Sheet two: person specification

The second sheet is fairly straightforward. It’s basically a ‘person specification’ describing the ideal student for the course you’d like to study. It should outline the skills, abilities and talents of the ‘perfect’ student for the course.

This is where prospectuses and open days will come in really handy as they can give you an insight into what is expected from students who study the course and what they should be able to do. If you’re at an open day don’t be afraid to ask tutors to explain what skills their ideal student would have – they’ll be very happy to tell you.

We’ve included some examples (in the diagram below) of the type of skills that pretty much all successful university students should have.

These should be enough to get you started, but have a think about which ones are likely to be more important for the course you want to study so you can prioritise those.

Once you've finished sheet two, it's time to move on to Sheet three: your personal statement.