With the UCAS application’s deadline looming, it’s safe to say that you’re probably feeling insanely stressed out. And I completely get that I was in your position last year, scrambling to finish all my university research in time and write a personal statement I would be proud of and showcase my skills to my university. So to help you with your personal statement, I’m giving you ALL my advice to help you write the best personal statement possible: whether it’s things I did, the mistakes I learnt from or tips to help you write a master piece.

Answering Question 1 - Why do you want to study this course or subject?

• Hook/initial motivation - Where your interest began (avoid clichés)
• Exploring your motivation - What you’ve done since your initial interest
• Personal experiences that shaped your commitment
• Closing Sentence – A forward-looking statement that links into the following question

Answering Question 2 - How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?

• Pick 2-3 academic topics/qualifications that you have taken part in and connect to your course - Do not focus solely on A-levels as these are included in other parts of your application
• Discuss and reflect on the skills gained (for example, critical thinking, data analysis, essay writing)
• Show readiness for the step-up to university

Answering Question 3 - What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?

• Pick 2–3 strongest experiences
• Describe and reflect on them
• Reflect on what you learnt and did
• Link back to your course/subject

​

How to Structure Each Paragraph in Your Personal Statement

1. Insight
   • Begin by talking about an impactful moment you saw or felt. This can include any form of insight, such as work experience, volunteering, a conference you attended or a book you read. Any form of insight that inspired you can be used here!
2. Reflect
   • This step is one of the most important things to be doing in your medicine personal statement, as universities want to understand what you have learnt
3. Inspiration
   • From this insight or experience you had, how did you go about developing similar skills?
   • This is your opportunity to talk about what you have done to develop similar skills, and again reflect in detail
   • Talk about your growth, what you have learnt and how your skills have developed
4. Link
   • This step is not essential, but linking back to medicine at the end creates a nice end to each paragraph
   • At the end, mention how the skills you have learnt could help you in the future as a medical student or doctor
   • This section does not have to be long; even 1-2 sentences are enough

​

How to Reflect

1. What happened? Provide some context
2. How did YOU feel?
3. What was the experience like? Was it good or bad? What did you learn? Evaluate it
4. What could you have done differently?
5. What would you do in the future?

This is the most important skill you need to show in your personal statement. For every experience you mention, make sure you talk about what you learnt. Don’t just mention things, expand on them! This is the biggest mistake students make in their personal statement.

​

One piece of research that many students forget is the chance of being called for an interview. Now I don’t mean applying strategically or how high your stats are. What I actually mean is how many students are called for an interview. Does the university interview only a small proportion of candidates or thousands of them? This is called the post-interview success rate. If you get called for an interview, what is your chance of getting an offer from them? The best way to find this out is

1. Go to the university website or call up the admissions office
2. Find out the number of students who applied, the number of students called for an interview, and the number of students who received an offer
3. Work out your percentage success rate

This gives you a really good idea of success rates at different interviews, and is often a step in the strategic application process that students miss!

However, I do want to mention that it is easy to fall into a trap of constantly researching statistics and stressing about your chance of getting an offer. Some universities call a large number of students for an interview, so post-interview success rates are lower. Others call only very few applicants, so they have higher post-interview success rates but a lower chance of being called for an interview. But they still have to call someone. So remember when you’re doing your research, don’t just dismiss universities because you think you don’t have a chance of receiving an offer. Because you do!

Even if a university has low chances of post-interview success, it is still completely possible for you to get an offer! This was something I was worried about too, when I applied, as the University of Liverpool has some of the lowest interview success rates. However, I made sure to focus on developing strong interview skills, and ended up with an offer for medicine. Once you have applied strategically, the last hurdle to getting your conditional offer is interviews. And if you’re following the 3 steps for interview success, then no matter how low the interview success rates are, you definitely have a chance of being called for an interview.

Making sure you know the ethical principles, medical content, understand interviewer psychology and have strong presentation skills are essential so YOU increase your chances of getting an offer for medicine. If you’re looking to get your medicine offers and gain a complete understanding of the art of interviews, click the link below and begin your interview success story NOW!

​

I am giving you free access to my UCAT notes, which are filled with tips, strategies and confidence-boosting tips, to help support you on your UCAT journey.

You can check out my website for resources such as the A* AQA A-level psychology notes and my notes template designed in an active recall format. If you would like access to my UCAT University Guide, click on my website and read the newsletter edition 'Does Your UCAT Limit You?'

📸Here are the links to each of my social media pages, so make sure you follow! In all, I detail the advice and tips you need to help make your application to medicine so much easier! If you ever need any help, feel free to reach out to me at loveleenj241@gmail.com

​