Personal statement examples – how to write a personal statement

Your introduction: personal statement example

• Sometimes the hardest part is starting off! It can be difficult to know what to open with in your personal

statement before getting to the meat of it.

Use the example of the beginning of a personal statement as inspiration to get your mind whirring about

how you can start yours.

Writing about your subject: personal statement example

• This should be at the heart of your personal statement. It's where you show your passion for the subject

you want to study for three to four years, in depth. Make sure you spend some time on this section.

• It's a good idea to pull out similar threads from the different modules offered across all your Ucas course
choices.
• Doing this will ensure your statement is relevant to every course you're applying for, even if they vary a
little.

• How long should a personal statement be?

• You have a maximum of 4,000 characters and 47 lines to write your personal statement.

That might seem a lot from the outset, but your perspective might change as you begin writing and have
to boil down all those relevant thoughts, skills and experiences.

It’s best to draft your statement and get it finalised in a Word document, and then copy this over to Ucas's
Apply system to submit it, rather than make changes afterwards.

Don’ts of Personnel Statement

1. Quotations

It’s your voice they want to hear – not Coco Chanel, Einstein, Paul Britton, Martin Luther King, David Attenborugh,

Descartes or Napoleon’s. So don’t put a quote in unless it’s really necessary to make a critical point. It’s a waste of

your word count

2. Random lists

Avoid giving a list of all the books you’ve read, countries you’ve visited, work experience placements you’ve done,

positions you’ve held. For starters, it’s boring to read. It’s not what you’ve done, it’s what you think about it or

learned from it that matters or how it's developed your understanding of your subject.
A dentistry admissions tutor sums it up: 'I would much rather read about what you learned from observing one

filling than a list of all the procedures you observed.'

3. Over-used clichés

Avoid 'from a young age', 'since I was a child', 'I’ve always been fascinated by', 'I have a thirst for knowledge', 'the

world we live in today'…etc. You get the idea.

They constantly recur in hundreds of personal statements and don’t really say an awful lot.

4. Bigging yourself up with sweeping statements or unproven claims

More phrases to avoid: 'I genuinely believe I’m a highly motivated person' or 'My achievements are vast'.

Instead give specific examples that provide concrete evidence. Show, don’t tell!

. Limit your use of the word ‘passion’

The word ‘passion’ (or ‘passionate’) is incredibly over-used. Try to convey your passion without using the word

'passion'.

6. Stilted vocabulary

Frequent use of words or phrases like 'fuelled my desire', 'I was enthralled by' or 'that world-renowned author

Jane Austen' make you sound, well, a bit fake (or like you’ve been over-using the thesaurus).

7. Plagiarism, lies or exaggeration

Ucas uses stringent similarity and plagiarism software and your universities will be told if you copy anything from

another source.

8. Trying to be funny

Humour, informality or quirkiness can be effective in the right setting but it’s a big risk, so be careful.

9. Negative comments or excuses

It can be difficult to ‘sell yourself’ in your personal statement, but don’t talk about why you haven’t done

something, or why you dropped an AS level.

10. Irrelevant personal facts

Before you write about playing badminton or a school trip you went on in year nine, apply the 'so what?' rule.

Does it make a useful contribution and help explain why you should be given a place on the course? If not, scrap it.