For 2022 entry - online interviews
We anticipate that all interviews will take place in January and February 2022, online via Zoom, and will last for no longer than 30 minutes per candidate. Your online interview will comprise of two 6-minute interview stations, one of which is a role play station. There will also be a separate online calculation station test which will take 10 minutes and will take place on a separate date from your interview. Further information on this can be found below.
Each interview station will last for 6 minutes, plus 2 minutes preparation time during which you will be informed of the discussion topic and, where relevant, the primary questions you will need to answer. At each station you will interact with one interviewer but a second interviewer will also be present. You will be scored independently by each. We expect that we will use a professional Role Player and senior medical students who will contribute to scoring. For some of your stations, an observer may be present but this person will not participate in any aspect of the process.
Each station will last about 10 minutes in total to allow extra time for joining and moving between stations, but the 2 minute/6 minute schedule described above will apply to all. This allows you to start afresh at each mini-interview station, and ensures that you will receive the allotted time for each station.
Our stations comprise of:
- 1 x Dealing with personal and ethical challenges station
You will be provided with a scenario relating to potential challenges faced by students and/or doctors. You have the opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of the personal qualities important for coping in a demanding career and also provide an assessment of your own capabilities in dealing with challenge.
We may ask you to explain some of the issues underlying healthcare challenges and also to address your own qualities that relate to dealing with challenge. We will be interested in your reflections and what insights you gained from your experiences, especially from observation of healthcare professionals either in their place of work, or virtually, through online work experience platforms (such as Observe GP). Please note that this does not have to be doctors, nor does it have to be face-to-face observation.
- 1 x Role Play station
The role play station gives you a chance to show how comfortable and confident you are meeting a new person, and having a short conversation covering issues of substance. It will be important to give appropriate advice in managing the situation. In the role play, you will be interacting with someone who has been trained in role play. You'll be provided with a brief paragraph to explain the context of the conversation. You will be expected to take an active role but how it runs depends also on how you respond to the role player.
- 1 x Calculation Station
This has not been defined in detail as yet and will take place on a separate date from your online interview as explained above. We expect you will have 20 minutes to complete two separate tasks, and all applicants will complete these tasks at the same time via a virtual software platform off camera. You will be asked to undertake simple mathematical calculations involving data that has clinical relevance. The mathematical skills that are being tested are at GCSE level and below. The sophistication of each task is to recognise which piece or pieces of data need to be manipulated at a particular stage and to determine the precise mathematical approach that needs to be applied. There will be a number of stages in the calculations and to establish the order in which these are performed is important too. This task must be undertaken independently, without assistance from others and will take place on a separate occasion to your interview.
Usual interview format and stations from previous years (up to 2019/20) - face-to-face interviews
Usually, we use the multiple mini-interview format (MMI), which is comprised of seven 6-minute stations that are a mix of interviews, role play and calculation tasks. Instead of sitting opposite a panel of interviewers, MMIs allow you to demonstrate a range of skills you have which are relevant to studying medicine, such as: motivation for medicine, communication, reflection, ability to evaluate information, empathy, self-insight, ethical reasoning, data analysis and interpretation.
Before each interview and role-play station, you will be presented with a scenario to read through for a couple of minutes, so you will have a bit of time to prepare an answer (before your 6-minute station begins). The way you approach each station and the challenges it poses are often just as important as the solutions you arrive at.
Usually, there are seven stations altogether, and you could be asked to start at any one of them. Our interviews will be amended each year, as we act on feedback from previous candidates. Our stations comprise of:
- 2 x Calculation stations (an average score is taken from these laptop-based stations)
You will have 6 minutes to complete the task at each of these two stations, which will both have a calculator and a laptop on a desk for you. We will take an average of both of these stations combined when we calculate your interview ranking. You will be asked to undertake simple mathematical calculations involving data that has clinical relevance. The mathematical skills that are being tested are at GCSE level and below, so those taking A level Mathematics are not necessarily at an advantage. The sophistication of each task is to recognise which piece or pieces of data need to be manipulated at a particular stage and to determine the precise mathematical approach that needs to be applied. There will be a number of stages in the calculations, and to establish the order in which these are performed is important, too.
- 1 x Critical Thinking station (interview)
You will be presented with a topic relevant to health care but you are not expected to have prior clinical knowledge. You must identify the issues that are of particular relevance to this topic. You should also present rational arguments for possible appropriate courses of action in attempting to resolve the inherent challenges.
- 1 x Interaction in a Social Setting station (role play)
This role play station gives you a chance to show how comfortable and confident you are meeting a new person, and having a short conversation covering issues of substance. It will be important to give appropriate advice in managing the situation. In the role play, you will be interacting with a university student. The student role will be taken by a member of our medical cohort. You’ll be provided with a brief paragraph to explain the context of the conversation, and then how it runs depends on how you respond to the student prompts.
- 1 x Motivation and Insight into Medicine station (interview)
You will be asked to discuss specific aspects of your work experience; in particular, those experiences where you had some role in providing care or support to vulnerable individuals. We will be interested in your reflections and what insights you gained from your work experience and from observation of healthcare professionals (please note that this does not have to be doctors).
- 1 x Dealing with personal and ethical challenges station (interview)
You will be provided with a scenario relating to potential challenges faced by doctors. You have the opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of the personal qualities important for coping in a demanding career and also provide an assessment of your own capabilities in dealing with challenge.
- 1 x Interaction in a healthcare setting station (role play)
Your skills in communication are important throughout the interview process, but in this station you will be engaging with one of the role players used for training and assessing healthcare students. You are expected to interact with the role player as if the situation is real. The role player will be assuming a specified role. Your skills in establishing an effective rapport whilst dealing effectively with the challenges that will be presented to you will be assessed.