General Advice
- Research the university you have the interview with!
- Many will provide an indication of what they are looking for, with a few outright saying what stations will come up ahead of time.
- Practice, practice, practice
- Apart from content, there will be marks in the interviews just for communication. This is something that only gets easier with practice. Get together with friends; this doesn’t have to be in any formal setting, you can just discuss news together and pick articles to talk over.
You can find some general points to start off your revision here:
Research checklist
Here is a checklist of things to research about the university:
☐ Teaching/course style (integrated, traditional, PBL, CBL…)
☐ Are there any opportunities for dissection, or is it purely prosection? Dissection is increasingly rare, so if this is present it might be worth stressing as something you look forward to.
☐ Clinical exposure. It is good to be specific here as ‘early clinical exposure’ is quite vague and applies to many universities. (e.g. Sheffield’s biweekly GP placements)
☐ Unique opportunities for intercalations / electives; name any intercalations that are specific to the university (e.g. Imperial’s Molecular and Translational Haematology iBsc)
☐ Support systems; is the student union rated particularly good? What is student satisfaction like?
☐ Location and lifestyle. You can break this down into 3 points: city, university and course. Go from big to small and discuss why you would like living in the city, general things about the university e.g. societies, and end on details of the course.
If you would like to book mock interviews or help from someone with experience with the university you’ve applied to, just head over to the below. A range of free opportunities will become available later down the line, so make sure to check this page!