The Recorded Online MMI
SAMMI is a multiple mini interview with nobody on the other end. A video reads you each question, its text appears, and you answer to your webcam against a timer. Three UK medical schools interview this way.
Photo: Peter Trimming / Geograph Britain and Ireland · CC BY-SA 2.0 · cropped
Photo: Peter Trimming / Geograph (via Wikimedia Commons) · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Photo: Ввласенко · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Photo: Photograph by Mike Peel ( www.mikepeel.net ). · CC BY-SA 4.0
SAMMI stands for Scalable Automated Multiple Mini Interviews. It is an online multiple mini interview (MMI) run on the Sammi-Select platform, a company spun out of the University of Surrey, and it takes the live interviewer away. Each question is a short pre-recorded video, its text then appears on screen, and you record your answer to your webcam while a timer runs. Nobody reacts, interrupts or asks a follow-up.
You sit it at home, at a time you choose within the school’s window, but all in one go. Your recordings are watched and scored afterwards, each answer on its own, just as each station of a live MMI is scored on its own.
Three UK medical schools interview on SAMMI: City St George’s, University of London for its five-year MBBS (A100), and the two medical schools that opened in September 2026, Hertfordshire and St Mary’s University, Twickenham, which are taking international applicants only for now. Outside the UK, Griffith University in Australia uses it for medicine and dentistry.
In a 2019–20 trial on physician associate courses at two UK universities and one in the US, volunteers who sat the automated interview twice, about a week apart, scored consistently: a test–retest reliability of 0.82.
Students and admissions staff found it acceptable, and staff saw it cutting cost and bias, on the condition that people stay involved in selection somewhere along the way.
Each question is a separate sample, marked on its own. That is the idea behind every MMI: many short, independent judgements give a fairer picture than one long conversation.
The published evaluation is a small feasibility study of 62 students, and some of its authors co-founded Sammi-Select, so treat it as a first look rather than a verdict.
Every school sends its own guide and login, and sets its own number of questions and minutes. The rhythm on screen is the same everywhere.
Your school emails a SAMMI login and the dates you must finish by: Hertfordshire gives 14 days from the invitation. Take it early in the window, so a technical problem still leaves time to sort it out with admissions.
A short video from the school, a microphone and camera check, then a practice question. The practice answer is recorded only to test your upload and is deleted afterwards, and you can repeat the practice stage as many times as you like.
When you press Start your interview, you get a 25-second break before the first question. From here the interview runs straight through: you cannot pause it or come back later.
A pre-recorded video plays: a member of the university community reads the question aloud. When the video ends the question appears on screen in text bubbles, and that is your cue to start.
A green progress bar shows the time left: four minutes per question at Hertfordshire, about five at St George’s and St Mary’s. A notice appears when less than half remains, and the recording carries on for a few seconds after the timer.
The question box says “Break” for a minute, then the next question plays on its own. Finished questions turn green in the progress bar at the top.
Your answers upload, which can take up to 15 minutes, and your browser saves a backup copy of every answer. Keep those files until you have a decision: the school may ask for them if the upload failed.
SAMMI starts with a practice question, and so can you. One of our interviewers reads a question once, the text appears, and you answer to your camera against the green bar. Your video stays on this device, and afterwards you can watch yourself back.
Read aloud once, then shown as text
The question appears here
In SAMMI you only see the text once the question has been read aloud.
Turn your sound on. Your video stays on this device.
For St George’s, Hertfordshire and St Mary’s, our AI interviewer runs a SAMMI, not a conversation. It keeps the school’s own number of questions and answer time, and afterwards you get a marked debrief on every answer.
6 questions · 5 min each · 60-second breaks
Practise this SAMMI7 questions · 4 min each · 60-second breaks
Practise this SAMMI8 questions · 5 min each · 60-second breaks
Practise this SAMMIQuestions come from our interview question bank, hand-written by current medical and dental students and matched to each school’s published themes. They are practice questions, never the school’s own.
