St George's Medical School Interview Questions for 2027 Entry

31 Oct

🗓️ Updated 31 October 2026 for 2027 entry.

The UK application deadline of 15 October has passed, and if St George's is one of your four choices, your next date is already in the diary. Interviews for the five-year medicine course run from Monday 30 November to Friday 18 December 2026. Invitations are going out now, and the booking slots do not hang around.

This guide covers how St George's chooses who to interview, what the six-station Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) looks like, how it is scored, when offers arrive and how the University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) is used. You will also find more than 50 practice questions written in the style of the real stations, sorted by topic.

St George's has one of the clearest admissions processes in the country. At the shortlisting stage your UCAT score does most of the work. After the interviews, your MMI score and your Situational Judgement Test (SJT) band decide who gets an offer. That is good news if you know what to prepare, so let's get into it. 🩺

🏥 A Quick Word About the Name

You will see "St George's" and "City St George's" used side by side. In August 2024, St George's, University of London merged with City, University of London to form City St George's, University of London. Medicine is still taught at the Tooting campus in south-west London, and the course codes have not changed. Students, applicants and just about everyone in the National Health Service (NHS) still say "St George's", so this guide does too.

An Introduction to St George's Medical School

St George's Hospital was founded in 1733 at Hyde Park Corner, and medical teaching grew up around it over the following century. The list of people who trained there is hard to beat. John Hunter, often called the father of modern surgery, studied at St George's. So did Edward Jenner, who developed the smallpox vaccine. Henry Gray wrote Gray's Anatomy while working there, a book you will almost certainly be handling in your first year.

The hospital later moved to Tooting, and the medical school moved with it. That move created the feature that still defines St George's today.

⭐ How Does St George's Stand Out From Other UK Medical Schools?

It shares its site with a major teaching hospital

This is the headline. The medical school and St George's Hospital, one of the largest teaching hospitals in the country, sit side by side in Tooting. The Medical Schools Council describes it as a shared clinical environment with a major London teaching hospital. In practice that means lecture theatres, skills labs and wards within walking distance, so patient contact starts early and becomes part of normal life rather than a special trip.

The course mixes teaching styles

The five-year MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) combines traditional pre-clinical and clinical teaching with problem-based learning (PBL) and case-based learning (CBL). If you like working through patient cases in small groups, rather than only sitting in lectures, you will feel at home.

The admissions process is unusually open

Many medical schools keep their UCAT thresholds to themselves. St George's publishes its cut-offs, plus applicant, interview and offer numbers going back several cycles. If you like knowing exactly where you stand, you will appreciate that.

A diverse patient population and a broad intake

South-west London is one of the most mixed populations in Europe, and the cohort reflects that. The school runs outreach for school pupils from Years 5 to 12 and uses contextual offers, which can lower the A Level or International Baccalaureate (IB) grades asked of eligible applicants by two grades in two subjects. There is also a four-year Graduate Entry course (A101) on the same site, so you will study alongside people who have already done a degree.

📊 Rankings and Student Experience Ratings

Because City and St George's only merged in 2024, league tables are still catching up, and some compilers list the two institutions separately or have patchy history. Treat any single number with care and look at the pattern instead.

UK league tables

Complete University Guide 2027 (published June 2026): 59th of 130 for the university overall, and 24th in the UK for Medicine.
The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2026 (the latest edition I could confirm for City St George's): 48th in the UK and 7th in London, with 14th place for graduate prospects.
Daily Mail University Guide 2027: 29th of 128, with a top-ten place (9th) for graduate salaries. Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology, and Health Science both ranked 1st in their subject tables.

Worldwide rankings

Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2027: joint 361st, down from joint 310th in the previous edition.
Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2027: 326th to 350th.

A fair reading is that City St George's is a mid-sized, health-focused London university rather than a global research giant, so world rankings tell you little about the medical school itself. The student-facing numbers below are more useful.

