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Medical school interview questions: free MMI & panel stations, self-marked

15 real interview questions across 5 topics, free from the NextGen MedPrep Prometheus question bank. Answer one out loud, then mark yourself against the same scheme NextGen MedPrep examiners use — a score out of 3 per skill, with the model-answer benchmark revealed.

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1

Motivation

3 free
EasyMMI

Why Medicine, Not Another Healthcare Career?

Why do you want to study medicine specifically, rather than nursing, physiotherapy, or another healthcare career?

Try & self-mark
EasyMMI

What Makes a Good Doctor?

What do you think makes a good doctor?

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MediumPanel

Why This Medical School?

Why have you chosen to apply to this medical school in particular?

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2

Work Experience

3 free
EasyMMI

Most Impactful Work Experience

Tell me about your most impactful piece of work experience and what you learned.

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MediumMMI

What You Did, Not What You Saw

Don't tell me what you saw - tell me what you actually did during your work experience.

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HardMMI

Observing a Mistake

Did you ever see a doctor or nurse make a mistake during your work experience? What happened?

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3

Ethics

3 free
MediumMMI

Gillick-Competent Teenager Wants Contraception

A 15-year-old asks you for the contraceptive pill but doesn't want her parents to know. What do you do?

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MediumMMI

Jehovah's Witness Refusing Transfusion

A Jehovah's Witness patient is haemorrhaging and refuses a life-saving blood transfusion. What do you do?

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HardOxbridge

Expensive Treatment for Marginal Gain

Should the NHS fund a £200,000 cancer drug that extends life by an average of 4 months?

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4

NHS & Hot Topics

3 free
MediumMMI

Biggest Challenge Facing the NHS

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the NHS today?

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MediumMMI

Health Inequalities

Why do health outcomes vary so dramatically between rich and poor in the UK?

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HardOxbridge

Physician Associates

What's your view on the expansion of physician associate roles?

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5

Role Play & Communication

3 free
HardMMI

Break Bad News (Role Play)

Break the news to an actor playing a parent that their child has type-1 diabetes.

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MediumMMI

Calming an Angry Patient

Calm down a patient who's been waiting two hours and is angry with the receptionist.

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EasyMMI

Explain Antibiotic Resistance to a Child

Explain antibiotic resistance to a 10-year-old.

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Feature

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A timed circuit of the questions almost every medical school asks. Every student sits the same stations, so you can compare notes with anyone. Speak your answers and they are transcribed as you go, then mark each one against the examiner rubric. No sign-up.

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56 medical school interview questions by category

56 real UK medical school interview questions from the 1106-question Prometheus bank, grouped into its eight categories. They cover MMI stations, panel interviews and Oxbridge-style academic questions. Questions marked “free practice page” open a self-marking station; the rest are listed as prompts to practise out loud.

Motivation

Why medicine, why now, and why this school.

  1. Why do you want to study medicine specifically, rather than nursing, physiotherapy, or another healthcare career? free practice page
  2. Tell me about the moment you first knew you wanted to be a doctor. free practice page
  3. What would you do if you didn't get into medical school this year? free practice page
  4. Why have you chosen to apply to this medical school in particular? free practice page
  5. What do you think makes a good doctor? free practice page
  6. What about medicine motivates you beyond the desire to help people?
  7. If you love science, why medicine rather than a pure biomedical research career?

Ethics

Consent, capacity, confidentiality and resource allocation dilemmas.

  1. A 15-year-old asks you for the contraceptive pill but doesn't want her parents to know. What do you do? free practice page
  2. A Jehovah's Witness patient is haemorrhaging and refuses a life-saving blood transfusion. What do you do? free practice page
  3. You suspect a colleague has been drinking on the job. What do you do? free practice page
  4. An elderly patient with dementia refuses medication she needs. How do you approach this? free practice page
  5. Should the NHS fund a £200,000 cancer drug that extends life by an average of 4 months? free practice page
  6. A patient with a viral sore throat is demanding antibiotics. How do you respond?
  7. A patient with a new cancer diagnosis asks 'how long have I got?'. How would you respond?

NHS & Hot Topics

Current pressures on UK healthcare and your view on them.

  1. What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the NHS today? free practice page
  2. What's your view on junior doctors striking? free practice page
  3. How should the NHS address its waiting-list backlog? free practice page
  4. Is general practice in crisis? What should be done? free practice page
  5. Why do health outcomes vary so dramatically between rich and poor in the UK? free practice page
  6. What's your view on the expansion of physician associate roles? free practice page
  7. What's the connection between climate change and health?

