Personal Statement Workshop

According to the UCAS website, ‘a personal statement is your opportunity to sell yourself to your prospective school, college or training provider.’
That pretty much sums it up. You need to sell yourself to Medical Schools. And you have to do this in up to 4,000 characters, which will make up roughly 500 words, over 47 lines of 12-point script.
That means being very precise and using your unique selling points as well as possible to gain an edge over the competition.


This is a 1-day course which will highlight the key strategies in how to write a successful Personal Statement. The course emphasises how students can develop their Personal statement, citing examples of work experience, volunteering, attending lectures and reading scientific books and how to draw inspiration from personal experiences. We will go through examples of both successful and unsuccessful personal statements, to ensure students understand how best to sculpt their own interesting, but personalised essay.

Essential Information

  1. It’s a one-day course, which will run from 10am – 3pm during July 2019.
  2. Each class has around 30 students, with 2 instructors who are students at Oxford or Cambridge.
  3. We will go through each step of the application process – including a basic overview of the major steps, the personal statement, BMAT, UKCAT and interview. This is a must to truly understand how best to optimise your preparation and focus on your weakest areas.
  4. We will then focus on how to write a high quality, yet interesting personal statement which includes evidence of the key attributes medical and dental schools are looking for – academic prowess, extra-curricular activities, reading, work experience, research and ultimately what makes you different.
  1. The second section will be spent going through examples of good and bad personal statements as a class, allowing you to gain first hand experience into what exactly universities are looking for.
  2. We will then give students the opportunity to draft some paragraphs of their own personal statement in groups under the supervision of an instructor.
  3. Every student will have the opportunity to bring in their personal statement and have it read by an instructor. Over the course of the day, they will then receive 1-2-1 feedback on their personal statement, which is included in the course.