Personal Statement

Now,  I shall talk about one of the most important parts of the entire application process:

THE PERSONAL STATEMENT.

1) START EARLY
2)HAVE MANY MANY DRAFTS( I had 19)
3) Re-read it like a thousand times and pass it along to your teachers/parents/friends/anyone who can read to ask for improvements, suggestions and to check for any grammar errors!

Alright, so this 4000 word/37lines piece of essay is about YOU. Not about anyone else, just YOU. SO how should you write it?

Personally, i started it off by listing a whole bunch of things i have done/accomplished since high school:

Here is an example of what i had on my list:

Volunteered for the Youth Olympic Games (2010)

Volunteered for the Asian Youth Games (2009)

Achieved Gold Award in Swimming

Achieved 1 Star Award in Kayaking

Edusave Awards for Achievement, Good leadership and Service (EAGLES) -2007

And then next to each achievement/thing i have done, i write what I've learnt and a short reflection on it (about 3 sentences)

So. for example:

Member of School’s Student representative council

By working with my peers from different countries and cultures,I've gotten to understand better how teamwork works and how communication is key . For example, i was placed in charge of setting up a haunted house for a Halloween party where i had to work with my peers to set up the setting in a short of period time. I have learnt how to appreciate the dynamics of different teams as well by working with 2 different groups of people-my seniors and my juniors.

And then, after that start drafting your personal statement out. You would need to first have a structure in mind, this i what i suggest:

1.Why you want to study medicine

2.Your work experience/volunteering experience*

3.Your Extra Curricular activity*

4.Your academics( not so much on your grades but what extra things have you done? For example, i did a project on Penicillin alongside studying for my A levels)

5.Conclusion

To make your personal statement PERSONAL, i suggest adding stories to them, stories are a form of reflection and it makes your PS unique to only you and it also gives room for discussion during your interview.

 I've places an asterisk next to the parts where you can write a story.

so what is a story?

Here are some examples:

Through my experience in a Uniformed Group, I have experienced many setbacks, such as when my team lost a competition which we had trained very hard for. However, we learnt from our mistakes and in the next competition, achieved better results. From that, I understood the importance of perseverance and a positive mind-set.

Volunteering at a hospice has taught me how to communicate with patients. Acting as a translator between patients and a physiotherapist to describe the execution of exercises, has shown me how important it is to be patient when questioning patients. For instance, when the physiotherapist asked an elderly patient if he had any concerns regarding his health, he neglected to inform her that he constantly felt breathless. It took further questioning, for this and the fact that he used to be a heavy smoker to be revealed. With this information the therapist could then advise him on what exercises he could carry out to improve his condition.

These were some stories i had initially wanted to include i my personal statement but had not managed to due to the word limit , please do not copy them as this may cause a problem to you when UCAS does the similarity detection test!

Stories are very important! They make your personal statement more interesting to read but to have an effective story, you have to first be able to reflect on your experience so i would suggest keeping a work experience diary when you are doing your work experience or during your voluntary work. 

Also, they make your interviews(when you get them!) easier in a way because 'personal' questions are much easier to answer than 'technical questions"(aka science questions) when you are under stress!

I think this is all i have to say about the Personal statement now!

Feel free to email me @ lovebullets1995@gmail.com if you have any questions! and good luck for your applications!(: