Friday, April 6, 2012

Personal Statements

by Caroline Tan.


Time flies and before we know it, it is our turn, the upper six students of PTEK to write our own personal statements! Before everything else, I would like to ask, what is the most common country that Bruneians tend to want to go to in order to further their studies after graduating from sixth-form? I can assure you that out of 10 people, more than half would answer “UK”.  Good! Now if you have always wanted to go to UK to further your studies, you most probably have heard of UCAS. It’s a website which students make use of to find suitable universities in the United Kingdom! Here, take a look: ucas.ac.uk 

Ok now, back to writing our personal statements. What is a personal statement, you ask? The UCAS personal statement is a 47 line (or 4000 character) piece of writing that allows you to tell the universities and colleges you are applying and to why they should offer you a place on the course. In order to do this successfully, you need to convey your passion and enthusiasm for the subject to the admission tutors, as well as demonstrate your suitability to the course. I suggest you have to have a pretty good idea of what course you want to study before continuing much further with your personal statement. Generally, personal statements are quite specific, so if you decide to change the course you are applying for you would need to rewrite your personal statement. 

Don’t know what you want to be in the future? Don’t know what course to go for? It’s time my dear, to do some research and set your mind already! Actually, having a right goal in mind and being determined in what you want to be in the future helps to motivate you to study. Personally, it is the only thing that is pushing me forward, really. Take a look: http://www.studential.com/applying/choosingadegree After you have chosen a degree, all you need to do is, “sell yourself”. You should know by now that it’s really up to a university whether to accept you or not. The slots for international students are very limited and so they will judge you from how well you construct your personal statements and how well you are! Just a bit of a story, in my math class, my teacher told me to look into your own refection in the mirror, and ask yourself : ‘Who is it that person in the refection?’ And whatever comes to your mind after that, write it all down with honesty. Then, link your qualities with what you should be accepted as, into your choice of university. 

Don’t be too afraid to write and ‘sell yourself’ totally! It’s a personal statement. It is supposed to be about you. It’s about you and only you. My advice is to not to just study, but also join some clubs. Perhaps play some sports and music and tell your choice of university that you are not only good academically, but also physically and mentally! It always helps to get a part time job during school holidays too, universities would be grateful to know that besides having to study, you still have time to go to work and gain some experience. One thing that you should never do is make up stories and lie about yourself in your personal statements. Some degrees like medicine, require you to go for an interview and from there, your true colours will reveal. So do not put your future at risk. Personal statements are like trust-based systems. Once it’s broken, you’re never trustworthy anymore. We all are still students, so none of us are experts in this. I have requested one of the teachers in the career section to give a talk in the multipurpose hall on how to write personal statements. He reassured me that there would be, and not to worry. 

For more information , visit : http://www.studential.com/guide/write_personal_statement.htm

Revised by Joanne Lim.

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