Start preparing early
If you have managed to secure a Medical School interview, congratulations! You’re one step closer to getting into Medical School. If you haven’t yet received an interview, don’t panic. It’s important that you start preparing as soon as possible. Don’t get caught off guard - some Medical Schools give very little notice for your interview. The last thing you want is to be told that you only have a week to prepare.
Here, we will go through some top tips on how to be prepared for your medical school interview. Everything has been written by a real medical school interviewer.
Don’t wait for the interview invitation before you begin. Starting early gives you time to practise properly rather than trying to memorise answers at the last minute.
Do your research - know the interview style
It is vital that you are aware of the style of interview at your Medical School options. Remember that the style of interviews can be broken down into:
Panel interviews
This is the ‘traditional’ type of interview that people are most used to. There will be a panel of one or more interviewers, and they will go through various questions and scenarios with you. This type of interview style is becoming less common.
Multiple Mini Interviews
MMI stands for ‘Multiple Mini Interviews’. Here, you will have various stations that will last a certain amount of time (usually no more than 10 minutes). Each station will be testing something different and might involve a role play, data interpretation, image interpretation or a task that you have to do.
This is now the most popular interview style. The advantage of this is that even if you mess up one station, you can make up on another station.
Group interviews
As the name suggests, here, you will take part in a group discussion or a group task. The topic can vary, but you will be assessed on your participation, the quality of your ideas that you bring forward and your ability to work in a team.
How can I prepare for the MMI interview?
Rightfully, people are often worried about how to prepare for MMIs. Unlike traditional panel interviews, in MMIs, you will have various different stations and be marked by different examiners. However, do not let this put you off. As an interviewer who has interviewed for both panel interviews and MMI interviews, the general principles of preparation remain the same.
You will still have ‘traditional’-style questions but you will have to impress more than one examiner who has not seen your previous performance. This means that you need to be sharp for a longer period of time. Make sure you practice this, and have mock-interview sessions that last at least an hour or so.
Also be prepared for role-play scenarios. These stations can be hard to predict, but may include things like breaking bad news, negotiating a difficult situation or explaining something in layman’s terms. As expected, these can be rather difficult to prepare for. Remember though, that you likely DO have the skills necessary to tackle the station. You will have gained these skills without realising it from things like your voluntary work or work experience. There are various models you can use for these situations - for example, the SPIKES model for breaking bad news.
Finally, be prepared for the unexpected. Although we cannot give away specific stations that have come up in the past (as we have signed non-disclosure agreements), it’s not uncommon to get a station which you do not expect. This can include things like tasks you have to do and odd discussion topics.
It is almost impossible to prepare for situations like this one unless you have had practice with real doctors or medical students. However, the key is not to panic. Sometimes, the interviewers aren’t actually looking for you to complete the task successfully - but rather, they want to see your reaction and ability to deal with unexpected things on the spot.
Don’t spend all of your time trying to predict exactly which MMI stations will appear. A strong applicant develops adaptable communication, reasoning and reflection skills which can be applied even when the station is unexpected.
How can I prepare for the group task?
Preparing for the group task can be difficult. If you know of other people who are applying for Medical School, try to sit down and discuss common medical topics together. This will give you an idea of how to approach such discussions, learn from one another and learn how to navigate group tasks.
If you don’t have anyone to practice with - don’t panic. In fact, it’s very difficult to simulate what the actual group task will be like. It’s likely that you will have group discussions and tasks that you will do at your school or university - take full advantage of them, even if it’s not medicine-related.
The skills that you will pick up through these discussions will be vital, and will help ensure that you are prepared for the group task.
At the very least, make sure you are aware of some of the hot topics within medicine, the life of a doctor and the life of a medical student. It is likely that the group task will focus on one of these things, so preparing for them will ensure you feel ready to talk about whatever topic ends up coming up.
Be sure to practise - but don’t sound robotic
On the day of the interview, it becomes very apparent to the interviewer if you are prepared or not. Therefore, be sure to practice with your teachers, friends, other doctors and medical students. This will help you to remain calm and prepared.
Go through common questions and common topics. This includes things like professionalism, life as a doctor or medical student, common challenges in the career, the NHS, current affairs (e.g. doctors strikes, the assisted-dying bill etc.) and ethics. Make sure you are well read on these topics. However, there is no point in being well read in topics if you are not able to succinctly answer questions on them. Therefore, pay particular attention to how you sound.
