General Personal Statement Guidance

Written by Ella Dorward

When beginning to think about your personal statement, it can seem very overwhelming, especially with the recent change in layout. However, the reason for this change is actually to help you, with each of the three questions allowing for your personal statement to tick all the boxes universities will want to see. The decision for each section to have a minimum of 350 characters per section (this includes spaces, and if you click on the word count at the bottom of a Word document, it will tell you), as well as a limit to 4000 characters overall, can seem far too little to express everything you have achieved. But by creating a focused, clear personal statement, you are building a strong argument to convince the universities why they should choose you!

The first question (Why do you want to study this course or subject?) is not a trick question. Rather, all they want to know is how you came to your decision to be sure you have thought about your choice, giving you the highest chance to excel in a degree you love in a year’s time. As guidance, it might help to consider if there was a specific thing you learnt at school, an experience you had, or a reason for your decision, and what motivated you to want to learn more about your topic of choice, whether that be your aspirations or interests. It is more than okay if you have never studied this course before (I did not study mine!), but what they want to see is the stepping stones you have taken to realise why this is the degree for you!

Moving onto the second question (How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?) asks you to link previous experiences with your course. This could come from your A-Level, IB or B-Tech choices - any transferable skills from those studies which prove you are a good candidate. If you are aiming for a place in a competitive course, it is highly advisable that you develop a plethora of super-curricular activities, such as an Extended Project Qualification (EPQ), which stresses your interest in a topic of choice and is appealing to universities as it shows you can research, a vital skill for university. Although you need to make sure that your top universities accept EPQ, as some universities offer lower offers if you achieve a high-grade EPQ, and some do not. Similarly, you could choose to do a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) in an area of your choice – this can be done on websites such as Coursera to show how you want to develop your learning more and prove that you are interested and proactive in your studies. Finally, something that shows you go above and beyond in your academic work is to enter competitions such as the John Locke essay competition (where you could win a $10,000 USD scholarship to one of their summer programmes!).

Finally, the third question (What else have you done to prepare outside of education and why are these experiences useful?) offers you the chance to show off all your achievements outside of school. Whether you have a job, play a sport or play an instrument – this is stuff the universities are keen to see as it reflects the independence needed at university. Similarly, if you have developed skills such as those associated with the Duke of Edinburgh or held leadership roles, such as being a prefect, this demonstrates the personal skills needed beyond academics. However, it is important to find the difference between being confident in your skills and boasting – this comes down to the language you use. For example, instead of writing “I was made a prefect as I was the best fit for the role”, reshape this by writing “I was given the privilege of being offered a role as a prefect”. Additionally, thinking of how different experiences led you to develop others improves the flow of your argument and shows the initiative they want to see. When thinking about word count in sections, more focus should be placed on academic efforts, while extra-curricular efforts should account for roughly 20% of the word count. Although this seems small compared to the effort it takes, this makes your proposal stronger and will have much higher rates of success, which is the overall aim.

If you would like more advice on your personal statement, we offer lessons on University Admissions, which are tailored to you. Good luck!

Published on 20/12/2025.