Medicine interview courses - are they useful & your experience?

daisy18000

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Hi,

I am applying to Barts (QMUL), King's, Liverpool & Birmingham (all are MMI interviews I think, except Barts) & I don't know whether or not to go to one of the interview courses offered by companies like isc medical, medic portal, blackstone tutors etc.

I was thinking of doing the isc medical course and was wondering if anyone has any experience or recommendations with any of these courses? Also, should you do any interview practice/ preparation beforehand so that you are ready for the mock interview questions?

Thank you!

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doctor2be2022

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(Original post by daisy18000)
Hi,

I am applying to Barts (QMUL), King's, Liverpool & Birmingham (all are MMI interviews I think, except Barts) & I don't know whether or not to go to one of the interview courses offered by companies like isc medical, medic portal, blackstone tutors etc.

I was thinking of doing the isc medical course and was wondering if anyone has any experience or recommendations with any of these courses? Also, should you do any interview practice/ preparation beforehand so that you are ready for the mock interview questions?

Thank you!

Hiya,

I know exactly how you feel! There's so many courses out there - The Medic Portal do run a really good MMI Circuit which is only for half a day, and is a little less expensive than some of the others. It's not essential to go on a course - I know people who didn't go on any and were absolutely fine. However they can also be very useful as well - with most companies you will get tailored feedback and one to one practice.

ISC tend to be slightly on the pricier side, but I've heard good reviews and recommendations about them, so I think that it would be a good course to go on if you are interested.

In terms of practising for the courses, just have a bit of background reading on major news stories, health issues now and in the past. This will stand you in good stead to try and answer the questions they throw at you. They will be doing the rest of the work such as how to answer the questions, structuring and pointers to improve body language etc.

Good luck with your interviews

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I think it depends how much that sort of money is worth to you! They are not as useful as they advertise themselves as being, and 'tailored feedback' is not exclusive to some private course - even at the worst state comp, teachers are generally willing to provide some help/mock interviews if you ask.

But practice is practice and these guys offer more practice so, if the like £200 is worth nothing to you then sure go for it. If its a lot of money to you, its definitely not necessary and i would recommend seeing what you can get out of teachers.

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daisy18000

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(Original post by doctor2be2022)
Hiya,

I know exactly how you feel! There's so many courses out there - The Medic Portal do run a really good MMI Circuit which is only for half a day, and is a little less expensive than some of the others. It's not essential to go on a course - I know people who didn't go on any and were absolutely fine. However they can also be very useful as well - with most companies you will get tailored feedback and one to one practice.

ISC tend to be slightly on the pricier side, but I've heard good reviews and recommendations about them, so I think that it would be a good course to go on if you are interested.

In terms of practising for the courses, just have a bit of background reading on major news stories, health issues now and in the past. This will stand you in good stead to try and answer the questions they throw at you. They will be doing the rest of the work such as how to answer the questions, structuring and pointers to improve body language etc.

Good luck with your interviews

Thank you! I've booked the isc one for the end of November so hopefully it'll be useful

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daisy18000

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(Original post by nexttime)
I think it depends how much that sort of money is worth to you! They are not as useful as they advertise themselves as being, and 'tailored feedback' is not exclusive to some private course - even at the worst state comp, teachers are generally willing to provide some help/mock interviews if you ask.

But practice is practice and these guys offer more practice so, if the like £200 is worth nothing to you then sure go for it. If its a lot of money to you, its definitely not necessary and i would recommend seeing what you can get out of teachers.

Yeah they are very expensive but if it's the difference between me getting an offer or not then I think it's worth it

I'll definitely ask my teachers but I'm the only one at school applying for medicine and none of the teachers are that interested haha.

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(Original post by daisy18000)
Yeah they are very expensive but if it's the difference between me getting an offer or not then I think it's worth it

Of course.

But what about if there is a 1% chance it will make the difference? Or 0.1%? Because that is more realistic.

I'll definitely ask my teachers but I'm the only one at school applying for medicine and none of the teachers are that interested haha.

Being the only one should make it easier!

I doubt you have specifically asked all of your teachers whether they would do a mock interview for you one lunchtime. If you do and they are not totally lifeless unmotivated drones then at least one will say yes.

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TN94

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Conquer Medicine run an MMI Crash course in Leeds thats cheaper than all the others and is a full day, lectures and a full mmi circuit plus you get support from their team afterwards too. Deffo worth checking out

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Medic Mind

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(Original post by daisy18000)
Hi,

I am applying to Barts (QMUL), King's, Liverpool & Birmingham (all are MMI interviews I think, except Barts) & I don't know whether or not to go to one of the interview courses offered by companies like isc medical, medic portal, blackstone tutors etc.

I was thinking of doing the isc medical course and was wondering if anyone has any experience or recommendations with any of these courses? Also, should you do any interview practice/ preparation beforehand so that you are ready for the mock interview questions?

Thank you!

I'll be honest with you - I know how hard it is applying for medicine and needing help. Its all so expensive - £150 - 300 for a classroom course or £100 p/h for personal help.

And that is why I have co-founded Medic Mind. We set up something which was very high quality, but also 30% of the normal price. So do check out our resources.

But even if you just want free stuff, we're uploading some good YouTube tutorials tonight, and also use these threads and Google to prepare!

I hope your interview goes well!

Kunal - Medic Mind
Voted UK's Best Medical Start Up 2017 🏆
www.medicmind.co.uk/interview

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Mcdreamy-ing

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(Original post by daisy18000)
Yeah they are very expensive but if it's the difference between me getting an offer or not then I think it's worth it

I'll definitely ask my teachers but I'm the only one at school applying for medicine and none of the teachers are that interested haha.

was the course useful? I've heard the conquer medicine was is really good and they give you a designated mentor to follow you through and who you can always contact for help which sounds useful!

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Mcdreamy-ing

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(Original post by daisy18000)
Yeah they are very expensive but if it's the difference between me getting an offer or not then I think it's worth it

I'll definitely ask my teachers but I'm the only one at school applying for medicine and none of the teachers are that interested haha.

was the course useful? I think i'm going to go to the conquer medicine one, they assign a mentor to each person who follows your through the application journey and can always contact for help which sounds really useful!

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Mcdreamy-ing

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(Original post by daisy18000)
Yeah they are very expensive but if it's the difference between me getting an offer or not then I think it's worth it

I'll definitely ask my teachers but I'm the only one at school applying for medicine and none of the teachers are that interested haha.

was it useful?

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daisy18000

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(Original post by Mcdreamy-ing)
was it useful?

I think on the whole yeah it was useful (but definitely not vital and also probably not worth the money) - it was a good opportunity to hear how other people would answer questions and get ideas from that & also practice the group discussion questions which I didn't really get a chance to do at school because there aren't a big group of us applying. It was also nice to be able to speak to other people applying and their experiences & everyone was really lovely. However, although useful, it wasn't particularly fun answering questions in front of everyone (but it does make the actual interview seem nice in comparison). And we didn't get much information about hot topics & NHS stuff which I would have liked more of.

To be honest, I think the only thing it really helped with was getting me to feel more confident and comfortable with the style of the interviews. I think the isc book has been the most useful resource as a question bank with loads of example answers (much more so than the course & a lot cheaper!). Also medic portal is a great website for finding out about NHS topics and ethics hot topics etc.

(sorry, that was probably an overly detailed answer but it might help someone else..)

isc book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Medical-Int...nterviews+book

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