Why Some Students Don’t Prepare for Medical Interviews

Medical interviews are a crucial aspect of the selection process for entry into medicine and dentistry. For many universities, once a minimum UCAT score and academic grades are achieved, entry into medicine is based entirely on interview performance! This includes universities such as Bristol, Imperial, Southampton, Newcastle and KCL.

Most people focus on their academic scores and study for the UCAT, but do not prepare for their medical interview. Hence there are students who obtain strong grades and perfect UCAT scores (99^th percentile), but are not offered a place in medicine.

Some students go into the medical interview thinking it is just a 'chat'. Chat it may be, but it is a crucially important chat that will change the course of your life!

Reasons why some students don’t prepare for medical interviews

There are many reasons some people do not undergo quality medical interview training. These include:

• Believing universities who say that you cannot prepare for medical interviews (hypocritical since universities train their graduates for job interviews!)

• Fear of being put on the spot in the medical interview training sessions (however, it is better that you get used to it before your actual medical interview!)

• Not knowing what they don't know (unknown unknowns)

• When it comes to personality tests, and an interview is a type of personality test, we all tend to think we are awesome

• Thinking the medical interview is just a ‘chat’

• Not being motivated enough

• Not understanding the importance and benefits of medical interview training

• Thinking that training with, and obtaining tips from, parents, friends, senior students or medical students is sufficient

• Not having a full understanding of the benefits of training with a trusted institution such as MedEntry

• Not realising the importance of maximising medical interview score particularly when their academic grades/UCAT scores meet the minimum requirements

Importance of medical interview training

Even with perfect academic scores, many applicants are unable to convey the required qualities during the interview and are therefore unable to secure an offer.

The importance of the medical interview can be demonstrated in how many students are offered a place. For example:

• At Bristol, 1 in 3 interview applicants received an offer

• At Anglia Ruskin and St. George’s, 1 in 4 interview applicants received an offer

• At Edinburgh and Oxford, around 1 in 5 interview applicants received an offer

Benefits of medical interview training

Because applicants are all on a similar level academically, knowledge of the types of questions asked, coaching on interview technique and enhanced communication skills can dramatically improve your medical interview performance. You should not go into an interview unprepared or not having an understanding of what you will be asked, or what the interviewers are looking for. If you do, you will be at a competitive disadvantage compared to those who are prepared for their medical interview.

Even if you think you will get into medicine without medical interview training, there are several benefits of attending MedEntry medical interview training. These include:

• The psychological and other principles learnt at MedEntry interview training will also be useful throughout your life for other interviews (for example, job interviews, Internship/Registrar interviews).

• It is an opportunity to obtain honest and constructive feedback from experienced trainers, so you can improve further on your future interviews

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