PRECIS LEARNING Presents
Your
Application
Your
Application
23 UK universities have seven or above applicants competing for each place.
While Our Finding Your Future Support package provides our clients with an individual action plan, we would like to offer some general advice on increasing your chances of being accepted by a prestigious university.
Strengthen Your Application
Introduction
We define strengthening’ as any activities which you and your referee can use to emphasize
- your commitment to your chosen subject(s)
- your academic ability and
- the skills and attributes you possess that make you suitable for your chosen course.
UK Year 12 (Year 11 in other school systems) or even UK Year 8 is ideal. However, the final year of school might not be too late as long as you are prepared to leave sending your application until the end of December.
Getting started
It’s not what you did but what you learnt from it and what skills you gained from it which are relevant to your course!
We can’t stress how important this is. The universities DON’T want certificates or portfolios! They want you to demonstrate that you are able to discuss the relevance of your activities to your course.
They want to see that you have ‘gone beyond your curriculum’.
There are lots of ways you can prove this – from asking lots of questions in class (which your referee comments on), to extra reading, extra classes and courses and participation in competitions.
Lead rather than follow.
‘Power Verbs’ such as initiated, founded, developed, expanded ALWAYS look good in a personal statement or reference. Universities are looking for students who are independent learners, thinkers and generally students who are doers. Yes, you can get a place without them but they can make a real difference when applying for competitive courses at popular universities.
Teaching / coaching others also always looks good in an application.
Bear in mind!
Shining in your subject at school
BUT all you’ve done for the last 4 years is attended classes, completed homework and taken tests.
Full stop – that’s it.
Here are some tips:
- Always volunteer for any presentations in your class, and plan and deliver them brilliantly.
- Keep a diary of your presentation topics. If it’s compulsory, you should again record what you presented on.
- If there are any optional visits or trips (or optional anything), go on them and note it in your diary.
- If there are any optional projects linked to your subject – volunteer for them!
- Does your subject have a club linked to it? Computing club? Science club? Film club (for English or French)? If it does, join it, if not, ask your teacher if you can start one and get some friends to join.
- Always volunteer for any presentations in your class, and plan and deliver them brilliantly.
- Keep a diary of your presentation topics. If it’s compulsory, you should again record what you presented on.
- If there are any optional visits or trips (or optional anything), go on them and note it in your diary.
- If there are any optional projects linked to your subject – volunteer for them!
- Does your subject have a club linked to it? Computing club? Science club? Film club (for English or French)? If it does, join it, if not, ask your teacher if you can start one and get some friends to join.
- Are there any opportunities to help teach or mentor younger students at your school? If so, take them, if not suggest this to your teacher.
- Always be enthusiastic in class – you need to stand out from the 300+ students your teacher teaches every week
- You find out that a famous person/speaker linked to your subject is visiting your city – ask if you can organise a group of your colleagues to listen to them (if no one’s interested, go yourself!) – then ask your teacher if you can deliver a presentation to your class on it.
- Are there any opportunities to help teach or mentor younger students at your school? If so, take them, if not suggest this to your teacher.
- Always be enthusiastic in class – you need to stand out from the 300+ students your teacher teaches every week
- You find out that a famous person/speaker linked to your subject is visiting your city – ask if you can organise a group of your colleagues to listen to them (if no one’s interested, go yourself!) – then ask your teacher if you can deliver a presentation to your class on it.
Extra reading
This shows that you have gone beyond the curriculum – something which you must prove for entry to the top universities.
It also shows that you have a real passion for the subject and can demonstrate your intellect when you describe what you’ve leant from a book.
When you read a book write down in a notebook:
- What fascinated you about it and why
What new insights it gave you – how it changed your understanding of a topic or the subject as a whole
What it encouraged you to do, e.g. explore a new topic (and how you did this)
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UK Universities
