Writing a Personal Statement for Medicine

WHY do you want to study medicine? What drives you to learn and possibly enter a medical career?

What characteristics and traits do you have which make you suited to be a medical student?

It's important to make this as personal as possible. Every medical student would like to save lives, which is great, but medicine is much more than that - it's teamwork, continuous learning, problem solving, research and very pressurised. Personal experiences with medicine in the past may be a starting point, but steer away from becoming too emotional. 

Mention transferable skills you have, with evidence to back them up and how they will benefit you as a potential medical student.

Medicine is full of challenges, so also make sure to mention that you acknowledge some of these and HOW you can overcome these.

Link your studies to medicine and how learning about certain topics furthered your interest in medicine. 

This is easiest with Biology and Chemistry as there is some overlap, but mention how your subjects drove you to think FURTHER.

Certain subjects require you to develop some skills which are also used in medicine - such as practical techniques in Science, carrying out risk assessments, analysing data and results and forming conclusions based on these. Create this link and write about how you'd like to further develop and apply these skills.

This is a tricky one, as arranging medical work experience/volunteering is quite difficult - but many medical schools acknowledge this and may take this into account when making decisions.

 Although it is ideal, you don't necessarily need to talk about MEDICAL WEX, any form of work experience or volunteering is fine to write about as long as you create the correct links. 

Talking about what you LEARNED from the experience is much more important than exactly WHAT you did. Mentioning skills you gained or witnessed and how they are applied in the field of medicine is also useful.

You need to demonstrate an understanding of the career, showing both the ups and downs of what you saw and how this attracted you towards applying for the course.

What do you do out of school?

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

Now would be a good time to mention any sports your play, instruments you play, clubs/societies you are in, if you're a reader, if you're an artist - anything non-academic.

Medical Schools will want to see that you are a well-rounded individual who can do more than just study and contribute to university life, so mention how you will contribute.

Once again, make sure to create the link between the activity and medicine, if it's a particular skill and how this has helped you as a person and how it will be beneficial in medical career.

It's useful to keep up to date with the field of biology and medicine, through watching the news, reading news articles related to health.  The Student BMJ is usually a go-to, which will provide you with the latest information in the medical world, in a way you can understand as a young student. 

You may want to pick a medicine-related article or book that particularly interested you and do some further research to improve your understanding of a particular area, then mention this in your PS - writing about your learnings.

If you've done an EPQ or Extended Essay then this is also something you may want to write about - how the process improved your research skills, or talking about your topic (linking it to medicine if possible) and your main takeaway points.

It's a PERSONAL statement, so there's no exact template or definite list of things to include. It's up to you to decide what makes you stand out the most, and what displays your passion for the course the most - so include this.

Every single person's PS will be different and will have unique perspectives and focuses. Be organic, candid (but not too candid) with what your intentions are, what you want to learn and even mention what you'd like to do in the future - how you would like to contribute to the field.