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9. Tell us about a caring role or volunteering position that you took on.
10. Tell us about a time when you showed compassion to someone.
11. Tell us about a time when you dealt with an angry friend or colleague.
12. Did you have a mentoring role at school? If so, how did you get that role and what did you learn from it?
13. Do you consider yourself as an empathetic person?
14. What do you think the term empathy means?
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15. What is the difference between empathy and sympathy?
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16. Tell us why you want to be a dentist.
17. What area of dentistry would you be most interested in practising in? Have you researched this specialty at all?
18. Are you motivated by financial rewards?
19. Why are you passionate about a career in Dentistry rather than in Medicine or another health profession?
20. What is the role of preventative dentistry?
21. What is Orthodontics?
22. What do you know about the debate surrounding the fluoridation of water?
23. What experiences have you had that have enhanced your desire to become a Dentist?
24. Are you interested in working in the NHS or privately?
25. What have you done to prepare for a career in dentistry, beyond your work experience?
26. What publications, newspapers, books or other sources of information on the world of health and dentistry do you read?
27. What have you learnt about the profession from your work experience?
28. What books have you read about Dentistry?
29. What do you think are the most challenging parts of being a dentist?
30. What do you think are the most rewarding parts of being a dentist?
31. What are some of the biggest changes to the profession in the last 20 years?
32. How do you think the profession will change over the next 20 years?
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33. Do you think that digital technologies will change the way in which dentists work?
34. What is the role of the General Dental Council?
35. How have you shown integrity and responsibility at school?
36. What kind of issues might cause a dentist to be struck off the professional register?
37. Have you come across any examples of poor professional behaviour from dentists?
38. Imagine that you are on placement, in your second year of dentistry. Your tutor is frequently being curt or insolent to patients, refusing to answer their questions and asking them to be quiet if they talk too much. He tells you in between sessions that, ‘patients do have a tendency to talk at you.’ You note that many of the patients seem upset or frustrated by his attitude, understandably. How would you deal with this situation, and what elements of it are most important to consider?
39. Imagine that you are a newly qualified dentist. One of your patients has severe tooth decay, with signs of infection, and needs treatment immediately. However, they say that they don’t believe they need fillings, and that they expect their teeth to heal naturally. Please role play how you would approach this situation. Your interviewer will play the role of the patient.
40. Imagine that you are studying Dentistry. One of your friends is normally hard working, and doing well. However, they have recently begun drinking heavily, not handing in assignments on time, and even showing up to university still drunk. How would you speak to them? Please role play this scenario – your interviewer will play the role of your friend.
41. Imagine that you are a first year dental student. One of your fellow students has been struggling with their coursework in general, and comes to you to talk about their semester essay. They explain that, as you have already done your essay, and normally score high marks, they would like to pay you to write their essay for them. They explain that they are willing to pay ‘whatever you think is fair’ to write them a good essay. How would you approach this situation, and what are the key issues?
42. Imagine that you are a newly-qualified dentist working at your first practice, which is busy and successful. The practice owner is a leading dentist who takes an active interest in research and has a high degree of influence within the profession. However, they frequently make inappropriate and sexual comments to patients, which they pass off as ‘just humour’ and ‘part of the job.’ Your colleagues admit they notice the poor behavior, but feel they ‘shouldn’t rock the boat.’ How might you approach this situation?
43. A 15 year old girl attends your practice with her Mother and is complaining of toothache. After your initial examination, you decide to take an x-ray of the tooth. As part of the routine procedure you ask the patient if there is any chance she could be pregnant. She originally says no, but once her Mother has left the room informs you that she has recently discovered that she is pregnant and is scared that the treatment may harm her baby. Discuss with us how you would react to this situation.
44. You have recently started University and have been working hard on your first assignment which is due for submission shortly. You mention to a classmate that you are nervous about the assignment. Your classmate replies that they are not nervous as they have found a website where you can pay someone to write an essay for you, which is guaranteed to pass. How do you respond to this? An actor will play the part of your classmate.
Learn the best interview strategies and practice with past interview questions & model answers.
When practising any task, you should assume that you have a time limit that creates sufficient pressure to make the task stressful. You should also assume that, to make the task tougher, you are obliged to talk to your interviewer constantly about a topic unrelated to the task at hand.
