Status: In a Serious Relationship with UCAS

"That was our friendship: equal parts irritation and cooperation." — Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Once you are sure you have completed a section of the application to the best of your ability, there is a checkbox at the end of every page, just above the 'save' button. Make sure to check that box so that when you are ready to send your reference requests, everything is in order!

Earlier this week, I began filling out my application for teacher training programmes via UCAS. The site was open for applicants on the 9th of October, and by the 10th, I was feverishly filling out the forms, being careful to include relevant information clearly and in the format required by UCAS.

For those that have never been faced with the UCAS application forms, their layout isn't daunting by any means (especially if you have had experience with the American Common Application system), and the amount of information they require is reasonable. With the Teacher Training forms, the sections and information needed is slightly different from undergraduate forms, since at this point, it is usually expected that applicants have at least completed/are close to completing a Bachelor's programme. Hence, the forms include a total of five sections you need to fill out, plus a sixth one to manage requesting reference letters. They are all relatively straightforward to complete, the two I found myself paying the most attention to were, the 'Work/School Experience' and 'Personal Statement' sections.

The first of these is where applicants can input any and all relevant experience they have, which they believe will aid their application to teacher training courses. On the page itself, the follow clarification is given: "Give details of your school experience and work history with dates, including any periods spent abroad and your present occupation. This can include work placements and observations, as well as paid and unpaid work." So opportunities such as, being a teaching assistant, service, or employment could all be relevant. There is room to give the dates you participated in these activities/were employed, and to elaborate on your role in school environments. One key piece of advice I would give to all applicants going through these forms is that, if at any point you are unsure of what to include or how to respond to a prompt, there are blue '?' next to nearly every question, if you were to click on these, a new window opens on your browser, where more information is given to clarify what is being asked. In these instances, it is best to be safe and check that you have provided the correct piece of information rather than guessing at what's being asked of you.

As for the second section I mentioned, the UCAS Personal Statement is undoubtedly one of, if not *the* standout elements of an application. It can make or break everything. As is stated on university course pages, and in UCAS's FAQs, meeting the minimum academic requirements do not guarantee that you will be accepted onto the course you apply to. In other words, you could have the best grades and otherwise perfect academic background, but if your personal statement doesn't illustrate why teaching is important to you, the steps you have taken to prepare for training courses, and the skills/personality you want to bring to a classroom, chances are you might not get the results you were expecting. To me, completing the statement was the part that was most anxiety-inducing. I know I want to pursue this as a career, but I need to convince other people of that - people that have never had so much as a conversation with me. The personal statement feels almost like a preliminary interview, but one where you are the only one speaking. My biggest struggle with completing this section was that the space for the statement accepts essays that fit two criteria: 4,000 characters or less (with spaces), and 47 lines maximum. I don't doubt other applicants wrestle with this restriction just as much as I did. I went through roughly 10 drafts of my statement before the application portal even opened. The first draft was followed by much-improved and focused second and third drafts.

Beyond the third draft, it was more a matter of refining the ideas and attitude that was already present. To do this, I reached out to the teachers that I mentioned in a previous post, those that used to teach me and have been extremely supportive of me pursuing a career in teaching. I sent them every new draft I produced, each one made better because of their advice and constructive criticism. I wrote to one of them explaining why I had chosen to ask for the opinion on more than one person: "The first time I had to write a personal statement, I remember being very shy and apprehensive to show anybody what I had written. I think it was because of me being worried that I would never write anything that could make me stand out enough. This time, I really want to try to put my best foot forward and do everything I possibly can to make my application as strong as possible…" It felt important to acknowledge my past attitudes, to make myself realise how far I have come. Now I see being able to share my work with several people as a strength, as opposed to something worth avoiding for fear of rejection. Looking back on my education, I see how the IB programme and my time at university has significantly contributed to that mindset (but elaborating on that will have to wait until another blog post),

Anyway, even after 10 drafts and battling to reduce the character count to below 4,000 characters, I made the silly mistake of assuming that, if the count was on or below 4,000, then surely, SURELY, the whole essay would be below 47 lines when pasted onto UCAS's system… I was wrong, sorely wrong. As it turns out, a count below the limit still meant I was 12 lines above the line limit. At the time of writing this post, I planned my time carefully to allow for nearly two weeks to be completely satisfied with my application before sending it off by the end of the month. So, I allowed time for precisely this type of frustrating occasion. After frantically cherry-picking words to get the character count down, I eventually managed to get the essay to fit within 47 lines. To accomplish this, the essay had 0 lines to spare on the UCAS form, and over 700 characters left over. This still baffles me and makes zero sense to me, one criteria should not override the other. Either way, I managed and am thankfully still quite pleased with the final iteration of the statement. The character + line limit means sacrificing some of my enthusiastic tone, but the experiences and message I wanted to communicate has been preserved.

As you can probably tell, I am a very wordy person, I love writing. So cutting, re-wording, and re-combining sentences in an essay I was already very happy with was torturous, but it needed to be done. My best pieces of advice for future applicants are the following:

• Aim to write roughly 3,000 characters instead of 4,000 (this is approximately 400-500 words);

• I read that if you are typing in Microsoft Word, it is helpful to type using the font Verdana in 11pt. (if your essay is just under a page, it should be fine once pasted into UCAS);

• If you can, structure your essay into four paragraphs, with a strong and concise introduction that is further solidified and referenced through your conclusion.

I'm at a point with my application now that all the sections are virtually complete, the only matter left to decide on is who to request reference letters from. You can send off two references, and at the moment, I have three choices. Once I have made up my mind, I will write a separate blog post to discuss how I went about deciding, and what to consider when requesting reference letters.

I feel it is also worth noting that, my experience with the application system is just that, my own experience. My advice is simply what I wish I had known before being faced with these stressful situations. This is by no means a complete and thorough analysis of applying to teacher training programmes, as I explained in my first blog post here, I just want to share my personal experience and effectively reflect on my progress. I feel significantly less stressed now that I have filled out the application and sorted out my personal statement, things are finally falling into place and I see my hard work beginning to pay off.