1. Why do you want to do medicine?

2. What are the pros and cons of medicine?

3. What do you want to specialise in?
4. Why would you want to be a GP?
5. Why would you want to be a hospital physician?
6. Why would you want to be a surgeon?
7. What do you wish to achieve in your career in medicine, aside from clinical practice?
8. Describe some health professionals that work alongside doctors, and explain what
they do.
9. What do nurses do?
10. Why do you want to be a doctor rather than a nurse?
11. Why do you want to be a doctor rather than a physician's associate?
12. What do physiotherapists do?
13. What do counsellors do?
14. What do occupational therapists do?
15. Describe an interesting medical development in recent times.
16. In the history of medicine, what has been the most important development?
17. When you think about becoming a doctor, what do you look forward to most and
least?
18. What impact do you hope to make in the field of medicine?
19. Tell us about Hippocrates.
20. “Do you read any medical publications?
21. Why do you want to be a doctor, rather than another profession that is caring or
intellectually challenging?
22. What one question would you ask if you were interviewing others to study medicine?
What would you most like us to ask you in this interview?
23. Do you agree with the statement “medicine is a vocation”?
24. What do you think makes a good doctor?
25. What draws you to this medical school?
26. Tell us about yourself
27. What is a particular aspect of medicine that interests you?
28. What is the role of general practitioners?
29. Describe a time where a doctor inspired you
30. Tell me about a medicine-related book that you’ve read
31. What do you think interviewers should be looking for whilst interviewing?
32. What makes you unique compared to other candidates?
33. How would you dissuade someone from studying medicine?
34. How would you like your future patients to describe you as a doctor?
35. Do you have any particular experiences that you feel may help you in your medical
career?
36. Where do you see yourself in 20 years?
37. What would you do if you didn’t get a place at any medical school?
38. What would you do on a gap year to strengthen your application?
39. What is one thing that you feel is important that we know about you?
40. Why do you think people leave the medical profession?
41. What is your main strength?
42. Give three adjectives that best describe you?
43. Why should we give you a place?
44. What attributes do you have that will make you a good doctor?
45. Could you think of a situation where your communication skills made a difference to
the outcome of a situation?
46. What is your biggest weakness?
47. Are you an empathetic person?
48. Who has had a major influence on you as a person?
49. What are your main interests?
50. Give an example where you have played an effective role as a team member
51. What makes you a good team player?
52. What makes you a good team leader?
53. Why is teamwork important?
54. Do all teams need a leader?
55. What are the advantages and disadvantages of working in a team?
56. Do you work better by yourself or as part of a team?
57. Are you a leader or a follower?
58. How do you manage your time?
59. What is the difference to you between empathy and sympathy?
60. How do you tackle criticism?
61. How do you control your ego?
62. How would you give another medical student criticism?
63. How will you avoid burnout which doctors and medical students often experience?
64. What is your greatest strength?
65. How will you overcome challenges within medicine?
66. What qualities do you think you need to improve on to be a good doctor?
67. How do you think other people describe you?
68. How would you cope with the death of a patient?
69. When do you seek out help with your academics?
70. What have you gained from your hobbies?
71. Do you consider yourself a perfectionist? Why or why not?
72. Do you think academic or social intelligence is more important as a doctor?
73. What about your personality would you change?
74. Why do you think diversity is important in medicine?
75. How would you manage interacting with patients from various cultural backgrounds
that you may be unfamiliar with?
76. How good are your organisational skills?
77. How do you cope with stress?
78. Medicine requires a great deal of independent study and organisation. How will you
manage it?
79. Tell me about a non-academic project in which you were involved.
80. What positions of responsibility have you held, and what did you learn from them?
81. Give an example of a situation where you have made a mistake and how you reacted
82. Why did you choose the A Level subjects you are studying?
83. What do you think university can offer you?
84. What other societies would you like to get involved in at university?
85. Give an example of a time where you showed resilience
86. How do you tackle conflict?
87. Give an example of when you displayed good communication skills
88. Can you learn good communication skills
89. What skills do you have that you feel are needed in a doctor?
90. Why is it important to respect patient confidentiality?
91. Why is professionalism important in medicine?
92. How do you react when you make a mistake?
93. How would you apologise to a patient after making a mistake?
94. Give an example of something that you had a strong opinion on but you changed
your mind. What made you change your mind? What do you think now?
95. What do you think will be your greatest challenge in medicine?
96. Describe an event that you planned, what made it successful and how would you
improve it?
