UCAS personal statements - use the summer to GET THEM DONE!

Personal statements have become increasingly important over the last couple of years as the scramble for university places intensifies. Over the 15 years as a 6th form tutor, it always amazed me how students would choose to do precisely zero work on their personal statement over the summer and rock up in September panicking about the state of their application.

There are a lot of good reasons for making significant progress over the summer holiday:

1) September will mark the start of making up for any lost learning over the past 12 months. It's going to be even harder work than year 13 would normally be.

2) Any glaring gaps in work experience or knowledge of the degree they want to pursue can be filled in over the next few weeks. Finding out your statement is ‘thin’ in September is usually too late.

3) Having a statement ready to be viewed by their tutor will put them at the front of the queue when they return to school. Tutors and the school UCAS lead have to spend a lot of time on each application; the sooner students have their completed application submitted for review, the sooner it is likely to be formally sent off.

4) Receiving offers back from their chosen universities is the very best source of motivation to work hard to secure the grades they now know they need. The sooner those offers come back, the more focused the student.

5) Good UCAS applications take a lot of time and this will inevitably detract from their school work. This can potentially impact on the grades they will need.

6) Stress levels rise as other students begin to get their offers back and they don’t because their application isn’t even close to being sent off. I've seen it time and time again where the envy is clear!

There are lots of reasons to get the statement done and dusted, but there is one key reason why students DON’T make any progress over the holiday period: They don’t know where to start.

Luckily for them, I’ve got three options that will see your teen through to the ‘ready to hand in’ stage. My personal statement course leans on my 15 years as the lead UCAS tutor at my school and will take them through the process of creating a great personal statement.

If a more 1:1 approach would suit your teen better, then I also offer that. I do an end-to-end service which will include supporting (via Zoom) your teen to create a punchy personal statement and they’ll then have access to me all the way through to results day in case they need help with adjustment or clearing. To know more about this option, message me via LinkedIn and I can arrange a free exploratory Zoom call (no strings attached). You can also book individual sessions if that’s a better route to support your teen. I’ve put a link in the first comment for you to find out more.?

Whether you choose my help or not, the point remains that the next 5 weeks is vital to creating a great personal statement and no amount of excuses or procrastination from your teen will justify leaving until September.