5 Med School Interview tips (that you probably know but might forget)

5 Tips to help you with your Med School Interviews

Ok so interviews are a step in every/most potential medic hopefuls, and I think they're the hardest step in the whole process. There are different types of med school interviews and different ways the med schools will interview. Some interviews might try and test your scientific knowledge whereas others will like to see how passionate you are into becoming a doctor. And they can be done with multi mini interviews, or just one traditional long interview. I hope this helps. 

1 - Answer the questions they ask you! This may seem simple but I made this mistake in 1 of my 3 interviews and that was the one I got rejected from. Think about what they are asking from you for a couple of seconds before you answer, NEVER rush in to a answer, as a awkward silence is better than giving a terrible answer.

2 - Do your research before you go! You CAN prepare for an interview, make sure you know the prospectus and course of the med school and to impress them further find little bits of knowledge of that med school that might impress the interviewers due to it being unique from your competition. For example at my Barts interview I said I liked how they integrated PBL with lectures and they replied telling me that other med schools also offer this teaching style then again why Barts. I replied saying how Barts have the best and most varied teaching hospitals in the country, from the royal london to Barts. 

At peninsula however they have a very fair system on their interviews. They ask everyone the same questions and therefore this gives you an advantage if you have done your research compared to those who  haven't in questions that include talking about the course. 

3 - Prepare answers for why medicine, and why (insert med school) - These two questions usually come up and having a prepared answer for them will give you an edge over those that don't. This is similar to the 2nd point, however I believe because these two questions can make or break your interview that these 2 questions deserve there own point. Especially the why medicine question as its an extremely tough question to seem unique from, and most of your competition will have prepared an answer similar to yours however you just have to make sure you can explain in this question why being a doctor will be suited for you, and show an insight in the knowledge you have of the role of doctor.

4 - Have a mock interview to test your body language and tone of voice. Before your interview try as hard as you can to arrange a mock interview. This will give you an opportunity to see how you would perform if you had your interview then an review that performance and improve on it. They can be priceless as sometimes you can only realise what mistakes you could do in the interview, when in them. 

5 - Stay passionate! Always show passions and enthusiasm in your interview. I believe my Barts and Peninsula went much better than Manchester just because I showed much more passion and enthusiasm in my answers and in the way I answered them. Think about 2 people being interviewed saying exactly the same thing to the same questions but one showing passions and enthusiasm, whereas the other one is just answering in a very boring and stale method. Which student would the med school believe is more motivated to do medicine?