What will your interviews ask?Practise the right questions for each medical school.

What they look for. Self-awareness: your strengths and weaknesses, how you cope with pressure and failure, and whether you have the qualities of a good doctor.

How to practise. List three strengths and one genuine weakness with evidence for each, plus a setback you can reflect on without sounding rehearsed.

What they look for. A motivation for medicine that is specific, tested against real experience and honest about the downsides of the job.

How to practise. Rehearse a two-minute answer built on one or two moments you can talk about in detail, then stress-test it with "why not nursing?" follow-ups.

What they look for. Academic curiosity: how you approach research and evidence, and how you reason through an unfamiliar problem.

How to practise. Be ready to explain any research you have done in plain language: the question, your role, the result and what you would do next.

What they look for. That you know the school’s mission, curriculum and patient population, and can say how you would contribute to them.

How to practise. Write three school-specific reasons per interview: one about the curriculum, one about the community it serves and one about you.

What they look for. Balanced reasoning through a dilemma: weighing both sides, applying the core principles and landing on a safe, justified decision.

How to practise. Practise talking through consent, confidentiality, capacity and resource allocation out loud, using a structure such as "identify, explore, decide, safeguard".

What they look for. A grounded view of the US health system: insurance and access, costs, workforce and the issues in the news.

How to practise. Keep a running list of five current stories with a two-sided summary of each, and practise giving a balanced opinion in under two minutes.

What they look for. A track record of service and a sense of the community you want to serve as a future physician or dentist.

How to practise. Pick your most sustained service activity and practise explaining what it taught you about the people you served.

What they look for. Reflection, not description: what you saw, what it taught you about the job and how it changed your view.

How to practise. Turn each placement or volunteering role into one short story with a clear lesson about patients, teams or yourself.

What they look for. Evidence that you work well in a team, can lead when needed and handle conflict without blame.

How to practise. Prepare two STAR examples, one where you led and one where you followed, each ending with what you would do differently.

What they look for. Communication with an actor or patient: listening, acknowledging feelings, explaining clearly and agreeing a next step.

How to practise. Run timed role plays with a friend playing an upset patient, relative or colleague, and get marked on empathy as well as content.

What they look for. Calm, structured thinking: reading a graph or table, doing quick calculations, prioritising and explaining your reasoning as you go.

How to practise. Practise interpreting simple graphs and prioritisation tasks against the clock, narrating your thinking aloud.

What they look for. Awareness of health inequity and of how background, culture and access shape patients’ care, plus how you would serve a diverse population.

How to practise. Prepare an example of working with people unlike you and a view on one cause of inequity you have seen first-hand.

What they look for. How you behave in a group while assessors watch: contributing, listening, drawing others in and helping the group decide.

How to practise. Practise a timed group discussion with friends and focus on summarising and including quieter voices rather than winning.