How Do You Write a Personal Statement for Medicine?

Before you start working on your personal statement, it is essential to consider what should be in a medical personal statement. Assessors are looking to decide early about a candidate’s suitability for their particular course. They also need to ensure that the students have what it takes to work in medicine and are best suited to the teaching style on offer.

Assessors also want to know why studying for a career in medicine is important to the candidate and what skills they will bring to this life-long career.

In the UK, more than 8,000 medical students graduate each year. With universities nationwide applying for more funding to offer more spaces, choosing the right people to study is a top priority if we want to stand a chance at minimising the total of ongoing vacancies.

Finally, it should be considered that assessors are looking between the lines. They want to learn about aspects such as attention to detail and emotional intelligence, which can be ascertained from understanding the psychology behind a piece of writing.

Your personal statement will help guarantee you an interview, so it needs to stand out but still leave the assessor wanting to know more.

What Steps Do You Follow to Write a Personal Statement for Medicine?

Knowing what to include within a personal statement is one thing, but learning how to write one is a new task. Whether you are an avid writer or prefer to stay away from long passages, crafting such an important text can be overwhelming.

Fear not, as by following our steps, you will have an amazing personal statement ready in no time.

Step One: Understand the brief in its entirety.

Personal statements are a method used by most universities, so you will likely already have an idea of how to approach the task. The process is more relevant with medical schools than other courses as it is a multi-stage application procedure.

Alongside understanding what a personal statement is and the message you are trying to portray, you should also pay close attention to the brief you have to find any other requirements. At this stage, you can also confirm word count, character limits, content needs, and deadline dates to ensure you do not miss any of the key criteria.

Step Two: Plan your structure.

UK personal statements tend to be a maximum of 600 words, so getting your point across whilst hitting all the key topics is challenging (but entirely possible!).

A great way to get your ideas down on paper is to plan the structure you wish to follow. This will help you plan out your thoughts and help you become ruthless in terms of what information is included. Many students struggle with the desire or attention whilst being mindful of saying the wrong thing. By planning out your structure, you can slot in your content to ensure the perfect balance of information.

Step Three: Gathering your thoughts and evidence for each section.

Once you know what you want to write about, you can collate everything. You don’t need to write it up at this stage but instead create lists of content that include points, information, and evidence.

You should not repeat any information available in other areas of your application, such as the results you can offer for the A-levels needed for medicine. Instead, this should be content that meets the assessor needs outlined earlier in the article.

Step Four: Create an opening statement.

Did you know that you only have 8-seconds to grab attention?

Your entire personal statement will be read, but the opening statement can make a difference in how much of an impact it has. Opening statements should be short, concise, and well-written to make the best first impression.

Step Five: Craft the body text and conclusion.

Most of your word count will be used for this section so you should spend a good amount of time writing it. Focus on your structure and ensure you are creating a nice flow of content that tells a story.

It’s ok to write a section then take some time away from your laptop. This will help you consider your content and make the best edits when you return.

Step Six: Proof your work.

Once your first draft is ready, a thorough spelling and grammar check should be completed. You can use various online tools and in-built programme features to run checks on your work.

You should also read your statement out loud as that helps you to hear the words as somebody else would. By doing this, you can also check that your grammar and narrative create the intended narrative with the right emotions woven throughout.

Getting other people to read your statement and provide feedback is also a good idea. When working on something constantly, you can become blind to mistakes. Getting another opinion ensures you find any errors and get the storytelling spot on.

Step Eight: Make your final edits and submit.

When you have made all final edits, ensure your work is saved to the requested specification and submit.

What Additional Support Can You Find?