Vital UCAS Medicine Interview Tips
Congratulations on receiving an interview to study medicine! Firstly, this is a huge achievement and you should be proud of yourself with all the hard work you put in. At this point, you are one step closer to securing a spot at medical school and beginning your journey as a future doctor.
This is a great sign as it shows the medical school is interested in offering you a place, now all you need to do is impress them even more. Your application will be explored further and it is to assess your character by how you answer questions or scenarios. So far, you have only introduced yourself on paper but it is a chance for you to express yourself with no word limit. This can sound quite scary because it may even be your very first interview but don’t worry, Geniuson are here to guide you through this to ace that interview.
Interview type
You should be aware of what type of interview the medical school conducts whether it be MMI (multiple mini interviews) or traditional panel interviews. After receiving your interview offer, carefully read through the instructions you are provided. Get familiar with how things might be on the day of your interview and prepare to your best ability beforehand.
Traditional interviews:
This type of interview often consists of a panel of examiners who will ask you motivation questions, medical ethics and probe further into your personal statement. You can expect questions like“Why do you want to study medicine?”or “What qualities do you think an ideal doctor should have?”. It is best to treat this interview as a conversation as if you were speaking to a friend or family member. A great way to prepare is to know your personal statement inside out and write a few notes about the topics you want to discuss. For example, it would be worth mentioning an impressive achievement you may have or something memorable you learnt during your work experience.
MMI:
This type of interview a series of short interviews with various examiners. The great thing about this style of interview is that if one station did not go particularly well, you often have a few attempts to start new. Also, the examiners do not know what you have said in the previous station meaning you can use the same examples if appropriate. Each station commonly focuses on one aspect whether it be motivations to study medicine, a case study for you to discuss, acting stations or medical ethics. This style of interview tests your ability to adapt to different situations and can be daunting because you will be interacting with multiple members of staff from the faculty.
Know your personal statement inside out
Some questions can come from your personal statement. If anything, you must be an expert on your own personal statement, know everything you put in there and make sure you do not lie! Some candidates make the mistake of putting false claims but then are caught out doing so in the interview (don’t be this person). You want to be able to back up every example you provide and elaborate on them further.
For example, mentioning a case you seen during your work experience or some further reading you have highlighted. Be prepared to go into further detail about it during your interview because they are not trying to catch you out, they might have a genuine interest on what you have mentioned. The interviewers know you have limited words so they may simply want to know more from you.
Common questions
With most interviews, you can expect to be asked the common questions such as ‘Why medicine?’, ‘Why this university?’ or ‘What did you learn at your work experience?’
Whilst you don’t want to sound over rehearsed, it is worth keeping in mind answers to these common questions. They may not always come up but it’s a place to start your preparation.
Ethics
This is an extremely important part of many medical interviews whether it be tasks you are required to do on interview day or answering ethics questions. You can easily be given a scenario to discuss where it involves members of the medical team. They may ask your opinions, what you think is appropriate or not and which ethical principles are demonstrated. Familiarise yourself with the basics i.e. the four pillars of medical ethics and read up on the GMC (General Medical Council) principles too. These are useful in forming the basis of each ethics question and shows you have put some thought into your answers. If you are able to integrate these as part of your answers, it would surely impress the admissions team.
To fully prepare for your Medical school interview (England and Wales), please consider seeking Geniuson’s expert team to help you stay ahead of the curve! We offer a wide range of services from ethics practice to comprehensive and targeted interview practice to suit your needs. Click here to find out more.