Personal statement mistakes

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personal statement mistakes

• what to avoid in personal statement writing

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• If youre applying to school with a scholarship
  or trying to get a job, getting a good personal
  statement feedback can be your key to success.
• The personal statement is so important because it
  is the part point of you application where you
  have an opportunity to promote who you are and
  what you can do.
• Here are common mistakes that should be avoided
  in writing your personal statement.

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1. Incorrect spelling and bad grammar

• These together with poor punctuation on your
  personal statement are embarrassing. You should
  proofread your work before printing it out or
  submitting it. If youre applying in a
  competitive course, these grammar and spelling
  crimes can result in poor personal statement
  feedback. Avoid getting rejected and make sure
  your work is flawless and with no mistakes.

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2. Long sentences

• If you want a good personal statement feedback,
  it should short, concise, and straightforward.
  You dont want to bore your readers with a very
  long script of who you are, detailing your
  childhood, and putting in quotes from different
  philosophers. Make your point clear and keep your
  text short. If some of your sentences are several
  lines long try to break them up with more full
  stops.

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3. Quotations

• Your opinion matters more than Martin Luther
  King, Aristotle, or Napoleons. Keep the focus on
  yourself avoiding too much mention of others -
  even if they serve as an inspiration to you.
  Evaluators want to learn about you and what you
  can do. Dont put in quotes everywhere unless you
  deem it necessary and youre making a critical
  point. Aim for a decent personal statement
  feedback and dont waste your word count on
  quotes.

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4. Over-used clichés

• Dont be fooled and approach your explanations by
  using many clichés, for instance by relating
  successes through metaphors like 'winning the big
  game, or others such as from a young age', 'Ive
  always been fascinated by', 'I have a thirst for
  knowledge', 'the world we live in today. Its
  really helpful to check my personal statement and
  screen clichés that fill up your pages and that
  dont really mean a lot.

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5. Trying to be funny

• Humour, informality or quirkiness can be an
  effective communication tool if youre in the
  right setting and the appropriate context.
  However its a big risk to take so be extra
  cautious especially by not knowing who your
  audience is. An evaluator is likely to give a
  poor personal statement feedback if he or she
  doesnt have your sense of humor. Attempts at
  humor can fall flat or even offend.

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6. Irrelevant personal facts

• I usually find time to check my personal
  statement because I might get carried away and
  reveal far too many details about my life facts
  that are mostly irrelevant. If it does not help
  my application then I should scrap it.

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7. Negativity

• Negative people are unappealing especially if
  theyre students who keep complaining about past
  educational experiences or hardships. Dont talk
  about why you havent done something, or why you
  dropped or failed a course. Evaluators are more
  likely to respond with a nice personal statement
  feedback if personal statements are positive and
  full of promise.

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8. The autobiography

• Talking about 'when I was young... can be
  tempting. However, a personal statement is not
  designed to give a very detailed synopsis of your
  life. Instead of telling them what I learned when
  I was six years old, I check my personal
  statement and write down recent inspirations and
  achievements. So I focus only on those aspects of
  my experience that are directly relevant to the
  position Im seeking.