MBA Video Essay Preparation Plan Template

MBA Video Essay Preparation Plan: [Your name]

A preparation plan for the recorded, timed video responses that some MBA programmes include in the application: short answers spoken to a webcam, usually to questions you see only when recording starts, with a fixed thinking time and a fixed response time. It explains the format in general terms, what schools say they assess, a story bank, answer structures for 60 and 90 seconds, a practice protocol with a scoring rubric, the technical setup, a day-of-recording checklist, AI-use rules and common mistakes. It is for applicants to full-time, part-time and executive MBA programmes at leading international schools. Source basis: the video instructions schools publish on their admissions pages (checked October 2026 and dated below), and research on structured and asynchronous video interviews, summarised in our own words. Replace every [bracketed] value and every row marked Example. The example applicant is fictional. This is a planning aid, not admissions, legal or financial advice.

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Contents

1. What video responses are and why schools use them
2. How the format usually works
3. School format register
4. What the reader is looking for
5. Story bank
6. Answer structures for 60 and 90 seconds
7. Practice protocol
8. Scoring rubric and progress log
9. Technical setup
10. Recording day checklist
11. AI use and integrity rules
12. Common mistakes
13. Timeline
14. My notes and next steps

1. What video responses are and why schools use them

A video response is a one-way, recorded answer to a question you usually see only when the recording starts. You answer to your webcam, not to a person, within a fixed time. Researchers call this format an asynchronous video interview, because the applicant records and the evaluator watches later (Lukacik, Bourdage and Roulin 2022).

Schools that use video responses describe several purposes on their admissions pages: to see how you think and communicate in your own words, to meet you as a person beyond the written file, and in some programmes to gauge spoken English. Yale SOM, for example, has stated that it introduced its video questions years ago partly to remove the need for an English test, and that the responses will not make or break an application (Yale SOM, 2026-2027 Application Guide, checked October 2026).

Because questions are unseen and time is short, you cannot write an answer in advance. What you can prepare is the material and the habit: a bank of true stories you can tell in under a minute, a simple structure you use without thinking, and enough practice in front of a camera that the format stops feeling strange. Research on employment interviews shows that structure (consistent questions, consistent evaluation) improves the reliability of judgements (Levashina, Hartwell, Morgeson and Campion 2014). Video responses are a structured format, so the applicant who is clear and specific within the time stands out.

2. How the format usually works

Common features, with variations:

3. School format register

As of October 2026, the following schools described video components on their official admissions pages. Check the current instructions before you rely on any of this.

• Kellogg (full-time MBA): five video essay questions, each answered in up to one minute after a brief moment to think; practice questions that can be repeated; about 30 minutes in total including setup; official answers cannot be re-recorded; due 96 hours after the application deadline, with the link appearing on the application status page after submission and payment (Kellogg, How to apply, Full-Time MBA).
• Yale SOM (full-time MBA): two previously recorded questions asked by admissions team members, similar to typical interview questions, with 60 seconds to answer each, completed after submitting the application and paying the fee, with a practice tool; the school asks applicants not to use AI and not to read from a script (Yale SOM, 2026-2027 Application Guide).
• MIT Sloan (full-time MBA): a first video of up to 90 seconds about who you are, recorded in a single take without editing, speaking directly to the camera, without background music or subtitles and without reading from a script; and a second response to a randomly generated, open-ended question that needs no preparation (MIT Sloan, How to apply).

Your register:

4. What the reader is looking for

Schools do not publish scoring sheets for video responses, and you should not assume one. Their pages describe what they hope to see, which in summary is:

A common misconception is that words matter little on video because of a "7%, 38%, 55%" rule about words, voice and body language. That figure comes from Mehrabian's experiments on how people judge feelings and attitudes when words and tone conflict (summarised in Mehrabian's book Silent Messages, 1971). It does not say that content matters little in an interview answer. Prepare content first; delivery makes good content easy to receive.

5. Story bank

Prepare eight to ten stories that between them cover the question types you are likely to meet. A single story can answer several kinds of question if you change the point you draw from it.

Coverage of common question types (mark the story you would use):

6. Answer structures for 60 and 90 seconds

Most people speak at somewhere between about 120 and 160 words a minute in calm conversation; measure your own rate by recording a one-minute practice answer and counting the words. The number of words that fit, computed with =ROUND(seconds/60*wpm,0):

Do not try to fit the maximum. A planned buffer protects you from being cut off mid-sentence.

Story questions: answer, example, close.

Words per segment computed with =ROUND(seconds/60*140,0); segment words may not add exactly to the total because of rounding.

Open-ended or opinion questions: position, reason, example, limit. State your view in one sentence, give the main reason, ground it in one example from your experience, and close with a limit or condition ("this works when ..."). This shows judgement, which a one-sided answer does not.

Prepared self-introduction videos. Where a school asks for a video you record yourself, the same rules apply with more care: a single idea, a story rather than a list, your own words, and any rules on editing, scripts, music and subtitles followed exactly.

Using the thinking time: in a few seconds, pick the story, decide the one-sentence answer, and decide the closing point. Do not plan the middle; the bullet prompts you have practised will carry it.

7. Practice protocol

The protocol uses principles with strong research support for durable learning: practice that retrieves material from memory rather than re-reading it, spread over several sessions rather than crammed (Dunlosky et al. 2013), and feedback after each attempt.

