Applied Neuropsychology [MSc(MedSci)/PgDip] postgraduate personal statement example

Personal statement example

On an orienteering course the fastest line between two controls is rarely straight. Before I set off I have to read the contours, judge whether to climb or go round, and keep the plan in mind while running through bracken. I took up the sport at university. Over time I became curious about the mental work it demands: planning, holding a route in working memory, and switching strategy when a path disappears. That curiosity about how ordinary goal-directed behaviour is put together, and what happens when parts of it fail, is why I want to study applied neuropsychology.

My undergraduate degree gave me a grounding in cognitive psychology, research methods and biological psychology. The module I found most absorbing introduced classic single-case studies, and I went on to read Oliver Sacks's The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. His accounts made clear to me that a deficit is only half the story. What matters as much is how a person lives with it and compensates for it. I have since worked through the early chapters of Lezak's Neuropsychological Assessment. It showed me how far formal testing depends on careful observation and interpretation, not just on scores.

For my dissertation I examined verbal fluency in bilingual and monolingual undergraduates. Participants named as many words as they could beginning with given letters, and then from given categories, in sixty seconds. I recorded and transcribed every response. I then scored clustering and switching using the approach described by Troyer and colleagues, which separates the size of semantic or phonemic clusters from the number of shifts between them. Scoring was slower than I expected. Deciding whether 'cello' and 'violin' formed a cluster in an animal-free category trial meant writing explicit rules and applying them consistently. A second marker scored a subset so that I could check agreement. I found no overall difference in total words produced. There was a modest pattern towards more switching in the bilingual group, which I reported cautiously given the sample of forty. The project taught me how much lies beneath a single summary score, which is precisely the kind of thinking clinical assessment requires.

Since graduating I have worked as a library assistant. Much of the job is routine: issuing books and helping people with the public computers. It has also made me practised at explaining things patiently to people who are anxious or unfamiliar with technology, and at noticing when someone needs a different approach. Several regular visitors are older adults, and I have learned to slow down and use one clear instruction at a time.

On alternate Saturdays I volunteer at a conversation café for stroke survivors run by a local charity. I am not involved in therapy. I set up tables, make tea and join conversations alongside trained staff. Even so, I have seen how differently aphasia can present. One man understands nearly everything but struggles to find nouns. Another speaks fluently but loses track of the topic. Watching staff use gesture, written key words and plenty of waiting time has given me respect for practical communication strategies. It has also made me want to understand the underlying impairments properly.

I hope that postgraduate study will give me rigorous training in brain–behaviour relationships, in the principles of assessment, and in rehabilitation approaches that relate to people's everyday goals. In the longer term I would like to work towards clinical neuropsychology, possibly in stroke or acquired brain injury services. I bring sound research skills, patience in careful scoring and analysis, and a steady manner with people who find communication difficult. I am keen to build on them under expert supervision.