How do I get started in writing a successful "academic focused" personal statement

Brain stormingA personal statement is a summary of your academic history therefore all your achievements and studies will naturally speak for themselves, it's up to you to simply make these experiences shine, proving to the universities / internships / conservatoires that you are well suited for that course and you are passionate about your subject. Most students find that getting started is often the hardest part in writing an academic personal statement, especially since it plays such a vital part in the application process, so hopefully my advice of taking small steps should make this process more comfortable and successful. My first piece of advice is make a list for all of your achievements (competitions, music grades etc) and commitments (part time jobs, clubs and societies, volunteering) as well as a list for all of the activities that prove an interest in the course (books, films, lectures, work experience). You should then annotate each item with the skills or interests that it represents (for example if you have a part time job you might want to write "time management, "commitment" etc).Grab a highlighter and mark each of the things that you listed that would prove you have the skills (work ethic, good with deadlines, independent learning skills etc) and interest required for your course (often these are listed on the course website so check them out if you need help thinking). Now you have clearly assessed and identified all of the material that will make up your personal statement; don't worry if it seems like a lot, the next step of prioritisation will help cut things down to fit the 4000 character limitPrioritisationYou can now see which items on your lists repeat themselves (for example if you read a book that proves the same interest or academic ability as a lecture that you went to). It is time to decide which of these repeating items you are going to remove from the list in order to achieve the 4000 character limit (try and be ruthless in this step). It is heavily advised that 70-80% of an academic focused personal statement should be made up of academic activities that prove an interest in the course and that the remainder should be made up of commitments, other achievements and hobbies. Therefore try reduce your list of achievements and commitments to a smaller size than your academic list. Yay, now you have a concise list of experiences and their attributes that will prove to the universities that you're applying to that you are suited for the course. Using the annotations you made, you also have a great platform to start writing since you simply need to turn those key words such as "independent learning" and "analytical skills" into sentences. These steps will give you a competitive advantage in writing your academic focused personal statement because it will be well thought out and organised from the very start.