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Supporting personal statement writing - top tips

Content type

Information sheets

Audience

Teacher training resource

Description

This information sheet includes top tips and questions to ask your students when helping them to write a good personal statement.

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Guidebook

How do I help my students apply to university?

Information sheets

Developing your students’ skills and knowledge prior to application
Supporting personal statement writing - top tips
Applying to highly selective courses - quick reference sheet
Academic reference writing - top tips
Admissions tests - quick reference sheet
Applying to medicine – quick reference sheet
Supporting students with disabilities

Presentations

Presentation slides - Writing effective UCAS references

Activity sheets

Supporting personal statement writing - activity for students

Teacher and adviser reflection sheets

Teacher and adviser reflection - helping students apply to university

Webinars

Crafting Confidence for Interview Triumph (March 2024)
UCAS update: supporting student applications for 2022 and 2023 entry (March 2022)
Bursaries and scholarships - what are your students entitled to? (March 2022)
Enabling care-experienced students to access university (March 2022)
Supporting students to apply to architecture degrees (March 2022)
Helping students to understand and apply for student finance (October 2021)
Supporting students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to apply to universities in Scotland (June 2021)
Supporting students with disabilities to access Higher Education (November 2021)
Supporting Black students to access competitive universities (November 2021)
Supporting students with their UCAS application and interview (May 2020)
What makes a successful personal statement? (October 2018)

Conference presentations

Russell Group Teachers' Conference 2018 - Supporting Students with Research and Study Skills
Russell Group Teachers' Conference 2018 - The impact of Widening Participation initiatives (King's College London and York)
Russell Group Teachers' Conference 2018 - Personal statements for competitive universities/courses
Russell Group Teachers' Conference 2018 - The importance of the Personal Statement

Weblinks:

Cambridge Assessment Admissions Testing administers tests to enable access to a number of universities, not just the University of Cambridge. They produce admissions tests for higher education institutions and government ministries worldwide. Their assessments support selection and help to enable fair access to higher education and the workplace, measuring applicants’ potential for success.

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The Medical Schools Council has published a series of booklets for teachers and careers advisers who are supporting students with medical school applications.

The five booklets in the 'A journey to medicine' series are: 

You can also click here to view the full set of resources.

 

This website provides information and advice from the Cambridge Assessment Admissions Testing service on the BMAT.

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Bright Knowledge is a guide to careers, education and student life. Bright Knowledge aims to help students work out what they want to achieve and how they can get there.

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Future Learn offers a diverse selection of courses from leading universities and cultural institutions from around the world. These are delivered one step at a time, and are accessible on mobile, tablet and desktop.

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This is a Government website providing information and advice on how to find volunteer placements.

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This is an article published by The Guardian providing a range of tips and advice on preparing for interviews.

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InsideUni is a student-led project aiming to support those applying to study at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. Find a link below to their teachers' guide.

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This is the official LNAT website providing information and advice about the test. The website includes guidance on how to prepare for the test including hints and tips, a preparation guide, sample essays and a practice test simulator.

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This website provides information and advice from the Cambridge Assessment Admissions Testing service on the Mathematics Admissions Test.

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This website provides information and advice from the Cambridge Assessment Admissions Testing service on the STEP test.

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This is an interesting TED talk by social psychologist Amy Cuddy on how using body language, and particularly ‘power posing’, can affect the brain and our chances of success.

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​​​​​​This interesting article summarises some useful information and advice about how to prepare for interviews.

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A reminder of some of the key dates in the UCAS application cycle.

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​​​​​​This is the official UCAT website providing information and advice about the test. The website includes practice tests and questions, a tour tutorial providing insight into the format of the test and a question tutorial that takes you through example questions and offers strategies on how to approach and answer them. This website also provides the Official UCAT Practice App, this is a free preparation tool to help students prepare for the test.

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Interview tips provided by some of our Advancing Access university partners are listed below. Please note this is not an exhaustive list and you should check individual university websites for further information.