Formats
The MMI, and how to prepare for one.
Most Australian undergraduate medical schools interview this way, and most of the students I coach are preparing for it. This page is the method. The page for your school says what is particular to it.
What an MMI is
A multiple mini interview is a circuit of short stations. Each station has its own interviewer and its own scenario. You read a prompt outside the room, usually for two minutes, then go in and talk for about eight. A bell moves you on. The next room has a different person and a different question, and no idea how the last one went.
The scenarios are mixed on purpose. An ethical dilemma can be followed by a role play with an actor. Six to eight of these in a row is tiring, and the tiredness is part of what is being tested.
The universities use this format because it is fairer than a single conversation. One interviewer who takes against you can cost you one station out of eight. In a panel interview, that same person has you for the whole hour.
How it is marked
- Each station is scored on its own. The interviewer in room four never learns what happened in room three. A station that goes badly stays in that room. This is the fact worth knowing, because the biggest loss I see in mock circuits is a student carrying one bad station into the next three.
- Against a rubric, not an impression. Every station has a marking sheet with a few named things on it. The interviewer is looking for those things. If the prompt is about a dilemma, the sheet asks whether you saw both sides and whether you reached a position you could defend. It does not ask whether you were likeable.
- The same six things, in rotation. Communication, ethical reasoning, empathy, self-awareness, teamwork and your reasons for medicine. Every station is one or two of these wearing a scenario. Working out which one you are being asked about, in the reading time, is most of the skill.
The six things being marked
Each has its own page: what the interviewer listens for, and how to practise it.
- 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?
How I prepare a student for it
Read for the domain, not the story.
Two minutes outside the door is enough to decide what the station is really asking. A prompt about a colleague who turns up to a shift smelling of alcohol is a question about patient safety, and about whether you will act when acting is uncomfortable. Get that right and the answer organises itself.
Answer to time, out loud.
Eight minutes is longer than it sounds and shorter than it feels. An answer you have only thought through takes longer to say than you expect. Every station on this site runs on a clock for this reason. Use it.
Practise the reset.
Between rooms you have about a minute. The work in that minute is to leave the last station behind, whatever happened in it. I run students through back to back stations in sessions until the reset is a habit.
Then a full circuit.
Before the real one, a mock that runs the whole thing to time, with the feedback saved until the end. It is the first time the whole interview has run end to end.
Practise it now
The stations on this site run to time, one question at a time. Nothing is recorded and nothing is scored.
Schools that interview this way
As checked against each school's own admissions page. The page for each one says what is particular to it: the shape of the interview, when it falls, and what the school says it is marking.
- Western Sydney University A series of questions, each asked by a separate interviewer at a separate station. Late November.
- Charles Sturt University A multiple mini interview, typically run over Zoom. Late November.
- University of Newcastle – UNE Joint Medical Program The Multiple Skills Assessment, which the university describes as its name for the multi mini interview: six stations, each a scenario or an activity with an assessor, with a two minute break between stations. Late in the year, in person at Newcastle or Armidale.
- Monash University Six stations in sequence. Rounds in December and January, on Zoom.
- University of Queensland Several stations, each with a different assessor, held by video conference. Mid to late November.
- University of Adelaide At least six stations of ten minutes each, one interviewer per station, drawn from university staff, health professionals and the wider community. Late in the year, after UCAT results.
- University of Western Australia Eight stations, one question each: two minutes to consider it, then five with the interviewer. Late November to mid December.
- Curtin University A multiple mini interview. Early December, then two rounds in January.
- Bond University The university publishes nothing about the shape of the interview beyond its length: about ninety minutes online, including registration and debriefing. March, after the psychometric round.
Every school on one page, with the format and timing of each.
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 where you are applying and when the interviews are.