What is marked
Empathy and perspective-taking, and how they are marked.
Usually the role-play stations, with an actor. The interviewer is watching whether you notice the person before you start on the problem.
What it is
In one line. In a role-play, do you notice how the other person feels before you try to solve their problem?
In a role-play station an actor plays someone upset, worried or angry, and you have a few minutes with them. A friend who has failed an exam. A parent whose child has been sent home from school. A patient who has waited three hours.
Most students go straight to solving. The marks are in the minute before that: noticing how the person feels, saying so, and letting them talk. Perspective-taking extends it to the discussion stations, where you are asked how a situation looks to someone other than yourself.
What the interviewer listens for
- Noticing first. Before any advice, a sign that you have seen how they feel. "You seem really worried about this" is often the best first line in the station.
- Questions, and room for the answer. Open questions, then quiet while they answer. The actor has a brief with things they will only tell you if you ask and wait.
- Their view, said back. In the discussion stations, describing a situation from the other person’s side accurately and without judging it.
Where students lose marks
- Fixing too fast. A plan offered in the first thirty seconds tells the person you were not listening. It is the most common way to lose a role-play.
- Saying the words without the attention. "I understand how you feel" followed by a change of subject is worse than saying nothing. Actors are briefed to notice it.
- Arguing with an upset person. If the actor is angry and partly wrong, the station is about the anger. Who was right can wait, often for good.
How to practise it
Run role-plays with a friend playing the other person.
Give them a short private brief: how they feel, and one thing they will only reveal if asked. Then swap.
Count your questions.
In a practice role-play, count how many questions you ask before you offer anything. If the answer is none, start again.
Tell a story from the other side.
Take a conflict you were part of and describe it, out loud, as the other person would. Fairly enough that they would agree with it.
Three prompts to run on the clock
Thirty seconds to read each one, then two minutes to answer it out loud. Record it on your phone if you can, and listen back once.
- Role-play. Your friend has just found out they did not get into the course they wanted, and you got into yours. They have come to talk to you.
- Role-play. You are a volunteer at a community centre. A visitor is angry because the event they came for was cancelled and nobody told them.
- A patient refuses a treatment their doctor strongly recommends. Describe how the situation might look from the patient’s side.
Schools that name it
These schools list it among the qualities they assess, in their own published words. The others mark it too, under different names or none.
Stations that test it
Question themes that often test it
Common questions that test it
The other five
- 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?
- 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?
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
Thirty minutes, $40, online, and it comes off any package you go on to book. Tell me which of these worries you most.