hi guys welcome back to my channel this is the progress element and I am aja today I will be talking about the Kennedy lugar Youth Exchange and study program which is a fully funded scholarship for high school students by the US government on my channel I post regularly about opportunities and scholarships for students so if you are interested in these topics make sure to LIKE and subscribe if you haven't already I would recommend checking out another video that I made about the K Lea's program which goes into detail about the application process as well as the application tips for the program for this video I will be giving you a quick recap of the application rounds and then diving right into the specific questions that you guys have asked above this program's application process and answer them to the best of my ability so for the quick recap the application process for this exchange program scholarship is divided into a number of rounds the first round is a preliminary application which includes your basic information as well as your academic transcripts or results if you pass this round you will be called in for an entry test if you pass with the entry test then you will be called in for a group discussion activity and an interview session after this comes the final round which is a standardized English language test for high school students after clearing all of these rounds you will be selected as the finalists for the Kas program and hopefully will be traveling to the United States to meet your host family and enjoy your exchange program so now that we're done with the quick recap let's get right into your questions so the first question is what can I expect in the test so the entry test is as far as I know an English language test which will be based on reading and listening skills and there may or may not be a short portion related to math keep in mind that the entry tests in the application process may differ from country to country so don't take all of the advice that I give as a concrete and always be prepared for more so the second question is how can I prepare for the kale yes interview and what questions can I expect so a lot of you have actually asked this question my advice would be to prepare for the basic interview questions for any scholarship program or for any interview in general so these questions include talking about yourself tell me about yourself what would you like me to know about you so to answer these questions you would first have to know about yourself know your strengths your weaknesses what kind of person you are and what you're doing in life I know it sounds very simple but practicing these is very important because this demonstrates how well you can communicate or articulate your own personality which matters a lot another tip I would give you is to prepare for scenario based questions so a lot of times in the kos interviews they will give you scenarios for example you are in your host family and something goes wrong or during your exchange this and this happens what would you do so in order to answer these questions you must have the ability to solve problems to be adaptable and flexible and to communicate effectively so think about those things when formulating your answers of course you cannot prepare for these questions well in advance but you can practice the skills that are needed and you can think what you would do as an exchange student and that might help you answer these questions there might also be questions related to your growth experiences or scenarios which you have learned from so also think about those scenarios so what is the significant what have been the significant moments in your life that have allowed you to grow as a person and what did you learn from those moments last but not least for the interviews I would just suggest you to be confident be open-minded be very good at articulating what you want to say which is why you need to practice the basic questions in advance and just speak the truth as it is and don't try to formulate a personality cater to what you think they would want and as actually one of the questions that somebody asked which was what kind of personality do you think they would like me to have honestly you can have any type of personality they definitely do not want you to change your personality and there's no set personality that each exchange student has I would say that these there are certain qualities that make good exchange students for example good communication adaptability flexibility or just a general open-mindedness or the curiosity to learn about other cultures and celebrating diversity so if you have those qualities then you would be a good fit for the program if not then worst case you don't get in and you can apply to so many other scholarships don't worry about it don't try to change your personality just to get into a certain program so the next question asks how can I prepare for the group discussion activity so the group discussion activity as far as I remember is just you discussing a topic any group and the instructors or the people who select you for the program will be sitting there in some sort of corner or they will be sitting with you they will tell you not to look at them so one mistake that I remember making was that I kept looking at them but I definitely would recommend you to not do that listen to them just pretend that they're not there for those moments and just talk to your peers I know that it can be very hectic and some people will try to talk a lot which I don't think is the best tactic your goal should be to participate in a discussion as you normally would so don't cut other people off also make sure that you speak make sure that you're not not sharing your own opinions that is all that I could say for that activity because it is based on your communication skills but I would say don't be too vicious or ruthless and try to you know over the conversation because nobody likes that be accommodating but then again make sure that you participate in the activity and don't let everyone else speak and just you know be sitting in the corner just holding onto your opinions and waiting for someone to give you the opportunity because it's really about speaking and socializing it's just them seeing who you are as a person and how you are in group scenarios if that makes sense next question is what can I expect in the English proficiency test I assume you're talking about either the entry test or the standardized test for the exchange students so as far as I remember these tests are based on different skills so there will be a listening portion or reading portion which is comprehension and then a writing portion where you have to write so for this test of course you need to have good English and you can practice that whichever way makes sense to you so watch a lot of movies and a lot of shows practice speaking English read books right practice your creative writing make sure that you have minimized your grammatical mistakes and make sure you're comfortable with just reading writing and speaking English and you should be good so another person asked do you recommend using formal English during the essays yes and yes I always recommend using formal English because this is a formal scenario and you want to be as respectful as possible so it is best to stick to formal English the next question is can I apply again if I fail this year yes you can and don't be afraid to apply again the next year or even the year after that because a lot of the people that joined me during my exchange year were students who had applied the year before or the year even before that I got in the first time I applied and I'm very thankful for that but I know that sometimes you need a lot more growth a lot more experiences or maturity in order to be accepted to the program so do take that opportunity to apply again the next question is how much time do they take to inform you if you have been selected for the next round in the application process so as you know there are different rounds and the way they notify you if you have been selected for the next process may be different for different countries but in Pakistan they would usually send you mail and from what I learned from the kale yes program manager in my country is that it may take from 2 to 6 weeks they do not want to give out the exact date because of course it may differ per round and it may not be the same so just wait hope for the best when do selected students get to travel selected students get to travel in the month of August somebody asked do you think applying for the kale yes program and participating in it will affect my CA ie or all levels grades negatively so I applied for the yes program and got in after 9th grade so I traveled after ninth way to the US came back studied in tenth grade gave my all level exams so to answer your question no your grades will not be affected as long as you're willing to work hard and we adjust back to your own country and your own system the last question that is asked is am I eligible to apply for the yes program if I'm in 11th grade so for this question I asked the program manager in Pakistan and he said that 11th graders are unfortunately not eligible to apply I'm sorry that you can't apply for the program but I can tell you that there are a lot of other opportunities and I post about many scholarships for high school students on my channel so make sure to subscribe and with that I will be ending this Q&A video and I hope you liked the video bye