Question 1: Why Do You Want to Study This Course?

The first question — "Why do you want to study this course?" — is where most students begin, and where many go wrong. The temptation is to make grand, sweeping statements about your love for the subject. Resist that temptation. Admissions tutors have read thousands of statements. They can spot a vague, generic motivation section in seconds, and it tells them nothing useful.

What they want is specificity. Not "I have always been interested in Biology" but "Studying the CRISPR-Cas9 mechanism in my A-Level Biology course made me realise how molecular biology could reshape medicine within my lifetime."

This section needs to answer one fundamental question: What, specifically, makes you want to spend three or more years studying this subject?

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What Belongs in This Section

Specific Moments of Intellectual Engagement

The strongest motivation sections describe concrete moments when the student's interest was ignited or deepened:

• A particular topic, problem, or question that fascinated you
• A book, article, lecture, or documentary that changed how you think about the subject
• A real-world event that connected to your academic interests
• A conversation, lesson, or experience that crystallised your desire to study this subject