The best time to start planning Your Personal Statement is today.
As cliché as it sounds, the earlier you start, the easier you will make it for yourself. There are four key reasons why you should start sooner rather than later:
- It allows you to identify weak areas. Many students begin writing their statement, then realise they haven't done enough work experience or research. Starting early allows you to fill in these blanks once identified.
- You get more time for revisions. You can improve your personal statement by showing it to as many people as possible to get their feedback. Starting early gives you more time for this.
- You can keep a steady pace. Rather than cramming everything about your statement into a space of two weeks, starting earlier allows you to spend less time on it and more time for the rest of your work.
- Prompt submission. Although the deadline is 25th of January for most courses, some require a deadline before this (for example medicine , dentistry, and any course at Oxbridge).
Personal Statement Research
You need to establish two things: What course? and What university? Start off by speaking to teachers about the subjects you enjoy. They will have detailed knowledge of course requirements, but they will also know you personally. They can talk about the course in the context of your personality.
The next step is talking with your parents, then moving onto university open days. Your choice of university is completely personal – it will need to be somewhere you can see yourself spending the next 3-6 years of your life.
Talk to current students of that university, they will give you the most unbiased information. On the open day, tour the university – and speak to tutors and other peers who are considering applying to the university. Once you have shortlisted several universities and courses, your personal statement preparation can begin.
For more inspiration, take a look through our other successful Personal Statement analysis articles:
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Gather Topics To Include In Your Personal Statement
Before you start writing, it’s important to have things to write about. Spend a bit of your time brainstorming what you think the universities want you to include in the personal statement. Later down the line, you will be glad you did this! Here are some examples:
- Why did you choose this course?
- What are your 3 main hobbies and what skills have these help you develop?
- What are your long-term career ideas/aspirations?
- What is your favourite A-level subject and why?
- Have you attended any courses?
- Have you held a position of responsibility? What did you learn from it?
- Have you won any prizes or awards?
Answer all of these questions and you will get a good baseline to start writing your personal statement.
How Will Universities Use My Personal Statement?
This can change how you write your personal statement. For courses that don’t interview, your personal statement is directly bidding on the course. If this applies, then your statement is simplest to write but just be aware that this is your only opportunity to say what you want to say.
If your course uses the statement as a segway to interview, then it requires more thought. This is because you want to have enough to allure the admissions tutor in the statement, but also enough to speak about in the interview. This means striking a careful balance.
Some tutors will go through the entire statement with you in the interview; which means withholding enough information on your personal statement so that you can speak about your experiences with the interviewer. This also means the structure of your personal statement will dictate the structure of your interview.
Final Comments
Creating a plan for your personal statement is the best way to ensure you create a great piece. By having a clear structure and knowing exactly what you want to include, you will find yourself spending less time questioning your decisions.
We hope this article gave you a good overview of the things you need to consider before you start writing your personal statement. Check out our other personal statement articles and successful examples on our Free Personal Statement Resources page.
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