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Personal Statement no-nos/funny mistakes

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Reply 60

bex285

grape:)

friends ftw :p:

Agreed

Reply 61

Nfixlol

i put in a weird not really funny somewhat subtle maths joke in my PS without even realising it, my mum pointed it out while she was reading it a few days back

blah blah blah mathsy stuff all the way to positive and negative infinities fascinates me to no end

Reply 62

synvilla

http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/undergraduateAdmissions/Making_an_application/UCAS_personal_statement/what_is_a_poor_personal_statement.htm

LSE has example of a poor PS

Reply 63

saab_101

Lisaanne

I'm delivering a mock assessed session tomorrow designed for a group of year 12 students to introduce them to personal statements. I've got the usual 'what to include' but I thought it would be fun to include some don't and maybe some stories of funny mistakes people have made. So I was wondering if anyone knows of friends or anyone who has made a stupid faux pas in their statement??

Or generally... if anyone can think of any more serious no no's for writing the PS

I moved a paragraph to the end of mine last year and forgot to delete the original one, so it was in there twice - probably something to do with why i got straight rejections for medicine last year lol :o:

Reply 64

mel0n

Tommy Jay

http://forum.ebaumsworld.com/archive/index.php/t-76697.html

this is genius XD ^^

Sort of facepalm-worthy. Wasted my valuable time. :frown:

lol

Reply 65

kuntimagee

UCAS took out a hyphen in mine so one of my sentences doesn't really make sense. :frown:

Reply 66

amiparanoid

The eventual PS I submitted last year was probably worse than the examples of bad PSs mentioned above. Hence my UCAS.

I could probably find a copy somewhere. It's shocking.

Reply 67

MoonwalkBaby

Nfixlol

i put in a weird not really funny somewhat subtle maths joke in my PS without even realising it, my mum pointed it out while she was reading it a few days back

:king2:

LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO xD Thats hilarious I gotta use it sometime xD I actually have tears dripping out of my eyes xDDDD I hope you left it in!! PLUS REP!

Reply 68

_Fleur_

To all the people saying not to use quotes - complete ********! Sure, you don't want an obvious, cheesy, meaningless quote as your first line or anything, but an original, well placed quote that really backs up what you're trying to say can be a definite asset. Wouldn't use more than one, though.

OP, you wanna mention things like making sure you don't get all 'preachy' and try to tell the admissions tutor (an expert in the subject you're applying for) all about their subject in general. They already know. Instead, tell them about how the subject relates to you, what it means to you and what you find interesting about it, e.t.c.

Oh, and to avoid the old 'I've been passionate about History ever since mummy and daddy took me to the xxx Museum when I was 4 years old and I was captivated by all the incredible exhibits.' That sorta thing. No explanation required, it's just **** tbh.

Reply 69

RosyAurora

I had a dream that UCAS took out every 3rd word in my PS... then sent it off *sigh*
I wouldn't be hugely surprised if they did!
Anyway, if anyone's still answering the original question - I did a personal statement assembly last year (weird idea, I hadn't even started it yet...) and I made up 90% of the examples (*insert Law joke here*)
If you want to look at it you can, but it's fairly shocking and ill-informed :biggrin:

Reply 70

EskimoJo

Jinxy

A guy applied to Oxford, wrote his entire personal statement in binary code and the tutors had to translate it to read it. It was for computer science or similar (not sure what oxford offer) he did it perfectly though and apparently got an offer. Guy at my college.

Not exactly a mistake but it's something interesting/weird...

That is awesome! :biggrin:

Reply 71

mackemforever

Jinxy

Jesus christ that guy had some big cojones.

Obviously not literally or he would have been applying for a real degree, like bear fighting or something.

Reply 72

FelicityEllen

smiley:)

my friend had her birthday the same day and month ********. she wants to study history at university and the first line of her personal statement was "on the 20th of april a great figure in history was born. Many people would think this was the great adolf Hitler, but it was me, (her name), who will go on to make great changes in history as we know it". she was made to take it out....

thats my birthday too :smile:

Reply 73

Good bloke

EskimoJo

That is awesome! :biggrin:

It is also mythical. To limit yourself to the equivalent of 500 characters would not make for a sensible statement.

Reply 74

datass

Good bloke

It is also mythical. To limit yourself to the equivalent of 500 characters would not make for a sensible statement.

can i send you my personal statement ?

or it's in PS forum

Reply 75

sidewalkwhenshewalks

Jinxy

Not sure if it's completely true, I mean rumors get spread all the time but it's what i've heard happened from quite a few people!

400 characters of binary is only 250 characters of plain text so he must have been concise

Reply 76

Good bloke

datass

can i send you my personal statement ?

or it's in PS forum

No; we don't do reviews by PS, and you've had one already, though I would add that you should not have an initial on "journalism".

Reply 77

datass

Good bloke

No; we don't do reviews by PS, and you've had one already, though I would add that you should not have an initial on "journalism".

i don't get it ?

Reply 78

Good bloke

datass

i don't get it ?

What don't you get? Common nouns do not take capital letters and the name of a subject, trade, area of work or concept is a common noun.

Reply 79

theronkinator

Jinxy

Not sure I believe that for example:
"hello just testing."
in binary is:
01101000011001010110110001101100011011110010000001101010011101010111001101110100001000000111010001100101011100110111010001101001011011100110011100101110

Doing that would produce the shortest statement ever.