Write your own practice questions, one per card, by question type in section 5, and add questions you find hard. Draw them at random so that you practise choosing a story under time pressure. Examples of practice questions written for this template (not taken from any school):

1. Tell us about a decision you made with incomplete information.
2. What is something you changed your mind about in the last year?
3. Describe a time when your team disagreed with you.
4. What would your colleagues say you should work on?
5. What is a problem in your industry that you would like to solve?
6. Tell us about something you taught someone recently.
7. When did you have to deliver bad news?
8. What did you learn from a person very different from you?

Watch each take once only, then score it. Watching repeatedly makes people self-conscious without improving the next take.

8. Scoring rubric and progress log

Score each take from 1 to 4 on five criteria. The weighted score is =SUMPRODUCT(weights, scores).

Progress log, fictional example of six takes against a 60-second limit:

Over six takes the weighted score rose from 2.00 to 3.80, an increase of 90.0% (=(H7-H2)/H2 with the scores in column H). Takes 1 to 3 ran over the limit by 14, 6 and 1 seconds; from take 4 every answer finished inside 60 seconds with a buffer.

9. Technical setup

10. Recording day checklist

1. Re-read the school's instructions and confirm the deadline and time zone.
2. Set up the room as in section 9; run a test recording and play it back.
3. Put away notes and scripts. Keep only water and the admissions contact details.
4. Warm up for five minutes: answer two practice questions aloud.
5. Do the platform's practice questions if available, then start the official questions when ready.
6. During thinking time, choose the story and the one-sentence answer. Breathe out before recording starts.
7. Answer to the lens. If you lose your thread, pause, return to the point, and close calmly.
8. Move on after each answer. Do not dwell on a weaker answer; the next question is a fresh start.
9. If a technical failure occurs, note the time and what happened, take a screenshot, and contact admissions promptly.
10. Afterwards, write down the questions and how you answered them in mba/mba-post-interview-reflection, for later interviews.

11. AI use and integrity rules

As of October 2026, Yale SOM's application guide asked applicants not to use AI when completing the video questions and warned that reading from a script or relying heavily on notes defeats their purpose (Yale SOM, 2026-2027 Application Guide), and MIT Sloan's instructions for its prepared video asked applicants not to read from a script (MIT Sloan, How to apply). Other schools' policies on AI in applications range from prohibiting writing by another person or a tool, through allowing AI for ideas and editing but not for complete responses, to asking for a disclosure. Check each school's current statement before you rely on it.

1. Your answers are yours. No scripts, no teleprompters, no live prompts from a person or a tool during recording.
2. Check each school's policy for both written and video components, and follow it exactly.
3. Disclose when asked, accurately and in the form the school requests.
4. Practice tools are not answer tools. Using an AI tool to generate practice questions may be allowed; using one to draft answers you then memorise defeats the purpose and may breach the policy.
5. Do not share or seek the official questions. Treat any question you see as confidential if the school asks.

12. Common mistakes

1. Memorising a script. Recited answers sound flat and fall apart when the question differs slightly.
2. Reading from notes. Eyes moving across a screen are obvious on camera and may breach the school's rules.
3. Restating the question. It uses a sixth of a 60-second answer for nothing.
4. Two stories in one answer. There is time for one example, told well.
5. No close. Being cut off mid-example loses the point the story was meant to make.
6. Speeding up to fit more in. Fast speech is harder to follow, especially for listeners in a second language.
7. Looking at your own image. The viewer sees someone looking down and away.
8. Untested equipment. Echo, backlight and a frozen connection are found in test recordings, not in the real one.
9. Missing the separate deadline. Some video components are due a set number of hours or days after the written application.
10. Dwelling on a weak answer. It spoils the next one. Each question is scored on its own.
11. Contradicting the file. A new goal or a different number from the essays raises doubts.
12. Practising only with known questions. Comfort with familiar questions does not transfer to unseen ones.

13. Timeline

Record well before the deadline. If something goes wrong, you then have time to contact admissions while the window is still open.

14. My notes and next steps

Sources and further reading

• Kellogg School of Management. How to apply, Full-Time MBA. https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/admissions/ft-admissions/ft-how-to-apply/ (checked 2026-10-28).
• Yale School of Management. 2026-2027 Application Guide. https://som.yale.edu/programs/mba/admissions/application-information/application-guide (checked 2026-10-28).
• MIT Sloan School of Management. How to apply to the MIT Sloan MBA program. https://mitsloan.mit.edu/mba/admissions/how-to-apply (checked 2026-10-28).
• Lukacik, E.-R., Bourdage, J. S. and Roulin, N. (2022). Into the void: A conceptual model and research agenda for the design and use of asynchronous video interviews. Human Resource Management Review, 32(1), 100789.
• Levashina, J., Hartwell, C. J., Morgeson, F. P. and Campion, M. A. (2014). The structured employment interview: Narrative and quantitative review of the research literature. Personnel Psychology, 67(1), 241-293.
• Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J. and Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students' learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4-58.
• Mehrabian, A. (1971). Silent Messages. Wadsworth. Named for the misconception discussed in section 4.

Revision history

Standard and licence note

Based on the video instructions published on the official admissions pages of the schools named above (checked October 2026) and on published research on structured and asynchronous video interviews. The text, practice questions, rubric and examples are original; no school's question is quoted. The template is not affiliated with, endorsed by or produced by any school; school names are used only to describe published formats accurately. Check each school's current instructions before you rely on them. Template licence: MIT.