Online Medicine Interviews: The Complete Guide

The majority of universities are continuing to run their MMIs (Multiple Mini Interviews) via online means. You should check each university’s information regularly for updates, as many have stated that their plans are subject to change. For an online MMI, you should prepare as you would for an in-person MMI. Expect to have a series of virtual stations – likely in separate virtual meeting rooms, that you will be admitted to over the course of an hour or more. Each station will have a different aim or domain tested – such as an ethical situation, a role play, personal statement discussion, or understanding your motivation for medicine.
 
Some universities – such as UCL, Oxford and Cambridge – will be running online panel interviews. Others, like Plymouth and Sheffield, have indicated that they will be changing their MMI format to something more resembling a semi-structured panel interview in light of the difficulties of running an MMI online. You should expect much the same competencies and reflections to be tested, but through two longer largely  ‘traditional’ interviews of up to 45 minutes at Oxbridge, or one or two 15-20 minute sem-structured panel interviews at other universities. These will be conducted by a panel of two or three interviewers. The panel will normally consist of one senior doctor, one member of the medical academic staff, and one junior doctor or medical student. As the name suggests, a ‘semi-structured’ interview involves a loose structure of questions, so that each interviewee will receive much the same set – with some variation. A traditional, unstructured panel interview leaves the questions entirely up to the interviewer’s discretion.  ​
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