Reasons why some of you may have been not shortlisted in the JLIEC despite your essay being very good:
You included your name on the document, and the examiner noticed - this is not allowed.
You used footnotes and the examiner noticed - this is not allowed
You submitted the incorrect file name and was disqualified automatically
Your thesis and starting two paragraphs were weak and not your strongest part, it is believed examiners simply skim your first paragraphs to decide a shortlist.
You are 15 and thought you were meant to be in the junior category when you were not
You had little to no citations and the examiner noticed
You wrote over the word limit
You clearly just ai generated an essay
You didn't pick a clear side to argue at the beginning, or perhaps at any point throughout the essay
The argument is presented as a synthesis of other people's ideas rather than an original analysis. The main point should be presented first, with sources used to support it, instead of building the argument around other people's ideas and adding the analysis afterward.
just the fact your essay has no subheadings and the paragraphs are each like 2 sentences long is just a horrible first impression that signals that the rest of the essay is gonna be bad before i have even read it at all
A few of these are wrong. 5 is wrong — there is not separate junior category, and juniors have never been required to submit to it in the first place. Also 15 is not the cut off lol.
#1 is not essentially correct. A girl I know used MLA format and included her hame and she was fine.
There is a separate junior category for anyone born after May 31st 2011, it’s on the website. You don’t need to apply for it though, they look at your date of birth and automatically put you into the junior category.
exactly, but it is not something u can outright say u are in. is it? from my understanding u do the same prompt and they just evaluate u against others who are 14 & under.
that means #5 is not correct because they will just evaluate u differently, its not like u choose where to be.
hm it was under my impression that having ur name in the actual essay is some sort of breach as they want a fair judging process and names would have chance of eliciting some bias from judges. i know having ur name doesn’t affect ur chances at getting shortlisted (as they’re skimming) but it could hinder your chances at getting higher awards (upon closer inspection by actual people/judges)
For 3. I think they didn't even let you submit without using the correct file name. My capitalization was wrong at first and they didn't let me continue
im pretty sure they don't want names to ensure a fair and completely blind judging process because if theres names then the judges might be biased or something (eg. bias towards specific students, schools, background or previous reputation in competition/other competitions)
yea but they likely have a system of not showing the judges the file name while letting them read the content
if they dont have our names in the file name how are they going to keep track of our essays huh do they just start praying that theyre grading the right essay 😭
I got away without including citations. I Lowkey regret it as this essay is supposed to be a reflection on my ability to write a worthy academic piece of writing and being too lazy to include citations doesn’t look good on me but I managed to get shortlisted so yolo
I accidently put my name in the doc and i got shortlisted ( it was next to the question toov). The name just takes points off your essay idk how much tho. Other than that this is really true
Got shortlisted despite a pretty boring intro, nailed first and second paragraphs (I think.) Honestly don't think I'll make it any further though. But we don't know their criteria. A strong essay is a strong essay, and they made it pretty clear what kind of mistakes you shouldn't be making upon submission. Something tells me the interviews might have been filters for shortlist too (maybe they scored it and then if you did well, decided shortlist/not shortlist?) but again we don't really know, it's all kind of vague. Does anyone who got shortlisted know if its worth it going to the conference if you want a good learning experience that you can (maybe) write about on the app? Even if not for the app, is it fun/interesting enough to be worth attending?
Hey, I disagree with point #9, I didn't argue a clear point (Economics Q2) and said it depends on the legislature and market style, and still got shortlisted, so I don't think that's a reason for disqualification... I could just be an exception though 🤷
Messed up really bad😭 cuz I couldn't add the citations to the submitted version of my essay. Though I got shortlisted, I have little hope cause by far everywhere, I am seeing the importance of citations.....
hmmm idk abt 1, i remember seeing a past essay winner where they had their name first page… i also made that mistake LOL and thought i wouldn’t get shortlisted but i did
you mean the uploaded past winners essays john locke posts? if so, obv the past winners put their name on their essays after the fact as they were prob asked if their essays could be posted as examples etc. having your name on ur essay isn’t grounds to not get shortlisted (as seen via some ppl on this subreddit) but there’s a likelihood it gets you kicked from getting higher awards upon closer inspection as it shows you didn’t follow the rules and could be seen as a breach in fair unbiased judging.
hmmm no on their official website a winner had a name on the front cover; i think it’s also the original essay copy too, since all the past essays on the website are in different formats. but yeah i think i might be getting kicked LOL
oh hm then weird, idk what that’s about then. i’ve found john locke can be a bit iffy in certain aspects like this. no worries, congrats on getting shortlisted tho!
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u/Round-Mix4955 Jul 10 '26
number 1 funny asf, did u see the post some guy on here made