When to start my personal statement
HOW TO WRITE YOUR PERSONAL STATEMENT! | Eve
oh hello everybody welcome back to my
channel so today's video is going to be
a super casual video
hence the casual attire and casual hair
and casual face because I'm gonna be
talking about personal statements now
when somewhat loading this the deadline
the early deadline is like next Saturday
so this advice may not be useful for
people who are applying for early
deadline but I'm hoping that my advice
now I've written my personal statement
might help you guys of course
disclaimer I don't know if my personal
statements any good I hate it personally
but the process has been quite process
and I feel like I've learned a lot along
the way that I want to like share with
you in case you're applying in January
or if you're applying like next year but
anyway I hope this is of some use but
number one is to make sure you know what
course you want to do this sounds really
really stupid but I actually started my
personal statement before I knew what
course I wanted to do so I was writing
to to start with and actually I found
that was a really good way to decide
what course I wanted to do if you're
really stuck start writing a personal
statement for your options and the one
that writes easier like the one that's
easier to write and the one that flows
more it's definitely the one that you
should do at university so I started
writing a personal statement for Spanish
and English and I really couldn't write
it but as soon as I started writing one
for Spanish and German I found it a lot
easier to like get the vibes go in and I
find that unless you know what you want
to do you're not gonna finish it
properly so definitely use it as a tool
to pick but don't like write a whole
thing if you're still not sure on which
one you want to do my second tip is know
which universities you're applying to
because that actually does make a
difference to how your personal
statement is laid out so if you're
applying places like Oxford Cambridge
really competitive academic unni's or
medicine or veterinary science or
whatever your personal statement is
gonna want to be like at least 70%
academic like 70% 80% 90% academic and
temps that extracurricular so if this is
my personal statement
that is academic and that little
paragraph at the bottom is
extracurricular because I'm applying to
universities that when I've been to that
open days have said that we'd much
rather see the academic side than the
extracurricular side don't completely
you know not put your extra curricular
dating but they need to take up a lot
smaller space than like the books you've
read all the courses you've been on or
whatever and if you're applying
somewhere that puts a lot more focus on
extra kilos like a sports course or a
creative arts course or something that
requires you know extracurriculars then
put more emphasis on that the best way
to find out about that is to go to open
days or to ring the University of Emad a
couple of universities and be like what
are you looking for in your personal
statement and also bear in mind that
universities don't put that much weigh
on your personal statement especially
universities like Exeter and where else
have I been that said um Edinburgh they
both said that they only use the
personal statement as like a
distinguisher between two similar people
they look at your grades first so
although your personal statement is
important it's part of like a holistic
application especially for somewhere
level so I'm hoping that if my personal
statements absolutely horrible it won't
matter my next tip is to start not with
the start so don't write your first
opening line first I sat for hours
trying to figure out what to write for
my first line and then somebody told me
write the rest of it first I did and the
last thing I wrote actually was my first
paragraph and I found that because I'd
written everything else I knew how to
introduce it to make it flow to fit in
with everything else so don't be afraid
to like not write it in order if that
makes sense like don't be afraid to
write the conclusion first and then go
and do something else don't be afraid to
write the middle paragraph first and
branch out don't be afraid to just do it
in the order that you want to do it as
long as it all comes together in the end
it really doesn't matter the next point
is plan so as I went through year 12 and
like the end of year 11 whenever I did
something to do with languages or
English I wrote it down on a piece of
paper and when I came to write my
personal statement I had this huge list
of things that I've done and books that
I've read in place I'd seen and courses
that I've been on that I could use on my
personal statement so that was really
really useful to have rather than trying
to remember
everything that you've done and what
other tip with this is to prioritize so
my personal statement was actually 7,000
characters when I first wrote it and and
I had to cut out so much like so many
books that I've read in the future and
courses that I've done and things just
to make sure that it fits but what I did
was I took the list that I made and put
it in order of things I wanted to put on
my personal statement and then cut it
out from the bottom and today all fit in
so don't be afraid to like cut things
