*MEGATHREAD* Medicine 2019 Interviews discussion

How much background reading should we do when preparing for interviews? So, for example, should we have a good general idea of all the current events happening in the healthcare field or would you expect people to know specific events in a lot of detail? Thanks

Hi @1234554321k,

We have contacted all the medical schools in the UK and compiled a list of all the interview offer dates here: https://themsag.com/blogs/get-into-medical-school-blog/when-do-medical-schools-send-interview-invites.

Hope you'll find this useful and good luck with your application!

Does anyone have any books they would recommend to best prepare myself for medicine interviews, most my unis run traditional interviews.

Has anyone heard back from their unis that they applied to medicine??
is it too early?
when should we start hearing back?

Hello

I am sorry to contradict you, but I am the Director of Undergraduate Medical Admissions at Sheffield and the information you have presented for us is incorrect. We have not pre-contacted people to see when they would like to be interviewed. We do not do this. We can see from the UCAS application where applicants have indicated periods where they are not available. The timeline of our admissions process is on our admissions webpages and we are on schedule. Accordingly we are still working through the applications to see who meets our academic requirements. We have not yet received data from UKCAT (and would not expect to have).

We have emailed applicants to acknowledge receipt of the applications and that email sets out when they can expect to hear from us. I am expecting that our interview invites will go out 12-16th November.

I hope this information helps clarify.

Best wishes

Julian
Director of Undergraduate Medical Admissions

@ShefMedAdmission - Dear Director of Undergraduate Medical Education at Sheffield,

Many thanks for your clarification. All dates written in the blog post https://themsag.com/blogs/get-into-medical-school-blog/when-do-medical-schools-send-interview-invites were obtained by calling the admissions office of each medical school directly. One of my colleague had spoken with a member of Sheffied admissions team and from that conversion, there must have been a misunderstanding. When the call was made was also documented in the blog post.

I am very appreciative of the clarification and apologize for any misinformation that was present. The blog post has on the right column the clear source of each information in order to help be as precise as possible in the research. I have updated the information on sheffield right away, using the information you just provided of course.

Best wishes and good luck in this year's admissions process.
Dr Dibah Jiva
Founder and CEO of theMSAG

Hello all

When we come to invite people to our interviews we will direct them back to the relevant pages on our website, which has advice on what we are looking for.

But posts above raise an interesting question re how do you prepare. My tuppence-worth (bearing in mind that other medical schools might be looking for something else) is: Be yourself. I think this is really important! BE YOURSELF. Tell your interviewers WHAT YOU THINK. We interview because we want a better understanding of who you are as a person. We are not looking for clones of ourselves, you are allowed to have your own opinions and your opinion does not have to match ours - but be able to justify your opinion. Rehearsed answers are obvious to interviewers, boring and make you look wooden and they are not what we are looking for. Be prepared but not rehearsed. Try to remember that an interview is a conversation. It is not an exam. Know something about where you have applied to. We ask (this is no secret). I have lost count of the number of applicants who have come to Sheffield and told me about another city. Make sure you know where you are! (Telling me about another city does not impress, and just makes me wonder about how you will get home!)

We do not recommend courses. We don't object to them, but have no evidence they are of benefit. If they make you feel more confident, fair enough. (Not everyone gets support from school)

BE YOURSELF! (I think it is really important)

Best wishes

Julian
Director of Undergraduate Medical Admissions
Sheffield

(Original post by ShefMedAdmission)
But posts above raise an interesting question re how do you prepare. My tuppence-worth (bearing in mind that other medical schools might be looking for something else) is: Be yourself. I think this is really important! BE YOURSELF. Tell your interviewers WHAT YOU THINK. We interview because we want a better understanding of who you are as a person. We are not looking for clones of ourselves, you are allowed to have your own opinions and your opinion does not have to match ours - but be able to justify your opinion. Rehearsed answers are obvious to interviewers, boring and make you look wooden and they are not what we are looking for. Be prepared but not rehearsed. Try to remember that an interview is a conversation. It is not an exam. Know something about where you have applied to. We ask (this is no secret). I have lost count of the number of applicants who have come to Sheffield and told me about another city. Make sure you know where you are! (Telling me about another city does not impress, and just makes me wonder about how you will get home!)

As someone who sits on the panel for Imperial, I completely agree with this. It is very obvious when someone comes in rehearsed or is unenthusiasic, and it really does bore me to the point that I sometimes (unintentinally) just stop listening and start daydreaming!

Just to add to it (I'm talking about Imperial here, I don't know how much emphasis other Med Schools place on it) - make sure you know your Personal Statements, we will ask about it. Again, it's rather obvious if something written there isn't true. I'd also strongly recommend having a look through the GMC scenarios online: https://www.gmc-uk.org/gmpinaction/