If your medical school interview is this week, give each day one job. Five days before, confirm the format (MMI or panel, how many stations, timing, online or in person) and re-read your personal statement. Four days before, write five short stories from your own experience, each with a line of reflection, and a one-minute answer to “why medicine?”. Three days before, practise each station type: ethics, role-play, current issues and any teamwork or data stations. Two days before, run a timed mock out loud and record it. The day before, do light practice only. On the day, use reading time to find the real question, and let each station go before the next.
By interview week your grades, admissions test and personal statement are fixed. What is left is how you think and communicate out loud under time pressure, which is what interview stations are designed to test. Most candidates prepare by reading lists of questions. The ones who do well have said their answers aloud, against a clock, and heard themselves back. The plan below starts five days out; if you have less time, the section after it says what to keep.
Five days before
Know exactly what format you are walking into
- 1.Read the school's interview page and any email they sent: MMI or panel, in person or online, how many stations, how long each lasts, and whether there is reading time before each one. Schools differ, and the format decides how you practise.
- 2.Re-read your personal statement and application line by line. Anything you wrote is fair game, and a vague answer about your own work experience is the easiest way to lose a station.
- 3.Read what the school says about its course and values: teaching style, early clinical contact, any community or rural focus. You will need one specific reason for this school, not medicine in general.
Four days before
Build your stories
- 1.Write five short stories from your own experience, each a few lines: a time you worked in a team, a time you made a mistake, something you saw in work experience or volunteering that changed your view of medicine, a time you handled pressure, and a time you cared for or supported someone.
- 2.For each story, add one sentence on what you learned and how it applies to being a doctor. Reflection is what interviewers listen for; the event itself matters less.
- 3.Write your answer to 'why medicine?' in about a minute of speech. Ground it in something you saw or did, and avoid the lines every candidate uses about wanting to help people and loving science.
Three days before
Practise the station types
- 1.Ethics: use a simple structure. State the dilemma, consider the patient's wishes and best interests, consider fairness and safety for others, say what you would do and who you would involve, and acknowledge that reasonable people could disagree. The four principles of autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice give you the vocabulary.
- 2.Role-play with an actor: practise opening with an open question, listening before solving, naming the emotion you see ('it sounds like this has been really worrying'), and checking what they need. The station is usually scored on how you communicate, not whether you fix the problem.
- 3.Current issues: know two or three healthcare topics in the news in your country, and be able to give both sides of each in under two minutes.
- 4.Teamwork, prioritisation and data stations: if your school uses them, do one practice example of each so the format is not new on the day.
Two days before
Run timed stations out loud
- 1.Run a full mock: a set of stations at your school's timing, with the reading time, answering out loud to a friend, family member or camera. Do not stop between stations; recovering from a bad station is part of the test.
- 2.Record yourself and watch back two stations. Look for rambling past the point, a voice that rises into a question at the end of statements, and moments you looked away from the interviewer.
- 3.If your interview is online, do this run on the device, camera position and room you will use on the day.
The day before
Light practice, logistics, sleep
- 1.Do one or two stations only, ideally ethics and 'why medicine', then stop. Cramming new topics the day before adds anxiety, not marks.
- 2.Plan the journey with time to spare, or test the link, camera and microphone if online. Lay out clothes, ID and any documents the school asked for.
- 3.Re-read your five stories once and your personal statement once, then put them away.
The hour before, and between stations
Reset every time
- 1.Arrive early, have water, and say a few sentences aloud so your first words in the interview are not the first words you have spoken that day.
- 2.Use reading time to find the actual question, decide your first sentence, and note two points you must cover. Do not try to script the whole answer.
- 3.Between stations, take one slow breath and let the last station go. Each one is usually marked by a different interviewer, so a weak station does not follow you into the next room.
If the interview is in two days
Spend the first evening on the format, your personal statement, your five stories and “why medicine?”. On the second day, run one ethics and one role-play station out loud with a timer, record one, and watch it back once. Stop by early evening. The steps never worth dropping are knowing the format, saying answers aloud against the clock, and re-reading your own statement.
What each station is really testing
| Station | What they are testing | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|
| Why medicine / why here | Realistic motivation and research into the school | Generic lines about helping people |
| Work experience | Reflection on what you saw | Describing tasks instead of what you learned |
| Ethics | Balanced reasoning | Jumping to one answer without weighing the other side |
| Role-play | Empathy and listening | Solving the problem before understanding the person |
| Teamwork / prioritisation | Judgement and safety | Not saying when you would ask for help |
| Current issues | Awareness and nuance | One-sided opinions stated as fact |
Where recorded practice fits
Short stations reward a clear first sentence and a steady pace, and you cannot judge either from inside your own head. The recorded mock two days before shows where you ramble past the point or lose eye contact, which are the habits that cost marks across every station. Record it, watch two stations, fix two things, and stop. The method is the same one in how to practise interview answers out loud. If you are applying for an NHS job rather than a place at medical school, use the NHS interview countdown instead.
Key takeaways
- Confirm the exact format first: MMI or panel, station count, timing, online or in person.
- Re-read your personal statement; anything in it can be asked about.
- Prepare five short stories, each with one line of reflection on what it taught you about medicine.
- Use a balanced structure for ethics, and listen before solving in role-play.
- Run a timed mock out loud two days before and record it; light practice only the day before.
- Use reading time to find the real question, and let each station go before the next.