What medical students say in the National Student Survey

The National Student Survey (NSS) asks final-year students to rate their course. Discover Uni, the official source, shows these results for medicine students at City St George's (graduating 2025 to 2026, 195 students, 72% response):

86% positive about the teaching on the course
80% positive about learning opportunities
76% positive about support from teaching staff
72% positive about learning resources
71% positive about assessment and feedback
64% positive about student voice being heard and acted on
46% positive about organisation and management

Fifteen months after graduating, 98% of medicine graduates are working or studying, and 97% say they use what they learnt in their current job. The university also holds a Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) silver award, with gold for graduate prospects.

So teaching is strong and graduates do well. The weak spot is organisation and communication, which is worth raising politely at an open day. It also makes a thoughtful question to ask a current student.

🎯 How Does St George's Decide Who to Call for an Interview?

Step one: do you meet the entry criteria?

For 2027 entry the five-year course asks for:

A Levels: AAA including Chemistry and Biology (or Human Biology). General Studies and Critical Thinking are not accepted. A Levels need to be completed in one sitting within a maximum of two years.
International Baccalaureate: 35 points overall with 18 at Higher Level, including at least grade 6 in both Biology and Chemistry.
General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE): five subjects at grade 6 (B) or above, including English Language, Maths and Science (Double or Triple Award). Resits are accepted.
Graduates: a 2:1 in any discipline, or a 2:2 followed by a postgraduate qualification.

Clinical work experience is not required, though you are expected to understand what working in healthcare involves.

Step two: your UCAT score does the ranking

Everyone who meets the entry criteria is ranked by UCAT score. The highest scorers are invited to interview until the interview places are filled.

Applicants are ranked in four separate groups, because of government limits on international places and the proportion of graduates the school takes on the five-year course:

Home non-graduates
Overseas non-graduates
Home graduates
Overseas graduates

Each group gets its own cut-off, and everyone at or above the cut-off for their group is invited. If a lot of people are tied on the cut-off score, St George's adjusts the number of interviews so that everyone on that score is treated the same way.

What about the personal statement?

This is the one area where you should read the small print. St George's has said that it reads personal statements but does not formally score them or use them to decide who is interviewed. The Medical Schools Council listing for the course, however, describes the statement as one component in selection for interview that is also checked before offers are made. The sensible approach is to write a strong, honest statement, but not to rely on it to rescue a UCAT score that falls below the cut-off.

Contextual admissions

Eligible applicants may receive a conditional offer two grades lower in two subjects. Group 1 criteria (care leavers, carers, refugees and asylum seekers, estranged students) qualify on their own. Group 2 needs two of five criteria, such as attending a school with low average A Level results, living in a high-deprivation or low-progression area, or receiving free school meals. You also need to be a UK resident without an existing degree.

🧠 How St George's Uses the UCAT

The UCAT is used twice, which makes St George's different from schools that only use it as a hurdle.

A minimum of 500 in every section. Miss it in one section and a strong total will not save you.
An overall cut-off recalculated every year. It depends on the strength of the applicant pool and the number of interview places, so it cannot be predicted.
The SJT counts after interview. For 2027 entry St George's says it will consider your SJT band in its decisions. The Medical Schools Council confirms the SJT is used in part when making offers after the interview.
The UCAT may be used again for the waiting list. St George's has said that overall UCAT scores can be used to rank applicants on the post-interview waiting list.

Historic cut-offs (read the scale warning first)

Abstract Reasoning was removed from the UCAT from the 2025 test onwards, so the maximum score is now 2,700, not 3,600. Scores from before that change cannot be compared with scores now. For reference, here is what St George's has published:

2026 entry (new 2,700 scale): 1,880 for home non-graduates and home graduates, 1,640 for overseas non-graduates and 1,630 for overseas graduates.
2025 entry (old 3,600 scale): 2,600 for home applicants.
2024 entry (old 3,600 scale): 2,690 for home applicants and 2,700 for overseas applicants.

St George's publishes the new cut-offs during the cycle, once all interview invitations have been sent, so look at the admissions statistics page in November and December. Please don't try to predict your own chances from last year's number. Aim as high as you can and keep preparing for the interview whatever your score.

Once your score gets you the interview

Your UCAT gets you the interview. The interview gets you the offer.

