How do you prepare for a medical school interview?
Interview preparation and answers (why medicine, weakness, MMIs, Oxbridge).
Axis: personal, specific answers … memorised model answers
Answers by date: 19 records in 13 sources, newest first; the answers above are the current ones. shift and revise mean the advice changed; tension — speakers disagree.
| date | who | answer | source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-05-01 | Ali | Ali's one best tip for an Oxford interview: think out loud. | First Live Hangout + Rapid-fire Q&A 00:05:00 |
| 2018-03-21 | Ali | Ali says that when medicine interviewers ask about leadership or teamwork, what counts is what you did in a role, such as organising a charity dinner, not the title of head girl or head boy. | Q & A - 5,000 Subscribers! 00:02:29 |
| 2018-02-17 | Ali | Ali says improving medicine interview performance mostly comes from practising with friends, family, teachers and anyone else available. | Medicine Application - No offers? 00:04:01 |
| 2017-12-06 | a guest | tension: A medical student says they were always very much a perfectionist, like many medics, thorough almost to the point of impairing the job, and advises being aware of it and having strategies to deal with it. | Medicine Interview Questions - How to answer "What's your biggest weakness?" 00:04:55 |
| 2017-12-06 | a guest | The student advises not selling a strength as a weakness: be open and honest about real weaknesses and say how you will improve them so they do not affect your clinical practice. | Medicine Interview Questions - How to answer "What's your biggest weakness?" 00:02:50 |
| 2017-12-06 | Ali | Ali's formula for "What's your biggest weakness?" in medicine interviews: pick something that actually is a weakness for you, then talk about how you are improving on it. | Medicine Interview Questions - How to answer "What's your biggest weakness?" 00:00:29 |
| 2017-11-29 | a guest | The same student says the answer to being better than 10,000 others is the same at every school, while why a particular school should pick you is specific: compare yourself to the school, not to other applicants. | Medicine Interview Questions - How to answer "Why should we choose you?" 00:08:31 |
| 2017-11-29 | Ali | Ali answers "Why should we take you?" in two parts: why the medical school's course suits you, then what you can bring to the school, a non-arrogant way of selling yourself. | Medicine Interview Questions - How to answer "Why should we choose you?" 00:01:17 |
More answers (11)
| date | who | answer | source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-11-21 | Ali | Ali advises approaching the Oxbridge interview as a friendly conversation with people who might teach you next year (2018), not an interrogation, which makes you withdraw into yourself. | Oxbridge Medicine Interview - Q&A 00:15:41 |
| 2017-11-15 | a guest | A student says applicants need not invent something new and exciting for "Why medicine?": saying you like science and want to help people is acceptable. | Medicine Interview Tips - Dealing with Nerves 00:04:42 |
| 2017-11-15 | Ali | Ali says nervous applicants should prepare a lot, by far best with many mock interviews with friends, family, teachers or doctors, practising standard questions such as their motivation and what makes a good doctor. | Medicine Interview Tips - Dealing with Nerves 00:00:58 |
| 2017-11-08 | Ali | Ali says there is no right or wrong answer to "What did you learn on your work experience?": books and videos only give ideas and structure, and the correct answer is what is specific to you. | Medicine Interview Tips - Talking about Work Experience 00:00:21 |
| 2017-10-28 | a guest | A student's biggest tip for the Cambridge medicine interview is to think out loud rather than sit silently on a hard question, since interviewers want to see how you reason, not that you know everything. | Oxbridge Medicine Interview - 15 Tips (Oxford / Cambridge) 00:00:53 |
| 2017-10-24 | a guest | A student's main MMI advice is to practise speaking aloud with people on any subject: tackle ethics questions with friends and explain odd tasks, such as tying a shoe without hand gestures, to get used to five-minute scenarios. | 6 tips for Medicine MMIs - Multiple Mini Interviews 00:02:43 |
| 2017-10-24 | Ali | Ali says medicine interviews and MMIs overlap so much that any tip for interviews also applies to MMIs, which is why his MMI video is short. | 6 tips for Medicine MMIs - Multiple Mini Interviews 00:00:00 |
| 2017-10-17 | Ali | Ali says Cambridge interviewers ask about what you know, then about what you don't and try to teach it to see how you think, so applicants should think out loud. | Cambridge Medicine Interview - Experiences of 8 students 00:00:21 |
| 2017-10-15 | a guest | tension: A second student says everyone has generic reasons for medicine; what counts is how you flesh them out and explain why, putting your own spin on them to stand out. | Interview Tips - How to answer "Why Medicine?" 00:06:29 |
| 2017-10-15 | Ali | Ali advises not worrying much about "Why medicine?": treat it like "How was your journey here?", a question to relax you; a cliched answer is fine, and a genuinely specific reason is better if you have one. | Interview Tips - How to answer "Why Medicine?" 00:01:52 |
| 2017-10-05 | a guest | Another student listed the likely interview questions (why medicine, why this medical school, what you learned on work experience) and answered them in bullet points, since written paragraphs tempt you to learn and recite them. | How to prepare for Medicine Interviews 00:01:59 |