How to Get ahead on Building your Personal Statement

Not a Big Reader? No Problem!

Okay, perhaps this is misleading - you will have to do at least some reading. But, if you’re finding it a struggle, you can always pad out some key readings with other media that might keep you entertained*. Films, blogs, audiobooks, documentaries, podcasts, exhibitions, music… the list goes on! Think about any and every avenue that you are interested in regardless, and then see if you can find content relevant to your subject in that arena.

*If you are finding reading academic sources particularly difficult, we do recommend that you work on this as well as looking at other resources (rather than just ignoring reading altogether). Try out some of the advice in our article on how to read difficult texts and see if that helps make it a little easier!

Read/Watch/Listen Actively

Reading lots of books, watching lots of documentaries, and listening to lots of podcasts (or whatever media you choose to consume) make sure that you’re not just letting it go in one ear and out the other. Remember that everything you’re using for research, whether it’s strictly academic or not, is with the aim of writing about it and discussing it in an academic way - so make sure that you can analyse and pick out points that you can learn from or apply academic parameters to from each one of your sources. The key thing that you are trying to show with these sources is that you are capable of reading/watching/listening to something and gleaning something about your subject or topic (be that facts, ideas, or inspiration) from it.

Keep Track of your Progress 

What’s the point consuming all of these sources, thinking about them academically, and getting new ideas from them if you then just forget everything you have learned? A good habit to get in right from the start of your research journey is to keep a diary (either physical in the form of a notepad or digital in a word document or spreadsheet) of everything you have been reading and the things you’ve learned from them/key ideas you’ve got whilst reading. This can make it much easier to collect your thoughts when the time comes in a couple of months to look back on what you have read and the ideas you have taken from it.