Archive for November, 2008

Writing Personal Statements – Top Tips

Saturday, November 29th, 2008

WRITING THE PERSONAL STATEMENT TO GET INTO UK UNIVERSITY

HOW DO YOU DO IT?

And the only way to do that has been largely ignored or is unknown by most students.

The failure of the vast majority of students to get admission to their chosen university is one of the great unpublicised stories of our time.

Why do they fail?

Because they think in their terms and do not consider the reader: the admission officer.

They don’t even know they are doing it.

But THAT is why they fail.

IN THIS ARTICLE

.

  1. SECRETS TO SUCCESS

  2. MAKING A POWERFUL FIRST IMPRESSION

  3. AVOID AMBIGUITY

  4. MAKING A PROFESSIONAL IMPRESSION

SECRETS TO SUCCESS

Your first aim is to make sure that your personal statement gets read; start with a powerful selling point that catches the admission officer’s eye. Admission officers usually give each personal statement a quick scan before picking the best for a more thorough reading.

Your personal statement must therefore clearly show the most perfunctory reader what you have to offer.

This means that your words need to be short and punchy. See http://www.getintouni.com for examples.

MAKING A POWERFUL FIRST IMPRESSION

The first and main section of your personal statement will almost certainly be a career and achievements, as this is the crucial area that shows that you can do the course on offer. Within each paragraph of your personal statement, put details of your most impressive or relevant achievements at the top of each section.

Always end your personal statement on a high note so that you leave the reader with a final positive image of you as they put the personal statement down. Make sure you describe yourself in a way that does you justice:

  • Give evidence supporting your claims

  • Quantify your achievements

  • Show that you are a high performer in the most important aspects related to your course

  • Use clear and positive language

AVOID AMBIGUITY

Phases such as ‘I supported the change process’ or ‘I assisted with financial planning for the company’ leave the admission officer none the wiser as to what you were actually doing. Make it clear what your contribution was. For example:

‘..The position involved analysing past financial performance to identify areas for future improvement and preparing budgets to ensure sound financial planning’

MAKING A PROFESSIONAL IMPRESSION

Your personal statement should have a highly professional image.

  • Be clear and easy to read

  • Draw attention to the most important points

  • Be attractive and professionally presented – utilise the online UCAS form!

Your personal statement is crucial to your application. Planning your personal statement is therefore your fist step to success. Gain competitive advantage and order the best editing service on the web.

Our qualified professional writers will edit your statement to perfection – ensuring your application gets noticed. We recognise that you are unique and, therefore, you will receive customised advice from your personal writer. Increase your chances today!

Wishing you great success,

About The Author

Elaine

FREE personal statement samples? Sign up for our newsletter visit http://www.getintouni.com

Got FUN

Thursday, November 20th, 2008

I just can’t help but notice, some people just don’t seem to be having any fun. I mean I know sometimes you gotta be all serious and get down to business but jeez, even that can be fun. And the truth is even in business the more fun you have doing it, the more effective you are at it.

Fun is one of those things that’s totally free, and you really don’t even have to work at it to have it. Another really neat thing about it is that it’s always right where you are. Wherever you go, fun is right there with you. Maybe not always readily visible but right there just below the surface, there it is. Sometimes you just have to adjust your view a little to see it.

I guess the thing that makes it seem so illusive to some is the fact that you do have to choose it. Fun only pokes it’s head above the surface when actively called upon to do so. It’s a state of mind. One of those things that can be either induced or suppressed at will.

I’m reminded of a story here:

Two brothers went to ride ponies on their uncle’s ranch, but first the uncle insisted that they shovel a large pile of manure out of a stall. One brother hated the project, and grumbled his way through a few halfhearted scoops. The other brother was laughing and singing and shoveling with abandon. “What are you so happy about?” the first brother asked. “Well,” the second brother replied, “with all this manure, there must be a pony in here someplace!”

The second brother gets it. Life’s the same way. Even while shoveling the manure that comes along with living a full life, get yourself to focus on what lies on the other side of the pile you’re dealing with and you clear the way to have fun while getting to it.

This week, just like last week and the days and weeks that will follow, you will be in situations where you’ll have to make a choice. Do this thing and be miserable the whole time I’m doing it, or get focused on the pony ride on the other side of the task at hand and really have some fun with it.

I invite you to join the ranks of those of us who take our parties with us wherever we go. That way wherever you are there’s a party going on. Another side benefit to having fun is that it’s contagious. The more fun you have, the more fun everybody around you has. How many people do you know who have more fun in their lives than they can stand. They have so much fun that they’re standing in line trying to return some. I’ll venture a guess and say not many. I don’t even have that much fun! (I’m working on it though.)

Make it a goal this week to see how much fun you can generate no matter what you’re doing. You’ll probably surprise yourself.

Thanks for stopping in.

Live some. Love some. Learn some. Everyday.

C…

Clyde Lee Dennis, a.k.a. “SmoothLee” has been bumping around on the web since 1999 and is a self described “Web Head, and Life long AVID music fan”. Smooth Jazz Music in particular. In addition to writing CD Reviews for I Love Smooth Jazz.com he is also the Program Director, and can be heard during his daily radio show which airs on one of the internets most listened to smooth jazz radio stations, Smooth Jazz 24/7

The First Step and Most Important Thing in Learning Guitar

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

Most of the guitar lovers playing guitar for few years but still unsatisfied with their progress. They feel like still stand at the starting point and can’t enjoy their playing. This mainly caused by most of them don’t build up a strong foundation at the begining. I found that some of the guitar learners even just playing guitar for one to two years but are more better than so many that playing for over five years. This is the foundation problems. Me myself was an example when I started playing guitar long time ago.

The secrets of learning guitar are mostly base on the foundation.To have a good foundation for future success,we need three important factors :-

1.Listening:

Ear training is a MUST basic training that every guitar learner should have. But most of them avoid this as quite a boring and time-consuming job. Without a good listening, we are unable to move to higher level.
To overcome this problems, I suggest that guitar learners may choose one of the well known Ear Training software on internet. I found that there are few really good software that will improve your listening step by step and really FUN. You feel like playing game when you learn.

2.Daily practice: (Both fingers and ears)

Daily practice is another important thing we should do.(Ex.fingers exercises, practice for the basic scales)
I suggest that beginners practice PENTATONIC SCALES at the starting point because this scales are the most simple scales that only have 5 tones. Try to practice 20 to 30 minutes daily. Remember that even just 20 minutes of RELAX and CONCERNTRATION DAILY practice is more effective than few hours of unconstant practice.

3.Look for a teacher:

You may find either private guitar teacher or guitar lessons on internet. For my opinions,learn guitar from internet maybe better because of the convinience of time and cheaper. There is just one question of learning from internet that what lessons to choose, what lessons are really work.
Myself as a guitar lover have been playing guitar for 15 years.

I do the research on guitar lessons from internet over 5 years for myself and my groups. I’ve spent a lot of money for it. Recently I just built up my own little web page telling guitar lovers a few good guitar lessons that really work and would like to share with all of you.

If you are interested to learn guitar, please visit my website at
www.geocities.com/bestguitarlessons/bestguitarlessons.html and look at it yourself.

Regards,

Don Lee