Personal Qualities

Teamwork, resilience, failure and self-awareness, with evidence.

  1. Tell me about a time you worked in a team that wasn't functioning well. What did you do? free practice page
  2. Describe a situation where you had to deliver difficult news to someone close to you. free practice page
  3. Give me an example of a time you failed and what you learned. free practice page
  4. How do you cope under pressure? Give me a specific example. free practice page
  5. What's your biggest weakness, and how are you working on it?
  6. Tell me about a time you led a group through a challenge.
  7. Describe a time you handled a conflict with a friend or colleague.

University & Academic

Curriculum style, science and evidence-based medicine.

  1. What's the difference between a PBL and a traditional medical curriculum, and which suits you? free practice page
  2. Why is hand washing so important in clinical practice? free practice page
  3. What is evidence-based medicine and where do you think it falls short? free practice page
  4. Tell me about a medical research breakthrough that has interested you recently. free practice page
  5. Some say anatomy teaching has been cut too far in medical schools. Do you agree?
  6. Do you plan to intercalate, and why?
  7. Talk me through the analgesic ladder. Why is it structured that way?

Role Play & Communication

Actor stations: breaking news, calming anger, explaining simply.

  1. Break the news to an actor playing a parent that their child has type-1 diabetes. free practice page
  2. Calm down a patient who's been waiting two hours and is angry with the receptionist. free practice page
  3. Explain antibiotic resistance to a 10-year-old. free practice page
  4. A close friend has just been rejected from their first-choice medical school. Console them. free practice page
  5. A close friend has been describing low mood and isolation for months. Encourage them to seek help.
  6. A patient is asking for a sick note they don't medically need. How do you decline?
  7. A fellow student is being loud in a quiet study area and disturbing others. Ask them to keep it down.

Data Interpretation

Graphs, doses and study abstracts under time pressure.

  1. You're shown a graph of infection rates across two hospitals over a year. Which is performing better, and what would you want to know to be sure? free practice page
  2. A 14kg child needs paracetamol. The dose is 15mg/kg up to four times daily. Calculate the appropriate single dose and the maximum daily dose. free practice page
  3. Read this study abstract aloud and tell me what conclusions you can - and cannot - draw from it. free practice page
  4. Here is a set of vital signs for a patient over six hours. Spot anything that doesn't fit. free practice page
  5. A new screening test has 90% sensitivity and 95% specificity. If a patient tests positive, what's the probability they have the disease?
  6. There is a well-described 'distance decay' in health outcomes — the further you live from a major centre, the worse your outcomes. What is the evidence, and what does it tell us about service design?
  7. Australian GP consultations average around 15-17 minutes; UK NHS consultations average around 10 minutes; Nordic countries average 20+ minutes. What does this comparison tell us, and what is the right consultation length?

Interview questions by medical school

Each UK school guide covers that school’s interview format, dates and sample questions, with preparation tips specific to how it interviews.

Medical schools (51)

Dental schools (16)

University-specific

Build a university-specific mock interview

The free questions above are generic. A Prometheus mock interview is built around one university — pick your school on the map and we build a mock from the exact stations, formats and themes that university really uses.

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A peek inside Prometheus

1000+ more questions in the bank

These are locked examples — a look at what's inside. Practise the free, self-markable questions above, then unlock the full bank with model answers and tutor marking on Prometheus.

Real, recent

Questions sourced from UK medical and dental school interviews in the last three cycles.

Curated by tutors

Selected by current students and recent applicants who sat the same interviews themselves.

University-specific on Prometheus

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621 / 621

01. Motivation

Why medicine, why dentistry, why now. Tutors want a specific, evidenced answer — not a cliché.

MED-001EasyMMIPanelOxbridge

Why Medicine, Not Another Healthcare Career?

Why do you want to study medicine specifically, rather than nursing, physiotherapy, or another healthcare career?

Expert tips
  • Avoid clichés like 'I want to help people' - every healthcare role helps people. Be specific about what medicine uniquely offers you: clinical decision-making, the depth of pathology and diagnosis, the leadership of multidisciplinary teams.
  • Reference at least one concrete experience (shadowing, family illness, volunteering) that crystallised the choice.
  • Show you respect other healthcare careers - dismissing nursing or PAs is a red flag for interviewers.
Unlock the model answer→
MED-004MediumPanelOxbridgeMMI

Why This Medical School?

Why have you chosen to apply to this medical school in particular?

