, in the time it’s taken you to read these tips, you could have completed one or more of your Challenges.

What are you waiting for? Get started now.

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For any further questions, please contact the Admissions Team at admissions@minerva.edu.

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