Provide a neutral assessment of their academic potential.Since you are not using the same information as the student, you should be asking yourself this: ‘what it is that I can say to strengthen their application that they might not be able to say themselves?’ This is a very delicate balancing act to strike and one of the fundamental challenges of the teacher reference.
‘Avoid repeating any of the information they has given in their application, unless you want to comment on it, and avoid mentioning any particular university or college.’ Is should not simply repeat information already offered by them. Your teacher reference needs to dovetail with the student’s personal statement. In the words of the UCAS website: ‘as a referee, you’re aiming to give universities and colleges an informed and academic assessment of an applicant’s suitability for further study.’ They should offer professional and considered appraisal of a student’s ability and suitability for Medicine. Teacher references, like personal statements, are up to 4,000 characters and 47 lines long. The Medic Portal has used its insights into the process to produce this teacher guide for writing references. It is a lot of pressure and you will want to do the best by your students. This is especially true when they are applying to a course as competitive as Medicine. Acting as a referee for a student’s UCAS application is difficult.
