Medical Schools invite shortlisted
Graduate Entry Medicine candidates to interview. But what is the
interview process like, what are the common interview questions, and how can you prepare?
What Is The Interview Process For Graduate Entry Medicine?
Some Medical Schools use the panel interview format, where you’ll be asked questions on a number of topics by a panel of clinicians and academics. It can last anything between 20 minutes to an hour.
Other Medical Schools use the Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) format. During the MMI, you’ll complete a series of stations with different questions or tasks in timed conditions. You’ll get some time to read instructions and prepare before each station.
How Can I Prepare For My GEM Interview?
The first thing to do when you’re preparing for an interview is to understand what the Medical School is looking for. You can find details on Medical School websites, in our interview guide and from our school-by-school interview tips.
Practice is essential for your interview prep, so you should work through plenty of common interview questions. You need to be fully prepared to perform at your best – and increase your chances of receiving an offer.
As a slightly older and more experienced applicant, you should have a lot of skills and education to draw from. Think about how you can use your undergraduate studies and/or past employment to showcase your aptitude and suitability for Medicine.
Graduate Entry Medicine Interview Questions
Example GEM interview questions can include:
- Why do you want to study Graduate Entry Medicine?
- Why do you want to study at this Medical School?
- What do you want to achieve from a career in Medicine?
- What aspects of being a Doctor appeal to you/don’t appeal to you?
- How do you cope with failure?
- What is your biggest strength/weakness?
- Why is teamwork important in Medicine?
- What have you learned from your medical work experience?
- What are the most pressing issues for the NHS today?
- Why is confidentiality important in Medicine?
- How would you break bad news to someone?
If your GEM interview follows the MMI format, you might face some of the following common MMI stations:
Get more practice questions in our Interview Question Bank.
Tips For Graduate Entry Medicine Interviews:
- Demonstrate your motivation for Medicine as well as your interest in Medicine. Interviewers want to be certain that you really want to study Medicine and that you’re fully aware of how challenging a medical career can be.
- Give evidence of your suitability for Medicine. It’s vital to demonstrate that you have skills and qualities which make you a suitable candidate. These include communication skills, teamwork and empathy. You might also get asked personal insight questions about, for example, how you deal with stress or failure.
- Make sure you have some knowledge of the Medical School and can discuss unique features of the course and/or the university that appeal to you.
- Practise talking about your work experience. Interviewers will be more interested in how you reflect on your work experience (i.e. what you learned from it) than in where you did work experience or how many placements you did.
- Revisit your Personal Statement to remind yourself of what you wrote.
- Familiarise yourself with medical ethics, NHS hot topics and current medical news. You aren’t expected to be a medical encyclopedia, but you need to show that you’re aware of key issues in the world of Medicine.
- Make a good impression by dressing professionally and displaying positive body language. If you have an online interview, make sure you know how to use the technology required and find a quiet place to set yourself up.
- Practise answering common questions to prepare, but don’t script exact answers and learn them off-by-heart. Interviewers won’t like it if you seem too rehearsed.
