Personal Statements: Where to Start?!

Aims

It can be completely bewildering to know where to start with your personal statement. This blog series will take a detailed look at how to approach the Personal Statement, and break down the process into clear steps.

Many students fall at the first hurdle, and end up panicking because they don’t know where to start. However, there is a clear approach that will overcome the ‘blank page’ issue, and increase your chances of creating a strong personal statement. But it’s up to you to take advantage of the methods and put them into practice!

The General Approach

I’ve split the personal statement writing process into two key sections - the content (what you write about), and the strategy (how you pull it all together and make it work as a single piece of work).

Within this, each blog will cover the most important hints, tips, and examples. They’ll then give you instructions for how to start writing.

Most good personal statements will need drafting and redrafting and editing, and maybe even rewriting (!) several times before your deadline. So you must start early!

Using the Blogs

Obviously, which bits you focus on will depend on what it is about the personal statement you’re struggling with, how much time you have for consultations about your statement, and the feedback you’re given on any writing you’ve already done.

There are some general tips though:

• Be prepared to change your approach
  There are several ways to approach writing your personal statement, your teachers will have their own view, and you will have yours. At the end of the day, you have to be happy with the statement you submit, but there are some things you ought to cover, and some things which would probably be best left out.

• Keep your Resources Together
  Sometimes you’ll make a change to a personal statement, and then some weeks later want to get back to the wording you used previously. You should keep all the resources you use, notes you make, and drafts you write in one place - and take care of them!

• Use the Examples Last

  I’ve included some resources which have examples from a range of subjects. However it’s really difficult to write your own thing if your brain is trying to make it sound like something you just read. So don’t use the examples until you’ve already written something!