1 - Getting Started ~5 mins
You are applying everything you have built so far to one practical question: would a stranger believe you?
A personal statement is foundational because every later application starts from the same raw material: college, apprenticeship, community role, job. Listing which folders you own is filing. Today you rate six evidence areas on what they would prove to somebody who has never met you. Thin areas are recoverable this week. They are not recoverable the night before a deadline.
2 - Key Terms ~5 mins
Three terms frame today's audit. Read them once, then use them when you rate each area.
| Term | What it means for you | Real example |
|---|---|---|
| Source material | Today you audit six areas you have already built, not invent new ones. | Values, Aptitudes, Achievements, Interests, Strong Skills Evidence, Feedback Entry 1 |
| Evidential strength | Rate proof for a stranger, not page length. A long page that proves nothing rates low; one specific occasion rates high. | "I value loyalty" is weak; "I stayed with the under-14s when three of us were asked to move up" is strong |
| Application seed | What you strengthen this week becomes usable for ALT 1 and every later real application. | A strong Achievements line on leading a GAA underage session becomes a paragraph in ALT 1, then the opening of a PLC or apprenticeship personal statement |
3 - Rate Your Six Evidence Areas ~35 mins
Open whatever you already have for these six Strand 1.1 areas:
- Values
- Aptitudes
- Achievements
- Interests
- Strong Skills Evidence (or Skills Audit / Transferable Skills if that is where your proof lives)
- Feedback Entry 1
A missing or thin folder is useful information today: rate it low honestly, leave the evidence sentence as "no usable proof yet", and make the recovery step reopen or rebuild that document this week. Do not invent content on the spot. For skillset, rate the best single skillset source you have (default to Strong Skills Evidence); you do not need all three.
Complete the on-screen self-audit first. For each of the six areas, rate evidential strength: what would this prove to someone who has never met you? A rating only counts when you add one sentence on what a reader could actually take away.
Then open a new document in your Strand 1.1 folder called ALT 1 Source Material. Copy your six ratings and evidence sentences into it. Name your two weakest areas there. For each, write where better evidence would come from this week (a person to ask, a moment to write up, a document to reopen) and one concrete next step. The on-screen prompts are only to help you think; the recovery plan is saved once, in that document.
ALT 1 Source Material is working material for your first personal-statement draft next lesson and stays in the Digital Portfolio as source evidence for ALT 1, not a throwaway worksheet.
Six areas, stranger test
4 - Think About It ~10 mins
Talk these through with the person beside you, or sit with them quietly on your own.
- Swap one of your strong evidence sentences. Stress-test it: would a stranger still believe it if every adjective were stripped out and only the occasion remained?
- Stress-test one recovery step from your plan: does it name a person, moment or document with a clear when, or is it still "try harder"?
If you want a portfolio note, add two timing lines under your recovery plan in ALT 1 Source Material: the smallest next step, and when you will do it (for example, before Wednesday study).
5 - What You Covered ~5 mins
Today you applied your existing portfolio to the stranger test before drafting ALT 1.
- Personal statements are foundational: the same source material seeds later applications to education, community and work.
- You rated six areas (values, aptitudes, achievements, interests, skillset and feedback) on evidential strength, not length.
- You saved ALT 1 Source Material with six proof-value ratings and a recovery plan for the two weakest areas. That document stays in your Digital Portfolio as working source evidence for ALT 1.
- Next lesson you draft the first full personal statement from this map.
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