The schools that interview on SAMMI for 2027 entry, with the format each one publishes. Details a school does not publish are left out.
| School | Questions | Time per question | The sitting | Who sits it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| City St George's, University of London Five-year MBBS (A100) | Questions6 | Time per questionAbout 5 min | The sittingAllow up to 1 hour | Who sits itA100 applicants. Graduate-entry (A101) interviews are live MMIs, not SAMMI. |
| University of Hertfordshire Five-year MBBS (first cohort September 2026) | Questions7 | Time per question4 min | The sittingAbout 50 min Within 14 days of invitation | Who sits itInternational applicants only for 2027 entry. |
| St Mary's University, Twickenham Five-year MBBS (first cohort September 2026) | Questions8 | Time per question5 min | The sittingAbout 1 h 30 min 26 Jan – 3 Feb 2026 (last cycle) | Who sits itInternational applicants only: home applicants are withdrawn. |
The questions test the same qualities. What changes is everything around them, and that changes how you should answer.
| Live MMI | SAMMI | |
|---|---|---|
| Who asks the question | Live MMIAn assessor or actor, in the room or on Zoom | SAMMIA pre-recorded video, then on-screen text |
| Follow-up questions | Live MMIYes: prompts, probes and new information | SAMMINone. Your answer has to stand on its own |
| Reading time | Live MMIOften a minute or two at the door | SAMMINone: you answer once the text appears |
| Keeping time | Live MMIThe assessor or a bell | SAMMIA green bar, and a notice at half time |
| When and where | Live MMIA set date, on campus or online | SAMMIAt home, any time in the window, in one sitting |
| Marking | Live MMILive, station by station | SAMMIAfterwards, from the recording, answer by answer |
| What it rewards most | Live MMIConversation, listening and rapport | SAMMIStructure and pacing, with nobody to rescue you |
The themes the schools publish, each with a practice question written for this guide and a way in. The schools do not release their own questions.
Tests: A realistic, reflective reason, backed by something you have done or seen.
Approach: Two or three reasons, each with an experience behind it, and one hard part of the job you have thought about.
Hertfordshire and St George’s both list motivation; Hertfordshire also expects your work experience and personal statement to come up.
Tests: Whether you put the other person first and explain things plainly.
Approach: With no actor in a SAMMI, describe what you would do and say: find out what worries them, acknowledge it, explain simply and check they have understood.
Communication is named by all three schools, and empathy by St George’s and St Mary’s.
Tests: Balanced reasoning that reaches a justified decision.
Approach: Say what is at stake for each person, weigh honesty and patient safety against loyalty, reach a decision and say how you would handle the conversation.
St Mary’s assesses ethical reasoning and decision-making; St George’s ethical reasoning.
Tests: That you can work with others and learn from it.
Approach: Use a real example, keep the situation short, spend most of the time on what you did and what you would do differently.
St Mary’s lists teamwork among the skills its interview assesses.
Tests: A clear method for weighing options under pressure.
Approach: Lay out the options, who each affects and what you could do to soften the cost, then commit to one and give your reason.
All three schools name problem-solving.
Tests: Honest insight, not a disguised strength.
Approach: Pick a genuine mistake, own your part, and spend at least half your time on what you changed afterwards.
St Mary’s assesses professionalism; reflective questions are the usual way in.
With nobody to steer you, the shape of your answer has to come from you. Here is one way to spend five minutes; for four, trim the middle.
Put the window just under your webcam and look at the camera while you speak, glancing at the text bubbles only between points. Assessors see the recording, not your screen.
A pause to think is fine; a minute of silence is not. If you finish early, add the other side of the argument or a reflection rather than stopping cold.
There is no assessor to bring you back if you drift, so a prepared answer that misses the question stays missed. Restating the question first keeps you honest.
It is easy to go flat with no one nodding. Imagine one friendly assessor behind the lens and talk to them, at a steady pace, in full sentences.
Need adjustments? Ask the school when you are invited: Hertfordshire wants requests within seven days of the invitation, and SAMMI has a settings toolbar for agreed accommodations.
The schools’ own pages, a SAMMI applicant guide for the on-screen flow, and the published study of the platform.
Run your school’s SAMMI with the AI interviewer: every question read once, the real timer, and a marked debrief on every answer. Or book a mock interview with a tutor.
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