Personal statement contents

This isn't a personal statement, this is an extremely rough plan i'm asking for advice on, i've heavily edited out anything i would use in my actual personal statement.

I'm still trying to write my personal statement and despite reading about it online/ going to talks at school etc I still don't have much of an idea what to put in it.
I'm applying for psychology. I've been interested in it since i did it as an extra GCSE at secondary school my boyfriend has a personality disorder which was what really caused my interest (but I've heard you shouldn't really mention other people in that way in a personal statement? I'm not sure really) I'm autistic and that's kind of why i'm interested in it as well. i'm doing my extended project at the moment
Other than psychology i like politics and do a lot of stuff relating to that at school, and I'm also a writer. i generally like learning about stuff and working independently. I also have interests outside of school, like I've done rock climbing for 6 years or so and one of my main hobbies is watching ice hockey ( is that relevant in any way? Its not related to psychology much but its my main hobby at the moment).
Going to university is really important to me and i have no idea what i'd do if i didn't get a place. My predicted grades are A*AB/ AAB which is enough for all of my courses so that shouldn't be a problem, its just the personal statement thats worrying me because I don't know to word it or what to put in it. I have looked at the tools/articles on here and examples but they haven't helped much. Is it that i don't have enough 'content'? I've never really had a job or done anything like that, mostly because of my difficulties with autism and how it affects me, and I don't know what kind of career I want yet.
Can anyone give me any kind of advice? thanks :smile:

(edited 8 years ago)

Dobn'r post your ps

Original post by RedStar98

You need to delete your personal statement as soon as possible

Reply 3

RedStar98

that isn't a personal statement clearly, i'm asking for advice. I would never submit anything as poorly written as that, I'm asking because I don't understand what to do with it. i haven't written a personal statement so how could i post it here?

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 4

Absent Agent

Original post by RedStar98

that isn't a personal statement clearly, i'm asking for advice.

Oh, I see

. It was a lot of writing so I thought it's a personal statement.

@RedStar98: You shouldn't post it on here as Google will scan it as soon as you post it and so it will come up n UCAS plagiarism software.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 5

RedStar98

Original post by Mehrdad jafari

Oh, I see

but it wouldn't be worded like that, i don't understand the problem? how can i ask for help if i'm not allowed to post anything? seems a bit stupid.

Reply 6

JW22

I think you should include the thing about the boyfriend, but I would advise using the word friend or something else instead of boyfriend. Just my opinion though it might not matter at all I'm just pedantic.

As for writing a personal statement, only include information that is relevant, split all your information up into paragraphs.
For example,
Academic qualifications
Extracurricular activities and how they relate to your subject
Motivation for studying the subject
Anything else you can think of

Reply 7

Absent Agent

Original post by RedStar98

but it wouldn't be worded like that, i don't understand the problem? how can i ask for help if i'm not allowed to post anything? seems a bit stupid.

The problem is that Google will "cache" your personal statement and so when you type it up on google it will come up even if you delete it afterwards. I'm not really sure how you would need to ask for help on here though, hopefully someone will come along and help you with that.

Reply 8

RedStar98

Original post by Mehrdad jafari

But its not a personal statement though, that's what I'm trying to say. None of the phrases in this would be in it so I don't see how any filters would find it. Surely this is such a narrow topic area that some comments must be seen as 'plagiarised' even if they aren't?

Reply 9

RedStar98

Original post by JW22

Okay, what if my extracurricular activities don't relate to the subject?

Reply 10

Absent Agent

Original post by RedStar98

Yeah, I understand! I meant your personal statement if you want to post.

Reply 11

~Seraphina~

On your personal statement I would say consider thinking and writing about :

why you want to do psychology?

what do you understand by the study of psychology?

how will this degree assist you in your future ambitions?

what qualities do you have that will make you an ideal student on this course?

What journals do you read? American Psychological Association? British Psychological Society? World health organization psychology

Have you done any volunteer work with an organisation or have you done internships with a psychologist?

Explore these points and you may very well come up with a good first draft.

Reply 12

JW22

Original post by RedStar98

Okay, what if my extracurricular activities don't relate to the subject?

It doesn't have to be directly relevant, but speak about what they have taught you and try to make it relevant if possible. Politics taught you how to see many different sides to a situation, or if you've had any experience debating speak about how it made you more confident and you had to improvise or think logically and quickly.

I'm not sure how relevant watching Ice Hockey is, I can't think of a way to justify including that in your statement, basically bull**** your way through it. With rock climbing you could say something about how you enjoy the challenge of rock climbing and it has improved your confidence.