Warwick Medical School (WMS) is a Graduate-Entry Medicine (GEM) degree that runs for 4 years. It is the UK's largest graduate-entry medicine programme and one of its most competitive!
Before the Interview – Graduate Entry Medicine
Warwick Medical School is a graduate-entry course that has an accelerated medical course that runs for 4 years. This means that the entry requirements include having an undergraduate degree. Your GCSEs and A-levels are not considered part of the minimum requirements. Warwick does not specify a certain type of undergraduate degree but does ask for a minimum graduation with 2:1 honours or above.
Along with GCSEs/A-levels, personal statements are also not considered as part of the application process. However, like other universities, UCAT and work experience are still considered – you will be asked to upload evidence of your work experience, and your UCAT score will be assessed. You can read more about the entry requirements here.
Warwick Medical School Interview Explained
Interviews at Warwick will be held on Wednesday the 14th, Thursday the 15th, Monday the 19th and Tuesday the 20th of December 2022. Warwick follows an MMI format for its interviews, and 2022/23 interviews will be held online. There are usually 6 stations that are approximately 10 minutes each and the entire interview lasts around 2 hours.
What Questions Will I Be Asked in the Warwick Medical School Interview?
The questions vary each year, but they all revolve around the same topics. UEA has published the main themes that came up in the interview, and below I will go through what they are and how you could be asked about them.
Team working
Teamwork is an important attribute of medical school, and you can be asked about it in different ways! Examples include being asked about “a time you worked in a team and some of the challenges you overcame”.
Remember: Reflection is key in medicine! Throughout the interview, make sure you are reflecting on all the experiences you talk about. Interviewers would love to see what you learned and how you improved.
Top tip: when talking about what you learnt, talk about how you implemented changes and how they helped you overcome future tasks.
Insight
Knowing your strengths and weaknesses is an important tool in life, and so interviewers want to see that you are aware of your own abilities. Top tip: don’t be too over-confident, but also don’t be too critical! Interviewers don’t like hearing you put yourself down!
Resilience
Medicine is a difficult career, and the university wants to see that you will be able to power through! You may be asked to talk about a difficult situation you have been in, or to talk about why resilience is such an important quality in medicine.
Communication
These are key skills in medicine, and Warwick may assess them through role-play. They will assess how you communicate, your body language, and how you build a rapport with someone. This scenario may be based on a medical or non-medical setting.
Don’t worry too much – you won’t be expected to know any specific details of medical scenarios! They will mainly be assessing skills such as empathy along with good listening skills and good communication skills.
You could also be asked to talk about a task where good communication was essential or about a time when you witnessed good or bad communication skills.
Top tip: this could be communication between a doctor and a patient, or it could be between a doctor and a nurse in an MDT-setting. Always draw on your work experience and make sure to reflect on what you saw!
Empathy
Empathy is a very important quality to have as a doctor, and the interviewers will want to make sure you understand its importance.
They could ask you how you would approach a difficult situation, e.g., a patient being cautious about a treatment. They could also ask you about an ethical scenario and ask your views on a difficult topic such as euthanasia or abortion.
Top tip: remember to link back to the 4 pillars of medical ethics.
Probity
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!
Respect and dignity
This includes your behaviour with patients and colleagues. This could be assessed by asking you opinion of professionalism matters such as “is it okay for doctors to lie to patients?”. Respect for staff and other allied healthcare professionals may involve asking you to talk about your thoughts towards MDTs.
Top tip: If you have any personal experience of this from volunteering or work experience, then definitely mention it!
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 Warwick mock interview with us today. We have built this using the information published by the university online.