2.1 UCAS

Task 2.1b – Personal Statement Planning

https://drive.google.com/open?id=12vMoT6bR5q8CQ0yMjdeCgR4EMDUlKdHE

Task 2.1c – UCAS Application

We had to begin filling out our UCAS Application (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) to have it ready to send out.
To fill it out, we had to complete a few sections of information about our education background, personal information and so on, to help us apply for University.

Beginning with personal details, we had to fill out our full name, contact information, date of birth, student support fee code, any nominated access and any disabilities we may have.

Additional information included filling in information about our ethnicity, religious beliefs, and what we identify as, alongside some additional education if we attended any, and occupational background of either yourself if you’re over 21 or a parent if you’re under 21.

Student finance included reading an exclamation of what it was and ticking a box if you understood, it is crucial that you understand how student finance works before you borrow money.

Choices involves filling out information about the Universities and courses you want to go to, at the moment, I currently only want to attend Portsmouth University for Computer Games Technology, but I will be filling out a few more just in case I can’t get into one.

In the Education section, you need to fill out all of your qualifications which you’ve achieved, everything from your GCSEs to any other University qualifications or anything else which you’ve achieved.

In the next section; Employment – You have to fill out which places you’ve worked if you’ve had a job, you also fill in the location you work, and your role along with how long you’ve held that job. 

Task 2.1b – Personal Statement Planning 2

Since I know writing a personal statement is important, I decided to write another plan, on paper this time, since I have done lots over the summer I did feel like my previous plan was out of date.

And, to help me further with writing a good personal statement, I used this website here to help me so I can get the perfect structured portfolio.

From writing this up, I made my first proper draft, this is the image of my draft personal statement, I followed all the questions and wrote a little over the limit.

I’ve played video games for a large chunk of my life, they’ve really changed who I am, playing games as a child began my interest in computers and technology, that interest has extended further, and made me want to work with technology for the rest of my life. I also think this is good, due to the growing popularity and importance of electronics and how they’re used frequently in every-day life. I love experimenting, problem solving and making games for people to enjoy, the reason why I want to join a course to do with Games Development/Programming is because I love the challenge it brings and how every day there is something new and unique to work on. My first interest in the study of computers and programming began in my Computer Science course in school, and even before that, I was always looking forward to my IT lessons. And during that time I was very artistic, and still am, I love drawing and painting and photography, back in school I would draw lots of character designs, and I aspired to one day become a concept artist or work with some form of art in the Games Industry, when joining my Games Development course in college, I soon came to realise that I would rather keep art as a hobby, and excel in programming – But I’ve found it very useful to still have both skills since I can make my own game art and programming!

This subject interests me because, I can work on the subject for the rest of my life without losing interest, I feel like it would be a good route to take to get into the games industry and show my skills to the world, I also like this subject since it is really fast growing, almost everyone has played a video game in their life, no matter what age they are, games are everywhere.

I think I’m suitable for the course because I am a hard working individual, I love learning new things and excelling at my current skills, the course looks exciting, and it’s exactly what I want to do! I’ve worked hard to get to the level I am now, not just in college, but outside as well, studying subjects related to games development but not taught in the course.

At my GCSE’s and before, my Computer Science course and IT lessons really interested me, I looked forward to the lessons, and I looked forward to the days which I decided to revise it after school, closer to my GCSE’s. The current course I’m doing at college (Games Development) is where my interest in making games began, before that, I just liked playing games and playing around with a computer, but now I’m in this course, I’ve learnt that this is the path that I want to go down.

Outside of college I’ve worked really hard I’ve tried studying as much programming as I can to get to a level where I’m comfortable specializing in it for a course. I have also attended several game jams, expanding my contacts. Joining game jams lead me to join the game development team Team Horsehead, and getting my own game on the Google Playstore. I’ve also attended events like Rezzed, EGX, Develop: Brighton and Comic-con.

