*MEGATHREAD* Interview discussion megathread for 2015 entry

Hi , Anyone would like to discuss Interview q & do mock on Skype. Please reply. Half term might be a good time. Preparing for BMAT now. I have applied to Birmingham imperial Cardiff Southampton . Thanks

Is anyone else as apprehensive about interviews as I am? It is the part of the process I'm most anxious about and hearing how cocksure people are on medical ethics and issues is making me feel pretty behind the pack. Beyond that, although I definitely am not socially awkward, in an interview I can find it hard to accurately get my point across in an erudite and concise manner. I stammer, um and ah, and garble my words so that even if I knew what I wanted to say about a particular medical topic I probably couldn't get my point across well. Is there anyone else who's felt like this, and maybe had tips to prepare? I fortunately did well on my UKCAT and only applying to universities that rank them means I'm pretty confident of at least 3 interviews hopefully - my biggest nightmare is that I flunk them all. ������


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Practice, practice and practice. Will your school/college set up a mock interview for you? Most will if you ask. Get lists of interview questions from the web. There are loads. Get friends, parents or whomever you trust to do it seriously and get them to ask you questions, You need to say the answers out loud. Maybe in front of a mirror. Worst case, ask them yourself! But say the answers out loud.
MMIs are a bit more tricky. There are examples if you look. Look at what the unis say they are looking for and think how you would approach the scenarios. There are videos on Aberdeen and Belfast web sites and others.

Where have you applied to?

Thanks, yes my school is doing an interview evening which I'm hoping to take advantage of, but I'm afraid it'll just highlight my weaknesses rather than assist me.

TBH looking at the way MMI is set out I think I'd prefer it more! Only because you know the titles of each one, so I kind of think it'd be easier to prepare for rather than a more traditional panel interview which could go on various different tangents.

I've applied to Newcastle, Leicester, Manchester and Southampton.


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High lighting your weaknesses is a great help! That way you know what you have to improve on. It's called feedback. When I work at interview preparation courses that's what we do. We ask questions and give feedback, good or bad to the candidates.
In MMIs you don't get to know the titles. I'm not quite sure what you mean by that. Often the first thing you have to do at a station is identify to yourself what facet is being examined. You need to think fast on your feet (or chair)

Newcastle and Southampton are very traditional.
The other two give you some info to focus on for each station. Often it is little more than a description of what you are about to walk into.

However, all of them are looking for you to talk about aspects of your PS, your motivations, your communication skills, demonstrate empathy, team working etc etc. The hardest bit of the interview is not knowing set answers but being yourself and getting that across which is where the practice comes in. Answering, OUT LOUD, different versions of the same questions and being as confident as you can.

Really? When I went to Manchester and Leicester open days they put up on a PowerPoint the stations they would be putting up at interview, I assumed they would also be on the medical admissions handbook for each uni.

Southampton also have their pretty secretive 'group interview'.

Thanks for all that advice btw - feeling slightly more confident now!


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