personal statement anxiety

Hi, so I have major anxiety about what to include in my personal statement which stems from me not wanting to lie at all. Im very much a perfectionist.
If i say I've 'read' an academic article after i became interested in xyz does that imply that i've read the whole thing? or do admissions assume that when students reference wider reading and books etc its understood that we skim and read the bits that are interesting/important. Especially if the academic article is hard to read/lengthy/complicated.
Thank you

Reply 1

ExeterStudentRep

Official Rep

Original post by mez2296

Hi mez2296,

Writing a personal statement can be quite stressful, so don't feel alone in how you're feeling! I don't work in admissions so don't quote me on anything but having written a personal statement before and read lots of research articles at University I'm hoping I'll be able to help you out :smile:

I think it's fair to say that if you've read and understood the main message/points that's relevant to the topic you're talking about, you've read about it. I used to get stressed too about the same thing and thought we're supposed to read whole articles, but then I learnt you don't have to read the whole thing all the time. If you're only interested in the main findings then you might only need to read the abstract and results section. If you want to know some background information around a topic then you might focus on the introduction. If you want to know more about methodologies used then you might focus on the methods section. Sometimes it's either not possible to read the whole thing or just isn't really needed. That's not to say you shouldn't if it really interests you!

Ultimately, I think reading the main bits and understanding the main message shows that you have initiative to read around a topic (which is really good!). As I don't work in admissions, I can't speak on their behalf but during my degree I've cited hundreds if not thousands of papers, and I have not read all of every paper! Sometimes you can cite a paper because of one important sentence in their results. So I'd try not to stress too much because you have read around a topic :smile:

I hope this helps!

Bethan
University of Exeter Student Ambassador

(edited 9 months ago)

Reply 2

Genesiss

if you're really worried, word it in such a way that implies you have some understanding about xyz without stating you've actually read xyz. for instance:

'Ronald Dworkins' Taking Rights Seriously is what inspired me to study the philosophy of law. Dworkins' theory that....'

see how i said it inspired me; i didn't say that i've read it.