Extracurricular In this section you should aim to get across two things: not only are you suitable for medicine, but you are a well-rounded candidate too. A career in healthcare is highly social, so use activities to demonstrate that you are already social, proactive and that you have a range of strengths. Additionally, being a doctor can be very stressful, so demonstrate that you have ways of relaxing and managing this, as well as organising your time effectively. As always, avoid just listing extra-curricular activities. Instead, use them to display your strengths, for example leadership. You may be able to save characters by combining an interest with volunteering, for example activities such as crafts you run at a Brownies group can be used to demonstrate your love of art. Conclusion This is your final opportunity to persuade the admissions staff assessing your personal statement that you are the right candidate to study medicine and that you will be a great doctor, so make it count! Due to the word limit this section might only be one sentence long: briefly sum up your aspects of your personality, and even go as far as telling them that these factors mean you will make a great future doctor.
Examples: There are many examples of personal statements on the internet, and additionally your teachers or careers advisors at school or college may give you some examples from past pupils to look at. Whilst these are helpful, Universities run personal statements through plagiarism software, meaning that if you copy anything you could be in big trouble, so don’t be tempted. Instead, use examples as sources of inspiration and to give you an idea of the structure and how succinct you need to be. You may also find it helpful to read the views of successful applicants on writing a good personal statement at http://student.bmj.com/student/viewarticle.html?id=sbmj.h3154, as well as those held by widening participation applicants: http://student.bmj.com/student/view-article.html?id=sbmj.h5601.
Š Catherine Graham, Cambridge MedSoc Access Officer 2018-19, March 2019