After submitting my medicine application, I received an email from Sunderland University, inviting me for an interview. I was very pleased with the invitation, and I sat the interview a few days ago. I thought sharing my experience would be beneficial for anyone who has an interview coming up, so I am going to talk about a few key things I learned during this process, as well as some general guidance for the interview day itself.

Don’t rely on pre-given station topics too much
Many universities email out what the station topics will be (this is what Sunderland did). Whilst preparing for practice MMIs offered by my, I covered all areas. But for the Sunderland interview, I primarily focused my preparations on these pre-given stations, which I thought would be the best idea. However, I found myself unnecessarily stressing over trying to predict what questions may be asked. The vast majority of the questions I had prepared for didn’t come up. Teamwork and communication weren’t explicitly outlined in the email I received; I was asked about those in my work experience station instead. Use the stations as a guide, but try and prepare more generally, as topics are often integrated into other stations.

Be prepared if things to go wrong
Whilst in the waiting area before my MMI, the fire alarm went off in the building, so we all had to be evacuated. This led to a delay in my interview starting. Some people were in the middle of completing their MMI interviews, when the alarm rang. Scenarios such as this could easily happen on the day of your interview, but you have to try and stay as calm as possible, and not let it throw you off.

Don’t waste the prep time before the station
At Sunderland, before a station, we were given about a minute or so to read the station briefing card before we did the station. I saw many people staring into space during this time. I recommend you use this time wisely, as it allows you to think about what you want to say, so that you can articulate your thoughts and ideas more clearly to the interviewer.

Say the most important things first
A common piece of advice that is given to medicine applicants is to speak for as long as possible. Personally, I found that the interviewers as Sunderland kept trying to get a word in and ask me more questions. I was usually unable to finish what I wanted to say. I would recommend that you say the most vital points at the start, so that they are definitely heard by the interviewer. After this, you can elaborate on your points.

Interview season can cause a lot of stress for medicine and dental applicants alike, so remember – you aren’t alone nor the only one who is finding the process difficult! A way to deal with this is to write down everything you are stressed about and then sort these into two categories: things in your control and things out of your control. All of the stresses that are out of your control, as hard as it sounds, try your best to just forget about them as all you can do is worry. For the things in your control, think of strategies to minimise the stress you are under. Good luck with interviews!