The Libra Essay Prize 2025
An annual essay prize for all students in years 12 & 13 looking to prepare for university.
An excellent way for 6th form students to demonstrate that they have the makings of a scholar, the Libra Essay Prize offers a chance to prepare for the academic rigour required by university assignments and provides a great accomplishment to discuss on a personal statement or at an interview. With inspiration from the admissions process at All Souls College, Oxford – known as ‘The hardest exam in the world’ – students are required to write an essay responding to one of the single-word essay prompt words below.
Choice
generation
intelligence
placebo
power
Students are free to choose any subject from the list below for their essays, which should feature a title containing the chosen word. We recommend students use their imagination to build interesting links between their chosen essay title and their school learning. This is an opportunity to hone their essay-writing ability and showcase their knowledge, research and writing. Submitted essays will be vetted for plagiarism and judged by a range of academic specialists.
Categories
English - Science - History - Philosophy - Economics - Politics - Arts - Maths - Law
Guidelines for candidates
Essays should be a minimum of 1,500 and a maximum of 2,000 words (not counting diagrams, tables of data, endnotes, bibliography or referencing).
Candidates must be in years 12 or 13 (or equivalent) to participate. We welcome entries regardless of the candidate’s nationality or location.
Submitting more than one entry per candidate is not allowed.
All essays should feature Harvard-style citing and referencing.
All entries must be the candidate’s original work. Essays published or awarded elsewhere will be disqualified. Any texts containing plagiarism will be disqualified.
The essay must feature a title using a form of the prompt word. The title cannot be solely the prompt word.
The essay must be submitted in WORD format using Times New Roman size 12, black, double-spaced and fully justified.
The deadline for submission is 14th April 2025, 17:00 GMT. Late submissions will not be accepted.
Entries will be judged on content, use of the prompt word, analysis, structure and language.
The judges’ decision is final.
There will be no communication between the candidates and Libra Education until the decision has been made in June 2025.
Entry is free of charge and previous registration is not required.
The filename must be in this format: FirstName-LastName-Category-Word.doc. The candidate's name should not appear within the document itself.
Upon submission, candidates accept all the terms and conditions above.
We accept entries from all over the world, but they must be written in English. If you have any questions please contact us today by email and the team will be in contact in response to your query.
Prizes available
There will be a 1st (£50), 2nd (£30) and 3rd (£20) overall prize paid out in book vouchers, as well as Commended and Highly Commended entries for each category.
The best 20 entries from students attending state schools in the UK will be awarded a scholarship with Libra Education. They will be entitled to an academic consultation and a follow-up tutorial focused on supporting them with their university applications.
To see the Libra Education 2024 Essay Prize winners, please click here.