out because even if you don't mention in
your personal statement if you do have
an interview you can mention it in your
interview and it looks even better
because it's like extra stuff besides
the extra stuff that you've done for
your personal statement so keep a note
of what you haven't put in and it may
come in useful my next tip is to not
worry about the character count to start
with just write it like write it and
write everything you want to say write
everything you want to do and once
you've got it and you finish there take
it to a teacher that you know is gonna
be really like ruthless with it there's
no point in taking it to a teacher
that's going be like yeah that's great
you need to take it to a teacher that's
not afraid to cross stuff out to tell
you that you've written in a sloppy way
to give you advice to give you tips so
the teacher that I went to
we had like seven meetings where there
and my personal statement took me seven
drafts but it went from being quite
badly not badly written but quite
simplistic to being elegant whilst being
concise at the same time so make sure
you pick a teacher and don't go to like
50 Virginian teachers because it's gonna
stress you out having 70 million people
telling you different things because I
did that and it really upset me I got
really upset about it because I had one
teacher telling me this another teacher
telling me that another person telling
me this and the person telling me that
by all means get people to read it but
take people's feedback like on the chin
because at the end of the day it's your
personal statement and it needs to sound
like it's coming from you not from a
teacher not from your friend not from
the woman down the road it just needs to
sound like you use me on to my next tip
is don't try and be someone you're not
in your personal statement my personal
statement doesn't sound like it doesn't
convey my personality completely just
because how well can you convey your
personality of four thousand characters
but I'm happy that
someone wants to ask me a question about
it I would be able to talk about it so
I'm not faking anything just keep it
totally real because if you lie or if
you cheat or if you get your teacher to
write something that you don't
understand fully then it's not going to
help you in the long run it's not doing
anyone a favor it's not doing the
universities a favor it's not doing you
a favor so keep it real keep it true to
yourself and make sure that you are
happy with it before you send it off my
next tip is to sleep on it I think this
is the best thing to do I started my
personal statement on the 30th of August
like properly like I've been I've been
picking out it over the summer I've been
doing little bits by sat down and wrote
my first draft completely on the 30th of
August and I finished it on the 30th of
September so it took me in exactly a
month and I found that sometimes I've
been sat looking at it for so long that
I couldn't read objectively so I'd leave
it for a few days and then come back to
it and then you've got like a fresh
mindset I also find that that's when
giving its teachers is really helpful
because they are looking at it like
intervals so I used to give it to my
teacher and then let her have like three
days of it and then be like okay now I
can look at it again because I haven't
been mulling over it for the last week
so yeah I would say definitely sleep on
it and don't try and do it all in one
brush but I'm right over a period of
time because that allows leeway for
changes of mind for changes of opinion
for adding new stuff in taking new stuff
out give yourself at least a month's
period where you're drafting it and that
leads me on to my final point which is
don't let it overtake your life because
your personal statements really
important but it's not so important as
your a levels so maybe like dedicate
some time to it but don't jeopardize
your other work in favor of your
personal statement because at the end of
the day it's gonna be your grades that
get you into University even Oxford when
I've been and Cambridge have been like
yes your personal statement is important
if you're doing the arts and humanities
subject you know I heard that for
physics they don't even read it but
whatever but like that's the only time
that the personal statement is important
is that I interview but they also look
at your grades they look at your
interview performance they look at your
test performance they look at your
written what they look at so many things
so just remember that the person
statement is one little bit of that if
you can get it happy if you can get it
so that you're happy with it great if
you still not quite happy with it just
remember that it's because you've read
it so many times so I wrote this video
is of some use I'm in no way saying
there like I've got a purse / perfect
personal statement because I actually
hate my personal statements so much but
it's 3999 character I'm going to send it
off this week so I hope this was useful
informative if you have any questions
about personal statements leave it down
below and I am filming a you cast
Journey video which I'm going to upload
once I've got all my university offers
so like that video will be around in
like January time hopefully
but yeah until then I will see you very
soon
[Music]
