When I write a personal statement next year should I mention...

OK!

Basically a few years ago now, I got kicked out of school and received (as you can imagine) terrible grades. I went to work for a few years and decided I wanted to study politics at university and so have had to retake GCSE's and am currently sitting my A-levels....

I believe for UCAS I will have to declare my original GCSE grades which ranged from E to G to U as well as the grades I got this year when retaking which were A's and B's.

Really my question here is should I, when I come to write a personal statement, include a brief explanation for my terrible performance at school and obviously link that to why I'm returning? I really have a terrible record from school and I'm worried that unless I address it then it'll hinder my chances of attaining a place at a top university.

Any help is much appreciated!

OK!

Basically a few years ago now, I got kicked out of school and received (as you can imagine) terrible grades. I went to work for a few years and decided I wanted to study politics at university and so have had to retake GCSE's and am currently sitting my A-levels....

I believe for UCAS I will have to declare my original GCSE grades which ranged from E to G to U as well as the grades I got this year when retaking which were A's and B's.

Really my question here is should I, when I come to write a personal statement, include a brief explanation for my terrible performance at school and obviously link that to why I'm returning? I really have a terrible record from school and I'm worried that unless I address it then it'll hinder my chances of attaining a place at a top university.

Any help is much appreciated!

OK!

Basically a few years ago now, I got kicked out of school and received (as you can imagine) terrible grades. I went to work for a few years and decided I wanted to study politics at university and so have had to retake GCSE's and am currently sitting my A-levels....

I believe for UCAS I will have to declare my original GCSE grades which ranged from E to G to U as well as the grades I got this year when retaking which were A's and B's.

Really my question here is should I, when I come to write a personal statement, include a brief explanation for my terrible performance at school and obviously link that to why I'm returning? I really have a terrible record from school and I'm worried that unless I address it then it'll hinder my chances of attaining a place at a top university.

Any help is much appreciated!

Ideally, your educational history should be explained by your referee. Could you organise a meeting with your referee and discuss your situation with them? If extenuating circumstances were involved, ideally your referee needs to mention them.

The most important thing is that you now meet the GCSE requirements for your chosen course.

Mostly, your PS should be tightly focused on your course, however, if you want to include things like "On returning to education, I discovered an interest in X" that would be fine. Really, talking about what went wrong before will be a waste of characters. Admissions tutors understand that people mess up, and often aren't too interested in the details of exactly what went wrong.

If it will hinder you or not really depends on why you were excluded. If something like violence or dishonesty was involved, then that could present a problem in certain circumstances.

Do you know to what extent they delve into your history? I mean will they contact my original school and want to the details etc. etc.

Secondly, my referee will likely be one of my current tutors, is it the norm for them to cover such (negative) issues as well as the obvious good stuff?

Many thanks!

From the dates in your education section, and your GCSE grades, it's likely to be obvious that you were excluded from school. If there's no discussion of this in your reference/application at all, it could look like you have something to hide. Even without the exclusion, it is usual to talk about an increase in academic performance- it can still be phrased in a positive way. It won't make your reference a "bad" reference.

Universities are allowed to contact your old school or your old LA to find out why you were excluded- they may not bother going into details depending on the reason. However, if you offer no explanation for your exclusion at all, then universities will probably want to find out the reason. It won't necessarily count against you, but universities do have a duty of care to their staff and students- they may not want to admit someone with a history of violence, for example, whereas something like drug possession probably won't be seen as a problem (depending on the circumstances, of course).

If you think the reason for your exclusion could count against you, then it might be worth contacting the universities you're interested in directly, and discussing it with them.

Thank you for your response, genuinely very helpful even if I am now terrified I'll be rejected from everywhere I apply. Would you mind if I sent you a PM?

OK!

Basically a few years ago now, I got kicked out of school and received (as you can imagine) terrible grades. I went to work for a few years and decided I wanted to study politics at university and so have had to retake GCSE's and am currently sitting my A-levels....

I believe for UCAS I will have to declare my original GCSE grades which ranged from E to G to U as well as the grades I got this year when retaking which were A's and B's.

Really my question here is should I, when I come to write a personal statement, include a brief explanation for my terrible performance at school and obviously link that to why I'm returning? I really have a terrible record from school and I'm worried that unless I address it then it'll hinder my chances of attaining a place at a top university.

Any help is much appreciated!

OK!

Basically a few years ago now, I got kicked out of school and received (as you can imagine) terrible grades. I went to work for a few years and decided I wanted to study politics at university and so have had to retake GCSE's and am currently sitting my A-levels....

I believe for UCAS I will have to declare my original GCSE grades which ranged from E to G to U as well as the grades I got this year when retaking which were A's and B's.

Really my question here is should I, when I come to write a personal statement, include a brief explanation for my terrible performance at school and obviously link that to why I'm returning? I really have a terrible record from school and I'm worried that unless I address it then it'll hinder my chances of attaining a place at a top university.

Any help is much appreciated!