The deadline for your UCAS Application has been extended to the 29th of January, meaning you have a week to make sure your personal statement is perfect, or, if you tend to procrastinate, you have a week to start.
We searched the internet to find out the most common personal statement mistakes so you don’t have to…here’s our top 6:
1. Last minute panic
“ucas application due in two days and I haven’t even started my personal statement yet.”
We’ve all had a ‘that’s future me’s problem’ moment before, but, before you know it, you ARE Future You, and you’ll wish that Past You had been kinder to Present You. So, do your future self a favour and DON’T LEAVE IT TO THE LAST MINUTE. Not only will this save you the stress of rushing to finish before the deadline, it will also give you time to proofread a couple times and maybe even get a good night’s sleep before submitting.
You still have plenty of time to hit the deadline, if you’ve not started yet don’t worry, try not to leave it to 2 days before! Start today!
2. Slow typer
“live footage of me writing my personal statement”
Maybe you type like a sloth, but the extension on the deadline means you have until the 29th of January so you can take your time, and make sure your personal statement is perfect before submitting. Although if you if you are as slow as this sloth, you might consider starting now for the 2095 application deadline.
3. Click happy
“I ticked the wrong box on my uni application now they think I’m a criminal”
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of someone doing this. My friend did the exact same thing on her university application and spent weeks freaking out. So make sure you are taking your time, proofreading everything, and ensuring you are well slept and of clear mind before triple checking and then submitting!
4. Terrible Typos
“not me submitting my ucas and then realising I don’t like one of my choices AND seeing typos in my personal statement.”
Making choices as big as this might make you start questioning whether you are making the right decisions. Remember you have until the 29th to finalise your choices, keep calm and get as accustomed to what each university can do for you. It might be difficult with a lack of in person open days, but most Universities are holding virtual open days, to help you be confident in your decisions.
And when it comes to making typos, proofreading is your best friend. If you can, make sure to ask a few people you trust to read it over for you. Sometimes knowing what you wanted to say can blur your judgement, and an objective view can be a great help.
5. Back it up
“I just pressed pay on my ucas application and my personal statement deleted.”
NOTHING is worse than spending hours on something only for all your hard work to disappear at the click of a button. Websites crash all the time, so writing you personal statement directly in the UCAS website without keeping a copy is a risky move. But this is easily avoided. Good practice would be to write your personal statement in a word doc, or google docs and copy and paste it into the UCAS site.
6. A Real Character!
“I feel so stupid my personal statement was supposed to be 4000 CHARACTERS long not 4000 WORDS…I gotta cut this down”
A quick reminder that your personal statement should be up to 4000 characters not words. Each letter and space counts as a character, just like on twitter. 4000 characters roughly equates to around 500 words, but alongside the word count, both word docs and google docs can tell you how many characters you have written, so keep checking to make sure you don’t go too much over and have to cut down. Although, cutting down might be preferable than struggling to hit the word count, just try and figure out ways to be concise.
The main thing to remember when writing your personal statement is to take your time, double check and proofread everything. The biggest mistakes can be made when we are in a rush or overtired, which is why its important to start sooner rather than later, avoiding last minute all-nighters if possible.
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