Personal Statement

How would you describe yourself?

 I am an open-minded, capable, energetic teenager with excellent life skills.

Academic Abilities

Academically, I am a quick learner, and always dedicated and committed to my work. I fully understand that study methods and skills play a very important role in the learning process. So, I have a different approach to learning when compared with my friends. I know how to use different ways to help me with my study, e.g. I practicsed reading aloud and analysing my history essays as if I were a teacher; I drew mind maps to answer my Geography Data-based questions.  I made up little stories to help me understand the Chemical formulae. I love Chinese and English and I have learnt these languages in a fun way. Reading and watching TV series are the major reasons why I can get outstanding performance in these two languages. By all means, rote memorization never works for me and I like solving problems and puzzles very much.

Social Relationship

Socially, I am sincere and friendly and therefore, have managed to maintain excellent relationships with my peers and can communicate easily with people of all ages.  I am patient and caring and willing to offer help.

Hobbies

I am an active athlete. I enjoy sports and have joined the school handball team since S.1, although I have to say that it is a very demanding way to build up my muscles. On the other hand, I have learnt Chinese Dancing for more than 15 years and have attained outstanding results and maintained great flexibility with my body movements. I enjoy travelling very much. Based on my little savings, I have planned and made quite a lot of overseas trips, particularly to Japan and Taiwan, sometimes, even traveling alone. Through these trips, I have become an independent and responsible person. I have acquired a lot of life skills and people skills.  I know how to search for information and can handle daily problems, or even emergencies with the help of my smartphone and the Internet. I have gained the trust from my family because I have shown them I am capable of taking good care of myself.

Social Awareness

What I would like to emphasize is that I am not a teenager who only focuses on job prospect and play. I care about the society and I have started to pay more attention to the work of the government and how its policies have affected us, especially when now I am old enough to exercise my right in the election.

Weakness

My biggest shortcoming is that I need a good sleep every night. I hate staying up late and probably I may not be able to function properly if I were on a night shift. I don’t think people can do so at midnight unless they have got very used to that. In fact, I have never spent any time revising after 11 pm, not even during exam periods. It simply does not work for me.    

Why didn’t you put PT in Band A initially?

Strategically, I know I don’t need to, at the initial stage, i.e. when I submitted the jupas application. I just put in all the choices based on my electives at that time and then allowed myself more space to consider whether I was genuinely interested in them and vision my future with respect to these choices. Another reason is that I did not show my full potential until 4 months before the DSE, when I was given more time on my studies, instead of going to school daily. My study skills and methods have actually helped me revise and understand a large amount of concepts effectively and efficiently. My DSE result came as a nice surprise and has honestly reflected my capabilities.

Why PT?

I used to be a romantic person and thought that I should spend my time on academic pursuit or intellectual work if I were to study at a university. Yet, then after the DSE was over, I came to realize that I needed to decide on my future career carefully and realistically.   Then, I started my research. I asked many people in different sectors and found that I would really like to work in the Health Care, because the work is meaningful, essential and stable. Advice from my aunt, who was a nurse, a few of my friends, who are doctors and a PT student, further strengthens my decision. Looking at my personality, I like working with people, talking to them, offering help to them, instead of doing routine work behind the desk. I enjoy challenges and the sense of satisfaction of overcoming them. I am confident that I can solve problems effectively.  I am physically strong and tough. As I have been playing handball and doing Chinese Dancing, I am particularly aware of protecting bones, muscles and ligaments and how to avoid injuries to them. In fact, my favourite TV series are Bones, House and Inside Treatment.  My mother is another major reason why I am interested in PT. Recently, she has been suffering from back pain but the cause of the problem cannot be identified. She has tried many conventional treatments as well as some traditional and peculiar methods to fix her problem. Those methods, sometimes work, most time, unfortunately not.  She is now under the care of a PT and I hope the treatment as well as daily stretching practice, core exercise, changes of her postures would be able to fix her problem eventually.  Yet, although I have more confidence in science and professional training, the unconventional treatments that my mother has had are really eye-opening, if not astonishing You have got to see her back on fire and bruises all over her body after being brushed. But I am also curious and would like to explore more if these unconventional methods, which are so popular in the Chinese culture, can really help solve people’s problems, or can complement with the western medical treatments. So far, I am quite open to all these remedies. I hope I would be given the chance to study PT so that I could have the proper knowledge and training of these practices, not just to help my mother or my grandmother, but the parents or grandparents of others.

Why not OT?

http://www.diffen.com/difference/Occupational_Therapy_vs_Physical_TherapyI fully understand the work of a PTist, which is about fixing impairments and disabilities after injuries or illnesses. It will be focusing mainly on pain-relief and promotion of mobility, and quality of life.  As for an OTist, he or she would focus on promoting health care to enable an individual to perform daily activities, such as using toothbrush or going to toilet.  I guess I may have oversimplified a few things, but to me, the work of an OT could also be performed by a very patient and systematic caregiver, sometimes not necessarily a professional; whereas the work of a PT requires a large quantities of professional knowledge, training and practice. So, I think the work of a PT would be a little bit more meaningful and essential.   On the other hand, the feeling of helplessness as an OT would be too overwhelming for me if I have to take care of children who suffer from developmental delays due to Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy or Autism; or the elderly who are at the later stage of their lives. It seems that not much can be done to help them. Maybe I am still a bit too naïve, but I think, with my personality, I would enjoy my work more if I could communicate with my patients and if I could see the sparkling smiles of their recovery.