Expert tips
  • Generic answers ('strong research reputation') are obvious filler. Name the curriculum style (PBL, integrated, case-based) and explain why it matches how you learn.
  • Reference at least one specific feature you couldn't get elsewhere - a teaching hospital, a longitudinal patient cohort, anatomy provision.
  • Avoid flattering for its own sake. Tutors prefer candidates who chose them for fit, not prestige.
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43 more Motivation questions locked

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02. Work Experience

Reflective questions that test what your shadowing and volunteering actually taught you.

23 more Work Experience questions locked

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03. Ethics

The four pillars (autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice) applied under interview pressure.

MED-051MediumMMIPanel

Gillick-Competent Teenager Wants Contraception

A 15-year-old asks you for the contraceptive pill but doesn't want her parents to know. What do you do?

Expert tips
  • Reference Gillick competence and Fraser guidelines explicitly. Aged under 16 is not a barrier if she can understand the decision.
  • Note the safeguarding screen: any sign of coercion, age of partner, abuse - shifts the answer.
  • Avoid moralising about contraception itself - the question is about competence and confidentiality, not values.
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MED-052MediumMMIPanelOxbridge

Jehovah's Witness Refusing Transfusion

A Jehovah's Witness patient is haemorrhaging and refuses a life-saving blood transfusion. What do you do?

Expert tips
  • Adults with capacity have the right to refuse - even life-saving treatment. Autonomy is paramount.
  • Check for an advance decision (signed, witnessed) - it carries the patient's prior wishes if they later lose capacity.
  • Children are different: the courts have historically overridden parental refusal where the child's life is at risk.
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MED-054MediumMMIPanel

Dementia Patient Refusing Medication

An elderly patient with dementia refuses medication she needs. How do you approach this?

Expert tips
  • Capacity is decision-specific and time-specific - she may have capacity for some decisions but not others.
  • If she lacks capacity, decisions must be in her best interests (Mental Capacity Act 2005), informed by past wishes, family input, and the least restrictive option.
  • Covert administration is legal in narrow circumstances with a robust best-interests process - never as a casual workaround.
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171 more Ethics questions locked

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04. NHS & Hot Topics

Current healthcare issues, health-system structure, policy debates — show you read beyond your textbook.

MED-096MediumMMIPanel

Biggest Challenge Facing the NHS

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the NHS today?

Expert tips
  • Pick one and defend it - 'lots of things' is a non-answer. Workforce, waiting lists, social-care interface, primary-care collapse are all defensible.
  • Reference a specific data point: e.g. RTT 18-week target performance, vacancy rates, ambulance handover times.
  • Show awareness of the Long Term Plan and the 2025 NHS reforms (ICS, primary care networks).
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MED-099MediumMMIPanel

GP Crisis

Is general practice in crisis? What should be done?

Expert tips
  • Engage with the data: GP consultations are at record highs while FTE GP numbers are falling. The workload-per-GP equation is unsustainable.
  • Reference Primary Care Networks (PCNs), ARRS roles (pharmacists, physician associates, social prescribers) and the partnership-vs-salaried debate.
  • Show awareness that 'is general practice in crisis?' is rhetorical - tutors want you to engage with the policy levers.
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124 more NHS & Hot Topics questions locked

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05. Personal Qualities

Resilience, teamwork, communication, self-awareness — your personality, evidenced with stories.

102 more Personal Qualities questions locked

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06. University & Academic

Curriculum-style questions and university-specific motivation. Always research the course.

MED-161MediumPanelOxbridge

PBL vs Traditional Curriculum

What's the difference between a PBL and a traditional medical curriculum, and which suits you?

Expert tips
  • PBL (problem-based learning) starts with cases; traditional starts with science modules; integrated and case-based sit in between.
  • Show you understand the rationale: PBL builds self-directed learning, traditional builds depth.
  • Acknowledge the downside of your preference - PBL students sometimes feel under-anchored in basic science.
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24 more University & Academic questions locked

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07. Role Play & Communication

Empathy, structure and active listening under timed-station pressure.

MED-176HardMMI

Break Bad News (Role Play)

Break the news to an actor playing a parent that their child has type-1 diabetes.

Expert tips
  • Use SPIKES: Setting, Perception (what do they already know?), Invitation (how much do they want to know?), Knowledge (warning shot then plain language), Empathy (acknowledge feelings), Strategy/Summary.
  • Don't rush to next steps. Sit with the news. Tutors mark down candidates who solve too fast.
  • Use plain language - 'sugar disease' or 'a lifelong condition where the body can't manage sugar' - then move to 'type-1 diabetes'.
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62 more Role Play & Communication questions locked

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08. Data Interpretation

Practical reasoning, graphs, numerical and abstract problems under time pressure.

