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

Personal Statement

I'm having a lot of trouble writing my personal statement (for reference I want to go into psychology) and I'll find a few really good ones but I don't sound like they do. I'm getting told to make my introduction really interesting and fluent, etc but to also make sure that the words and tone of the personal statement actually represent me. I just don't feel like I can do both

Reply 1

SL0R3M

I think UCAS and TSR have good personal statement builders which I hope should help. Other than that my tutor said to dedicate time to it but not to worry too much as they probably get thousands of these statements so you would have to be really lucky for them to examine it carefully and so they just skim through it most of the time

Reply 2

Interrobang

This has some specific guidance for a psychology PS: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6213912 :smile:

Reply 3

o_reo

Original post by azrahast

perhaps dont start with the introduction as it can seem quite hard at first.
my general advice to start (as I dont have much experience in psychology):
1. write a list of all the things you have done whether they relate to psychology or not
2. try to link these together to form paragraphs e.g. i read X book which made me interested in Y and so I took an online course so I could explore this idea further - remember tho that its about the quality of what you did and not quantity (so dont list everything just for the sake of mentioning it)
3. get rid of any bullet points that dont really relate to the course or you cant find a way to link
4. on the unis website that youre aiming for it might have a list of things that they are looking for in the personal statement so make sure you can see evidence of those in your sample paragraphs
5, once you have the main body then go in with the introduction hopefully it should be easier to know what to say.

good luck and remember that your first draft isn't going to sound like the finished personal statements you see online. it will take many drafts to perfect it the way you want and for it to actually represent you.