Can you link online gaming in your UCAS personal statement?

okay here me out, I feel some skills can be learned from gaming online which are useful, like: teamwork, dealing with all types of people, taking initiative, decision making, researching and gaining knowledge of the game, learning from peers + those better/more knowledgable than yourself, applying knowledge you've learned. I'm struggling as to what I should put on my statement when applying to study maths/physics at uni, and I don't have many hobbies aside from gaming. I'm on about 500 words and I know this isn't enough. any advice?

You can certainly put it on, it's equally valid as "playing flute has taught me many valuable skills such as teamwork and etc.". However, most of what you write should be directly related to the subjects you're applying for -- at most 100 words on unrelated hobbies. If you are applying for maths and physics it should be easy, because you have twice as much to write about! I'd read some books/do some online courses over the summer to put on it.

what could working in a pet store and a cafe have taught me? I said:
'My work’s experience ranges from a pet store to a café,which although has no real science or mathematical link, still has provided abeneficial experience to me. It taught me how to deal with pressure and stressunder timely conditions, working as a team, interacting with customers andtaking initiative. I understand that working under pressure, working as a teamand taking initiative are often key for university life, and I now feel wellequipped in that field. Although I prefer to work independently, I have noissue working as team.'Do you have any books to read in particular?

what could working in a pet store and a cafe have taught me? I said:
'My work’s experience ranges from a pet store to a café,which although has no real science or mathematical link, still has provided abeneficial experience to me. It taught me how to deal with pressure and stressunder timely conditions, working as a team, interacting with customers andtaking initiative. I understand that working under pressure, working as a teamand taking initiative are often key for university life, and I now feel wellequipped in that field. Although I prefer to work independently, I have noissue working as team.'Do you have any books to read in particular?

Don't do it


Just no

Yes, that sounds pretty good (you could also put something about taking on responsibility). Maths books: Simon Singh's Fermat's Last Theorem is the classic "maths book to put on a personal statement", some others I remember reading are Gödel, Escher, Bach, and Prelude To Mathematics. Physics books: A Brief History Of Time, and Why Does E=mc^2 (And Why Should We Care)?. You can also read magazines (New Scientist, Scientific American) and there are some good lectures online (I like the MIT ones).

This. You may think it sounds smart but just for the love of God no.
I'd literally laugh out loud and show everyone if i was receiving applications and saw that.
Im an online gamer but please, mentioning it is pretty much suicide

any reason why?

It just doesnt sound good bro

Yes, that sounds pretty good (you could also put something about taking on responsibility). Maths books: Simon Singh's Fermat's Last Theorem is the classic "maths book to put on a personal statement", some others I remember reading are Gödel, Escher, Bach, and Prelude To Mathematics. Physics books: A Brief History Of Time, and Why Does E=mc^2 (And Why Should We Care)?. You can also read magazines (New Scientist, Scientific American) and there are some good lectures online (I like the MIT ones).

okay here me out, I feel some skills can be learned from gaming online which are useful, like: teamwork, dealing with all types of people, taking initiative, decision making, researching and gaining knowledge of the game, learning from peers + those better/more knowledgable than yourself, applying knowledge you've learned. I'm struggling as to what I should put on my statement when applying to study maths/physics at uni, and I don't have many hobbies aside from gaming. I'm on about 500 words and I know this isn't enough. any advice?

Unless you're really scraping the barrel for your personal statement I would be inclined to not put it on. I didn't actually end up with anything on my personal statement about my hobbies as I had no room, but I almost certainly have far more experience than you!

Regarding the pet store, I think you should really try to milk this. You were in charge of living things and if you did not look after them properly, feed them correctly etc. you could cause them real harm. Therefore you were in a position of quite a bit of responsibility for ensuring the welfare and care of these animals. I would attempt to use this work to show how responsible, caring and diligent you were. Given you will be at university under your own steam, responsibility for your own education is important and it will hopefully show a level of maturity others may lack.

As part of the cafe, how big was it? Did you have a "production line" going on? Someone makes food/coffee, someone takes orders, someone delivers orders or somesuch? Focus on how you were required to be the face of the business, requiring you to be polite, well kept and professional. At the same time reflect on how you had to work as part of a team to get the job finished, each of you with your own roles. Of course here you're referring to team work and using people's specialisations to get a job done.

Best of luck with the personal statement.

great ideas, thanks a lot, so do you suggest making the work's experience section longer/greater depth? I think my main experience point to talk about is when I visited CERN in Switzerland, but I'm not sure what to write about that.

To be honest, I'd look at some guides on this website and around to advise roughly on what the content should be. My personal statement was for a PGDE so it's a very different beast and focused heavily on my existing teaching experience.

That being said, I think you should definitely put some emphasis on it.

The key to selling yourself with things like personal statements and CVs is to show, not talk. It's difficult, but doable.

For example, I can say I am good at maths - okay so what?
I say I got an A* in maths at A level - okay, he's good at maths.

Likewise for your work experience. Don't tell them you are responsible and hard working. Tell them you had responsibility for the care of 50+ pets on a daily basis and you've spent every summer working 40+ hours a week since you were 16.

Incidentally if you've done anything truly impressive online you could consider including it. For example "I have run an online club (read:guild) with 100-200 members for the past 3 years and have been responsible for our collective efforts". However I'd see how you get on with real life stuff first - a personal statement isn't that long and you have to pick and choose what you put on it.

Obviously the above examples are just that and may not be quite usable for you, but hopefully you get the idea. Best of luck with it and I'm sure you'll do great!

I'd just add to this, don't put on anything you're not actually going to read.

There is no point getting to an interview and being asked about the book and not having a clue.

Sounds tacky and un-professional. + I see you are a league player. By adding gaming into your PS you are probably trying to justify to yourself that your addiction actually holds some value, but it doesn't. Gaming is a waste of time and only NEETS play video games to that extent where they try leverage gaming above a hobby