UEA Medical School was established in 2002 and is well-known for producing top-quality doctors with a wealth of clinical experience. The course boasts World-Class Research and Problem-Based Learning (PBL)
After you send off your UCAS application, the university screens each application with a range of tools. You can read about them here.
The Interview at UEA Norwich: Explained
Interviews at UEA will be held between November and February. Norwich follows an MMI format for its interviews. There are usually 7 stations that are 5 minutes each. You can find some information regarding the interview here.
What Questions Will I Be Asked in the UEA Norwich Medical Interview?
The questions vary each year, but they all revolve around the same topics. UEA has published the main themes that come up in the interview, and below I will go through what they are and how you could be asked about them.
An acceptable approach to decision-making when given incomplete or conflicting information
You will probably have a data interpretation station where you will be asked to interpret some data. An example can be are graph on related topics, such as social media and mental health, and then you may be asked your own opinions as well.
Top Tip: when discussing hot topics, it’s a good idea to try to give an equal number of points for and against.
Ability to learn and work effectively in partnership
Teamwork and leadership are very important attributes of a medical student and a doctor. You can be assessed for this by being asked about a time you worked in a team and some of the challenges you overcame.
An empathetic and caring approach
You may have a role-play station where they will be assessing is how you communicate, your body language, and how you build a rapport with someone. Empathy is an important skill in medicine, and so they will be wanting to assess how you approach individuals and how you make them feel. An example station you may be given is to break some bad news to someone.
A caring and supportive attitude
This will also likely be assessed through role play. These are important qualities, and so the university will want to assess them. An example role-play station they could give you is to break some bad news to someone.
Insight into Medicine as a career and personal suitability for the profession
This is a very important question to master! You will likely be asked to talk about what made you apply to medicine over other healthcare professions, or to talk about your experiences with the profession. It’s a great time to talk about your work experience. Top tip: When talking about your work experience, always talk about what you learnt, as well as what you saw!
It’s also a good idea to relate your work experience back to important personality traits that apply to medicine and to you, such as empathy, communication, organisation, etc. They will also likely ask you about the university, and why you want to study there.
Top tip: Look up some of the societies and extra-curriculars offered at the university.
Honesty, integrity, and personal effectiveness
You could be asked to work through a hypothetical scenario of unprofessionalism or to talk about a personal experience where you may have come across unprofessional behaviour.
Top tip: the GMC guidelines are key here! Make sure you are aware of what the guidelines say and link them back to your own experiences!
Final Thoughts
The interview is a stressful time, but the universities just want to know what type of person you are. Practice key topics with friends and family and make sure you’re confident with acting in role-play stations, but ultimately, be confident in your abilities! Good luck, you’ve got this!
Key Resources
To test yourself in a simulation of the real thing, book a 1-1 UEA mock interview with us today. We have built this using the information published by the university online.