It is often said that personal statements are often autobiographical. This may well be true, because a wise maxim is “write about what you know.” And, if there is one thing we all know more about than anything else it is our own lives. Often students only write about reasons why they wish to embark on a particular university course and many personal statements lack emotion, suspense, and tension. However, in a work of fact, emotion, is a key ingredient in successful personal statements. And, while students life’s may differ considerably from one other, we will each have known full gamut of emotions. It is important when writing your personal statement that you convey a sense of place to your reader and way to do that is with five senses sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. It is all too easy to forget that scenes, which are indelibly etched on your own mind, will not be equally clear in reader’s unless you make them so by your writing.

Tension is one of second most important elements in writing, closely allied to suspense – “what happens next” ingredient. The problem for many students is to try to condense personal statement into 600 words. Obviously, admission officer knows you only have this limited space, but nonetheless does judge you on four minutes it takes to read your personal statement, if your personal statement includes tension and suspense - it is sure to be a winner. The secret to a good personal statement is not to give away too much to quickly, keep us guessing, hanging onto every word, thus building up tension and suspense. In order for there to be tension in your personal statement, there must be (or have been) something important at stake. Perhaps this was your family life or what you believe is your future. Perhaps reason why you chose course you wish to study. Whatever it is, by not divulging outcome too soon, you will maintain reader’s interest for that much longer. The following personal statement starts with a powerful suspense filling introduction:

The prospect of helping people has driven me to fulfil many goals in life and this is truly my dream. Although it is great to have ambitions – I now want to translate my goals into reality. Becoming a nurse is a natural extension of my interest in medicine. Following graduation, I found myself advising investment bankers on stock exchange, secretly desiring opportunity of helping others overcome illness and promote health.

In this personal statement introduction reader is captured by reason why they chose to become an investment banker. The author of this piece has demonstrated a powerful introduction, style is simple, straightforward narrative. This personal statement will surely provide a valuable insight as to why she wishes to become a nurse.

In order for there to be tension in your personal statement, it will help to describe a highly charged incident, part of a particularly difficult period in your life. Whatever it was, you will maintain your reader’s interest for that much longer. The example below shows perfect tension and suspense build up:

1. Made excuses for not practicing because you "didn't have time"? 2. Practiced same licks and exercises that you did last year? 3. Felt like you had hit a brick wall in your progress? 4. Felt unsure as to what to practice?

Unless your name is Steve Vai, chances are you've done at least one of above!

They are all symptoms of having a lack of vision.

What do I mean by vision? Vision in this context is having a clearly defined picture in your mind's eye of how you would like to play. It must be a crystal clear, exciting and inspiring picture!

Without an absolutely clear picture of what you would ideally like to sound like, you will not know what you need to practice in order to realise that vision. You will also probably lose drive and motivation to practice daily for many years until you can play like your vision. You may even start using loser's mantra which is "I don't have time to practice".