学习的道路上通常有两种方式。在你从小到大的学习中，老师们总是在力图告诉你解决问题的最佳答案。从中你学习如何理解、应用和复制最佳技能和答案。本文将给你另一种完全不一样的方法~一起看看有什么是不能做的事情吧！

相信你已经正确填写好了申请表的联系方式，你也深思熟虑过你要申请的专业和院校。所以你现在要做的是如何写一份好的个人陈述，这是你向学校推销你自己的绝佳机会，为你的大学申请加分。

在我多年的UCAS指导经验中发现，申请者总是会几个典型的错误上栽跟头，而这些错误往往就是他们被大学拒之门外的主要原因。在这期专题中，我会帮助你避免犯这些类似的错误，所以请仔细往下阅读，并牢记我给的建议。我已经看到太多的学生在被拒时伤心落泪，我可不希望同样悲剧继续上演。

以申请经济学专业为例，如果一个学校申请者比实际招收的人多，那么竞争力肯定是相当残酷的。因此在你的个人陈述中，要非常清晰的阐述接下去的三到四年中为什么你要选择学习这门课程。一个普遍的回答是：我想通过在接下去的三年里学习阅读更多经济学文章、杂志和书，以此提升我的专业知识——这些是我已经读过的经济学类型的书，然后学生就一口气把一些经济学名著的书名列出来，并“声称”他们都阅读过这些书籍了。这是一个典型的错误示范。

这也就是我为什么用’声称’的原因。任何人都可以列出一推关于物理、法律或是建筑学相关的书籍列表，然后说他们已经读过这些书了。是真是假？口说无凭，无从考究。如果你真的想向学校证明你确有研读过许多经济类的书籍，仅凭一个列表是远远不够的。

取而代之的是，你应该用谦虚的态度来探讨并发表自己的观点，说出你赞同哪位作者在哪本书中提到的哪个观点，越具体越好。也可以说说你为什么不赞同他们的某些论点。如果你的引用准确、分析又独到有趣的话，那么这无疑是你读过这本书的最好证明。更重要的是，这又从另外一个侧面体现了你是一个具有批判性思维人，懂得反驳并分析别人的观点。这也正正是大学看重的一个考量因素。

这个问题用一个有趣的例子来解释，可能比从经济学这种枯燥无味的学术角度更容易理解一些。想象下现在北京大学开设了一门篮球课程，如果你这门专业中表现得非常好的话，你无疑将成为一位出色的NBA篮球教练。再想象下这么热门的专业肯定有很多年轻人争相选择，这样一来申请者人数会比实招人数多出很多，所以如果你想被录取，就得表现出你的实力，让别人知道你是有资格的。你会只列出所有读过的培训类型的书名列表吗？

答案当然是否定的！你肯定会很慷慨激昂的谈论着各支篮球队伍，分析各队的优势和劣势。你会谈论他们的教练，他们的打球风格，他们的媒体采访，他们的性格，他们的战术和他们的成就。你会讨论你喜欢或讨厌哪一队教练指导战略，哪一场练习赛打得好，为什么打得好；你会谈论电视、之声和报纸上的篮球评论员。你会热衷于讨论谁有趣，谁滑稽，谁是投球能手，谁总是出错。你也会去分析主要球员、教练、参赛队伍、记者，你也会阐述自己的想法策略——如果我是一位NBA教练，我将会如何带领整个团队等等。

个人陈述应该从这些方面来写。谈论篮球、足球、电影、购物或高科技，有时可能比空谈经济或数学更容易入手。但是如果你写不出你喜欢的经济学家、你赞同哪一个论点或是你之后想研究的课题，那么你要小心了，这证明你准备学习的其实并不是你真正感兴趣的学科。所以这也很容易在你的个人陈述中暴露你其实不是真正喜欢这门学科。

我的建议是别只空列一个书名列表，而是要表现出你对这个专业的热爱以及向往。我已经遇到太多的中国学生在这个地方“跌倒”，这也是为什么需要好的UCAS指导来帮助他们圆梦理想大学的原因！

So you’ve added all the correct contact information, you’ve thought long and hard about what course to apply for and at which university. Now you need to work hard to make sure that your personal statement, your chance to sell yourself to the university in prose, acts to support not detract from your application.

In my many years of UCAS experience I have seen several classic mistakes that act to reduce the chance of the applicant being accepted by their favourite universities. In this column i want to help you avoid making similar mistakes, so read carefully and don’t forget my advice, I have seen too many students crying about rejection and don’t want this to happen to you too!

When you apply for a course like Economics, with more applicants than there are places, it is competitive to be accepted by your favourite university. One of the core purposes of the personal statement is for you to demonstrate why you want to study this course for the next three to four years of your life. A typical response to this would be to say, of course I want to read Economics articles, journals and books for the next three years - look at all the books that I’ve read already. Then the student proceeds to create a list of all the famous primers within the subject area that they claim to have read. This is the classic mistake.

My choice of word, claim, is precisely the point. Anyone in the world can search for a list of books about Physics, Law or Architecture, and they can say - I have personally read all of these. But is it true? it is a claim without evidence. If you wanted to prove to a university that you had indeed read all the important books on Economics creating a list is not going to do this.

What you should do instead is talk with humble enthusiasm about what you agree with from each author, the more specific the better, and if there are any areas you found you cannot completely support their arguments. If your references are precise and your analysis intriguing it firstly proves that you have read the book, and even more importantly, it demonstrates that you are a critical thinker capable of evaluating the work of others. This is exactly what the university wants to see.

The best way to explain all this is not to use a boring intellectual pursuit like Economics and instead think of something fun that millions of people like. Imagine there was a course at Beijing university about basketball. And if you did really well on this course you might become a coach of an NBA team. Imagine how many young people would love to do that course, there would be a lot more applicants than places, so if you want a place you’d need to prove that you deserve it! Would you write a list of all the coaching books that you’d read?

Of course not! You’d talk with passion about different teams, their strengths, their weaknesses. You’d talk about the coaches, their styles, their media interviews, their personalities, their tactics, their success in the trading of players. You’d talk about which coaching manuals you liked and which you hated, which drills work best and why, You’d talk about basketball commentators, on TV, radio and in newspapers. You’d enthuse about who is interesting, who is funny, who is accurate and who is wrong most of the time. You’d also, in analysing all of the major platers, coaches, teams, journalists, you’d also talk about your own ideas - if I was an NBA coach I’d do this, that and the other.

Your personal statement should be exactly like this. Writing about basketball, soccer, films, shopping or technology sometimes seems easier than talking about Economics or Maths. But if that is the case, that you can’t write passionately about which Economists you like, which arguments are strong, which topics need further research, then you are in danger of trying to study a course that doesn’t really interest you. And if it doesn’t really interest you that much will be abundantly clear in your personal statement.

So my advise is don’t write a list, instead prove you care by enthusing about the books that matter to you in that subject area. I’ve seen lots of Chinese students misunderstand this point, that is why you need good UCAS advice to make sure you get the course place that you deserve!

以上就是专家的建议啦！希望本文能够对你有所帮助！留学申请之旅顺利！