How to answer
Tell me about a time you failed.
The question students most want to dodge, and the one where dodging costs the most. The panel wants someone who learns from mistakes, and everyone has made some.
What it is really asking
Whether you can look at your own mistakes honestly. Doctors make errors, and the ones who notice, own and learn from them are the ones patients are safe with. This question is the interview’s most direct test of that.
The size of the failure matters less than you think. A small failure told honestly beats a large one told defensively.
Also asked as: “Tell us about a mistake you made.” “When did something not go the way you planned?” “What is your biggest regret?”
What interviewers hear too often
- A success in disguise. “I failed to get a perfect score.” The panel hears a refusal to answer.
- Someone else’s fault. The group project that failed because the others did not pull their weight.
- A lesson with nothing after it. What you learned, stated, with no time since when you did it differently.
What a good answer does
- A real failure. Something that cost you or someone else something, and still makes you wince a little.
- Your part, named. What you did or did not do, without excuses and without punishing yourself either.
- Evidence of change. A later time you did it differently. That is the part that scores.
Two openings
Both invented, and neither is yours to borrow.
The first is a disappointment with a moral attached. The second is a failure that cost someone else something, which is the kind the panel is asking about.
The follow-ups to expect
- What would you do differently now?
- How did you feel at the time?
- Has anything like it happened since?
- How would you handle making a mistake that affected a patient?
Test your own draft
- The wince test. Is it uncomfortable to tell? It usually should be.
- The blame test. Count the sentences about other people’s mistakes. Fewer than yours, ideally none.
- The since test. Can you name a specific later time you behaved differently?
What it is marked on
Related questions
Other guides
- Start here What the interview is testing, and how the cycle runs.
- Timeline planner Put in your interview date and get a week by week plan.
- Pathway planner The whole road from school to consultant, drawn around your choices.
- Practice stations Real MMI stations with a two minute reading phase and a station clock.
- By university The interview at every undergraduate-entry school: format, timing, and what is marked.
- What is marked The six things every station marks, and how to practise each one.
- How to answer The questions every panel asks, what each is testing, and the follow-ups to expect.
- Question themes The subjects questions come from, from rural health to the profession, with prompts.
- Interview dates When each school sends invitations, holds interviews and makes offers this cycle.
- When you hear back Every school’s offer dates, and why the wait after the interview is so long.
- Formats What an MMI and a panel interview each are, and how to prepare for each.
- Interview soon? Days to go? What you can still book at short notice, and the prices.
- For parents Who your child is working with, and what I will not promise.
If you want a session
In a session I teach the structure, then ask the follow-ups until your answer holds. Thirty minutes, $40, online, credited to any package.