The Parent Handbook: How to help your teen ace their UCAS personal statement

The final deadline for UCAS applications is quickly approaching with the closing date being 25 January 2023 for most undergraduate courses. One of the most important aspects of the UCAS application is the ‘personal statement’, a short 500 words showcasing your child’s talents, accomplishments, and interest in applying for the course. It’s one of the main components that university admission tutors consider when deciding whether your child will be offered a place to study at their university, and it also happens to be the part many young people have the most difficulty completing. When analysing 164 personal statements from 83 applicants, the Higher Education Policy Institute found that 35% of drafts failed to have cohesive paragraphs and a staggering 83% of drafts failed to supply an evidence-based statements. In light of this MyTutor, the UK’s most trusted tutoring platform, shares their insight into what you can do to help your teen ace their UCAS personal statement.

Help your child brainstorm:
Talk to your teen about the reasons why they are choosing the course they’re applying for. Ask them why they’re passionate about the subject, have they read articles about it that interests them? Have they done projects in the subject? Have they been inspired by lectures?

Make sure they compile all their experiences that are relevant and add value to the application. Some relevant experiences include the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, the National Citizen Service programme, and Young Enterprise.

Find out what their skills are, compile any awards they’ve achieved, ensure they mention any hobbies they’re interested in, from sports to creative to music. Finally, talk to your teen about their work ethic, and come up with ways to accurately describe it in their UCAS personal statement.

Steps to help your child write the statement:
Now it’s time for your child to combine all these brainstormed ideas into sentences and to rearrange them in a logical order. Remember, the tone should be positive and excited!

Firstly, writing a punchy opening paragraph. They should start with why they are passionate about the course, why they are excited and, show they know exactly what the course entails.

Second, why should the student be accepted. Start with specifics about the subject; referencing academic literature or specific online lectures or podcasts will make your child really stand out. Then your child can move on to showing they have the skills required for the course. Go on the admissions websites for your child’s chosen universities and/or subject. Make a long list of the qualities that they require from prospective students, for example ‘communication’, ‘analytical skills’, ‘leadership’, ‘essay writing’. Then help your child link their experiences and achievements to these skills. For each skill that is referenced in their personal statement, there must be evidence on how they have gained/used the skill.

Thirdly, being personal and unique. Here, your child should show that they will be able to fit into university life as a whole. This section can include hobbies but only if they are relevant to the course your child is applying to and the skills they would need at university. For example: writing ‘I like baking with my friends every weekend’ is irrelevant whereas, writing ‘I am a keen baker and wanted to find other bakers at my school. So, I used my initiative to start a baking society. This developed my leadership and planning skills as I had to organise events, encourage communications within the society and, organise resources for us to use’ shows so much more of the student’s positive attributes.

Checking it over:
The first draft won’t be perfect so encourage your child to start writing their personal statement well before the deadline. Encourage them to keep editing and improving it. You could even proofread it for them or hire one of our personal statement tutors to help them out!