"I am having difficulties starting writing my personal statement - how do I structure it?"

Starting to write a medical personal statement can be tricky. Some students find it especially hard trying to get a good balance between highlighting their skills and experiences whilst also explaining why would they would be right for medicine.
My main tips would be to draw out a spider diagram (in a first session, I would usually go through this/draw this with the student as I describe each section, asking them to write in personal examples) with subheadings. For example: -why medicine (what motivates you, how do you know this is what is involved in medicine)-what are your academic achievements (giving examples and what you have learnt from these) -extracurricular activities (what skills have you developed - how would this make you a better doctor?)
In order to "cut the waffle" out, in a first session I would also introduce the PEEL method of paragraph writing (point, example, expand, link).