Why medicine or dentistry?
A very important question, look out for a future blog post about how to best address this question in an honest and authentic way
Work Experience
This can take many forms, but finding somewhere you can get experience of a healthcare professional is great for your PS as well as your own opinions on a medical or dental career.
Example from my personal statement: “The morale of the team was an inspiration to me and only reinforced my desire to pursue medicine and eventually make valuable contributions to an MDT myself. I also work as part of a small team whilst waitressing for private parties, during which I have gained skills in both taking on and delegating responsibilities”.
Reading
Have you read anything that had an impact on your decision to study medicine or dentistry? Include it as it likely provides a helpful background into your thought process in choosing healthcare.
See my previous blog post on reading for your personal statement!
Interests
Try to avoid listing random interests, keep them organised and integrate them into the text. Briefly mention if there was an aspect of your work experience that particularly interested you, why you think it did and reflect on it.
Reflections
Use the STAR method for reflection. State your experience, what skills you learnt, and why they’ll be useful to your degree.
Hobbies
Again, keep this brief. Talk about what you get up to in your spare time, whether its reading, writing, sport or knitting. This allows the medical school to paint a small picture of you as an individual. Try out new hobbies, but don’t force yourself to read anatomy textbooks in your spare time – there’s plenty of time for this at medical school – being authentic will be a huge advantage at interview. There’s nothing worse than lying or exaggerating on your personal statement, so be true to yourself even if you think your hobbies aren’t medical-student-orientated.
Example from my personal statement: “I admired the comradery of the team in how they communicated efficiently and worked together, similarly to my own experience within my netball and hockey teams – both of which I play for in a weekly league”
Word count – 4000 characters, including spaces and punctuation. This is straight forward so don’t get it wrong.
Read through – don’t read through it every day or obsess over it (put a few days between personal read throughs), rather ask your teacher, parent or sibling to have a look at it. This may not be beneficial towards a medicine/dentistry specific PS but might help in making the text more readable as a whole.
Getting professional reviewing is key! Only doctors and medical students will spot small details or inconsistencies related to any healthcare details – you wouldn’t believe the difference this will make! Get in touch and we will review your personal statement.