personal statements simon smith head of sixth form colyton grammar school
TRANSCRIPT
• I don’t know where to start
• I haven’t done anything to put on there
• I’m useless
• I don’t do anything outside of school
• I’m no good at English – I can’t write well
IAG from Year 7
• A networked personal portfolio
• CV & letter of application (Y9)
• Work experience evaluation
• Y12 learning journals
• Y13 ambassadors
Hitting the ground running in Year 12
• Lesson culture …what are you reading, what are the routes forward, where does this lead? Extension work.
• PSHE culture …drawing it all together
• Extended Project …time-scale
• Personal Statement …one draft finished before the summer holidays.
Managing the process
• Nominating a single teacher
• Draft turnover (in before & back after summer break)
• Quality check (two week process)
Getting started …
UCAS – Home
• Personal Statements Advice
• Entry Profiles
Online Prospectus
Structure
• Short introduction (always leave until last)
• The main body of the PS should be course-related
• It could tell a story about a developing and proliferating interest – or one about increasingly close focus.
• End with your wider interests/achievements.
Drawing links …• Between texts within subjects
(thematically/intellectually/aesthetically)
• Between texts within subjects and wider reading (EP?)
• Between subjects (electro chemical gradients in Chem. – nervous impulses in Bio.) (French Revolution –His. Rousseau –Fr. Blake – Eng. Lit.)
• Between subject and work experience (physiology and pathology Bio. that poorly snake at the vets - WEX)
Work experience
• “During my Year 11 work experience placement at a local museum I really developed my team-working skills. I spent lots of time working with a curator looking through Victorian exhibits in the archive and this taught me the importance of being thorough and meticulous. I also helped out at the front desk and showed around visitors which developed my communication skills.”
Work experience
• Make it tell a story – how it fits into the journey towards the degree you are applying for.
• Where it goes in the PS is determined by where it comes in the journey.
• How a particular interest lead to it …• How it created a new interest …• What questions it raised…
Work experience
• “Assisting the curator of Bridport Museum in reorganising the archive, last summer, it struck me how Victorian collectors were obsessed by taxonomy. I went on to read Jacqueline Yallop’s How Victorians Collected the World which introduced me to the way that scientific research is often the way we justify cultural theft.”
Wider interests & achievements
“As Head Boy I have demonstrated leadership skills in organising charity events and developed my communication skills in giving formal addresses to large audiences at school events. I have managed to motivate a team on the Ten Tors competition, especially those team-mates who were flagging and dispirited.”
Your wider interests and achievements
• Keep it concise
• Be judicious but honest
• Don’t brag
• They should speak for themselves (dynamism, ability to balance demands, outgoing nature)
• But …
Wider interests
“To be frank, outside of school I just love unwinding through reading a good book or being with my friends. I also enjoy film, especially film from abroad, as I like the insight it gives into cultures different from the one I live in. I particularly like Iranian and Turkish film. One day I would love to visit the Middle East, and I hope that the benefits I can draw from doing a degree will allow me to travel and possibly even work abroad.”
Career aspirations
• “Hopefully, if being fortunate enough to get a good degree, I would like to do a Law conversion course and go on to work in Chambers or in the City.”
Careers• A nice way of rounding off (how the degree fits into journey)• If it is well-researched & relevant (vocational degrees)
• However …
• Avoid a fixed view – a degree is there to broaden your appreciation of a subject and to develop you too.
• There’s more to a degree than a particular career.• Think in terms of ‘opportunities’ rather than ‘careers’?
Career aspirations
“Although a career involving international law inspires me as a Sixth Former, the reason I want to study Law at university is to get the opportunity to develop a working knowledge of many other branches of the Law so as to make a more informed choice of career by the time I graduate.”
“I have been interested in Physics since I was very young. I am interested by its thought-provoking complexities. You could say it has a beauty that is often overlooked by those who feel it is boring. I have read many books on the subject, really researching it in depth. It is fair to say that I am passionate about Physics and this is what drives my application to study it at degree level.”
“I have been interested in bell-ringing since I was very young. I am interested by its thought-provoking complexities. You could say it has a beauty that is often overlooked by those who feel it is boring. I have read many books on the subject, really researching it in depth. It is fair to say that I am passionate about bell-ringing and this is what drives my application to study it at degree level.”
12Repeating information captured
elsewhere on the form …
• “I have got 8 a*grades at GCSE”
• “I am studying Biology, Geography and English at ‘A’-Level”
11Explaining why you chose an ‘A’-
level course …
• “I chose French because it goes well with Geography.”
Avoid by:
• Commenting on what has most sparked
your interest in your 6th form studies and
showing how this has lead to your H.E.
choice.
10Describing the ‘A’-Level
• “Maths is really useful as it has Units on statistics and probability, both of which are important aspects of an Economics degree …”
Avoid by:• Showing what aspects of
statistics/probability have interested you and why. How will you be able to develop this curiosity on the degree course you have chosen?
9Explaining a course to an
academic…
• “History is about the past.”
• “Geology brings together physics and geography.”
Avoid by:
Thinking about what it is that really interests you about the study of History at degree level. Conceptualise without cliché.
8Giving a lecture …
“ …ultimately King James achieved very little in his attempts to unify a nation split along religious and economic lines.”
Avoid by:
• Showing what interested you in the study of a particular topic:
“in studying Jacobean politics, I was impressed by Gillian Fraser’s idea that …”
7Making work experience sound like
your school made you do it
• “I did my Year 11 work experience placement at …”
Avoid by:
• Not mentioning the phrase “work experience”:
• “While observing the testing of investment-cast turbine airfoils at a local engineering firm, I found …”
6Unnecessary memoirs…
• “Ever since I was three I have been fascinated by animals…”
• “I really enjoyed studying the history of medicine in Year 9 …”
• When I was only six I remember being puzzled by tadpoles …”
•
5.Unread books …
• “I found Hegel’s The Phenomenology of Mind a really interesting read. Very thought-provoking.”
• “I am currently reading Hegel’s The Phenomenology of Mind which is a fascinating textual exploration of Hegel’s unique philosophical outlook.”
• “As I am so consumed with my passion for Philosophy I plan to read Hegel’s The Phenomenology of Mind …”
Avoid by:
• Talking with relatives to draw out salient issues for comment:
• “ I appreciate the difficulties that a GP practice faces as it prepares itself for the challenges of the new Health and Social Care Bill …”
2Beginning with a Google
quotation:
“If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.”
Avoid by:
• If the source is relevant, paraphrase the quote, see if it still interests you and – if it does – comment on it:
• “Ezra Pound’s assertion that literature is “news that stays news” captures for me both the importance and immediacy of the texts that have interested me since starting English Literature ‘A’-Level study.”
1Telling rather than showing
• “I am a part-time volunteer at a nursing
• home. This demonstrates my
• compassionate nature.”
• “I have been a tennis coach at a local club. This shows my abilities to communicate and my sense of responsibility.”
Avoid by: Showing not telling
• “working as a volunteer at a local care home, I have noticed that …”
(care, insight …)
• “as a tennis coach at a local club, I really enjoy …”
(care, responsibility, enthusiasm …)