 45. Please fit this piece of thread through the needle.
 46. Please bend the pieces of wire into the shapes provided on the paper. You must use the pliers provided to bend the wire.
 47. Please sort the coins into piles of each type. The coins provided are UK 5p, 10p and 20p coins.
​ 48. Please fit the pegs into the spaces on the board provided. You must fit all pegs onto the board within the time allotted.Â
 49. Please place the pins into the holes on the board provided.
52. Please transfer each of the balls from the container into the appropriately labelled jar, according to their colour.
53. Please sort the balls into jars, putting 5 balls in the first jar, 10 balls in the second and 20 balls in the third.
54. Please turn over each of the discs so that all show the same colour
55. Please place the cubes so that each shows the same colour on the top.
56. Please press the buttons in the pattern shown on the screen. The pattern will change each time. There will be 10 patterns shown.
57. Please bend the wire provided into the shape of a square, using your hands.
58. Use the tweezers provided to pick up five cotton wool buds and place them into the jars provided. You should place one bud into each jar.
59. Using only your dominant hand, turn over the circles so that each shows the same colour on the top.
60. Using only your dominant hand, remove the pegs from the board and place them in the second board that is currently empty.
61. Using only your dominant hand, pick up the coins and place them in the correct jar. You are provided with UK 1p, 2p and 10p coins.
62. Use the tweezers provided to tie the string. You may tie any type of knot, including a simple loop.
63. Place the pegs into the board, in the pattern shown on the demonstration board.
64. Sort the beads into the jars according to whether their texture is rough or smooth. You may only use your dominant hand.
65. Using only your dominant hand, turn over each of the dice so that they all show a six.
66. Turn over each of the six dice so that one dice shows 1, one dice shows 2, etc, so that each is different.
67. Using only your dominant hand, sort the marbles and dice into separate jars.
68. Please set this analog clock to exactly 10:30AM. You will have one minute at the start of the task to familiarise yourself with the mechanism.
70. Please take apart this Lego structure using the tool provided. When the structure is taken apart, place the bricks into the jars according to their colour.
71. Please stick together all the lego bricks of the same colour, creating separate towers for each colour. You are provided with red, blue and yellow bricks.
72. Using only your dominant hand, place the wooden cubes on top of one another. You must create a tower ten cubes high.
73. Use only your dominant hand to sort the marbles into jars according to their colour. There are five marbles of each colour.
74. Using only your dominant hand, remove all the pegs from the peg board, then re-fill only the bottom two rows of the peg board.
75. Tell us about a situation in which you found it hard to communicate with someone.
76. Why do you think that being a good communicator is so important to being a dentist?
77. What did you think of the communication skills of the dentists that you have shadowed?
78. How do you think that communication skills can be improved?
79. Tell us about a time that a team that you played in were successful.
80. Tell us about a time when you lead a team to success.
81. What do you think are the qualities of a good leader?
82. Do you find that you work better independently or as part of a team?
83. Do you learn well in groups?
84. How would you reassure an anxious patient?
85. How do you think that communication among a team can be improved?
86. Tell us about the team that dentists work in – who do they work alongside?
87. Do you find it easy to communicate with a broad array of people?
88. Are you good at simplifying ideas?
89. What do you think is your greatest strength?
90. What is your biggest weakness and how might you work on it?
91. What kind of character traits would make one less suitable for a career in Dentistry?
92. Have you achieved any outside recognition for a skill or ability that you have, or sport that you play?
93. How would your friends describe you?
94. Tell us about a time when you had to show resilience or cme through a difficult experience.
95. Tell us about a time when you helped someone through a difficult time.
96. What responsibilities have you had so far in life? Which has been the most important for you as a learning experience?
97. Why do you think resilience is so important to being a dentist?
98. What organisation do you think regulates dentists and their professional responsibilities?
99. Why is it important for student dentists to be responsible?
100. What do you do to relax?
101. Are you worried about managing your workload during your studies?
102. How would you respond if you found out that you were falling behind at dental school?
103. What interests you about our course?
104. What do you like about the idea of studying in this city?
105. Have you looked into doing an intercalated degree?
106. What do you think you can bring to the university beyond your academic ability?
107. Are you interested in research?
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