When I was younger, I was an Army Cadet, joining the cadets really taught me how to be resilient, how to work as hard as I can and how to push myself, and that has later impacted me and my work ethic, the cadets have also taught me how to communicate and show leadership, how to direct people and how to be a respectful person. Other skills include fixing and refurbishing technology, playing the piano, and making music.

At my job, even though I can only work part time, I have quite a large responsibility, I’m a technology tester and I help train new staff members, I’ve currently got a tag which allows me to do everything a Manager can, even though I’ve still got the Shop Assistant role. Another achievement I’ve got was that Mark Brown of the GMTK Youtube channel played my game on his channel and rated me top stars.

As soon as I turned 16, I wanted to get myself a job, and ever since I’ve turned 16 I’ve kept the same job, working at Computer Exchange (CeX), my role there is a shop assistant, but I’m mostly warranty testing broken electronics or testing items which customers want us to buy in, this job has really helped me out in learning about the latest games, movies and technology, I’m really happy to have found this job.

After the course, I hope to continue on and join the Games Industry, but if that doesn’t work I would be happy to join any software development company. Another goal after university is to attend an E3 conference, one day, hopefully in the future

After I completed that, I went to both the teachers in the Games FLA, Colin and Ben, I got them to check through my statement and help me with shortening and improving my grammar, this is what my first draft sheet ended up looking like.

So, I went back on a computer and began writing up my 2nd draft, changing the parts which need to be changed from my first draft, this resulted in a much shorter personal statement which is right to the point with better grammar.

I’ve played video games for most of my life, they’ve changed who I am, playing games as a child began my interest in computers and technology, that interest has extended, and made me want to work with technology as a profession, it’s also a great profession due to the growing popularity and importance of electronics and how they’re used frequently in every-day life. I love experimenting, problem solving and making games for people to enjoy, I want to do a Games Development/Programming Course because I love the challenge it brings and how every day there is a new problem to work on. My interest in the study of computers and programming began in my Computer Science GCSE, even before that I looked forward to my IT lessons. I am very artistic, I love drawing and painting and photography, back in school I would draw lots of character designs, and I aspired to one day become a concept artist or work with some form of art in the Games Industry, this is where I realised, that I can merge my art and programming skills to make video games by myself.

Games Development interests me because, I feel like it would be a good course to develop my skills more to make better games, I also like this subject since I feel like I can make a lot of people happy with the games which I’m going to produce.

I am a hard working individual, I love learning new things, the course looks exciting, and it’s exactly what I want to do. I’ve worked hard to get to the level I am now, both academically and in personal projects, studying subjects related to games development but not taught on the course.

Outside of college I’ve worked to develop my programming to get to a level where I’m comfortable specializing in it for a course and so I’m able to create my own content, I have also attended several game jams, expanding my contacts, joining game jams lead me to join the game development team Team Horsehead and learnt about the importance of working together to produce games, one of my games that I made myself got played by Mark Brown of the GMTK channel. I have also got my own game on the Google Playstore and attended events like Rezzed, EGX, Develop: Brighton and Comic-con.

Being an Army Cadet, I learnt how to be resilient, how to work hard and keep a level-head in stressful and problematic situations, this has impacted my work ethic, the cadets also taught me how to communicate and show leadership, how to direct people and how to be a respectful person and follow directions from others. Other skills include fixing and refurbishing technology, playing the piano, and making music, which I have found useful whilst making my own games.

At my part-time job, I have the responsibility, to help train new staff members and test technology brought into us, I’ve currently earnt a tag which allows me to do everything a Manager can, even though I’ve still got the Shop Assistant role. I’m mostly warranty testing broken electronics or testing items which customers want us to buy in, this job has really helped me out in learning about the latest games, movies and technology.

After the course, I hope to continue developing my skills for the Games Industry, I would also be happy to join any software development company. Another goal after university is to attend an E3 conference

So, I decided to go to a different teacher to ask for their help and opinion on this.