The Application

So first was the paper application, which consisted of the application form, two personal statements, exam transcripts and two references.
The application form was simple enough - haha even I, of all people, understood it. I guess what was most significant on this was the requirement to list which countries I had previously been to, and my extra-curricular activities. The first list was pretty easy to construct, the second not so straight forward. I've only been to China, for family visits, France, for Eurodisney with my family, France again, for the afternoon on a failed school trip to Belgium, and finally Austria last year, which was beyond amazing. The second list however was much longer. Though, I don't think that means much - it should be quality not quantity.
I didn't spend too long on the personal statements. Although I didn't have any exams, for me, school work still took priority. They weren't too tasking to write though, as they were both on topics that I genuinely was passionate about. It almost felt more like a rant than an actual piece of assessed writing.
Copy of exam grades - simple enough. There really wasn't much I could do about that, apart from hope that they were good enough.
My two references: one was written by the supervisor with whom I did work experience, and the other was by my physics teacher, also head of science at my school. I guess sorting out the references was the most time consuming part of the application.
All in all, the paper application was pretty pain free. Mine wasn't sent off exceedingly early, but I wouldn't recommend leaving it to the last minute either, because at least whenever I take that risk, I find that something major comes up and I miss the deadline. Luckily, I was organised.