The majority of UK medical schools now run their interviews in an MMI format. The MMI (Multiple Mini Interview) is a structured and objective interview style, loosely based on the concept of OSCEs (objective structured clinical examinations) that are a staple of testing at medical schools. You should expect to rotate through a variety of stations – normally around 8 to 10 – and spend around five minutes at each station. Each station will have different assessors, and will look for a different attribute, ability or example of your experience. For example, a typical MMI first station might probe your motivation into medicine, while the second will be a role play in which you must show your ability to be an empathic communicator – through another six stations, with the final one being an ethics question.
Certain universities – currently UCL, Oxford and Cambridge – still rely on a traditional interview style. These panel interviews are normally considered ‘semi-structured panel interviews,’ which means that there are some questions all candidates are asked, on which discussions are based, whilst other parts of the discussion will follow a different route depending on the answers that the candidate gives and the thoughts and feelings of the assessor. A panel interview of this nature might take from 20 minutes to 45.
In an MMI, you should expect to be interviewed by a mixture of practising clinicians, lecturers, nurses and allied health professionals, medical students and even patients. In a semi-structured interview it is more likely that the panel will consist of a clinician and lecturer, or a group of three made up of a clinician, lecturer and another member of academic staff.
Note that depending on the year universities may change their approach, hence it is vital to check the specific universities website rather than accepting previously published information.