Selection criteria: the STAR method panels actually reward

Every APS applicant has heard of STAR: situation, task, action, result. Most responses still miss, and they miss the same way: two hundred words of scene-setting followed by a rushed sentence of substance. Panels mark the substance.

The 60-word rule

In a 250-word response, situation and task together deserve at most 60 words. One sentence for where you were and what was at stake; one for what you specifically owned. The panel does not need the org chart or the program's history. They need to know it was you.

Actions are decisions, not activities

Weak actions read as attendance: liaised, supported, assisted, was involved in. Strong actions read as authorship: decided, designed, negotiated, redirected, stopped. Three actions, each a sentence starting with a verb whose subject is I, each one traceable to a choice you made rather than a meeting you sat in.

Results need a number or a named consequence

Delivered successfully is not a result. Cut processing time from nine days to three is. Adopted across four business units is. Where the outcome resists numbers, name its consequence: the minister's office took the recommendation, the audit closed with no findings, the client renewed.

Write at your level

APS5 answers show independence, APS6 answers show ownership, EL1 answers show judgement under ambiguity and the development of other people. Read your draft and ask which level it sounds like; near-miss applications are usually written one level down. Our free starter kit includes the level cheat sheet, and the criteria service writes to your actual pack.