A mid-range score can win offers when your interview is strong, and even a high one can fall short without preparation. Our interview course is taught in small groups by NHS doctors, with realistic MMI practice and feedback on every station.

See the medical interview course Add a mock MMI circuit

🎤 How Does St George's Interview? Format, Structure and Timings

St George's uses the Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) and says it chose that format because it believes it is fairer and a better test of qualities such as empathy, integrity and respect than a traditional panel.

Six stations, five minutes each

Six stations (or six questions, if you interview online)
About five minutes per station, including the time it takes for the question to be read out
A 60-second break between stations
Each station is scored separately by a different interviewer

A station can be a question, a practical task or a role play. You see every question in writing as well as hearing it, and there are no writing tasks or silent reading time. Each interviewer sees only their own station, so a poor answer in one room cannot follow you into the next.

💻 Online or in person?

The school's page for 2027 entry says that applicants who meet the entry criteria will be invited to the next stage in person at the Tooting campus or online. For 2026 entry, the five-year course was interviewed entirely online, so many applicants should be ready for a remote interview again. Your invitation will tell you which format applies to you, so check it carefully and prepare for both if it is not clear.

St George's does not let applicants swap formats, because it wants everyone assessed consistently. If you need reasonable adjustments because of a disability or specific learning difficulty, email the admissions team as early as you can.

The online interview (SAMMI-Select), step by step

SAMMI stands for Scalable Automated Multiple Mini Interviews. You watch a pre-recorded question, then record your own answer on camera. Trained interviewers watch and score the recordings afterwards.

Login details arrive by email 48 hours before your interview.
You complete a practice set-up first, including a technical check and a practice question. You can repeat it as often as you like.
The real interview has to be done in one sitting. Allow up to an hour in total, including checks and upload time.
Use a laptop or desktop plugged into the mains, a supported browser and a quiet, well-lit room. Phones and tablets are not suitable.
Upload your photo identification (ID) in advance.

🚫 One firm rule: using artificial intelligence (AI) tools during the interview is not allowed. SAMMI-Select includes software designed to detect it and other unusual activity, and flagged interviews can be investigated or invalidated.

After the interview you will receive a link to a recorded presentation from the Medicine Admissions Tutors, so you can learn more about the course.

The in-person interview at Tooting

If you are invited on campus, expect to be at Tooting for roughly three hours.

Bring physical photo ID (a valid passport or UK driving licence). Without it, you cannot be interviewed.
You will wait with other applicants and student ambassadors. Family and friends cannot come into the waiting area or the interview rooms, though they can look around elsewhere on campus.
Phones and smart watches must be switched off and in your bag. No notes, and you cannot leave the circuit part-way through.
Afterwards there is a course presentation and question-and-answer session with tutors.

There is also a fit-to-sit policy. By turning up, you are saying you are well enough to be assessed, and problems cannot be considered afterwards. If you are genuinely unwell, contact the team before your interview.

📅 When Are the St George's Interviews Held?

Five-year MBBS (A100): Monday 30 November to Friday 18 December 2026.
Graduate Entry MBBS (A101): expected in February 2027, with dates to be confirmed by the school.

Two things catch people out every year:

Dates are released on a rolling basis through the Applicant Portal and the number of slots is limited. Book as soon as your invitation arrives. If the days fill up, there is no alternative date.
Your interview date makes no difference to your chances. Early or late, you are judged against the same field at the end.

If you applied for deferred entry, you still need to interview in this cycle.

🗂️ What Topics Are Covered in the St George's Interview?

St George's describes its MMI as values-based. The aim is to check that your values match those expected of an NHS professional, not to test A Level science. The school names empathy, integrity and respect, and says it also assesses communication skills, ethical reasoning, problem-solving and motivation for studying medicine.

Across six stations, expect questions drawn from:

Motivation for medicine and insight into the career
Reflection on work experience and volunteering
Communication, including explaining ideas to non-experts
Empathy and compassion
Ethical reasoning and the four pillars of medical ethics
Teamwork and leadership
Integrity, honesty and professionalism
Resilience and self-awareness
The NHS and current healthcare issues
Problem-solving and prioritisation
Role play and difficult conversations

Nobody outside the admissions team knows the real questions, so be wary of anyone who claims to sell them. The practice questions below are written in the style of the stations instead.

