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What to ACTUALLY Include in Your Personal Statement...

Joyel George

10,155 views

Writing your medicine personal statement and not sure what to include (or leave out)? In this video, I'm breaking down exactly what admissions tutors want to see and the common mistakes that get applications rejected before they even reach interview.

Drawing on my own experience getting into Cambridge Medicine, plus what I've learned helping hundreds of students through my tutoring, I'll walk you through what actually makes a personal statement stand out.

📌 What's covered:

What to include (and what admissions tutors are actually looking for)
Common mistakes that instantly weaken your statement
How to talk about work experience without sounding generic
Structuring reflections so they show insight, not just a list of experiences
Red flags that make tutors switch off

If you found this helpful, hit subscribe for more free content on medical school applications, UCAT prep, and life as a med student at Cambridge 🩺

⏱️ Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
00:50 - Overview
01:55 - Do's
07:50 - Don'ts
14:23 - New Format + Structure
23:16 - Content + Tips
44:40 - How To Get Started
50:36 - Giveaway

20 Comments

@joyelgeorge2004 Creator 1 month ago Pinned

🎉 GIVEAWAY TIME! To be entered to win 2 FREE personal statement reviews, all you need to do is:

✅ Like this video
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✅ Share this video with someone who would find it useful
✅ Comment below with what you found most helpful from this video!

I'll be picking winners soon - good luck! 🍀

@StudyingBrowser 3 weeks ago

I really liked the fact that you showed us how to phrase sentences to show that we were taking the initiative, not in a more passive way

@aleenakhan3260 3 weeks ago

I found the step by step nature of the video incredibly useful - the fact that it’s all in one place makes the whole process a lot more manageable and less daunting

@Chuzzari 11 days ago (edited)

I enjoyed the importance of acknowledging negatives and despite that, the commitment to medicine; demonstrates maturity and realism!
Loving the content!

@toxicalgameknight9998 3 weeks ago

As someone who started watching you since the UCAT videos, your reflections were very useful, as always. The part where you mentioned reflections were more important than listing definitely helped me out a lot, with the video being concise without repeated bluffs.

@wb6883 1 month ago

Thanks for the video. The most reassuring part was about reflection rather than listing. I was so panicked that I didn’t have loads of crazy extracurriculars like some people on the internet seem to have 😭

@ZH_429 3 weeks ago

When you said, "they already know that, are you telling me you didnt know a doctor had to be professional before ur wex?" That sentence alone helped so much because I realised I inflate something rlly obvious and make it sound like a breakthrough, so u can also cut characters by removing those parts.
Alsoo, it made me realise the point of the PS, Im not hear to spoonfeed the obvious, yk? Im showing them WHAT I LEARNED and why this new info is relevant and how I can apply it to medicine
Thank you so much

@anvi-d5m 2 weeks ago

I like how you made it very easy to understand what is needed in the personal statement and pointed out the relevant information that we do need and elaborating about the structure in general. I’ve been really stressed about it, so thank you for this!

@helen3210 7 days ago

I found this video really useful overall because it gave me a much clearer understanding of how to approach a personal statement and what I should be thinking about when writing one. I especially liked how the advice was explained in a simple and practical way rather than just giving general tips. It helped me understand how to organise my ideas better, what kinds of experiences and qualities are worth mentioning, and how to make the statement more personal and meaningful. Overall, it made the whole process feel much more straightforward and gave me a better idea of what I should focus on when improving my own personal statement

@Cathydrawz 1 month ago

The part about style was quite useful, saying I organised...does make it sound a lot better and really makes a difference ❤, subscribed, liked shared yayy

@flyingasuka 1 month ago

Joyel, your personal statement guide was so detailed, just like your UCAT Tutorial videos. I liked how you broke everything down into sections and lists. The best bit for me was what you said about what to avoid (Don’t), like boasting about yourself or repeating your grades in the statement. I am sure most of us have been told not to do that, but it was useful hearing why and how to avoid it. I am working on mine, listing all the things I can think of before putting them into the statement, and I’d love for you to review it 🤞 Thank you. P.S. I’m commenting from my parent’s YouTube account :)

@gg1849-w5f 1 month ago

I really liked the advice given about organising the sections to include specific information

@mimosapudica-q4y 1 month ago

The advice about how to structure the PS in the new format was very helpful!

@RR........................-n6y 3 weeks ago

Thankyou for this! I really benefitted from the part about deeper reflections

@An242-p7u 1 month ago

Thank you for your video! I learned how important it is to be precise and to apply the statement to one‘s own situation rather than to stay superficial and just list general qualities of a doctor.

@udehcatherine9404 1 month ago

One thing I found particularly helpful about this video was the idea of linking. It saves a lot of characters by cutting out unnecessary, repeated bluff.
Thank you Joyel, for all that you do.
May God continue to bless you as you help us, and may you continue to grow in wisdom.

@amirsamsayyah9889 1 month ago

This is great!
Most helpful part for me was to mention the negatives as well.
Thanks a lot

@frank123rr 1 month ago

I found the part about the flow really helpful as I hadn't realised how much there is to the personal statement over the pure content. Thank you for the video, it was really useful!!

@elmasriyah 1 month ago

One thing i found useful was how clear and concise the video was, I’ve spent so long looking for an actually useful video that includes all the key points and exactly like the ucat, you’re the person we’ve all been looking for! thank you so much once again for everything joyel - i have my ucat exam guys make dua for me 😭❤️