Primrose Kitten
Starting to write your personal statement is sometimes the hardest thing in the world because so much depends on what you write in your personal statement and what other people think of what you write in your personal statement. This is going to determine what university you get into; your course and potentially your future career.
You don’t have to start at the beginning if you know exactly what your middle paragraph should say; know are what your end paragraph should say; write that down. You do not have to start right at the beginning because sometimes starting at the end then working backward can help you a little bit. If you're not sure what to write in a paragraph, make a list, little key points that you want to get in there, stuff you want to tell other people about you; what makes you really awesome and what you can do.
Set a timer on your phone sit down and type, just type whatever comes into your head, doesn't have to be good. Don't read it back, it doesn't have to be sensible. Sit there and type, a brain dump to the computer or onto a bit of paper, when that timer goes off after five minutes just have a look at what you've written it may be absolute rubbish that's fine; it may be absolute gold and that's great.
Why did you pick this subject university? You need to be able to this answer this question really confidently because you need to it make a main part of your personal statement and they’re probably going to ask you during any interviews. Spend some time thinking about why you love the subject and then write about it. Hopefully, this should come quite easy to you, because if it’s something that you love; something that you're passionate about.
What are you good at? What have you achieved in your life? What are your talents? Make a list of your achievements and then try and fit them.
If you are not sure what you love about that subject or what you're good at or we've achieved. Ask other people, there are other people that live in the same house you and have spent a lot of time with you. They may know why you love the subject if you pester them to go and visit this museum or ask them this question. They may remember some award that you've got two years ago that you didn't think was important but would impress the universities or they may remember a writing competition that you entered or something that you achieved. Sometimes thinking about yourself so intently can be a bit freaky, so ask other people for help. Use those and ask them is they can make some notes about what you’re good at or why you love the subject.
Once you've got all of your lists or your random notes, you can try and sort out a paragraph outline.
Your personal statement needs to stand out. It needs to be a tool that means you end up in the ‘yes’ pile instead of the ‘reject’ pile. And the way you structure that can have a massive impact on the opinion of the person reading it.
Your personal statement is a short insight into you as a person.
How to differentiate you as an amazing person from all the other people that have the same grades as you can be tricky.
Admissions tutors read hundreds if not thousands of UCAS forms, personal statements, every single year, and they have to turn them into piles. They have to put them into a ‘yes’ pile, a ‘no’ pile, and a ‘maybe’ pile. We want to make sure that yours goes into the ‘yes’ pile and not into the ‘no’ pile. So how do you make sure that your personal statement stands out as amazing?
The first trick is you need to find something to be passionate about, and this is hard. You're going to need to do a lot of reading, you're going to need to do a lot of research. If this is a struggle then you don't have to develop a life-long, overwhelming passion for something.
You have to remember is the person reading your personal statement has read hundreds, if not thousands of them and they're a little bit bored. If they see something in your personal statement that they don't like, you're going to go straight in the ‘no’ pile. You need to avoid putting things in the personal statement that are going to put people off.
You are in control of your personal statement, but you are not in control of your reference, however you can influence what goes into it and make sure it shows you off in the best possible light.
Do GCSE results matter?
The journey to the University of your choice starts a lot earlier than expected. And some people are going to be very surprised that GCSE results can stop you from getting into the university of your choice.