🧮 How Is the Interview Scored?

Each of the six stations is scored independently by a different trained interviewer, who sees only their own station. Your six scores combine into a total MMI score.

Decisions are made only after every interview in the cycle is finished. St George's then ranks candidates on their MMI score together with their SJT band, within each of the four applicant groups, and the highest performers receive offers. The school does not publish the exact weighting.

What this means for your preparation:

Do not neglect the SJT. At some medical schools it barely matters. Here it counts after interview.
No single station can sink you. One bad five minutes is one sixth of your score.
Consistency beats brilliance. Six solid, structured answers will outscore two brilliant ones and four vague ones.

📈 How Many Are Interviewed and How Many Get Offers?

St George's interviews a large number of applicants. For the five-year MBBS, the most recent published figures I could confirm (2025/26 entry, standard entry) are:

Home: 1,279 applicants → 773 interviewed → 369 conditional offers for 165 places
Overseas: 318 applicants → 121 interviewed → 27 conditional offers for 19 places
A further 205 home and 35 overseas applicants were placed on the waiting list

For the four-year Graduate Entry course in the same cycle, 584 applicants led to 245 interviews and 123 conditional offers for 71 places. That route uses the Graduate Medical School Admissions Test (GAMSAT) instead of the UCAT, and recent cut-offs have been in the mid-50s.

The Medical Schools Council gives competition at around 8 applicants per place for home students and 13.8 per place for international students.

Look at what the home numbers mean for you. About 60% of home applicants were interviewed, and close to half of those interviewed received a conditional offer. If your UCAT gets you through the door, the interview is genuinely winnable, and it is where most of the decision is made.

📬 When Are Offers Released?

St George's does not make decisions until every interview for the programme has finished, so everyone is compared against the same field. There are no rolling offers, and a quiet inbox in January means nothing.

Five-year MBBS (A100): outcomes released by the end of February 2027.
Graduate Entry MBBS (A101): outcomes released by the end of April 2027.
Everyone who applied on time and was interviewed should have an outcome by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) decision deadline in May.

Decisions arrive by email and through your UCAS Hub. If you are offered a place and want to defer, you must tell the school by 1 June of your application year.

💬 50+ St George's-Style MMI Practice Questions

St George's reads every question aloud and shows it in writing, and each station lasts about five minutes. Practise the same way. Set a timer, answer out loud, and if you expect an online interview, record yourself on a laptop camera. Take a 60-second break between questions. Do not memorise scripts.

🩺 Motivation for medicine and insight into the career

Why do you want to study medicine, and what has convinced you it is the right career for you?
Medicine can be tiring and emotionally draining. What do you expect to find hardest, and how have you prepared for it?
You could have chosen nursing, paramedic science or physician associate studies. What makes you want to be a doctor?
What do you think a doctor's working day involves beyond seeing patients?
Tell us about something you have read, watched or heard recently about medicine that changed how you see the profession.

💡 A strong answer names something specific you saw or did, then says what you learnt from it. "I've always wanted to help people" is the weakest sentence in medical admissions.

🧑‍⚕️ Work experience and reflection

Describe a moment in work experience or volunteering when you saw someone receive excellent care. What made it excellent?
Tell us about something you saw in a healthcare or care setting that made you uncomfortable. What did you do with that feeling?
What has volunteering taught you about the people who use health and care services?
Think about a healthcare team you have observed. Who was in it, what did each person contribute, and what surprised you?

🗣️ Communication

Explain to a twelve-year-old why antibiotics do not work on colds.
(Practical task) Teach the interviewer how to do something you are good at, using words only.
A patient who speaks very little English needs to understand how to take a new medicine. How would you go about it?
A relative asks you a question you cannot answer. What do you say?

💡 If you are recording to a camera, treat the lens as your listener. Slow down, look at it, and pause between ideas.

