Personal Statements

Simon SmithHead of Sixth Form

Colyton Grammar School

• I don’t know where to start

• I haven’t done anything to put on there

• I’m useless

• I don’t do anything outside of school

• I’m no good at English – I can’t write well

IAG from Year 7

• A networked personal portfolio

• CV & letter of application (Y9)

• Work experience evaluation

• Y12 learning journals

• Y13 ambassadors

Hitting the ground running in Year 12

• Lesson culture …what are you reading, what are the routes forward, where does this lead? Extension work.

• PSHE culture …drawing it all together

• Extended Project …time-scale

• Personal Statement …one draft finished before the summer holidays.

Managing the process

• Nominating a single teacher

• Draft turnover (in before & back after summer break)

• Quality check (two week process)

A word of caution …

• Bespoke Personal Statement services …

Getting started …

UCAS – Home

• Personal Statements Advice

• Entry Profiles

Online Prospectus

Structure

• Short introduction (always leave until last)

• The main body of the PS should be course-related

• It could tell a story about a developing and proliferating interest – or one about increasingly close focus.

• End with your wider interests/achievements.

Drawing links …• Between texts within subjects

(thematically/intellectually/aesthetically)

• Between texts within subjects and wider reading (EP?)

• Between subjects (electro chemical gradients in Chem. – nervous impulses in Bio.) (French Revolution –His. Rousseau –Fr. Blake – Eng. Lit.)

• Between subject and work experience (physiology and pathology Bio. that poorly snake at the vets - WEX)

Work experience

• “During my Year 11 work experience placement at a local museum I really developed my team-working skills. I spent lots of time working with a curator looking through Victorian exhibits in the archive and this taught me the importance of being thorough and meticulous. I also helped out at the front desk and showed around visitors which developed my communication skills.”

Work experience

• Make it tell a story – how it fits into the journey towards the degree you are applying for.

• Where it goes in the PS is determined by where it comes in the journey.

• How a particular interest lead to it …• How it created a new interest …• What questions it raised…

Work experience

• “Assisting the curator of Bridport Museum in reorganising the archive, last summer, it struck me how Victorian collectors were obsessed by taxonomy. I went on to read Jacqueline Yallop’s How Victorians Collected the World which introduced me to the way that scientific research is often the way we justify cultural theft.”

Wider interests & achievements

“As Head Boy I have demonstrated leadership skills in organising charity events and developed my communication skills in giving formal addresses to large audiences at school events. I have managed to motivate a team on the Ten Tors competition, especially those team-mates who were flagging and dispirited.”

Your wider interests and achievements

• Keep it concise

• Be judicious but honest

• Don’t brag

• They should speak for themselves (dynamism, ability to balance demands, outgoing nature)

• But …

Wider interests

“To be frank, outside of school I just love unwinding through reading a good book or being with my friends. I also enjoy film, especially film from abroad, as I like the insight it gives into cultures different from the one I live in. I particularly like Iranian and Turkish film. One day I would love to visit the Middle East, and I hope that the benefits I can draw from doing a degree will allow me to travel and possibly even work abroad.”

Career aspirations

• “Hopefully, if being fortunate enough to get a good degree, I would like to do a Law conversion course and go on to work in Chambers or in the City.”

Careers• A nice way of rounding off (how the degree fits into journey)• If it is well-researched & relevant (vocational degrees)

• However …

• Avoid a fixed view – a degree is there to broaden your appreciation of a subject and to develop you too.

• There’s more to a degree than a particular career.• Think in terms of ‘opportunities’ rather than ‘careers’?

Career aspirations

“Although a career involving international law inspires me as a Sixth Former, the reason I want to study Law at university is to get the opportunity to develop a working knowledge of many other branches of the Law so as to make a more informed choice of career by the time I graduate.”

And finally …

The Introduction

“I have been interested in Physics since I was very young. I am interested by its thought-provoking complexities. You could say it has a beauty that is often overlooked by those who feel it is boring. I have read many books on the subject, really researching it in depth. It is fair to say that I am passionate about Physics and this is what drives my application to study it at degree level.”

“I have been interested in bell-ringing since I was very young. I am interested by its thought-provoking complexities. You could say it has a beauty that is often overlooked by those who feel it is boring. I have read many books on the subject, really researching it in depth. It is fair to say that I am passionate about bell-ringing and this is what drives my application to study it at degree level.”

The Dirty Dozen

12Repeating information captured

elsewhere on the form …

• “I have got 8 a*grades at GCSE”

• “I am studying Biology, Geography and English at ‘A’-Level”

Avoid by:

Demonstrating what has interested you (where relevant) on these courses.

11Explaining why you chose an ‘A’-

level course …

• “I chose French because it goes well with Geography.”

Avoid by:

• Commenting on what has most sparked

your interest in your 6th form studies and

showing how this has lead to your H.E.

choice.

10Describing the ‘A’-Level

• “Maths is really useful as it has Units on statistics and probability, both of which are important aspects of an Economics degree …”

Avoid by:• Showing what aspects of

statistics/probability have interested you and why. How will you be able to develop this curiosity on the degree course you have chosen?

9Explaining a course to an

academic…

• “History is about the past.”

• “Geology brings together physics and geography.”

Avoid by:

Thinking about what it is that really interests you about the study of History at degree level. Conceptualise without cliché.

8Giving a lecture …

“ …ultimately King James achieved very little in his attempts to unify a nation split along religious and economic lines.”

Avoid by:

• Showing what interested you in the study of a particular topic:

“in studying Jacobean politics, I was impressed by Gillian Fraser’s idea that …”

7Making work experience sound like

your school made you do it

• “I did my Year 11 work experience placement at …”

Avoid by:

• Not mentioning the phrase “work experience”:

• “While observing the testing of investment-cast turbine airfoils at a local engineering firm, I found …”

6Unnecessary memoirs…

• “Ever since I was three I have been fascinated by animals…”

• “I really enjoyed studying the history of medicine in Year 9 …”

• When I was only six I remember being puzzled by tadpoles …”

•

Avoid by:

• Concentrating only on post GCSE experience.

5.Unread books …

• “I found Hegel’s The Phenomenology of Mind a really interesting read. Very thought-provoking.”

• “I am currently reading Hegel’s The Phenomenology of Mind which is a fascinating textual exploration of Hegel’s unique philosophical outlook.”

• “As I am so consumed with my passion for Philosophy I plan to read Hegel’s The Phenomenology of Mind …”

Avoid by:

Having read the book

4Nepotism

• “Coming from a family of doctors, I know just how hard it can be…”

Avoid by:

• Talking with relatives to draw out salient issues for comment:

• “ I appreciate the difficulties that a GP practice faces as it prepares itself for the challenges of the new Health and Social Care Bill …”

3Hyperbole

• “I am passionate about Physics.”

Avoid by:

• Thinking rather than emoting:

“What interests me about Physics is that …”

2Beginning with a Google

quotation:

“If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.”

Avoid by:

• If the source is relevant, paraphrase the quote, see if it still interests you and – if it does – comment on it:

• “Ezra Pound’s assertion that literature is “news that stays news” captures for me both the importance and immediacy of the texts that have interested me since starting English Literature ‘A’-Level study.”

1Telling rather than showing

• “I am a part-time volunteer at a nursing

• home. This demonstrates my

• compassionate nature.”

• “I have been a tennis coach at a local club. This shows my abilities to communicate and my sense of responsibility.”

Avoid by: Showing not telling

• “working as a volunteer at a local care home, I have noticed that …”

(care, insight …)

• “as a tennis coach at a local club, I really enjoy …”

(care, responsibility, enthusiasm …)

Number 1 head-ache?