Have a medical school interview coming up? Not sure where to start? Our medical school tutors have created a further bank of interview questions for you. These are written not only to test your interview and critical thinking skills, but also to identify gaps in your knowledge.

Preparing for your Medical School Interview

• ⏱ Medical school interviews are around the corner. Why not let us help you turn those interviews into offers, so come next Summer, you can focus on getting your A-level grades?

• 📚 Join us on our Medical School Interview Courses over the weekend and arm yourself with the knowledge, skills and confidence to approach anything the medical school throws at you.

• 🎓 We cram all our interview courses with a full day of live intensive teaching using a variety of engaging, interesting and entertaining learning methods – to ensure that you are prepared for the big day and have an advantage over other candidates.

• 📽 We also give you access to over 5 hours of video tutorials, and up to date question bank, all created for you with access right until the end of March 2022!

What Questions Are Asked in a Medical School Interview?

1. You are working as a doctor in the intensive care unit at your local hospital. You must look after several patients, including those with COVID-19 infection as well as those who have just had complex surgery. However, two of your fellow doctors refuse to have the COVID19 vaccination. What issues does this raise for the care of patients in this intensive care unit?

2. During the COVID19 pandemic, many doctors in the NHS, including the GP surgery and in the hospital, moved to telephone consultations as the initial method of contact with patients, rather than a face-to-face appointment. What are some of the benefits of using telephone consultations as opposed to in person appointments?

3. The NHS has been constantly in the news, whether online, in print or on television. Is there anything in the news that you have read that you feel does not portray the profession of medicine accurately? How would you attempt to correct any inaccuracy?

4. You are studying medicine in your first year at medical school. You are waiting in the lecture theatre in the medical school, together with your fellow students, for the weekly lecture on anatomy and physiology. This week this will be taught by a local orthopaedic surgeon. Thirty minutes have passed, and the consultant has not arrived. Your fellow student tweets on social media ‘Consultant not bothered turning up again, time wasted, rubbish teaching #XMedicalSchool #Uselessdoctors’. How do you proceed?

5. There are several qualities that could be considered essential to practice as a doctor. Do you think leadership is one of them and why?

6. The COVID19 pandemic has tested the resilience of the NHS and the staff that work within it. Why is it important for doctors to show resilience and can you demonstrate to me a situation where you showed resilience?

7. Our medical school uses problem-based learning to teach students in the first two years of medical school. Do you think problem-based learning is an effective way for you to learn at medical school?

   🚨 Keep going - take notes on any areas that you are struggling on

8. It is important that doctors can show empathy to patients and their relatives. What is the difference between empathy, sympathy and compassion or are they just different words that mean the same thing?

9. The NHS is struggling to recruit enough doctors to provide care in less affluent, deprived areas of the country. One MP proposes that newly qualified consultants and general practitioners to only be allowed to work in less affluent, deprived communities rather than more affluent areas. What are your views on this policy?

10. You are a medical student based on the ward at a local hospital. The topic this week is ‘lung cancer’ and there happens to be a patient on your ward with this disease who has been admitted for his next cycle of treatment. When you approach the patient, he gets annoyed that you are a medical student and does not wish to see you. How do you proceed?

11. You are the NHS manager in a local COVID19 vaccination centre. You start preparing for your Saturday morning vaccination clinic. The government has allowed patients to walk in rather than book an appointment to help increase uptake of the vaccine. You have 30 doses of the Pfizer COVID19 vaccine in your fridge. However, there is a queue of at least 50 patients outside and you have not even opened the clinic yet. You see more are driving into the car park. How do you proceed?

12. For some time now, nurses have been told of the 6Cs. These are a set of values traditionally for nursing staff, but these are now being extended to all professions in the NHS. One of the 6CS is ‘Courage’. How can a medical student demonstrate ‘Courage’ in the context of the NHS values?

13. As part of Brexit, freedom to work and live between the UK and EU came to an end. How is the end of freedom of movement going to affect the care provided to a patient who is awaiting surgery for a hip replacement?

14. The NHS consists of many specialties of doctors who work together as a team to care for patients. Two such specialities are general practitioners who see patients in the community, typically in GP surgeries, and Accident and Emergency doctors, who see patients in the hospital casualty. Can you think of any issues that may arise between doctors of these two specialties?

    🔎 Many of these questions can also be asked in a role play scenario rather than a direct question. Practice with your friends, parents and teachers.

15. You are a student studying for your A-levels who also happens to be a talented violin player for the school orchestra for many years. There is a public performance this weekend which your music teacher wants you to play in. However, you have your A-level Chemistry finals exam on the following Monday and your grade is critical for your medical school application. How do you proceed?

16. You are working as a foundation year doctor in a large inner-city GP surgery. Due to the COVID19 pandemic, all meetings are now conducted virtually using Teams. You notice that one of your fellow foundation doctors appears to be in attendance, but always has the camera and microphone off and does not speak or interact in any way during the last few meetings. How do you proceed?

17. You are working in the local community-based treatment room in an inner-city deprived area. One of the doctors is smoking his cigar in between patients during his clinic. He has kept the window open and wears PPE when seeing his patients. You have also noticed he appears to have been coughing during hospital meetings for the last few months. How do you proceed?

18. You are in the student accommodation of your university. It is exam day, and everyone is anxious about whether they have prepared properly. One of your fellow students has developed a continuous cough, lack of sense of smell and a temperature. He is about to set off for the exam hall. What do you do? What is he refuses to follow your advice?

19. The ’red book’ also known as the personal child health record, is given to parents after childbirth. It is a handwritten document that contains details of the child’s health records, including weight and height measurements, as well as details of any health checks. The government wants to move this handwritten record online. Should patients be permitted to see their own records, or their children’s health records online?

20. You are the public health doctor for your region in the NHS. The area is coming out of lockdown due to falling number of local active COVID19 infections. The local cinema owner wishes to reopen for screenings to the public and wants advice on how he can be ‘COVID safe’. What advice can you give him?

    👉 Explain your answers and reasoning with evidence, for example with COVID related questions you could talk about UK government or WHO guidance.

21. Medicine has a caring as well as a scientific side and the two often go hand in hand. Can you demonstrate to me your personal experience of the caring side of medicine?

22. The NHS has received record amounts of public money to fund healthcare services, especially during the COVID19 pandemic. If you were the medical director of the NHS, where would you currently focus your resources?

23. You are working as a doctor in the local cancer unit. You next patient is an 89-year-old who has just been diagnosed with breast cancer. Looking at her reports, the cancer is potentially curable using surgery. However, she refuses hospital treatment instead opting to choose herbal medicine from her home community in the Far East. What do you do?

24. You are working as a doctor in a GP surgery which so happens to be near a hostel in which there are asylum seekers from the Middle East. They have just had a long journey on a bus from a refugee camp. What challenges do you think you will face when seeing these patients?

👁 How did you do? Ready to develop you interview knowledge and skills and gain confidence in your interviews? 🏆 Come to our Medical School Interview Course.

• 👁 We cram all our interview courses with a variety of engaging, interesting and entertaining learning methods – to ensure that you are prepared for the big day and have an advantage over other candidates.

• 😀 If you are thinking that an interview course could be a little dry and difficult to digest - then prepare to be surprised!

• 🩺 You will be taught by fully qualified NHS doctors who teach medical students from UCLAN and Manchester Medical Schools, as well as supervise foundation year and GP specialist trainee doctors. Teaching and success are in our DNA.

• 📚 We publish our methods, success rates and outcomes. We show you example video tutorials and photos of previous courses, along with testimonials, so you can be sure your training will be excellent.