What is marked
Motivation for medicine, and how it is marked.
The question everyone prepares for, and the one most answers fail. The first answer matters less than what happens when the interviewer asks a second question.
What it is
In one line. Is your reason yours, is it specific, and does it survive the follow-up question?
Every school asks some version of why medicine, and why their school. It is usually early, and it sets how the rest of the interview hears you.
The marks are for a reason that is yours, that is specific, and that survives a follow-up question. "I want to help people" is true for most applicants and tells the interviewer nothing. Nurses, paramedics, teachers and social workers help people. Why this, and why you.
What the interviewer listens for
- Something that happened to you. An experience, a person, a moment you changed your mind. Specific enough that nobody else in the circuit could tell the same story.
- An idea of the job. What doctors do all day, including the parts that are not appealing: the hours, the paperwork, the years of training. Wanting it with eyes open scores more than wanting it at all.
- Why not something close to it. Why medicine rather than nursing, physiotherapy or research. A good answer knows what those careers are and says what draws you to this one without running the others down.
Where students lose marks
- The general answer. Helping people, an interest in science, a love of problem solving. All true, and all shared by everyone else waiting in the corridor.
- A story with no "so". A grandparent’s illness told in detail, with nothing about what it showed you or why it led here.
- An answer that does not hold. Ask "why not nursing?" and it falls apart. Interviewers ask that question because so many answers fail it.
How to practise it
Write half a page, then ask "why?" three times.
Each time, answer the question in writing. The third answer is usually the real one, and it is usually more interesting than the first.
Talk to a doctor about the worst parts of the job.
A GP, a junior doctor, a family friend. Ask what they would warn you about. An answer that has heard the warning and still wants this is a strong answer.
Read the school’s own mission.
Then say why you want to train at that school in particular, in a sentence that would not work for any other.
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.
- Why medicine, and not another career where you would help people?
- What do you think a junior doctor’s worst day looks like? Why do you still want it?
- Why do you want to study at this school rather than any other?
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.
- Monash University Publishes “motivation” among the qualities it assesses.
- University of Newcastle – UNE Joint Medical Program Publishes “the desire and driving force to be a doctor” among the qualities it assesses.
- James Cook University Publishes “motivation” among the qualities it assesses.
- Bond University Publishes “general suitability to medicine” among the qualities it assesses.
Stations that test it
Question themes that often test it
Common questions that test it
- Why do you want to study medicine? Every school asks it in some form, and every applicant has an answer ready.
- Why do you want to study here? The one question you can prepare facts for, and the one where students most often recite the website back to the people who wrote it..
- What makes a good doctor? It sounds like a question about doctors.
- What if you don’t get in? It can feel like a trap.
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?
- 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?
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.