The Student Room Group

Abbreviations on Personal Statement

Just wondering other people's take on using UKMT as opposed to United Kingdom Maths Trust?
Reply 1
Use United Kingdom Maths Trust the first time you mention it, and from there on it's fine to use abbreviations
Depends on whether you're trying to get up to 4000 characters or down to 4000 characters.
My current draft of my personal statement uses the abbreviation UKMT without expanding it. My reasoning is that any maths-related admissions tutor should probably know what it means, that just Googling "UKMT" would send you to their website and that "UKMT" is probably more recognisable than "United Kingdom Maths Trust" anyway.
I'm planning on applying to NatSci, and since I had a couple of characters to spare I decided to expand it :smile:

Thanks for the input everyone!
Original post by anonymous115157
I'm planning on applying to NatSci, and since I had a couple of characters to spare I decided to expand it :smile:

Thanks for the input everyone!


Most likely it's the line limit you'll reach first, rather than the character limit. Your PS should be around 3200-3600 characters probably, when you take into account the lines and leaving whole lines between paragraphs
Reply 6
Original post by *Interrobang*
Most likely it's the line limit you'll reach first, rather than the character limit. Your PS should be around 3200-3600 characters probably, when you take into account the lines and leaving whole lines between paragraphs


I don't think it's necessary to leave whole lines between paragraphs. I just started a new line without the extra blank one (against my aesthetic judgement) because I didn't want to cut it after finding out about the line limit. I got offers from most of the places I applied for, including the top uni for my course.

I imagine that UCAS calculated the lines no assuming blank ones, because the only way to reach 4000 characters within the line limit otherwise would be with only two or three paragraphs! And that wouldn't be fun to read.
Reply 7
Admissions tutors do expect a certain standard of academic English from applicants. The correct approach in this case would be to put the name in full and then the abbreviation in brackets afterwards if you plan on mentioning it again.*
You can't assume that they will know what the abbreviation means, especially given that there are sometimes multiple meanings for the same abbreviation. Expecting them to Google terms you use in your personal statement is not a good idea. You're assuming that they care enough to do so. If your personal statement is difficult to read, you've already put them off.**It's poor communication.*
On competitive courses, admissions tutors are often looking for reasons to cull applicants from the herd. Don't give them one.

I would advise writing the UK Maths Trust. It cuts out the two biggest words and there's no ambiguity. *
Hello,

how about NHS + numbers?
For example:
I have been volunteering for two years at... or I have been volunteering for 2 years at...
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by tne
I don't think it's necessary to leave whole lines between paragraphs. I just started a new line without the extra blank one (against my aesthetic judgement) because I didn't want to cut it after finding out about the line limit. I got offers from most of the places I applied for, including the top uni for my course.

I imagine that UCAS calculated the lines no assuming blank ones, because the only way to reach 4000 characters within the line limit otherwise would be with only two or three paragraphs! And that wouldn't be fun to read.


Having read over 1000 PSs myself, I can tell you that it makes it a lot easier to read, and you want to get the admissions tutors onside as much as possible. I'm not saying that it would lead to a rejection, but it is definitely advisable. There is almost always content that can be removed/condensed to achieve it

Original post by luckytharm
Hello,

how about NHS + numbers?
For example:
I have been volunteering for two years at... or I have been volunteering for 2 years at...


NHS is fine (although again, think about whether you actually need to say it - it depends on the context). Numbers below 20 should generally be written in words

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