One way to do this could be to film yourself answering common interview questions and watching them back. This will give you a good idea of what you sound like and will let you pick up on any bad habits which you wouldn’t otherwise have been aware of. Yes, it can be awkward but it can also be extremely helpful.
However, nothing replaces practice with other people. Practicing with real doctors or medical school interviewers will be the ‘gold standard’ of practice that you can get.
Recording yourself is useful, but live practice gives you something a script or recording cannot: unpredictable follow-up questions and real human feedback.
Finally, be careful. We can tell when people are not prepared. However, we can also tell when people are over-prepared. Do not prepare any scripts to answers and don’t chase buzzwords for the sake of getting buzzwords in. This makes the interview sound very robotic, and that is not what interviewers are looking for.
Rather, we are looking for someone who comes across as passionate, enthusiastic and pragmatic.
Should I use AI to practise for medical school interviews?
Increasingly, more and more people are using AI to practice for their interviews. On the one hand, practicing with AI can help you refine your interview technique and go through both common and uncommon scenarios.
However, be aware that AI does not replace practice with a real human. Real humans will be looking for slightly different things compared to what a computer may be looking for. We have seen examples of this at both the medical school interview and later on in speciality training interviews as well.
So, to summarise, we would advocate using AI to help you refine your interview technique and to go through common scenarios. However, it should not replace practice with a real human.
What interview techniques should I be aware of?
There are various interview techniques that you should practice in order to optimise your performance. Under the pressure of the real interview, it can be difficult to sound concise and get all of your points across. Therefore, we will go through some common interview techniques which will help you ace your interview.
Signpost your answers
A clever way to control the interview is to signpost your answers effectively. This can help the conversation flow naturally, whilst also prompting the interviewer to ask you a question that you want to be asked about.
Be aware though that this is becoming harder and harder to do now. These days, interviewers are often told to stick to a strict script and to not deviate away from that. This is to ensure fairness between interviews. Nevertheless, you will get a good idea during your interview as to how receptive an interviewer is to letting you lead the conversation. Use this to your advantage.
So, what exactly is signposting your answers?
Essentially, it is subtly hinting to the interviewer to ask a question that you want to be asked about. Say that the interviewer asks you the ‘why medicine?’ question. You might be hoping to talk about how you saw a cardiologist deal with a heart attack, and what exactly was involved.
“During my work experience, I saw a cardiologist perform a PCI to deal with a heart attack. That showed me how medicine can directly impact people’s lives, and I would want to be in a career in which I can help people in a similar way. I also learnt about some of the indications of PCI, and I enjoyed the science behind that.”
That way, you have answered the question of ‘why medicine’ and it might prompt the interviewer to ask you exactly what you learnt about PCI. You will subsequently be able to impress the interviewer again by talking about a more niche topic. This is the power of signposting.
Have a structure for your answers
There are various different structures which you can use for your answers. We will summarise some of them below:
For questions such as: “Give me an example of when you led a team.”
For questions related to the role of a doctor or medical student.
A framework that can be used when thinking about breaking bad news.
Consider beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy and justice — or arguments for and against before reaching a conclusion.
You can structure ethical answers by thinking about the four key ethical principles: beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy and justice. Or, you can think about an argument for, an argument against and conclude your answer by incorporating the ethical principles.
Be aware that simply naming the ethical principles without expanding on your points is no longer going down as well as it used to. In our experience, it is now making candidates sound a bit robotic so be careful.
All of the techniques above should be used to give your answers structure rather than as a rigid rule to follow. Be adaptable and make sure you are comfortable stepping away from the techniques above as well when needed. Otherwise, you will end up sounding rehearsed.
Frameworks are useful when they organise your thinking. They become unhelpful when the interviewer can hear the framework more clearly than they can hear you. Learn the structure, then practise using it naturally.
Finally - don’t fear the interview
OK, this is easy for me to say now as an interviewer on the other side.
However, do try to remember the reason for why you wanted to study medicine in the first place. Try to make preparing for the interview be a fun activity rather than it being a chore. You will have the opportunity to answer questions about why you love medicine, as well as to discuss interesting topics related to medicine as well.
This can be quite fun to talk about, so let that enthusiasm come across at the interview as well. It is very obvious when we have an enthusiastic applicant - and they often end up scoring higher marks.
Good luck!
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