Undergraduate Medicine Admissions 2015/16 SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

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Guide To Completing Your Personal StatementYour personal statement is the opportunity for you to demonstrate that you have the enthusiasm and aptitude required to be a successful student and practitioner. It’s a short document, and you’ll be submitting the same version to every medical school, so it’s important that think about it carefully. This document will tell you what the Leeds Admissions Team look for in a personal statement. Most medical schools are looking for evidence of the same attributes, but you should read the guidance provided by any other school to which you are applying as well as this!

General principlesThe purpose of our course is to develop excellent ‘doctors of tomorrow’ and our teaching is based on the values of the NHS. Our selection process is based on attributes, values, motivation and behaviours relating to those principles. We’ll learn something about your attributes and abilities from your qualifications, but it is the personal statement which tells us about you as a unique individual.

Try to make the statement as specific and personal as you can. Whenever possible you should only make claims which can be verified - vague statements such as “I’m a people person” don’t tell us anything useful .

Avoid making “tick-box” lists like “I have two weeks work experience, a Silver Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and I show Maine Coon cats”, but do show us what your experiences meant to you. “During work experience I discovered...”, “On our expedition, I had to...”, “Keeping show cats requires commitment and perseverance...”

If anything has adversely affected your ability to study for, or perform in, your examinations, it may be possible for the Admissions team to make allowances for it in their assessment - but obviously they can only do this if they are aware of it. You can do this in your personal statement or your referee can include it in their section, which may save you valuable space. You shouldn’t feel under any obligation to disclose anything to UCAS which makes you uncomfortable and we are willing to accept direct disclosure via your referee as long as they mention in their reference that they will be contacting us.

And don’t waste space telling us things we already know; the personal statement box doesn’t have a lot to spare!

FOR EXAMPLE, DON’T SAY“I have 12 GCSE A* grades and

am predicted three A’s at A level.” That information is elsewhere on

your UCAS application.

REMEMBER - Admissions Staff aren’t psychic! We can’t read your mind and we can’t predict the future. The only

way we’ll know anything about you is if you include it on your UCAS form!

What are we looking for?Here are some of the key values we’ll hope you’ll demonstrate in your personal statement and at interview.

Working together for patients. Patients come first in everything we do. We fully involve patients, staff, families, carers, communities, and professionals inside and outside the NHS.

Respect and dignity. We value every person – whether patient, their families or carers, or staff – as an individual, respect their aspirations and commitments in life, and seek to understand their priorities, needs, abilities and limits.

Commitment to quality of care. We earn the trust placed in us by insisting on quality and striving to get the basics of quality of care – safety, effectiveness and patient experience – right every time.

Compassion. We ensure that compassion is central to the care we provide and respond with humanity and kindness to each person’s pain, distress, anxiety or need. We find time for patients, their families and carers, as well as those we work alongside.

Improving lives. We strive to improve health and well-being and people’s experiences of the NHS. We cherish excellence and professionalism wherever we find it.

Everyone counts. We maximise our resources for the benefit of the whole community, and make sure nobody is excluded, discriminated against or left behind.

Accurate spelling and grammar are of paramount importance when completing your statement. You have plenty of time to prepare and perfect your statement before submission, so any errors which slip through make it look as if you haven’t taken much care over it – which doesn’t look attractive to an Admissions Team.

Be especially careful to avoid plagiarism i.e. the words must be your own. There are two important reasons for this. Firstly, a personal statement must be personal, i.e. it must be about you. A plagiarized statement only tells us about someone else. Secondly, plagiarism (presenting the work of another person as your own) is a form of dishonesty, something we do not regard as an attractive quality in applicants. UCAS put all applications through similarity detection tests, which identify statements that have been copied from another source. Don’t be tempted to copy another person’s application materials, or download your personal statement from a website. We are likely to reject any such application immediately.

Other sources of informationThere are many sources of information to help you to write your personal statement. The UCAS site contains a lot of useful information but bear in mind that it is generic information, intended for applicants to all courses. You should tailor your personal statement to highlight information of interest to medical schools. See http://www.ucas.com/students/applying/howtoapply/personalstatement/ for further guidance.

The University of Leeds is committed to improving access to all our course, including medicine, via a range of Widening Access and Foundation programmes. Our WAMS Team (Widening Access to Medical School) run a useful website at http://www.wanttobeadoctor.co.uk/

There are also many internet fora and chat rooms populated by current and prior applicants, all willing to offer advice. These are good places for discussions, but be wary of any sweeping statements which you encounter. The contributors to these discussions will have limited experience on which to base their opinions and a lot of things “everybody knows” turn out not to be true! No medical school issues misleading information and we are as open as we can be without risking the integrity of the applications process – rather like an exam board who will tell you the syllabus, but not which actual questions will be in this year’s A-level papers. Our web-site has a lot of information, and we’ll be updating the Frequently Asked Questions throughout the year. (Assuming people ask questions. If you want to ask one, go to www.leeds.ac.uk/medicine/admissions/)

REMEMBER - We are the people who will assess your application! There are lots of sources of information out there - web sites,

books, your school, courses and previous applicants. Often this information is contradictory. If our web-site advises you to do

something one way (e.g. declare your cashed-in AS results) and another source advises differently, just ask yourself

“Whose opinion is going to decide how Leeds rate my application?”

What do we want to read?Your insight into a career in medicineThe Medical Schools Council has agreed that candidates should have obtained some experience of what a career in medicine involves.

Avoid cliché statements and be realistic and honest. Remember that prospective statements are very difficult to mark - everyone is full of good intentions and so we will concentrate on what you have already achieved. What did you learn? Has it helped make you more confident about your decision to study medicine?

