Two More Essential Tips to Elevate Your Personal Statement 

Number 2:  Have Multiple People Proofread Your Essay 

A simple spelling error or typo may not upend your chances of getting into a Medical School, you want to use this letter as a platform showing a Medical School's Admissions Board that you are thorough and articulate when conveying your message.  A good rule of thumb to use when proofreading your essay is to have 3 different people read it.   

The first person who should review your essay is someone who is a close friend or family member — someone who understands you deeply and can provide valuable insight about whether the essay is genuine or shallow. They will be able to offer their suggestions to make the essay more encapsulating of your struggles or your passions in order to hit the mark more squarely than what you had depicted. It is hard to write genuinely introspective Personal Statements, so it is wise to seek all the help you can get in this situation.  

The second person who should have a look at your Personal Statement essay is someone who has a keen eye for grammatical errors and sentence structure. It is important to make sure that your sentences follow a logical pattern, that you are not "too wordy", and that you achieve a natural flow to present your message are concisely as possible.

Even if you are granted 1.5 pages of space to present your stance, it is wise to use only 1 page because in reality, a reviewer will only skim through your essay. The more time the reviewer of your Personal Statement is forced to dedicate to your essay, the more likely it becomes that they will be bored and unmoved by your message. If you can say your message in fewer words, do this without a doubt.  

The last person that should help you review your essay is someone who has experience in medicine — so they can help you decide if your reason to pursue a career in Medicine is validated. Someone who has already been through Medical School went through the same hurdles that lie before you, and are quite familiar with what it takes to make a strong Personal Statement. This last person to review your Personal Statement can be a doctor in the family, or even a physician you shadowed with during your undergraduate studies. 

After all three chosen reviewers have revised your essay, you will find that your Personal Statement essay has transformed from your raw draft to something intimate, genuine, and medically precise. Your sentences will not be a meandering mess, and you may find a few paragraphs you can remove entirely so the essay can be as concise as possible to keep your readers interested.  

Number 3: Do Not By Frustrated By the Number of Revisions You Will Make 

A Personal Statement is one of the most frustrating and taxing efforts that you need to undertake when you are applying to Medical School. It is impossible to profess exactly what motivates you to follow the path of becoming a doctor, and it will be take months for you to reach a point where you can even just tolerate the wording of your essay.

The key thing to remember is you will struggle when writing your Personal Statement essay. Welcome this, and use it. It is amazing that 1 page of material can carry so much weight. Do not get frustrated if you find yourself hitting a wall over and over again as you attempt to bypass the writer's block you may be suffering from.  

You're not training to be a writer. In reality, once you are in medicine, you only have to write Patient Notes and not a Pulitzer Prize-worthy manuscript.  If an idea is not coming to you, relax and do something else. Eventually you will have a great idea and can start molding that into your final masterpiece.