MED-196MediumMMI

Interpret a Hospital Performance Graph

You're shown a graph of infection rates across two hospitals over a year. Which is performing better, and what would you want to know to be sure?

Expert tips
  • Don't just read the lines - ask about the denominator. Total infections without patient volume tells you nothing.
  • Case-mix matters: a tertiary centre takes sicker patients and will have higher infection rates by design.
  • Ask for: case-adjusted rates, staffing levels, lab differences, reporting practices.
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MED-197MediumMMI

Calculate a Paracetamol Dose

A 14kg child needs paracetamol. The dose is 15mg/kg up to four times daily. Calculate the appropriate single dose and the maximum daily dose.

Expert tips
  • Single dose: 14 × 15 = 210mg. Max daily: 210 × 4 = 840mg.
  • Children's paracetamol is usually 120mg/5ml or 250mg/5ml - so the practical answer rounds to convenient measures.
  • Adult max is ~4g/day (around 50-65mg/kg depending on weight). Children dose by weight; adults dose by hepatic capacity.
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MED-199MediumMMI

Spot the Inconsistency in Observations

Here is a set of vital signs for a patient over six hours. Spot anything that doesn't fit.

Expert tips
  • Look for trends, not just individual numbers. A heart rate creeping up while BP creeps down can signal early shock.
  • Reference NEWS2 (National Early Warning Score) - it aggregates vitals into a single risk number.
  • The 'doesn't fit' can be measurement error or transcription mistake - propose both clinical and human explanations.
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40 more Data Interpretation questions locked

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How to practice these questions

1. Read widely. Skim every category above and identify which feel weakest. Most applicants are strongest on motivation and weakest on ethics, NHS current affairs, and role-play.

2. Build frameworks, not scripts. Memorising specific answers is fragile - when the wording changes, you freeze. Build a 3-step framework for ethics (four pillars), a 4-step framework for breaking bad news (SPIKES), and a STAR framework for personal qualities.

3. Read our free guides. Ultimate Medical Ethics Guide covers the four pillars with 40+ scenarios. Interview hot topics covers NHS pressures and current affairs.

4. Practice out loud. Reading is not enough. Record yourself answering each question for 90 seconds and play it back. You'll notice filler words, weak structure and repeated points you'd never catch on paper.

5. Get a mock interview. MMI mock packages and panel mock packages put you in front of a current medic for structured, honest feedback.

Want 1000+ university-specific questions?

Prometheus is our paid bank: past questions from Oxford, Cambridge, KCL, Imperial and every other UK medical and dental school — with model answers, AI-marked mocks, and one-to-one tutor feedback.

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Practise these questions one at a time

Every question below has its own page: the prompt, the likely follow-ups, what strong answers do, and the same examiner rubric NextGen MedPrep tutors mark against — so you can answer it out loud and score yourself before you look.

Applying for dentistry? 485 dental school interview questions are in their own bank — manual dexterity, why dentistry over medicine, and the profession-specific ethics that come up at BDS interviews.

Frequently asked questions

What kinds of questions are asked at UK medical and dental school interviews?

UK medical and dental interviews fall into eight broad categories: motivation, work experience reflection, ethics, NHS and healthcare current affairs, personal qualities and teamwork, university-specific and academic, role-play and communication, and data interpretation.

Are MMI and panel interview questions different?

There is significant overlap, but MMIs use shorter timed stations (typically 5-8 minutes each) and emphasise role-play, ethics and communication. Panel interviews are longer (15-30 minutes), more conversational, and probe academic motivation and reflection in depth.

How do I practice these questions?

Pick a free question and answer it out loud, then mark yourself against the same examiner rubric NextGen MedPrep tutors use — a score out of 3 on each core and extra skill — and reveal the model-answer benchmark to compare. Or run the free timed 5-station mock to simulate a real circuit, then self-mark every answer.

Can I mark myself the way a real examiner would?

Yes. Click any free question to open a self-marking station that mirrors what NextGen MedPrep examiners see: core and extra skills scored 0-3 with evidence notes, an overall score out of 10, and a model-answer benchmark you can reveal to check your marking.

How many questions should I prepare for?

Aim for 50-100 well-prepared answers spanning all eight categories. The goal is not to memorise specific responses, but to develop frameworks and stories you can adapt to any related question.