Advice & Insight From Interview Specialists
As the King’s College London interview sessions are coming up, here are some tips to stay ahead of the curve and secure a space at one of the world’s leading medical schools:
One of the MMI stations is likely to be one where candidates are asked to describe a picture without making inferences. This means you must be very specific with your descriptors without generalising or making assumptions, which can be particularly challenging as it is nor normally required in everyday interactions. As such, you should try practising describing random pictures, particularly those that are used in news articles. Remember to record yourself so you can review your description of the picture, hopefully at a later date when you do not remember the details of the picture. Try drawing out the picture before seeing the picture again to check how well you could communicate the information presented. The interviewer will also ask a follow-up question of “Why am I asking this of you?” The answer to this is that it is important for diagnosticians to be able to communicate information about the patient’s history without letting slip your final diagnosis to limit confirmation bias. This would be particularly important during MDT meetings and when reporting to seniors.
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Practise describing graphs to someone who has not seen it and interpreting the data orally. Be sure to recognise specific patterns, such as the graph of blood glucose over time after a meal of a prediabetic vs a type 2 diabetic patient. It is also important that you revise your biology and chemistry prior to the interview, as you would be expected to have a strong understanding of the syllabus.
3. Research specific activities in KCL which you may want to participate in. This is important as you can bring it up during the mini-interviews regarding your hobbies. It would be good to include a mix of extracurricular societies, including musical, physical and academic, to ensure that you present yourself as a balanced, well-rounded and holistic student. You should also include a mix of activities that you have already participated in and excelled at as well as new extracurriculars which are unique to King’s, such as the KPOP or Rap society. If you have the opportunity to, try to attend the King’s college open day and search for the societies available, or you could talk to the volunteers regarding their extracurriculars. This will help you gauge which activities will fit within your future timetable and workload.
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4. Practise interview questions using an interview question bank. Try to focus on structuring your answers by signposting them at the very beginning. This will ensure that the interviewer knows the rough points you were going to discuss, even if you end up being short on time. Practise speaking against a timer so you become familiar with speaking within the specified time limit for each station (which should be around 5 minutes). If you have run out of things to say, do not feel pressured to constantly add on needless information to the end of the interview, as being cut off halfway through a story could seem unprofessional. Listen carefully to the instructions provided on the day itself regarding the flow between the stations, as the administration officers do not look very kindly on candidates who repeatedly move to the wrong station.
5. Very few stations at the King’s interview will be ‘out of the ordinary’. The majority (8 out of 10) will be based around “classic” interview questions, which not only could be asked at a medical interview but also at a job interview. This might be “Tell me a time where you faced conflict within a team” or “What co-curricular activities have you enjoyed?” As most other candidates would be quite familiar with such questions and have very structured answers to them, it is important that you prepare for these questions as well.
To attempt a range of past MMI questions used in KCL MMI Interviews (as well as their model answers) subscribe to the Online MMI Question Bank.
