There are three main types of Medical school interviews that are employed during the medical school admissions process:
- Traditional Panel Interviews
- Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
- Oxbridge Medicine interviews
What are MMI medical school interviews?
A typical MMI medical school interview is comprised of multiple short MMI stations. Each station is typically under 10 minutes. Most medical schools use a total of around 8 to 12 stations. You will complete a station and then move on to the next station. Each individual Medicine MMI station is usually separately assessed meaning that your score at one station does not impact your score at the next station. Each station normally has completely different assessors, actors etc. Use this to your advantage by treating each station as a fresh start and a new opportunity to excel.
What are some examples of Medicine MMI stations or Medicine MMI questions?
Each station will have a particular theme or focus. For example one MMI station could be an interviewer asking you things that are commonly asked in traditional interviews such as your motivations to study Medicine or a station on your hobbies and interests or about a topical news story.
Another Medical MMI station could be testing your communication skills by asking you to break some bad news to an actor e.g. you have just accidentally ran over their beloved pet dog with your scooter or lost something valuable to them that they trusted you to look after. These actors are usually well trained, experienced and extremely good at reacting to you based on what you say or do. They may show little to no reaction, they may become upset, furious, or completely break down in tears. Here you can demonstrate your communication skills in difficult situations, your interpersonal skills, conflict resolution abilities and empathy.
Other examples of MMI medicine stations testing communication skills include being asked to elicit some information from an unwilling actor. Your ability to explain things clearly can be tested by for example an assessor showing you a complex shape or object and then asking you to give instructions on how to draw this object to someone who cannot see it (you can only use verbal commands and are not allowed to tell them what the object is).
Another station may test how well you think on your feet with a problem solving exercise or give you some data such as a graph and some tables and ask you to analyse it and present it. You may be asked to perform simple calculations based on clinical scenarios such as working out what volume of water you would need to add to a medication to dilute it to a specific dose.
Another medicine MMI station may ask you to give your views on an ethical scenario. For example you may be given the age, gender and occupation/background of 5 people and be told you can only perform a lifesaving heart transplant on two of them – who would you choose and why? You may be told that you are a junior doctor working in a hospital and you notice that your supervisor, who is a consultant doctor has come in and appears to be drunk and dishevelled. How would you approach this situation?
Another station could involve team work and ask you to participate in a group activity.
Do all medical schools use MMI style interviews?
No. But increasingly more UK medical schools and international medical schools such as in the USA are using MMI stations in their interview process. Examples of UK medical schools which use MMI include:
England: Birmingham, Brighton & Sussex, Bristol, Exeter, Hull York, Keele, Kings College London, Lancaster, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield, St Andrews, St Georges, UEA (Norwich), Warwick.
Scotland: Aberdeen, Dundee.
Wales: Cardiff.
Northern Ireland: Queens Belfast.
Why are Medical school interviews now using MMI? What types of interview do non MMI using medical schools use?
In the past many Medical schools used traditional panel interviews where the entire process only involved the applicant being asked questions usually by several interviewers. Some Medical schools still use this format. One of the benefits for the admissions panel in at least incorporating some MMI stations is that MMI stations require applicants to actually show their skills instead of just tell the interviewer about them or claim to have them.
For example in a traditional panel interview you could say things like you have excellent communication skills in a wide range of situations; you are empathetic and people warm to you; you can think logically, calmly under pressure and are good at problem solving. You could also provide several examples. These things could be true or they could be completely false. Whilst interviewers will have some indication how accurate what you are saying is; in reality you could say whatever you like. What you say could be very rehearsed and not a true reflection of your abilities. MMI interviews are good at showing how well you can actually demonstrate certain skills, in timed conditions, under pressure and in ways that make you think on the spot.
How can Medicine Answered help you to succeed in your medical school interview?
Medicine Answered specialises in delivering high quality Medicine interview courses to students from around the world. All of our Medicine interview courses are delivered only by doctors who successfully passed all four medical school interviews and gained all four offers. This is unlike our competitors as our courses are not delivered by non-medics, medical students or people who were not fully successful in the application process themselves. Our philosophy is that your time is valuable and limited. To help you maximise the use of that limited time to prepare for your medicine interview, we believe that you should only be taught by experts who have themselves excelled at interviews and have sat on both sides of the interview panel.
In our Medicine interview course we thoroughly cover traditional and MMI medical school interviews and everything in between. We focus on increasing your confidence for the interview and reducing your anxieties to maximise your performance on the day of your Medical school interview. We offer Medicine interview courses in Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and various other cities. You will also receive exclusive discounts to use our other services such as our one to one Medical tutoring with a doctor (this can be done in person or online at a time to suit you) on any aspect of the application process or our 360° application review. This premium service not only involves a professional review of your Medicine personal statement but also a review of your entire medical application and suggests areas of improvement and topics about your Medicine personal statement which may come up at interview.