In some ways it is similar to what all UK universities would look for from personal statements so the main thing really to focus on is the course because that is the main thing that is of interest to these universities.
They would like to understand the reasons why the student is interested in that particular course, and learn about the things they have been doing that is relevant. These could be activities within our school (such as relevant subjects studied), but also things from outside of the realm of these subjects. These are what we typically refer to as super-curricular activities and these are very useful for demonstrating interest in the course (in the subject field). Super-curricular activities are a great way to show that you are so interested in a particular course, that not only are you studying it at school, but that you are actually going beyond that curriculum. These are activities that can definitely be expanded on in the personal statement. Please bear in mind that, for these universities, the focus of a personal statement should be on the academics.
You can still mention extra-curricular activities that are not relevant to the course you applied for because, remember, this statement is going to viewed by potentially all five universities you might have applied to through UCAS. And although you might mention these, Oxford and Cambridge, won't take them into account so it's better not to focus too much on these kind of activities.
Important things you could do when writing your personal statement:
Be reflective. If you will talk about a particular book (or books) that you have read, please bear in mind that these universities are not interested in a long list of all of the books that you have read in the last year. These universities want you to reflect on maybe on one or two things that you have read and go deeper that just mentioning what you have read, explain what you have gained from reading these, what you agreed with, what you disagreed with, just to show that you can critically engage with the material and look at it on a deeper level.
Please remember that for these two universities, whilst the extra-curricular activities, such as sports, music, drama, volunteering are great things for students to do and these will give you a lot of great skills, these are not what these universities are looking for in the application process because they are an academic-based admission.
To learn more about super-curricular activities, please click on the button below:
To learn more about writing Personal Statements, please click on the button below: