What Are Medical Interviewers Looking For?
9 months ago by Chris
The medical interview is often challenging for students given how different it is from other assessment tasks used for medical admissions. It can be hard to know what interviewers’ expectations are, and even when you have access to resources such as practice interview questions, it’s not always easy to tell what an interviewer sees as a “good” response.
Moreover, unlike school exams and the UCAT, a number of other factors also come into play, such as your ability to build rapport with interviewers and effectively adapt to the unfamiliar interview format. You aren’t only being assessed on written or multiple-choice responses; rather, interviewers get to see you as a whole person.
In this blog I’ll discuss some key aspects of the interview, to help you navigate this unfamiliar assessment and understand what it is that interviewers are looking for from you and your responses.
The interview format
Medical interviews are typically conducted in one of two formats: the multiple mini interview (MMI) or the panel interview.
Multiple Mini Interview (MMI)
The Multiple Mini Interview, as the name suggests, is an assessment made up of multiple short interviews, typically 5–10 minutes long. At each of the interview stations, you will encounter a new interviewer and a new set of questions; candidates cycle through the interview stations in sequence. The stations are each quite focused, with one or more questions asked on a single topic. Topics vary considerably, including both personal questions about you and your interest in medicine and more general questions on topics like ethical dilemmas and current issues in healthcare.
A key challenge of the MMI is being able to effectively transition between stations, moving seamlessly from one topic to another and effectively building rapport with each new interviewer. Practicing this style of interviewing is essential to performing well on the day!
Panel Interview
The panel interview is more similar to a traditional job interview. Candidates are faced with a panel of 2–3 interviewers with whom they remain for the entire interview session. Questions vary like in the MMI, but the topics are often more personal and the style tends to be more conversational. Nevertheless, there may still be some scenario-based questions.
Questions and answers
Interview Questions
Here’s a small sampling of interview questions, along with a discussion of some themes that the interviewer might be looking to explore with them and what they would be looking for in your response.
| Question | Possible Qualities Assessed | Notes |
|
What do you think makes a good team? Describe a time when you had to work in a team. |
Teamwork Communication Skills |
Asked at UoN/UNE Joint Medical Program Follow up questions: Did you value your teammates' opinions? Did you consider all perspectives? |
| Describe a time when you've had to deal with difficult people. |
Being non-judgemental Being reflective Conflict resolution |
Commonly addressed in scenario stations at UWS Follow up questions: Did you ask yourself why they might be acting difficult? (i.e. It may be a problem with you). Did you try speaking with them privately to figure out what was wrong? How did you come up with a solution? |
| How do you deal with stress? | Stress management |
Asked at University of Adelaide Show that you can recognise that you are stressed, destress, and then use the experience to remove future stress |
|
What are your parents like? Describe a childhood memory. Who do you look up to? |
Extroversion Desirable personal values Goals |
Asked at UNSW Positive childhood experiences make it likely that you are also a positive and mentally healthy person. The values of your parents and role models often reflect your own values. |
This is only a small set of sample questions. It’s worth keeping in mind that the format of each station and the types of questions asked vary considerably from one university to another, and often change year on year. Practicing a wide range of questions across multiple different topics and styles is essential to ensure that you won’t be surprised on the day! MedEntry’s online Interview Bank and Interview Workshops feature a large number of varied questions, including packs of questions designed to be similar to those used at each specific university, to give you exposure to all the common question types you might expect to encounter in the real medical interview. You will also be provided with in depth guidance regarding what makes an excellent interview response.
Effective Answers
As you can see from the questions above, interviewers are often seeking to assess you on a range of key values that are important for medical students and doctors. Some key values include empathy, resilience, teamwork, communication skills, ethics, logical reasoning, leadership, decision making, self-reflection, and self-motivation.
Depending on the interview type and the questions chosen, the way these values are assessed can vary considerably. Sometimes questions will directly ask you to discuss times when you displayed a value, for instance leadership. Other times you will be asked to analyse more general scenarios, such as exploring what somebody should do in a difficult ethical situation and why. When preparing your response to an interview question, it’s worth asking yourself what the interviewer is looking to know about you. A strong response will demonstrate a clear understanding of the importance of these values to a good doctor; in personal questions you will want to show how you embody these values through the judicious use of anecdotes, while in scenario questions you will want to demonstrate the practical application of these values through your proposed solutions.
Best of luck for your upcoming interviews!
Written by Callum, a current medical student, past MedEntry student and interview tutor.
