You secured an interview for the University of Leeds Medical School, and now it’s time to turn that interview into an acceptance offer. The key lies in acing your interview with proper preparation so that nothing comes as a shock the day of. This guide lays out the general format the interview follows, the question formats you can expect to see, and the best way to answer them. Let’s get started.
University of Leeds Medicine Interview Format
Leeds Medicine utilizes the Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI) format for their interview. This format consists of eight stations, each lasting seven minutes with one minute between them to transition and read over the material for the next station.
The purpose of this interview format, which is relatively common for medical schools, is to challenge applicants with a range of scenarios, cases, and knowledge-based tasks. The ultimate goal of each scenario is to help the interviewers gauge your suitability to study medicine. They accomplish this through multiple modes, including “question and answer” and role-playing.
General/Personal Statement Station
A very general interview portion that focuses on your UCAS form, your ability to be introspective, and your reason for being there.
Some questions you may get include:
Why are you interested in Leeds Medical School?
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
Tell us about a time when you had to be a leader.
What has been your biggest life lesson?
It’s also important for you to note the key points of your BMAT essay, as they commonly like to bring this up during the interview. Be prepared to elaborate on what you wrote about and discuss what you would change.
Our biggest tip for preparing for these questions is to prepare ahead of time a few outside achievements/work experiences/interests that you can focus on for the questions. You want to be able to recall experiences that fit the question quickly, so write it all out ahead of time. This also ensures that you are picking the best possible experience to share, not just the first one you can think of.
Interest in Medicine Station
These stations will focus on how strong your desire to become a doctor is and if you have a solid interest in the field.
You can expect questions like:
What interests you about medicine?
Why do you want to be a doctor and not a nurse or other health-related professional?
How do you plan to cope with the stress that comes from a career in medicine?
What challenges have you faced in studying medicine? Why do you still want to study medicine?
Be truthful when answering these questions and don’t tell them what you think they want to hear. Acknowledge the negatives the question wants you to, but also swing them into a positive stance and always finish your response on a high note.
You have the desire to be a doctor, so let your passion shine through.
Role Play Station
The role play station allows the interviewing team to see how you handle certain situations. You may complete the interactions with a trained actor or medical school student, and there will also be an observer there.
One of the most common focuses for this station is how well you can show empathy. It’s common for the situation to involve breaking bad news so that the interviewer can see how you handle the situation.
You will be given the scenario beforehand, so make sure to read it in detail. Consider what role you play in the scenario and the part of the person acting with you. Are they your superior, inferior, peer, or patient? This can help you keep in mind the best way to respond. For example, you wouldn’t respond to a superior in the same way you would a friend.
Make sure that there is some lead up to the bad news and a warning that it is coming. Something as simple as “I’m sorry to have to tell you” provides a heads up that bad news is coming. Once the bad news is broken, pause and allow time for them to react to the information.
Make sure to maintain strong eye contact and listen intently to what the actor says. It’s also a strong tactic to repeat things back to them every so often to show that you are listening.
Ethical Evaluation Station
This type of station focuses on ethical issues and may offer a scenario that raises ethical concerns. It allows interviewers to assess your decision-making process, communication skills, non-bias attitude, empathy, and sound judgement.
You may be asked about how you would respond to a scenario that involves:
breach of patient privacy
medication mishaps
doctors being paid to attend conferences held by medical companies
biased research
decisions on who to provide care to
For this station, it’s important to remember the four pillars of medical ethics: do good, do no harm, ensure fairness, and give the patient the freedom to choose freely when they are able.
When answering your question, make sure that you explain your decision-making process and remain non-biased in whatever explanation you provide. List the pros and cons of both sides, allowing the interviewer to see the thought that goes into your decision. However, in the end you must definitively choose one stance, explaining why you made that decision with a firm conclusion.
Final Tips
Be Yourself
The interviewers can tell if someone is being disingenuous; they meet with enough potential students to be able to spot this right away, so don’t pretend to be something that you’re not.
Put your best foot forward, but make sure that you aren’t trying to be what you think they want. And above all else, don’t lie. Prepare ahead of time so that you have material to draw upon and stick with the facts.
Practice the Role Playing
This is an interview aspect that you likely have little experience with, so make sure you spend time practicing. You want to make sure that you take these situations seriously and submerge yourself in the storyline. The role-playing stations really allow your personality to shine through, so make sure you give them your all. To become more comfortable with this type of situation, practice scenarios with anyone who can help.
Speak Slowly
When in a stressful situation, which medical school interviews undoubtedly are, we often find ourselves talking faster. Consciously work on speaking slowly and taking breaks before answering questions instead of rushing into it so that you can get your answer out as quickly as possible.
Accept that even with all the preparation in the world, you cannot predict precisely how the interview will go, and that’s okay. You’ve practiced, you’ve researched, and you’re ready, so ease into the unexpected and go with the flow. You’ve got this.
Put all that you have learned in this guide to the Leeds Medicine Interview into practice with a MasterMedPrep Mock Interview!