💙 Empathy and compassion

What does empathy mean to you, and how is it different from sympathy?
Tell us about a time you supported someone who was upset. What would you do differently now?
A patient who has waited more than a year for a hip operation tells you they have given up hope. How would you respond?
Can a doctor be too empathetic? Explain your view.

⚖️ Ethical reasoning

Argue both sides before you land anywhere. That is what the interviewer is looking for.

A fifteen-year-old asks a general practitioner (GP) not to tell her parents about a health problem. What issues does this raise?
A new cancer drug gives three extra months of life and costs £100,000 per patient. Should the NHS pay for it?
Should patients who smoke be treated differently when they are waiting for non-urgent operations?
Name the four pillars of medical ethics and describe a situation where two of them clash.
Should assisted dying be legal? Give the strongest argument on each side, then tell us where you land.

🤝 Teamwork and leadership

Describe a time a team you were part of did not succeed. What was your part in that?
What qualities make a good leader in healthcare, and are they the same as those of a good doctor?
One member of a group project is not doing their share. What do you do?
Tell us about a time you had to follow a decision you disagreed with.

🛡️ Integrity, honesty and professionalism

You notice a classmate has copied part of an assignment. What do you do, and what might stop you?
A friend on your course keeps missing teaching sessions. Does that mean they will make a poor doctor?
What does professionalism mean for a medical student on social media?
Why do honesty and the duty of candour matter so much in medicine?

🌱 Resilience and self-awareness

Tell us about a setback and what you changed because of it.
What is your biggest weakness, and what are you doing about it?
How will you look after your own wellbeing during five years of medicine?

🏥 The NHS and current healthcare issues

What are the biggest pressures facing the NHS right now, and which would you tackle first?
Artificial intelligence is being used more and more in healthcare. What are the benefits and the risks?
People in poorer areas of the same city often have worse health than people in wealthier ones. Why, and what can doctors do about it?
Should routine GP appointments be offered by phone or online first?

🧩 Problem-solving and prioritisation

You have four tasks on a ward and time to do two. How do you decide, and who do you tell?
You are organising an event and your two key helpers drop out the day before. What do you do?
A hospital can fund one new service: a mental health team, a rehabilitation unit or a scanner. Which would you choose, and why?

🎭 Role play and difficult conversations

Talk to the person in front of you rather than describing the situation.

Your friend has just been told they did not get into the course they wanted. Speak to them.
A classmate tells you they are struggling and have started skipping lessons. Have that conversation.
You are a shop supervisor, and a colleague has turned up late for the third time this week. Speak to them.
You need to tell a teammate they have not been picked for a team they trained hard for.

🏫 Questions Specific to St George's

Every medical school likes to know you chose them on purpose. Prepare these eight properly, because they are the questions that reward real research.

Why St George's rather than another London medical school?
Our medical school shares its site with a major teaching hospital. How do you think that changes the way you would learn?
You would train alongside student nurses, paramedics, physiotherapists and others. Why might that matter for a future doctor?
St George's serves a very diverse part of south-west London. What challenges and opportunities does that bring for a doctor working there?
We rely heavily on UCAT scores when choosing who to interview. Do you think that is a fair way to select medical students?
Our course uses problem-based and case-based learning. How do you learn best, and how would you cope with learning in small groups?
What have you done to find out whether our course is right for you, and what did you learn?
If you were offered a place here, what would you want to get involved in beyond the course itself?

💡 For question 46, go beyond "more patient contact". Think about what a short walk to a ward does to how often you can see patients, how natural it feels, and how quickly the hospital starts to feel like your workplace rather than a place you visit.

🗣️ What Students and Applicants Say

These are paraphrased composites, based on themes that come up repeatedly in applicant forums, open days and conversations with students. They are not attributed quotes.

"Talking to a webcam felt odd for the first minute. Recording myself beforehand was the best thing I did."
"Five minutes is longer than you think. I ran out of things to say after a minute and a half, and the station after that went better because I had a simple structure."
"Each station is marked by a different person, so I stopped worrying about the one that went badly."
"The ambassadors in the waiting area were lovely. It was far less cut-throat than I expected."
"You are close to everything. The hospital becomes part of campus very quickly."
"Tooting is cheaper than central London and brilliant for food. Timetabling and communication can be patchy, though, so ask about it at an open day."

