things to avoid in personal statement

klafow

14

what are things that you definitely should not say when writing a medicine personal statement?

Reply 1

BankaiGintoki

21

Original post

by klafow

what are things that you definitely should not say when writing a medicine personal statement?

Cliche, disingenuous stuff like ‘ever since I was a child’, ‘I always wanted to…’

Reply 2

KWad

11

"from a young age"

I physically cringe when I read personal statements that start with this.

Reply 3

LancashireRep1

Official Rep

16

Hello,

I am a final year medical student.

I definitely agree with the comments above, don’t start with the cliche phrases and don’t mention things like it has been a dream.

I think you must show the assessors that you have carefully thought about why medicine is the right career for you.

Do mention your work experience when you are speaking about the attributes that you think will make you a great doctor.

For example, if you are a team player, you must mention an experience in your life (being captain of a football team) that helped you gain this attribute.

Try to mention specific buzz words like multidisciplinary team (often used in the NHS)

Remember that it is your time to shine ✨

Best of luck,
Haya

Reply 4

Hxsna_st

13

Original post

by UCLan Student

Hello,
I am a final year medical student.
I definitely agree with the comments above, don’t start with the cliche phrases and don’t mention things like it has been a dream.
I think you must show the assessors that you have carefully thought about why medicine is the right career for you.
Do mention your work experience when you are speaking about the attributes that you think will make you a great doctor.
For example, if you are a team player, you must mention an experience in your life (being captain of a football team) that helped you gain this attribute.
Try to mention specific buzz words like multidisciplinary team (often used in the NHS)
Remember that it is your time to shine ✨
Best of luck,
Haya

Hi I have a questions I want to start my ps in the intro if I want to include when breath become air a book I have read what else should I talk about the book because I am not sure what else to talk abt I have just mentioned how I’ve read this book and it makes me wanna study med but what should I include about the book? Please help

Reply 5

LittleFire10

14

Original post

by Hxsna_st

Hi I have a questions I want to start my ps in the intro if I want to include when breath become air a book I have read what else should I talk about the book because I am not sure what else to talk abt I have just mentioned how I’ve read this book and it makes me wanna study med but what should I include about the book? Please help

I would include more about your reflections on the book and not the book itself as talking about someone else’s work doesn’t tell them anything about you. I wouldn’t recommend mentioning quotes or anything. Just maybe explain your personal development after reading it.

Reply 6

KWad

11

Original post

by Hxsna_st

Hi I have a questions I want to start my ps in the intro if I want to include when breath become air a book I have read what else should I talk about the book because I am not sure what else to talk abt I have just mentioned how I’ve read this book and it makes me wanna study med but what should I include about the book? Please help

What specifically in the book makes you want to study med? Just saying the book "makes you interested in medicine" is too vague and completely meaningless to the person who is reading the personal statement. You could say that about any book on medicine. Pick something unique about that particular book and talk about it. Otherwise, you might as well have just picked a random book on the internet and added it to your personal statement without reading it. I'm not familiar with the book you mentioned, but as an example it could be how the book highlighted the idea of service to the public, or selflessly working to improve other's lives that made you interested in medicine. Go into some detail. Given this, if you can't think of anything interesting to say about the book, then it's not worth including in the personal statement.

Reply 7

KWad

11

Original post

by LittleFire10

I would include more about your reflections on the book and not the book itself as talking about someone else’s work doesn’t tell them anything about you. I wouldn’t recommend mentioning quotes or anything. Just maybe explain your personal development after reading it.

Yes, I agree. Talk about your main takeaways from the book, what you learned, etc. Don't just be vague about its impact on you or just list some of its contents, because anybody could give an imprecise account of how impactful a book is, and the admissions tutor could very easily find a book summary online if they really wanted to. Talk about how the book influenced YOU specifically and what it taught YOU. You could even talk about something in it that you disagree with, as it shows that you are engaging critically with the text (but obviously be reasonable with this - a med tutor won't be impressed if you talk about your opposition to the practice of vaccination).

Reply 8

reubenn05

15

personal statement isn't that deep unless ur applying to keele. otherwise just make sure it has no red flags and is clearly a med ps, and follows the general recommended structure.