The School recognises that experience in such a setting is increasingly difficult to obtain. Think not only of the typical healthcare settings but also of alternatives including hospices, nursing homes or pharmacies.

If your attempts to gain relevant work experience have been unsuccessful make reference to this within your personal statement. The website http://www.medicalcareers.nhs.uk/considering_medicine/work_experience.aspx gives guidance on how to obtain work experience and how to make the most of it.

If you are successful in gaining an interview, contact details of supervisors/managers are required for all relevant work experience placements. Note that as a condition of any offer, relevant work experience may be verified and deception in amount or type of work experience could result in an offer being withdrawn.

There has been a recent expansion in the literature and courses aimed at prospective medical students. Applicants should use this to find out more information about their choice of career and be realistic about the future. Give some indication of how you informed yourself. Overall, the type of experience is much less important than what you have learned from it and how it has helped shape you. We do not give any extra marks to candidates who have attended one of the courses that require you to pay a fee.

This is also a good chance to mention any other academic achievements you may have that fall outside traditional GCSE/A levels e.g. awards, prizes and additional academic achievements if they are relevant to your career choice. This could include your extended essay. It is also a chance to mention anything that may have adversely affected your level of achievement, e.g. illness or change in personal circumstances.

FOR EXAMPLE, DO SAY“I volunteered at The Bledlow Centre, a respite care home, one day every

weekend for 18 months. I learnt a lot, both from patients and (when I felt out of my depth) from the staff and other

volunteers.”

BUT DON’T SAY“I did some volunteering at a care home. Demonstrating a

caring nature is important for a doctor.”

Evidence that you can take responsibilityDoctors carry a huge responsibility for their patients and applicants should be able to demonstrate that they have begun to develop this aspect of their character. Demonstration of responsibility through paid employment, within school, and through family or leisure activities are desirable. Activities connected to and independent of school are given equal merit.

Evidence of social and cultural awarenessBefore embarking on a career so dependent on interacting with all members of society, usually under difficult situations, it is useful for applicants to have some experience on a regular basis of society beyond their immediate environment. Preferably this experience should have been gained over a period of several months, and it is not necessarily required to be directly related to medicine. This may help applicants to reflect on health and healthcare in the wider community. Many applicants gain this insight through caring experience, voluntary work, part-time employment and organised community schemes. Again, activities connected to and independent of school are given equal merit.

Your interests, activities and achievementsThe School believes that people who have developed interests outside their career and who try to lead a balanced life are more likely to be effective medical practitioners. Also, we encourage students to contribute to the sporting, artistic, cultural and community aspects of the University. Successful applicants will have found time to pursue non-academic interests whilst still meeting the necessary academic requirements.

What don’t we want to read?The area for your personal statement is limited. Don’t waste space by telling us things we already know. In most cases, we want to hear what you have done, not what you plan to do, or would like to do.

One exception to this suggestion relates to work experience. We know it can be difficult to get experience in time before the application deadline, so if you have work experienced arranged which you have not yet done, do tell us about it. But be aware that we will ask about it, if you are invited to interview, so if it has to be cancelled you should let us know as soon as possible.

FOR EXAMPLE, DON’T SAY

“Next year, I’m going to spend some time in Ecuador, digging wells for villages with

no clean drinking water”

This is highly commendable – but you haven’t done it, so we can’t reward you for

having done so.

Try to avoid general statements—”Medicine is a career which involves life-long learning” - unless you explain why that applies to you specifically. ”Medicine is a career which involves life-long learning and I have always loved learning new things.” If a comment doesn’t tell us about you, it probably doesn’t belong in your personal statement.

We don’t want to read what your cousin put on their successful application last year, or something you found on-line or in a book. We really can’t stress how important it is that your personal statement is about you. UCAS will submit your application to a software similarity check, so unoriginal text will be recognised and we would not be able to process your application any further.

What now?This is your chance to tell us about yourself. Grab a pencil and a sheet of a paper. Or turn on your computer and start a new document, if that’s how you like to work. Or pick up a pack of Post-It notes and find a blank wall. We can’t decide what will work for you, because we don’t know you. But we want to.

So tell us what you’re like...

BUT YOU COULD SAY

“This year, I spent one Saturday every month doing sponsored push-ups to

raise money so that next year I can go to Ecuador to dig wells for villages with no

clean drinking water”

REMEMBER - Admissions Staff will only know what you tell them on your UCAS form!

We need a reasonable amount of detail about anything you want us to consider. We don’t need to read a diary listing

every case you saw in your work experience, but there’s a big difference between “I volunteered in a care home” and “I

volunteered in a care home every weekend for a year”!

Email: ugmadmissions@leeds.ac.uk Website: http://medhealth.leeds.ac.uk/medicine/admissions

About this document This document describes the regulations and processes relating to applications received during the 2014/15 admissions cycle for admission to the five year undergraduate programme leading to the award of MBChB. The admissions processes do not usually undergo significant change from year to year but if you are referring to this document after the end of the 2014/15 admissions cycle you should download a copy of the current version from our website (address below).

COPYRIGHT This document is copyright © The University of Leeds 2014. It may be reproduced and distributed in full or part in any format for non-commercial use as long as this copyright notice is included in all copies. A PDF version is available for download from our website http://medhealth.leeds.ac.uk/info/202/applying_for_the_mbchb

DISCLAIMER The information made available by the University of Leeds in this document does not form part of any contract. Changing circumstances may cause the University to have to change its provisions at any time. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information presented, the University cannot accept responsibility for errors.