How to prepare for a medical school interview.

What the interview is actually testing

Six things, in one form or another. Every station is one of these wearing a different scenario. If you know which one you are being asked about, you know what to talk about.

• Communication. Do you answer the question that was asked, clearly, at the right length, and can you be understood by someone who is not a doctor?
• Ethical reasoning. Can you see both sides of a dilemma, name the principle at stake, and reach a decision you can defend?
• Empathy and perspective-taking. In a role-play, do you notice how the other person feels before you try to solve their problem?
• Self-awareness. When you talk about a failure, is it a real one, and do you know what it taught you?
• Teamwork. Can you describe a time you were not the leader, and what you did instead?
• Motivation for medicine. Is your reason yours, is it specific, and does it survive the follow-up question?

When things happen

The cycle runs to roughly the same shape every year. Where you are in it decides what is worth doing now.

July – August

UCAT. This is the time to book an intro session and make a plan. It is not the time to drill.

September

UCAT results. This is when most students start, six to ten weeks out from interviews.

October – November

Interview invitations. Weekly individual or group sessions, with a full mock booked before your date.

November – January

Interviews. If you are invited with less than two weeks to go, the intensive is for you.

If you know your interview date, the timeline planner turns it into a week by week plan.

How coaching works, if you want it

1. 01

   Intro Session

   Thirty minutes. You tell me where you are applying, when the interviews are, and what worries you. I tell you what I think you need. You also fill in a five-question confidence rating, which we repeat after the mock so we can both see what moved.

2. 02

   A Plan

   A short written plan for your target formats. Which stations to work on, in what order, and how many sessions it will probably take.

3. 03

   Practice

   Stations drawn from past cycles, run to time. I stop you after each one and tell you what I would have marked you down for.

4. 04

   The Mock

   A full run under interview conditions before the real thing. Most students say this is the session that settled them.

Work between sessions

Practice you do on your own is what moves you. This is what I ask for, and it is the same whether you work with me or not.

• Two recorded prompts. Stations I send you. You record them to time on your phone and send them back.
• One written reflection. Half a page on what changed since last session and what still feels wrong.
• One reading. Usually your target school’s own published selection criteria. You should know them better than the interviewer does.
• About ninety minutes a week. That is all it takes.

Who this is for

• Year 12 applicantsThe UCAT is done, the ATAR is on track, and the interview is the one part of this nobody at school can help you with. Most of my students are here.
• Gap-year and repeat applicantsYou were interviewed last cycle and did not get an offer. Before we practise anything, we work out what went wrong. Usually it is one or two things, and they are fixable.
• Interstate and overseas studentsEverything is online, with evening and weekend times across Australian time zones. Where you live makes no difference to what you get.

Other guides

• Timeline plannerPut in your interview date and get a week by week plan.
• Practice stationsReal MMI stations with a two minute reading phase and a station clock.
• Formats by universityWhat an MMI, a panel and a structured interview each are.
• For parentsWho your child is working with, and what I will not promise.

If you want a session

Thirty minutes, $40, online, and it comes off any package you go on to book. Tell me where you are applying, when the interviews are, and what worries you.

Book an intro session