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How to write a Medicine Personal Statement - 13 tips

2017-09-23 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali, Kenny, Marcus, Shalin, Chidera, Jake, a guest · recording, 10:16 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Medicine and his doctor years · mode: List of tips or lessons · tags: Aimed at students

Ali and five medical-student friends give 13 tips on the medicine personal statement: write the introduction last, ignore the character limit at first, start early, open with an anecdote, keep things back for the interview, be ready to defend every claim, reflect on what you learned, make it flow and take advice selectively.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — A new series of medicine application advice with his medical-student friends

  • ★★ Ali, a final-year Cambridge medical student, starts a series of videos in which he and many medical-student friends give advice on medicine applications. — 00:00:00 · University of Cambridge
  • ★★ a guest: One student advises against starting a medicine personal statement with the introduction, the hardest part, which this student wrote after the conclusion. — 00:00:24 · Personal statement

00:00:38 — How to start: not with the introduction, chop and change, ignore the character limit, start early

  • ★★ a guest: Another student says writing a personal statement is not a fluid process but a matter of chopping and changing, and that it is fine not to write it in one go. — 00:01:00 · Personal statement
  • ★★ a guest: A student advises not limiting a first draft to the character limit: write everything, then edit down, so nothing important is cut. — 00:01:30 · Personal statement
  • ★ a guest: The medicine personal statement has a limit of 4,000 characters. — 00:01:30 · Personal statement
  • ★★ a guest: A student advises starting the personal statement early, because you will draft and redraft it and many readers will give conflicting advice that takes time to reconcile. — 00:01:52 · Personal statement

00:02:14 — Content: a personal anecdote, and showing a love of the science

  • ★★ Marcus advises making the personal statement personal so it stands out, opening with an anecdote or the reason you want to do medicine to catch the reader off guard and set the scene. — 00:02:14 · Marcus, Personal statement
  • ★★ Chidera says applicants, especially for an intercalated course, apply to be scientists as well as doctors, so the personal statement should show a love of the science behind medicine. — 00:02:40 · Chidera, Personal statement
  • ★ Chidera will upload a more detailed video on the personal statement on Chidera's own channel. — 00:02:40 · Chidera, Personal statement

00:03:09 — What to leave for the interview: your top ten things, signposting

  • ★★ Shalin advises putting only your top ten strengths in the personal statement and keeping the rest for interviews, since the statement is one of several things used to decide who is interviewed. — 00:03:09 · Shalin, Personal statement
  • ★★ Marcus suggests signposting in the personal statement: mention a point without explaining it fully so interviewers ask about it, and prepare an answer in advance. — 00:03:35 · Marcus, Personal statement

00:04:04 — Be ready to defend what you write; reflect on what you learned

  • ★★ Jake: At his UCL interview, Jake says, the interviewers went through his personal statement in detail and challenged his claim to have read The Lancet every week for a year, which he subscribed to but read only every so often. — 00:04:04 · Jake, University College London
  • ★★★ Jake's number one advice: put nothing in the personal statement you are not prepared to defend; if you say you have read something or done some experience, be ready to talk about it. — 00:04:32 · Jake, Personal statement
  • ★★ Jake advises against a personal statement that is just a list of activities: say what each taught you, such as leadership and teamwork from the Duke of Edinburgh's Award or time management from a sport. — 00:05:12 · Jake, Personal statement
  • ★★ Jake says a personal statement should say what work experience taught you about communication, teamwork or care, and how it relates to a future medical career, rather than count the operations you watched. — 00:05:34 · Jake, Personal statement

00:06:06 — Make it flow with connecting words and phrases

  • ★★ Ali has read at least 100 personal statements emailed to him over five years, and his almost invariable criticism is that they do not flow: each paragraph stands apart with no cohesive narrative. — 00:06:06 · Personal statement
  • ★ Ali does not like the word "furthermore" in a personal statement because it seems a bit stuffy. — 00:06:06
  • ★★★ Ali advises making the personal statement flow with connecting phrases that lead the reader through your thinking, for example opening a paragraph with why you arranged work experience, even if that costs a line such as a Duke of Edinburgh bronze award. — 00:07:22 · Personal statement

00:07:36 — Show it to many people and decide which advice to take

  • ★★ a guest: A student recommends giving the personal statement to friends and family, including people who studied English or art, and handing it to as diverse a range of readers as possible. — 00:07:36 · Personal statement
  • ★★ a guest: A student says you will get conflicting advice on the personal statement and must decide which changes to make so it stays true to your own reasons for medicine; this student kept a paragraph teachers suggested cutting. — 00:08:06 · Personal statement

00:09:03 — Personal statements are never really original

  • ★★ Jake says the importance of the personal statement is easy to overstate: having tutored, he has seen tens to hundreds of them and they all take a similar shape, though he thought his own was original. — 00:09:03 · Jake, Personal statement

00:09:32 — Closing: more videos on BMAT, interviews and personal statements to come

  • ★★ Ali says many more videos are coming in the next few weeks to months on the BMAT, interviews (specifically the Oxbridge interview) and personal statements. — 00:09:32 · BMAT (exam), Personal statement

In the description and comments

  • ★★ Ali Abdaal (channel): The channel replies to a viewer who has done no work experience that this would affect the personal statement and interview: medicine applicants need work experience. — creator comment

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Personal statement

Also: People: Chidera · Jake · Kenny · Marcus · Shalin

Works: The Lancet

Organizations: Duke of Edinburgh's Award · University College London · University of Cambridge

Events: BMAT (exam)

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