End Your Personal Statement With A Bang - Universities Explain How

Three answers to three questions. 4,000 characters. The university application personal statement is unlikely to be the longest piece of writing you’ve ever done: but have you ever spent so much time on anything else?

When you’ve been fine-tuning your answers for weeks - or months even - it can be hard to let go and say: “This is now finished”. Here are six things to check before you do.

1. Is it really about you?

It’s a personal statement…make sure your personality comes through. Each of your answers needs to cover information that is specific to you. If you’ve got stuff in there that is more generally about the subject, take it out.

2. Have you answered the questions?

The three questions are there to guide your writing. Check back to make sure your answers really focus on each question, and that they are clear and detailed.

• Why do you want to study this course or subject?

This should make it clear why you want to take the course. Have you explained why it interests you? What examples have you given?

• How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?

Your answer should show that you understand the skills you will need to succeed in this course. You then need to have clear examples of how you have been developing those skills.

• What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?

Make sure everything in this answer has relevance to your course. Whatever you mention, explain why that experience makes you an ideal candidate.

3. Cut the waffle

You can’t write more than 4,000 characters, but it’s OK to write a few less. If you’ve got a personal statement that is 200 characters below the limit, but you’ve said everything you need to say, leave it there.

Don't pad it out with a load of meaningless waffle. Keeping your points short and concise is much better than saying something long and vague.

4. Skip unnecessary details

Remember, your personal statement is only one part of your application. Don’t waste space by including information that is already covered elsewhere, such as your GCSE grades or A-level subjects.

If you have personal information about your health or background, this can be covered in your reference.

5. Is all of your writing original?

Every personal statement is put through a plagiarism checker by Ucas. Don’t copy/paste anything that’s not your own into your personal statement; you’re then running the risk of getting flagged by those checks. This includes AI tools.

It’s fine to use tools such as ChatGPT to help with planning your personal statement, but the finished writing needs to come from you, not from a bot.

6. Get someone to check it

Don’t send off anything without someone having a read through it first. It is really, really hard to spot tiny mistakes in something you have written yourself. But they will stand out a mile to someone looking at the writing with fresh eyes.

Ideally you want a teacher or tutor to check through and give you feedback. You can also ask friends and family for help. If you’d like a hand with getting your personal statement checked by experts, you can use the personal statement review service on The Student Room.

More advice on writing your personal statement

• How to write an excellent personal statement in ten steps
• Personal statement FAQs
• How to write your personal statement when you have nothing interesting to say
• Personal statement discussion and advice on The Student Room