Medicine Personal Statements: Advice and Questions

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Introduction: Explain why you want to be a doctor. Be honest and try to attract the readers attention right from the start.

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Work experience: Focus on what you learnt from your work experience rather than what you did/saw - this could include skills you noticed doctors need, the team work involved in medicine etc. Think about the negatives of being a doctor as well as the positives.

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Voluntary work: Talk about what you've done/currently do but make sure you mention what you learnt from your experiences and how these skills might be useful for you in the future (their relevance to medicine).

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Extracurricular activities: Talk about your hobbies, what you do outside school/university and what you do to relax and relieve stress.

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Conclusion: Sum up why you want to be a doctor and why you think you're perfect for the career.

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Other things some people like to include are an academic paragraph, either talking about the subjects they study or a particular area of medicine that they find interesting. Talking about specific articles or books that you've read would also go in this sort of paragraph.

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Don't put yourself down

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Write concisely and avoid complex words and long, convoluted sentences - keep it simple

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If you say you find something interesting, try to explain why

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Try to avoid sounding arrogant/over confident (e.g. some people say 'when I'm a doctor' or 'I look forward to seeing you at interview')

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Avoid the phrase: 'the ideal candidate' as each medical school will have their own idea of what this is

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Write formally

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Avoid clichés (this isn't always possible but specific words such as 'passion' and 'fascination' appear far too often)

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Pay attention to where you use capital letters - it's common for people to use them incorrectly

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1. Q: Should I leave a line between each paragraph?
A: This does make personal statements a lot easier to read and would be appreciated by admissions tutors, though some people find it difficult to fit everything in even when they don't leave extra spaces.

2. Q: How long does it need to be?
A: 4000 characters or 47 lines long, whichever comes first. If your personal statement is longer than this, then anything over the limit won't be seen by the universities. You don't have to use all the space provided, however, a lot of medicine applicants do struggle to cut their statements down to the right size.

3. Q: Should I mention my parents/aunt/uncle/grandparents/siblings/cousins are doctors?
A: You can if you want to. I've seen statements where it works well and others where it really doesn't work at all. If you do talk about them (maybe because they were part of what inspired you), the risk is that it may sound like you're only going into medicine because they're pushing you into it or because it's 'the family trade.'

4. Q: Should I mention specific places where I did my work experience?
A: Different people have different opinions on this one. Personally, I think they aren't needed and you can save a few characters by leaving them out (as you can always mention them specifically during interview). Other people think that adding the names of places can add a more personal touch to the personal statement so ultimately, it is for each individual to decide whether to include them or not.

5. Q: Should I capitalise subjects in the middle of sentences?
A: Only if you're referring to a specific course like 'A Level Biology.' If you're just talking about how much you like biology e.g. 'an aspect of biology that particularly interests me...' then it should not be capitalised.