Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Personal statement has too many lines

Hi, my personal statement is under the character limit (3975) but is over the line limit (52). I was just wondering if there is any way that I could get around this or what my options are. Thanks.

Reply 1

Clearing and Applications Advisor

You need to remove unhelpful content and words from your PS. Aim for a character count around 3,600 to fit within the line limit and not have an unreadable wall of text

Reply 2

Clearing and Applications Advisor

Starting point:

Any paragraph along the lines of “studying maths A level has improved my problem solving skills, English A level has improved my communication”.

Anything about DofE or NCS (unless it’s highly relevant to your degree).

The words “furthermore”, “in addition to this”, etc.

Reply 3

AzureCeleste

Get rid of unnecessary paragraph lines
You don't need to double enter between lines like this:

a

b
Just doing
a
b
will suffice for the PS. Combine together paragraphs which don't need to be split up

Reply 4

Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post by AzureCeleste

You do need to properly format paragraphs if you don’t want important information to be skipped over by someone who has read 30 PSs so far that day.

Reply 5

AzureCeleste

Original post by PQ

You do need to properly format paragraphs if you don’t want important information to be skipped over by someone who has read 30 PSs so far that day.

Oh yeah, well I don't mean totally remove paragraphs and mess about with that
But it is unnecessary to have double gaps between them. Also, if paragraphs could easily be combined then they should.

Reply 6

Interrobang

It is always best to have a whole line between your paragraphs as it makes it a lot easier to read

Reply 7

Euphoria101

Deffo don't get rid of paragraph spacing.

You don't need fancy words. I really struggled because my PS has 7 paragraphs, inc the intro and conclusion - I'm applying for law and it made more sense to divide it up like that. You don't need long connectives, it should flow but change in addition to also, on the other hand to however, even some ands with a semi-colon lol.