Applying to Keele: the personal statement criteria

The six NHS Constitution values

• working together for patients
• respect and dignity
• commitment to quality of care
• compassion
• improving lives
• everyone counts

Criterion a

Understanding the roles of a doctor within the healthcare team, community and society, through personal research and experiences.

• -Clinical experience is not required or expected, and no preference is given to applicants who have it. Do not use space explaining why you lack it.
• -Be specific about what research or experience informed your understanding.
• -Virtual work experience, volunteering with care charities, support programmes, discussion groups and school medical societies all count.
• -This is the ONLY criterion where observation or shadowing earns credit, and research earns equal credit to shadowing.

Criterion b

Awareness of the knowledge, skills and behaviours a medical student must acquire, and why they are relevant to you.

• -Use the General Medical Council's Outcomes for Graduates as a guide.

Criterion c

Evidence of ONE skill acquired through your studies that will be important for becoming a doctor.

• -Be clear which aspect of your study developed the skill and why it matters.
• -A thorough explanation of one skill earns more than a superficial list of several.

Criterion d

Ability to engage and communicate with people from a variety of backgrounds, and to help or support them.

• -Include duration, frequency, when, where and your specific role, not a generic description of the setting.
• -Show how you adapted your communication and overcame barriers, and how the people benefited.
• -Paid part time public facing work is fully valid evidence.
• -Caring within your family earns no substantial credit unless you have young carer status, stated explicitly, taking significant time.

Criterion e

Ability to balance responsibilities and time commitments over a prolonged period.

• -Name a significant SPECIFIC responsibility: what you were responsible for and who to.
• -It must be clearly prolonged, with a stated duration, and the scale of the time commitment made explicit.
• -Show how you balanced it with study, including paid work to support your family.
• -No credit for titles alone such as head boy or head girl.
• -Expectations are substantially higher for applicants aged 20 or over.

Weighting

Keele states that more than half the marks come from criteria d and e, so answer 3 should be your longest section and answer 2 is usually the shortest.

What loses marks

• -Shadowing described outside criterion a.
• -Work experience tourism: overseas experiences are not viewed favourably unless a family reason for being abroad is explained, and nothing counts that would not be permitted in the UK.
• -Duties that are simply part of your main job description.
• -Titles without a fulfilled responsibility.
• -Family caring without explicit young carer status.
• -Details of your A level subject choices.
• -Generic book mentions not tied to a criterion.
• -Using space to explain or apologise for lacking clinical experience.
• -Medical jargon or undefined abbreviations, treated as poor communication.
• -Any exaggeration, especially involving care of children or vulnerable adults, which can raise safeguarding concerns.
• -Box ticking, superficial engagement, or examples that are all from several years ago.
• -Telling the reader why they should be impressed instead of what you did.

Practical tips

• -Put the durations of paid roles in the UCAS employment section to save characters.
• -Show recent and continuous engagement.
• -Check how your other choices use the statement.
• -Tell your school or college early what criteria you must address.

How this app scores you

• -Criterion 1 out of 3
• -Criteria 2 and 3 together out of 4
• -Criterion 4 out of 4
• -Criterion 5 out of 4
• -Total out of 15

For criterion 1 out of 3: 3 means several indicators clearly evidenced, 2 some, 1 only one or two. For the out of 4 components: 4 means several indicators clearly evidenced including the specific details Keele demands, 3 several but with named gaps, 2 some, 1 only one or two, 0 none.