Reply 9

Ghostlady

21

Too many things that are no relavance to your degree. Duke of edinburgh, head of dance class, sixth form head girl, won a skiing competition, absailing. Its just too much. Maybe say one or two at most. And from those things, what you got out of it which showcases your personality. So if you like did Duke of edinburgh, then this would show perserverence, adaptability to various situations etc.
Ideally things like work experience thats relevant, a summer free course (ie MOOC) thats relavent, podcast, a book, any summer school residential, clubs thats relevant, a paper you have seen and how that had made you want to explore that further (ie certain type of cancer etc) .

Reply 10

always-anxious

Chat Forum Helper, Study Forum Helper

20

Try not to use the phrase "I have a passion for" because so many people use the word passion so it won't help your statement stand out

Reply 11

BU Student Rep

Official Rep

8

Original post

by klafow

what are things that you definitely should not say when writing a medicine personal statement?

Hi Klafow,

My name is Will, I'm a 3rd Year student at Bournemouth University.

Writing your personal statement isn't easy. But the advice I give to others is to think of it like a cover letter for a job and to talk about why you want to study what you are applying for, and really dig deep into that trying not to use any cliche's like "I have always wanted to be '....' ". Whereas maybe focus on anybody in that field you have followed for a while.
For example, I study Media Production and in my personal statement I mentioned how I had always followed and admired Jennifer Lee who is the first female Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios and I always try to take inspiration from her work into what I do in mine.

I hope this helps, I have also written a blog about how to write a personal statement which you can find here Personal Statement
Best of luck with your application
Will - BU Student Rep

Reply 12

Hxsna_st

13

Original post

by KWad

Yes, I agree. Talk about your main takeaways from the book, what you learned, etc. Don't just be vague about its impact on you or just list some of its contents, because anybody could give an imprecise account of how impactful a book is, and the admissions tutor could very easily find a book summary online if they really wanted to. Talk about how the book influenced YOU specifically and what it taught YOU. You could even talk about something in it that you disagree with, as it shows that you are engaging critically with the text (but obviously be reasonable with this - a med tutor won't be impressed if you talk about your opposition to the practice of vaccination).

Alright thank you so much! Have u read any med related books or know any that are good?

Reply 13

KWad

11

Original post

by Hxsna_st

Alright thank you so much! Have u read any med related books or know any that are good?

No, sorry - I don't take med. But as ever, I will link the Cambridge supercurricular suggestions document. The medicine section contains a link to the Oxford medicine reading list (+ three other books) as well as some other supercurriculars which you may find useful. That should be a large enough selection to pick from, I hope.

Reply 14

GANFYD

18

Original post

by Hxsna_st

Alright thank you so much! Have u read any med related books or know any that are good?

https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6491274

Reply 15

elliefitz

12

Hey! My advice would be similar to what all the other replies said, don’t include cliche’s such as “i have always wanted to go into medicine”, they read thousands of personal statements and they are looking for ones that stand out, not ones that all sound generic and cliche. As well as this, I also want to say the importance of linking anything to experience. For example, don’t just say “i’m a team player”, say that you demonstrated being a team player through a specific experience then talk about this and link it to how it will be useful in medicine. In my personal statement I also ensured I used correct terminology and phrases such as the multi-disciplinary team and clinical supervisor.

Reply 16

George&Mary

13

Don’t say, “I’m in it for the money”, or “my parents …” and obviously nothing illegal or discriminatory. (You would be surprised!). Do be sincere, and be honest.

The PS is a weird thing. Some med schools only scan it for red flags, some never look at it at all, some ignore it at the sifting for interview stage but then interviewers ask questions off it (so don’t put anything down you aren’t prepared to be asked questions about). Where it is looked at in pre-interview sifting some look for specific things, and some closely score it.

The range of influences it can have over your application goes from 0-100 and it’s important to know where your strategic choices fall in that spectrum, and tailor your PS to fit to their specific needs. This should be set out in their application policy clearly. Spend time looking at the application policies in detail and work out how to make your PS fit.

This might take a bit of time to do properly if you are applying to 2 that want slightly different things, but if you are applying to 4 that ignore it completely then …

@elliefitz advice above about structurally linking it to experiences and qualities of doctors is clear and helpful.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 17

McGinger

20

Anything along the lines of
"I just want to make people better'
"I enjoy looking after my dolls/pets/grandma when they are sick"
"I think I'd make a good doctor"
"Ever since I was in hospital aged 4..."
and I reach for a zero assessment score.

Reply 18

TMTDRN

10

Any fire-related metaphors:
Eg. “My interest in medicine was sparked…”
“Burning passion”
“Such and such ignited my interest”

things to avoid in personal statement

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Articles for you

How The Student Room is moderated