Writing a personal statementWord格式文档下载.docx

1、personal statement - i.e. its about you, and there is no real right or wrong way to do it. What weve written below is just a guide, and should not be stuck to rigidly. You may find by choosing your own structure, and writing what you want to write about, gives a better picture of yourself to the rea

2、der than anyone else can.UCAS advice - read what UCAS tell you first to get a general overviewAims of the statement - Why write a personal statement, what are you aiming to doNotes about yourself - Make notes about what to put in your statement before you startYou and your subject - Why do you want

3、to take this subject?Read example statements - Read other peoples statements to give you some ideasPersonal goals of your statement - What do you think will work well in your statementLanguage of the statement - How are you going to make your statement soundStructure of the statement - How are you g

4、oing to layout and write your statementWriting the statement - A few last minute tips before you beginAfter writing the statement - After you first draft is complete whats left to doFormatting the statement - Now your statement is perfect youve got to format itUCAS adviceIn the advice for applicants

5、 book, UCAS give you a short overview of the personal statement. This doesnt really tell you much, but should tell you enough to get you started. You get a description of the personal statement, a list of bullet points of information you want to include and some information about printing it. You ma

6、y also find you college or school gives you some additional information. If you think this information is enough to go on, and your statement is already forming in your mind then you can stop reading here and get on with your statement!Aims of the Personal statementMany universities dont interview a

7、pplicants, so the only information they have about you is your UCAS form. Most of the UCAS form only contains your details, the bits the universities are interested in is your grades, your references and your personal statement. The personal statement is the only bit you really have control over, so

8、 this is your chance to present a good image to the admissions tutor, even if your grades dont really reflect that image.If you are applying to an oversubscribed university course, and everyone applying is likely to have good grades, the personal statement is the only thing that tells you apart from

9、 other applicants, so you want to try and make yours as good as possible.When the admissions and subject tutors look at your personal statement, they are likely to be asking two main questions:1. Do we want this student on this course?2. Do we want this student at this university?These can be broken

10、 down into a number of easier to answer questions: Is the student suited to the course that they are applying for? Does the student have the necessary qualifications and qualities for the course? Is the student conscientious, hardworking and unlikely to drop out? Will the student do their best and c

11、ope with the demands of the course? Can the student work under pressure? Will the student be able to adjust to their new environment at university? What are their communication skills like? Are they dedicated to this course and have researched it well? Do they have a genuine interest in the subject

12、and a desire to learn more about it?These are the sort of questions you need to answer in your personal statement. Unfortunately you cannot answer them directly, you need to provide evidence and make it sound believable.Ultimately, admissions tutors are human too, and may well have hundreds of perso

13、nal statements to shift through, so even if you think youve answered all these questions really well you may still be unlucky. There are other techniques you can use to make your statement stand out and appeal to admissions tutors, but remember they are all different and may have different ideas abo

14、ut what they look for in a prospective student. Some of these techniques are discussed in the personal goals section.Notes about yourselfNow you have some idea of why youre writing a personal statement you need to think about what youre going to write in it. You dont need to start thinking about the

15、 wording or structure yet, just get down some ideas of the things you think you could put down.The best way to do this is to use a set of headings and write bullet points about how you relate to these headings. Here are some headings to think about.What you want to study at university and why Specif

16、ic aspects of the courses that interest you Examples of coursework you have completed Practical work you have enjoyed Things you have read related to the subject area Work experience or voluntary work in this area Conferences you have attended Personal experiences which lead to the decision to take

17、this subject Where you hope a degree in this subject will leadExperiences that show you are a reliable and responsible person Part-time job Business enterprise Community and charity work Sixth form committee Helping out at school events and open days Young Enterprise, World Challenge, Duke of Edinbu

18、rgh award, Asdan Award Debating societies and what youve gained from these experiences.Your interests and skills What you like to do in your free time Sport and leisure activities Subjects you study which are not examined Musical instrument which you play Languages which you speak Prizes you have wo

19、n or positions achieved in your interestsGap year Why youre taking a Gap year （if you are） Why you want to take a gap year What you plan to do How this may relate to your courseIf youre not taking a gap year avoid this section. If you are it could still be left out, but you may be asked why youre ta

20、king it at an interview.You should now have lots of bullet points about yourself, all of which will be useful in preparing your personal statement. Dont worry too much if you dont seem to have done much off the list, just think about things youve done which show all your good qualities, or could be

21、written as to show your good qualities.The important thing is that you have a good reason for why you want to study the course, it doesnt matter if the reason sounds stupid at the moment - you can work on the language later. All admissions tutors will be looking for people who are enthusiastic and p

22、assionate about the subjects they want to study, so make sure you really are. If youre choosing this course just because you cant think of anything better to do, thats not a good enough reason, and maybe you should consider looking for a course you enjoy more.Now youve got some ideas together, its t

23、ime to think about turning them into a personal statement - almost.You and your subjectSaying why you want to take your course is possibly the most important part of your personal statement. You can have perfect grades, great extra curricular activities and be a really great person, but if admission

24、s tutors feel you arent committed to your course, you wont get a place.Hopefully the notes you have written for the section above have already given you a good idea of what to write about why you want to take your course. If not then you should at least be sure you want to take that subject - writin

25、g a personal statement is a lot of work, and you dont really want to get to the end of it and decide you want to study a different subject, so before you go much further be sure you have chosen the right subject for you. Remember you dont actually have to choose the course you want to take yet, just

26、 have a rough idea of the subject area or areas you might be interested in.Now you need to think about exactly why you want to take this subject. Even if you are 100% sure that this is the course for you, you still need to get this idea across to the admissions tutors. If they accept you, you are go

27、ing to be studying this course for at least the next three years, and you need to convince them that you are committed to it. Have a think about exactly why the subject appeals to you, and write down as much as you can about it. It doesnt matter if you only scribble a few notes, you can modify them

28、before you write the statement, the important thing is you can be sure of the key reasons why you want to take the subject. Write down as many as you can, if you have too many you can always just pick the best. Other than that I cant give you much more advice - only you know exactly why you want to

29、take your chosen course, but bear in mind, if you cant think of any good reasons - should you really be taking that subject?What if I want to do a joint degree?There are two options you can use to tailor your personal statement to joint degrees （ones where you take two subjects e.g. economics and politics）. You can talk about just one subject which you feel is most important, and not mention the other. This has the advantage that you can apply for two different joint degrees and only talk about the common element e.g. for economics and politics and