UCL Medicine Interview Questions

​General/Personal Statement Questions: The use of stories/ personal experiences are often a more powerful way of demonstrating character traits, than listing off as many as you can think of. Also, talk about areas in medicine which interest you. Especially those that could be developed at the university as UCL has a strong academic background and broad scope for research. Discuss your relevant work experience, e.g. shadowing doctors, clinical and voluntary work. The interviewers may base their ethical questions on some aspect of the work experience that you have completed. Therefore, careful consideration of your answer is essential as one question will often lead to another based on that same experience. Talk about extra-curricular achievements/interests outside of medicine as this shows a well-rounded individual.

Recent questions have included the following:

• Why do you want to study medicine?
• Tell me what you learned from your work experience
• How would you handle the stresses of being a doctor?
• What are the most significant aspects of communication?
• What did you learn from your work experience/tell me more about it
• What did you learn from your voluntary work/tell me more about it
• Tell me about your research project

Model answers as well as additional practice questions can be found in the Online Question Bank.
 
Discussing your BMAT Essay: You may be asked to briefly summarise your BMAT essay. Ensure you approach this question wisely as this can dictate the nature of subsequent questions.

• Expect questions such as “why did you write that point?”, “what’s the reason you wrote this?”Alternatively, “what would you improve?” You must be able to demonstrate that you can justify and reflect on your decisions. 
• Avoid criticising your work as this gives the interviewers fuel to discredit you. Instead, focus on additional points that you could mention or develop further.

Science/Medicine Questions: Ensure that you keep up to date with this as you need to be aware of these issues and how they are likely to affect the NHS. Interviewers will rate you on both your verbal and non-verbal skills so; ensure that your answers are expressed coherently and clearly, with confident body language. Recent questions have included the following:

• What are the issues surrounding the NHS?
• What difficulties and stresses are posed for GPs?
• What recent medical news have you recently come across?
• If you were made in charge of the NHS budget, where would you allocate your funds?
• Recently there has been a rise in the cases of measles. Do you know why?
• What sort of diseases mentioned alongside stem cell research?
• What body system does cystic fibrosis affect the most?
• What method can be used for gene therapy?

Ethical Scenarios: It is common for an ethical scenario to be included in the UCL interview. Ensure that you read the BlackStone Tutors ‘2 Sorts, 2 Sides’ approach to ethical scenarios, in order to manage these questions effectively. Recent ethical scenarios have included the following:

1. Your patient’s family members request that you do not tell him of his new cancers diagnosis. What actions would you take in this scenario?
2. If you made a small mistake during an operation, would you tell the patient? You do not believe that your mistake will have any clinical impact on the patient or his recovery.

 
Spontaneous Questions: Unexpected or abstract questions sometimes come up. For instance, “if you had the opportunity to host a dinner party with three people, who would you invite?” or “what popular science novels or articles have you read recently?” These questions are designed to test your ability to think on the spot and give a well constructed, logical answer.