🚀 Top Tips to Succeed at the St George's Interview

1. Know that the SJT still counts. Your band is ranked alongside your MMI score after the interview. It is fixed now, which means the interview is the part you can still change, so put your effort there.

2. Practise to a camera, not a mirror. Record five-minute answers on a laptop, watch them back and fix the two things that make you wince. It is uncomfortable and it works.

3. Build a structure, not a script. Answer the question, give a specific example, say what you learnt, then acknowledge the other side. Scripts fall apart the moment a station takes an unexpected turn.

4. Aim to use about four of your five minutes. Practise finishing cleanly rather than trailing off or stopping at ninety seconds.

5. Treat every station as a fresh start. Different interviewer, independent score. Applicants lose more marks to carried-over panic than to weak answers.

6. Argue both sides on ethics, then commit. A balanced answer that reaches a clear conclusion beats a one-sided one, and it beats an endless "on the other hand" that never lands.

7. Prepare a real "why St George's" answer. The shared hospital site, early patient contact, learning alongside other health professionals and a diverse patient population are all genuine strengths. Say what each means for you.

8. Sort your technology the day before. Laptop on the mains, supported browser, headphones connected, quiet room, photo ID uploaded and Wi-Fi tested. Nobody thinks clearly with a spinning upload icon in the corner of the screen.

9. Book your slot the moment the invitation arrives. Dates are limited and released on a rolling basis.

10. Read around the NHS little and often. Fifteen minutes a week on health news for two months beats a panicked evening before the interview.

11. Do at least one proper mock. Self-practice builds fluency, but it cannot tell you how you come across to a trained examiner. If you want a full timed MMI circuit with real examiners and written feedback, that is exactly what our MMI Courses are built for. 👉 Book a Mock MMI Circuit

✅ Key Facts at a Glance

💙 Medical school: City St George's, University of London (Tooting campus, south-west London)

💙 Courses: Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) Medicine, 5 years (A100) · MBBS Medicine Graduate Entry, 4 years (A101) · institution code C60

💙 Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) deadline for 2027 entry: 15 October 2026 (now closed)

💙 A Levels: AAA including Chemistry and Biology or Human Biology

💙 International Baccalaureate: 35 points, 18 at Higher Level, grade 6 in Biology and Chemistry

💙 General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE): five subjects at grade 6/B or above, including English Language, Maths and Science

💙 Admissions test: University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT), with at least 500 in every section plus an overall cut-off set each year

💙 Latest published cut-off (2026 entry, 2,700 scale): 1,880 for home applicants; 1,640 and 1,630 for overseas applicants

💙 Situational Judgement Test (SJT): SJT band considered after interview for 2027 entry

💙 Interview type: Multiple Mini Interview (MMI), six stations of about five minutes, 60-second breaks

💙 Delivery: in person at Tooting or online (SAMMI-Select), as stated in your invitation

💙 A100 interview window: Monday 30 November to Friday 18 December 2026

💙 A101 interviews: expected February 2027

💙 Scoring: each station scored independently by a different interviewer; MMI score ranked with SJT band

💙 Offers released: end of February 2027 (A100); end of April 2027 (A101)

💙 Latest offer data (2025/26, home, standard entry): 1,279 applicants → 773 interviewed → 369 conditional offers for 165 places

💙 Competition: about 8 applicants per place for home students; 13.8 per place for international students

💙 Not allowed in the interview: phones, smart watches, notes and any use of artificial intelligence tools

Good luck. At a medical school that interviews around 60% of its home applicants and offers places to nearly half of those, the interview is not the obstacle. It is your opportunity. 💙

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The Blue Peanut Team

This content is provided in good faith and based on information from medical school websites at the time of writing. Entry requirements can change, so always check directly with the university before making decisions. You’re free to accept or reject any advice given here, and you use this information at your own risk. We can’t be held responsible for errors or omissions — but if you spot any, please let us know and we’ll update it promptly. Information from third-party websites should be considered anecdotal and not relied upon.