Career
STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) is the most reliable structure for behavioural answers. The trick isn't knowing the framework — it's having 6–8 STAR stories ready before you walk in.
The four parts, briefly
- Situation: 1–2 sentences setting context.
- Task: what was specifically yours to solve.
- Action: what you did (use 'I', not 'we').
- Result: quantified outcome + what you learned.
Build your story bank
Prepare 6–8 stories that cover: leadership, conflict, failure, ambiguity, ownership, teamwork, learning, and impact. Most behavioural questions will map to one of these.
Common mistakes
- Spending 3 minutes on Situation, 20 seconds on Result.
- Hiding your specific contribution behind 'we'.
- Forgetting to quantify the result.
A counsellor's view
In our 1:1 sessions, we walk clients through this exact framework with their personal data — academic record, interests, family context and budget. Reading is a great first step; a conversation usually unlocks the next one.