What is the most important part of the personal statement

Your entire personal statement is important, so thinking you can get away with having a weak closing paragraph or skimming over your work experience isn’t really the right attitude to have.

However, there are certain areas of your personal statement that will make it stand out from the thousands of others that the admissions tutors will have read that year. Getting these elements right will put you head and shoulders above the rest of the candidates and could make all the difference to your overall application.

So, which are the most important parts of the personal statement? Well the saying goes that first impressions count and this is definitely true when it comes to personal statements.

The first sentence needs to grab the reader’s attention, otherwise they’ll just skim read the rest and they might miss what makes you the perfect candidate for their university.

Ideally you want to tell the reader what you want to study and why in the first sentence and then expand on this in the first paragraph. The admissions tutors will want to see that you are passionate, dedicated, and committed. Telling them that you want to study your subject because you don’t know what else to do isn’t going to cut it.

As well as first impressions making all the difference the final impression also counts for a lot. Regardless of what you’ve put in the middle of your personal statement your final paragraph, and certainly your final line, is what the admissions tutor is going to remember.

Your entire personal statement should be flawless before you submit it, but getting the beginning and the end to make a good impression could be the difference between you getting into the university and you not being offered a place at all.

The key to a good personal statement is making the reader pay attention at the start and making sure they remember you at the end. The bit in the middle is where you show them why you’re perfect for their course and their university.