How to start a UC personal insight question answer

FFormer UC Berkeley admissions readers are close to unanimous that the scene-setting opening students learn for the Common App essay works against them in the UC's Personal Insight Questions. The habit is everywhere: a rainy morning, a hospital corridor, a chessboard at midnight, then a slow walk toward the point.

It is taught as good writing, and in a long essay read at leisure it can be. The UC essays are read under very different conditions, by people who are scoring as they go, and a student who spends the opening lines on atmosphere may hand the reader less to credit than a plainer classmate does. The reason begins with who is reading, and how fast.