7) Personal statement for medicine

Composing a personal statement for any degree is a challenge but for medicine, this is your chance to illustrate your academic prowess and work experience alongside a genuine passion and fascination for the medical subjects you love. A personal statement can support your application if your exam results are slightly below your expectations or can enhance a strong set of grades for the best chance of acceptance.

UCAS, the admissions service for universities in the UK, describes a personal statement as "your opportunity to sell yourself to your prospective school, college or training provider." Students are given a 4,000 character limit (which roughly equates to 500 words) in which to show off their appeal to the institutions of their choosing. 

Here, it's important to get into the mind of the member of admissions staff that will be reading your statement - what do they want to see? 500 words may seem like plenty, but you'll likely find that space is at a premium when you're trying to find the perfect formula to impress your chosen university.

The key things that medical schools will be looking for are evidence of motivation, explorative work experience and suitability for fitting into their learning environment. The best approach to take in this respect is to break your personal statement down into chunks.

Structure

Many use their introduction to make an immediate impact on the reader. Any exaggerated claims stressing a lifelong passion to pursue medicine may be met with scepticism by the reader, though. It’s best to remain honest and indicate some thoughtful introspect about why you want to study medicine.

Next, you want to start overviewing your medicine work experience. Reviewers will be looking for any practical actions you may have taken that underlines your passion for the subject. This will be the body of the personal statement and it’s best to focus on your highest achievements first. State the curiosity that it aroused and discuss the ways in which it fuelled your desire to study medicine. Remember, it's very easy to say that you love medicine, but it's another thing entirely to backup your claim with examples. Simply overviewing the facts is not enough - you need to show that you can apply the things that you learnt.

There are a few life skills you want to relate back to your work experience - motivation, mental fortitude and a genuine desire to help others. The admissions team will not only want to see practical experience but also an understanding of the more emotive component of medicine - genuine care, understanding and desire to assist. A coldly written personal statement that merely discusses grades and achievements doesn’t read well compared to a personal statement that discusses patient care.

You will certainly need a section on your own personal interests. Here, you can let your relaxed self come through. You could discuss activities which required teamwork and determination, or you may wish to discuss some key challenges that you’ve overcome on a personal level.

By ending your personal statement with a focus on your suitability for entering into their learning environment, you're returning the emphasis back to the medical school in question. Here, it's a good idea to talk about your adaptability and ability to cooperate and collaborate with ease. Explain that you've chosen the institution because, of all the medical schools you've researched, they offer the best combination of educational quality, staff approachability and the most complementary match for your personal learning style. It's also a good idea to avoid telling them that the only reason you applied to their university is because it's only two miles from your house - regardless of whether or not it may be a true statement!

Tone

Whilst remaining upbeat is essential, a medical personal statement should be formal and precise in tone. This doesn’t mean that you should constrain your personality, but rather introduce this in the later sections which overview your personal life.

There really is no one-size-fits-all approach to writing a personal statement and the reader isn’t looking to catch you out or dismantle your views. The best approach is to remain friendly, honest, accurate and transparent. Showing passion is great but pushing things too far and over inflating yourself can be off putting. 

Length

The length will depend on how much information you have to present. There really isn’t the need to discuss too many details when disclosing information about your school or college life, as your grades and references should speak for themselves. Keep the detail in the sections about work experience. You only have 47 lines so it will take a few attempts to get everything right but equally don't worry if your'e a couple of lines short - it's not an exercise in filling the space and we've seen many excellent personal statements for medicine that fall under the character length by a little.

Common mistakes

Again some of the most common mistakes surrounding the personal statement for medicine applications stem from poor preparation and not fully understanding what the admissions team are looking for. When writing your personal statement keep saying the word "Personal" over and over again in your mind. The clue is in the title. Clearly articulate your motivations behind your application to enrol at medical school. To say that you wish to help others is great, but the chances are that the admissions team will have seen that line hundreds of times already throughout the week.  Here it's advisable to explain the root cause of your desire to pursue a career in the medical industry, and reference any figures or works that may have inspired you personally. 

It sounds obvious but please check your spelling and grammar! You would be surprised at the number of applications submitted with spelling mistakes and that doesn't paint the best impression when looking at entering a career that counts attention to detail and precision as of vital importance!

After you have finished your personal statement ask family, friends and teachers to take a look through it and offer critical feedback. When you read through your personal statement yourself, ask yourself, does this show why I want to be a doctor?