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Personal statement good enough?

I wondered how you're meant to know whether your personal statement is good enough for PS-heavy universities (e.g. Sheffield). I know it's subjective but should I be concentrating less on what I've learnt and more on why I'm suitable for medicine or...? It's something that was pointed out to me but they are applying for a more academic course and, as has been pointed out, medicine personal statements are quite different to others (for a start you talk a lot more about WE). Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
Reply 1
Original post by QuidditchFan
I wondered how you're meant to know whether your personal statement is good enough for PS-heavy universities (e.g. Sheffield). I know it's subjective but should I be concentrating less on what I've learnt and more on why I'm suitable for medicine or...? It's something that was pointed out to me but they are applying for a more academic course and, as has been pointed out, medicine personal statements are quite different to others (for a start you talk a lot more about WE). Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Your qualifications are listed on UCAS. You do not need to be talking about them in your Personal Statement as well.
Original post by Ronove
Your qualifications are listed on UCAS. You do not need to be talking about them in your Personal Statement as well.


Do you mean qualifications as in A levels or qualifications as in EC?
Reply 3
Original post by QuidditchFan
Do you mean qualifications as in A levels or qualifications as in EC?

A-levels. The academic side should already be covered by your qualifications being listed and your referee talking about your work ethic/ability etc. Obviously you might want to talk about what it is about Medicine as a subject that appeals to you, and that can be both academic and in terms of the job. But there's no need to talk about what you've been finding especially interesting in your A-levels etc (unless it happened to be something that turned you onto Medicine, I suppose). I guess that could be an opening question in a more academically-oriented interview.
Original post by Ronove
A-levels. The academic side should already be covered by your qualifications being listed and your referee talking about your work ethic/ability etc. Obviously you might want to talk about what it is about Medicine as a subject that appeals to you, and that can be both academic and in terms of the job. But there's no need to talk about what you've been finding especially interesting in your A-levels etc (unless it happened to be something that turned you onto Medicine, I suppose). I guess that could be an opening question in a more academically-oriented interview.


Sorry, should have clarified. Basically I've talked about academic ECs (courses, books etc). And a lot about WE. However I wondered how I'm meant to know whether my PS is good or not. Getting a lot of mixed messages.
Reply 5
Original post by QuidditchFan
Sorry, should have clarified. Basically I've talked about academic ECs (courses, books etc). And a lot about WE. However I wondered how I'm meant to know whether my PS is good or not. Getting a lot of mixed messages.

One thing you need to make sure you're nailing is the depth/reflection when talking about WE etc. Whether you're conveying a real understanding of what you've witnessed and learned and how it applies to Medicine. If there's any risk that it's ending up too superficial, I would personally tend towards cutting some of the quantity and focussing on making sure that's covered. Of course, I'm sure you'll get the chance to show that kind of understanding at interview as well if you are invited to one, but it can't hurt to set the tone/convey your grasp of the whole thing in the PS.

As for whether your PS is 'good' or not overall - there will be a lot of different styles that are judged to be 'good', so I wouldn't worry too much about how yours differs from others'. If the PS helper service is actually working on here (they were going to introduce a paid service or something so I have no idea what's going on with it at the moment) then it might be worth using that. Otherwise, get some relatively neutral people (ie perhaps not your mum) to read it and be honest with you about the tone etc. Be careful about people telling you how it should be written if they don't seem to have recent experience of the process (eg older doctors from work experience).
Original post by QuidditchFan
Sorry, should have clarified. Basically I've talked about academic ECs (courses, books etc). And a lot about WE. However I wondered how I'm meant to know whether my PS is good or not. Getting a lot of mixed messages.


Ultimately, you won't absolutely know if your PS (alongside the rest of your application) is good enough until you apply. People can obviously give you pointers and help- it's up to you to chose the opinions you value, probably by doing research into what is expected. However, university application is ultimately a semi-competitive process. If everyone else writes a better PS than you, even if yours is objectively good, they will be given offers ahead of you (obviously assuming all other things are equal).

Unfortunately, there is a level of uncertainty inherent in the university application system as it stands, especially for very competitive courses like medicine.
Original post by Ronove


As for whether your PS is 'good' or not overall - there will be a lot of different styles that are judged to be 'good', so I wouldn't worry too much about how yours differs from others'. If the PS helper service is actually working on here (they were going to introduce a paid service or something so I have no idea what's going on with it at the moment) then it might be worth using that. Otherwise, get some relatively neutral people (ie perhaps not your mum) to read it and be honest with you about the tone etc. Be careful about people telling you how it should be written if they don't seem to have recent experience of the process (eg older doctors from work experience).


Just to clarify, the PS help service has been changed to a paid service, and existing PS helpers have been told not to offer reviews via TSR anymore e.g. via PM. I know some people are trying to set up an alternative free service, but obviously that's not easy and nothing's really been set up yet- it's also difficult because we aren't meant to promote alternatives on TSR. There's also plans for a forum to be set up that wouldn't offer full reviews, but would give some free help.

You can access the paid review service via the personal statement helper tool here: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/personal_statement_help However, the full review service is very expensive!
Original post by QuidditchFan
I wondered how you're meant to know whether your personal statement is good enough for PS-heavy universities (e.g. Sheffield). I know it's subjective but should I be concentrating less on what I've learnt and more on why I'm suitable for medicine or...? It's something that was pointed out to me but they are applying for a more academic course and, as has been pointed out, medicine personal statements are quite different to others (for a start you talk a lot more about WE). Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks in advance.


You can't know basically... As other posters have said, the PS help service used to be of assistance in these matters, but alas, it is no more... You just have to decide if it's worth the risk of picking Sheffield over somewhere where your GCSE's and UKCAT might virtually guarantee you an interview. I bottled it and applied to Nottingham instead of Nottingham purely because I wasn't confident enough in my PS.


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Original post by SlowlorisIncognito
Just to clarify, the PS help service has been changed to a paid service, and existing PS helpers have been told not to offer reviews via TSR anymore e.g. via PM. I know some people are trying to set up an alternative free service, but obviously that's not easy and nothing's really been set up yet- it's also difficult because we aren't meant to promote alternatives on TSR. There's also plans for a forum to be set up that wouldn't offer full reviews, but would give some free help.

You can access the paid review service via the personal statement helper tool here: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/personal_statement_help However, the full review service is very expensive!


Some of TSR's rules are just ridiculous... I got carded a few months ago for posting a link to a fresher's group that someone else had made. Why? Apparently we're not allowed to advertise student-based groups that are on other social media! Is there any other site that has a rule as daft as this?! I now await the inevitable card for mentioning my carding... And technically I should get another card for posting the reasons behind my potential upcoming card... And so on. I really think they've gone too far though this time, getting rid of an extremely useful service that volunteers were happy to run free of charge (and I would have been happy to start volunteering for this year) so they can squeeze money out of young people anxious about their future just isn't right imo.


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Reply 10
Original post by QuidditchFan
I wondered how you're meant to know whether your personal statement is good enough for PS-heavy universities (e.g. Sheffield). I know it's subjective but should I be concentrating less on what I've learnt and more on why I'm suitable for medicine or...? It's something that was pointed out to me but they are applying for a more academic course and, as has been pointed out, medicine personal statements are quite different to others (for a start you talk a lot more about WE). Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks in advance.


Your personal statement will always be a really subjective thing all you can do is try your best (cliche I know).
My personal statement went to well at Sheffield last year but utterly bombed at Leeds and I have other friends in the same boat who's personal statement let them down at one uni while another loved it.
For that reason I do suggest avoiding choosing more than 2 PS unis of you can.

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