Anna Croall, a history student in her second year at Pembroke College, Cambridge, started writing her personal statement for her university application form five months in advance.

“It’s difficult to write because you are trying to sell yourself without sounding pompous. It wasn’t a comfortable exercise,” she said.

Ms Croall said she was not aware that you could buy personal statements on the internet. She thinks, however, that admissions tutors at Cambridge may have a point. “The statements can be so easily influenced by educational difference,” she said.

Louise Wallace, another Pembroke history student, also toiled for months on her statement while at school in Newcastle. “I must have written about forty drafts,” she said. “I found the whole university application process very stressful.”

Neither thinks that writing her statement was a waste of time, because she would have applied to other universities that would have considered it. However, both think Cambridge should be upfront and tell students that it will not take it into account.

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