Photo by Olga Kononenko on Unsplash
Carla Wilson, graduate
We asked Carla to share her experience of applying for Graduate Entry Medicine courses. Carla graduated from BSc Sport and Exercise Science in July 2025 and is now working and travelling before hopefully starting GEM in September.
What interview questions were you asked?
I can't be too specific about the questions - most med schools will ask you not to share them - but what I will say is that in my interview they definitely put the emphasis on getting to know the individual and examining personal attributes.
There were almost no questions that demanded rehearsed answers, as most were framed in a hypothetical scenario and usually from a student's perspective rather than as a doctor.
Roughly, the themes included:
- experiences of teamwork and leadership (when/how)
- integrity, including how you respond to a situation and justifying why
- hypothetical response to being put in awkward or stressful situations
- discussing work experiences
- role play; this could be apatient interaction or framed with you as a medical student
If you can, try to find out how long each station is going to be for your interview. For mine, they allowed three minutes' preparation per station to read the prompt and think it through, followed by eight minutes with each interviewer.
This was made clear on their website beforehand, so it was good to practice with those timeframes. Some medical schools are also very transparent about which attributes they are looking for/will examine so look out for these as it's a great starting point to jot down some ideas - more on this later.
How did you prepare?
In terms of learning 'content', I did far more preparation on 'NHS hot topics' and medical ethics than was required in the end. Other medical schools may evaluate students differently, so it’s important to be up to date on current issues regardless of what you expect to be asked on the day. For me personally, it got my head in the zone, and gave me the confidence that I could handle it if it did come up so I'd say it was worth it.
There was one instance where I was able to slot in the four pillars of medical ethics so I think this is still essential knowledge to have in your back pocket.
The same goes for preparing the 'why medicine' type questions - it didn't come up for me but I wanted to have a bulletproof answer that I could deliver without hesitation. was a great starting place for researching topics and knowing where to look for a 'syllabus' and practice questions. I paid for a subscription for a few weeks but in all honesty there wasn't anything special there that I couldn't have found for free on one of the open sites.
Preparing responses
When it came to preparing responses, a friend (current GEM student) sent me her question bank with various question types (attribute, experience and opinion/ethical based).
I first worked through them all by planning or writing out answers and then graduated to answering in person with her.
This is why I say the University’s interview guidance was a useful starting point because even before I had the question bank, I could jot down ideas about times when I have demonstrated empathy, integrity, teamwork etc. and use them in almost every answer.
Practise with someone else to build confidence
By far the best thing I did was practising my answers with somebody else. At first it made me squirm, but it was invaluable in building my confidence. With practice, I could organise my thoughts more effectively and use the prep time more to my advantage.
Although I said most of the questions you couldn't rehearse, jotting down ideas in the beginning definitely helped me to apply my experiences and demonstrate certain attributes more easily than if I'd had to dig in the back of my head for them on the spot.
Once I was more confident she also grilled me on the opinion and ethics questions so I was prepared for tough questions that might trip me up; particularly how to navigate them in a neutral position that acknowledges both sides of the argument but ultimately demonstrates a clear stance on the issue (for example, abortion, assisted dying and so on).
What advice would you give to students based on your experience?
1. Practise
It doesn't even matter particularly what the questions are but practise organising your thoughts (at first on paper, and then in your head only) as this will make you appear calm, collected and thoughtful to the interviewer. It will help you to explore all areas of the question in a coherent manner.
You have time before the station, and three minutes is longer than you think – especially when you’re prepared!. Practise using the timeframes indicated by the specific medical school if possible.
2. Eight minutes is also longer than you think
But generally, the interviewers will ask follow-up questions so don't force yourself to practice an eight-minute monologue. Plus, the follow-ups are clearly scripted so if you make a slight blunder they won't dig it up too much or interrogate you on it, or at least they didn't for me.
3. No doubt it's a stressful experience, but the interviewers aren't there to make you fail.
Don't be afraid of them, and don't let it throw you off if they are icy towards you (this is probably a test in itself). The beauty of multiple mini interview (MMI) format is that you get several fresh starts.
4. Do practice answering several questions in a row as the mental fatigue and anxiety will take a toll on the day.
If you need to, it's worth using 15 to 30 seconds of your preparation time to calm yourself and focus before diving into the questions
If you're interested in Graduate Entry Medicine, visit our webpage and book an appointment with a careers adviser.
Posted on Tuesday 28th April 2026