Medical school interviews

What will the medical school interview format be?

Formats vary between medical schools and can change between admissions cycles. Your invitation email will tell you which format you're getting, so read it carefully and check the medical school's website.

• Multiple mini interviews (MMIs): The most common format. You rotate around 4 to 7 short stations lasting about 5 to 8 minutes each, with a different interviewer at each one.
• Panel interviews: One longer conversation with 2 or more interviewers.
• Assessment days: Several short interviews, sometimes alongside a group task.
• Online interviews: Some schools interview remotely or offer this option to applicants who live further away.

Not every applicant is interviewed, and formats differ by course as well as by school. Always check the interview format for each medical school you've applied to.

What do the interviewers assess?

Stations are built around the specific qualities medical schools want. The most common areas include:

• Motivation: Why medicine, and why you've concluded it suits you. Expect follow-up questions.
• Ethical scenarios: A situation with no clean answer, to see how you think rather than what you conclude.
• Communication and role play: Often with an actor. You might be asked to explain something, break difficult news, or handle an upset person.
• Teamwork: A time you worked with others, including a time when it went badly.
• Your personal statement: Anything you wrote is fair game, so re-read it before you go.
• Health and care in Scotland: Awareness of the current pressures on NHS Scotland, rather than detailed policy knowledge.
• Data handling: Some schools ask you to interpret a chart or a short piece of information.

What makes a good doctor?

Answering an ethical scenario

There's rarely a correct answer. What's being scored is whether you can see more than one side and reason your way through.

A good structure is to say what makes the situation difficult, set out the competing considerations, and then reach a position. Always acknowledge what might change your mind.

The 4 pillars of medical ethics give you a solid framework:

• autonomy
• beneficence
• non-maleficence
• justice

You don't need to name them, but they'll keep you from missing a whole dimension of the problem.

Preparing for your medical school interview

Don't memorise answers. Interviewers can tell, and a rehearsed answer falls apart when the question is phrased differently from what you practised.

Prepare material instead of scripts. Have 5 or 6 experiences you can talk about in detail and know what each one shows. The same volunteering placement can answer a question about teamwork, communication, or resilience, depending on which part you tell.

Practise out loud, with someone else, against a timer. 5 minutes is shorter than it sounds and thinking clearly while being watched is a separate skill from knowing the answer.

Free mock interviews

Reach programmes and student-led outreach groups run free mock MMI circuits across Scotland. These often use current medical students as interviewers, making them the closest thing you'll get to the real experience.

You don't need to pay anyone for interview coaching.

If you need adjustments

If you're disabled, neurodivergent, or have a health condition, tell the medical school when you accept your interview invitation. Adjustments might include extra time at stations, a rest break, a quieter room, or getting the questions in writing.

Asking for this doesn't count against you. Medical schools have to make reasonable adjustments, and they'd much rather know in advance than have you struggle on the day.

On the day of your interview

Give yourself a few seconds before answering. A short pause reads as considered, not slow. If you don't understand a question, ask for it to be repeated or rephrased. If you don't know something, say so and reason out loud from what you do know. That's much closer to real clinical practice than confidently inventing an answer.

Each MMI station is scored separately. A station that goes badly doesn't follow you to the next one, so put it down and move on.

If you're interviewing online, test your camera, microphone, and connection the day before. Find somewhere quiet with a plain background and keep a phone number for the medical school handy in case the link fails.

When you're invited to ask questions at the end, ask something you actually want to know. If you have nothing to ask, saying so honestly is better than inventing a question.

What happens after your medical school interview?

Write down the questions right after your interview ends. It'll help you with any other medical school interviews you have coming up. If things don't go to plan, you'll also have a study guide to help you prepare for next year.

Decisions usually come between January and May through your UCAS account. Offers are often conditional on your exam results. Medical schools generally wait until all interviews are finished before releasing any decisions, so no news isn't bad news.