For 2024 entry - Home applicants
We plan to run our interviews for Home applicants in person, and we will use the Multiple Mini-Interview (MMI) format for delivery. Instead of sitting opposite a panel of interviewers, MMIs allow you to demonstrate a range of skills relevant to studying medicine, such as: commitment and insight into medicine as a career, communication, ability to evaluate information, empathy, self-insight and reflection, ethical reasoning, data analysis and interpretation.
Our MMI circuit will comprise six or seven 8-minute stations (each including 2 minutes of reading time) and will be a mix of interviews, role-play and calculation tasks. The stations all run simultaneously, and you could be asked to begin at any of the stations for that day. Stations are amended and updated each year on the basis of candidate and interviewer feedback.
Before each MMI station, you will be presented with a scenario or other information to read through so that you have time to begin thinking about your answer or how you will approach the issue or task. The way you approach each station and the challenges they pose are often just as important as the answers you give or the solutions you propose.
Our MMI stations are likely to comprise a mixture taken from the following list, but the precise combination and scenarios being used will change on a day-by-day basis. The interviewers will be a mix of academic staff, clinical staff, professional services staff, and appropriately trained senior medical students. For some of your stations, an observer may be present, but this person will not participate in any aspect of the process.
- Critical thinking (interview)
You will be presented with a topic relevant to healthcare but are not expected to have prior clinical knowledge. You must identify the issues that are of particular relevance to this topic and you should also present rational arguments for possible appropriate courses of action in attempting to resolve any inherent challenges.
- Commitment and insight into medicine (interview)
You will be asked to discuss specific aspects of your work experience or your reflections on the online resources provided on the Preparing to Apply webpage. In particular, we are interested in experiences where you had some role in providing care or support to vulnerable individuals or witnessed others providing care or support to vulnerable individuals. We will be interested in your reflections and what insights you gained either from your own work experience or from observation of healthcare professionals (please note that this does not have to be doctors and may be taken from the online resources provided elsewhere
- Dealing with personal and ethical challenges (interview)
You will be provided with a scenario relating to potential challenges faced by staff working in healthcare. 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.
- Data interpretation (interview)
You will be provided with clinically relevant information and asked to interpret this and then draw conclusions that are appropriate to the scenario. You are not expected to have prior clinical knowledge in order to do this. Thinking about how you might communicate information to a patient or their carer in an accurate but accessible manner is an important element of this task.
- 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 professional 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.
- 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, as well as giving appropriate advice relevant to the scenario. In the role play, you will be interacting with a university student. 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.
- Calculation station (computer-based stations)
You will be asked to undertake simple mathematical calculations involving data that has clinical relevance. The mathematical skills that are being tested are at or below GCSE level, and 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 logical and 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.
For 2024 entry - International applicants
International applicants who are not based in the UK will have the option to undertake their interviews online via Zoom. Online interviews will comprise two MMI stations, including a role-play station with a professional role-player and one other station taken from the list above. There will also be a separate online calculations station assessment, similar to that described above, that will take place on a separate date from your interview.
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 or role-player, but a second interviewer will also be present. You will be scored independently by each. For some of your stations, an observer may be present, but this person will not participate in any aspect of the process.