Here are 10 tips to prepare you to give your best and put all the chances on your side to join us next year.
1- Quality VS quantity
There is no point in writing for the sake of writing, the proofreaders will look first and foremost to determine whether your productions have added value in relation to the elements we give you. Spend time understanding the topic, analyze the material, and answer the questions in a relevant and original way. Better a small copy of great quality than several pages of blahs.
2- The importance of making a draft
Take the time to do drafts to get your ideas down. Time is allocated to allow you to find original/different angles of reflection.
3- Pay attention to readability and spelling
Your written expression will be graded on both content and form. Be careful, when you are at school, to make clean copies with as few erasures as possible (hence the importance of making a draft).
Second important point: spelling. Take the time to proofread before the end of the contest. For remote competitions, use the automatic correction tools. You have an advantage over students who take the competition at school. Nevertheless, to balance the scoring, the graders are harder for the distance competitions.
4- The oral motivation interview
It is an exchange with one or two professionals who will try to get to know you, understand your professional project and your level of experience/knowledge. Their objective: to determine if the school and the training correspond to your project.
Your CV or your Creative Book will be the essential elements to update in order to give a positive, reassuring and serious image of your profile. Share your projects, your passions and even your doubts with them in complete transparency. They are also there to suggest alternatives if they feel, for example, that a course would be better suited to your level or your project.
5- Manage your time well
You will receive all the titles of the written tests by e-mail or on the table at the beginning of the competition. From this moment on, the competition begins and lasts 3 hours and 10 minutes.
The time per event is indicative, it is up to you to manage it as you wish.
- Document analysis of a communication campaign: 1h30
- Description of a poster in English: 30 minutes
- Video player : 30 minutes
- Oral motivation interview: 40 minutes
At the end of the competition, you must hand in your papers when you leave the room or send them in PDF format by e-mail to the address you will be given.
6- Use your general knowledge and justify your opinion
To become a good communicator you need to :
- Curiosity
- Imagination
- General culture
Try to include as much background knowledge as possible in your papers, especially in the campaign analysis:
- Another campaign from the same brand
- A brand that did a similar campaign
- A constructive criticism of the campaign by giving your opinion: I like/dislike because… (we invite you to do this in the English test too)
7- Present your tests correctly
Editorial test (campaign analysis):
- Make a plan with an introduction, a development, a conclusion (the questions are used to guide your plan).
- 1 to 2 pages on computer or 3 to 4 pages on paper
English:
- A visual description of the poster and then an analysis of the concept/message/sense of the ad
- 20 to 30 lines
Video player :
- You have a 30 to 40 second clip of a series/movie, just before an action the video cuts and you have to imagine the end of the scene
- You have carte blanche on the form of writing the rest of the scene: novel, screenplay, etc.
- 20 to 30 lines
8- No stress, breathe, everything is fine
This competition is designed to find out your level of knowledge and your professional project. Depending on your level of education and your previous experience, we adapt our rating. A1st year applicant who is out of high school and generally has no work experience will not be judged on the same criteria as a4th year applicant with 3 years of coursework and internships.
Moreover, these are tests of imagination and analysis, there are no right or wrong answers. We want to know how you see the world. Do yourself a favor and give it your all.
Finally, juries are not there to bully you or push you into a corner, so go in with a smile and present yourself honestly. The particularity of the interview is that you do not know in advance the time of the interview, the jury will call you by Skype during the competition or a student will come and get you in the room to take you to the jury room.
Our advice: finish writing your sentence, note on your draft where you are and then do the interview. When you return, go right back to writing because the clock is still ticking. Don’t waste time debriefing your interview(I should have answered that, I forgot to mention that experience, I didn’t measure up, etc.). ). You can think about it after the contest is over and for 7-10 days while you wait for the results.
9- The strategic or creative brief
48 hours before the competition you will receive a brief by email, you can spend 1 hour or 10 hours on your report and you will present it and argue it during the oral motivation interview.
Strategic courses: you must imagine and propose communication actions for a brand.
Creative curriculum: you must imagine and produce an A4 poster for a brand. You have carte blanche on the type of rendering (drawing, pencil, sketch, on paper or computer, adobe suite or canvas).
10- Conducting a professional interview, even from a distance
Make sure you are in a quiet place with a stable internet connection. Dress as if you were coming to school. Pay attention to what appears behind you that might distract the jury.
All the team of Sup de Pub wishes you good luck for your contest(registration is here).
And to discover us in open house online or at the school it’s here.
Updated 26 April 2022