The Given, The Find, and The Solution by Kyle

The Given, The Find, and The Solution by Kyle - December 2017 Scholarship Essay

I believe the ultimate strategy for success on a school project is the Given/Find/Solution Method. If utilized correctly, success is imminent. Starting off this method is, the Given. The Given, is an in depth break down of the entire assignment or project. Dissecting the assignment line by line picking out the necessary information required to successfully complete the project. Which is crucial to understanding the scope and its solution. Asking yourself the following questions and organizing an outline with respect to them will provide framework for the next step. Example questions include, but are not limited to: What is the project asking? What do I know? What do I not know? What is the answer? What are the requirements? What is permitted? What is prohibited? Often times, to fully understand the big picture, understanding the smaller pieces is critical.

The next step in my ultimate strategy for success, is a personal favorite. After completing the outline from the Given, we have a road map to success. In order to successfully complete this section, the Find; all questions, comments, concerns should be addressed from the Given. Exhaustively researching every topic you don’t understand, while mastering topics you do, is the goal of the Find. This provides the meat and potatoes of the project, because it is the who, what, where, when, and how of the process. Letting your ideas flow and imagination run wild is what makes this section so enjoyable. If done correctly, the Find section provides an enormous amount of usable information for the coherent outline created in the Given.

Now comes the final and arguably most important step of the ultimate strategy for success on a school project, the Solution. If the previous two steps have been successfully executed the Solution step may also be the easiest. The Given provided a concise outline of the problem to solve, while the Find fills the outline with a wealth of usable information. While revisiting the project requirements and guidelines, the presentation of our Solution begins to take shape. Any information gathered that does not specifically satisfy the project requirements, significantly improve your project, or distinguish it from the competition should be discarded. This step, also known as ‘trimming the fat’, will turn your project into a laser or brilliance and success will be undoubtedly be achieved.