97. Do you think doctors should “feel for their patients”?
98. What is an experience that you learned a lot from?
99. What skills do you have that you feel others value in you?
100. What would you do if you were unsure of a patient’s diagnosis?
101. What did you learn from your work experience?
102. Can you tell me about a memorable situation you observed, and what you
learned from it?
103. What important qualities did you notice from doctors during your work
experience?
104. What is the reason we want our applicants to do work experience?
105. How did your work experience change your view of the NHS or medicine?
106. You shadowed a surgeon for a week, what springs to mind when you hear about
a multidisciplinary team?
107. After an operation, what is the role of the medical team in the patient’s care?
108. Apart from the operating theatre, did you shadow the surgeons in another setting
such as a clinic?
109. What are the current issues surrounding surgeries?
110. What are the challenges of being a surgeon?
111. You did work experience in a GP reception, how did you find that?
112. What do you feel about the Telephone Triage system used in many General
Practices?
113. How did you find the fact that GPs only get 10 minutes per consultation?
114. What are the challenges of being a GP?
115. Do you think more GPs should have telephone consultations as an option for
patients?
116. Do you feel that the public’s perception of GPs is misrepresentative
117. What did you notice about the skills doctors needed when they were carrying out
a patient history?
118. What did you notice about the doctors you were shadowing in their approach to
patients?
119. What were the roles of different members of the multidisciplinary team during a
ward round?
120. What challenges did you observe the doctor face whilst on work experience?
121. What is something you observed a doctor do during work experience that you
would do differently?
122. What are the challenges of being a doctor?
123. What was the most enjoyable part of your work experience?
124. Describe the doctor’s approach when they were breaking bad news
125. What is something you saw a doctor do that you feel could be improved?
126. Who is the most important member of a multidisciplinary healthcare team?
127. Is there anything about how hospitals are run that you would change?
128. What did you find surprising whilst doing your work experience?
129. What does the term “holistic care” mean to you?
130. What did the doctors do during your work experience that impressed you the
most?
131. What is something that you wish you saw in your work experience?
132. What did you hope to gain from your work experience?
133. Who inspired you the most during your work experience?
134. What is the most important skill needed to make a good history?
135. Were there any parts of your work experience that you didn’t enjoy?
136. Do you believe that euthanasia should be allowed?
137. Why is confidentiality important?
138. Can confidentiality ever be broken? If so, when can it be?
139. Should doctors be allowed to strike?
140. Should doctors be allowed to protest?
141. You are part of a medical council deciding upon allocation for a liver transplant.
There is one liver, but two patients. Patient A is a 75 year old war hero and
non-drinker. Patient B is an ex-alcoholic who is a lone parent at the age of 27. Who
should get the organ?
142. Organ donation in the UK is currently via an opt-out system, whereby by default
option is no donation. Discuss opt-out schemes, and other methods to increase
donations of organs in the UK
143. A woman who is bleeding heavily refuses to receive a blood transfusion that you
are proposing. Why do you think this might be? How would you handle the issue?
144. A man refuses treatment for a potentially life-threatening condition. What are the
ethical issues involved?
145. Do you think that Class A drugs should be legalised?
146. Do you think it should be compulsory for doctors to report to the police if their
patients use illegal drugs?
147. How do you respond and what do you feel when you see a beggar in the street?
148. What do you think about the use of animals for testing new drugs?
149. Should doctors have a role in contact sports such as boxing?
150. Do you think we should find out more about patients’ views of their doctors, their
illness or their treatments? How would you set about this?
151. Some Trusts are refusing to perform some elective operations on obese patients.
Why do you think that? Do you think it’s right?
152. Is it right that Viagra should only be available to certain groups of men?
153. Would you perform abortions as a doctor?
154. What are some pros and cons of abortion?
155. What is your feeling about euthanasia?
156. Do you think the Hippocratic oath is outdated?
157. Would you prescribe the oral contraceptive pill to a 14-year old girl who is
sleeping with her boyfriend?
158. Female infertility treatment is expensive, has a very low success rate and is even
less successful in smokers. To whom do you think it should be available?
159. How do you think doctors should treat injury or illness due to self-harm, smoking
or excess alcohol consumption?
160. With the growing problems of overpopulation should the NHS fund IVF
treatment?
161. What is a doctor’s role in ensuring a patient can make an informed decision?
162. What are the ethical issues involved when a patient under 16 wants to refuse
treatment?
163. What are the pros and cons of banning alcohol?
164. What are the four ethical pillars? Can you give examples when you have seen
these in practice?
165. Do you think marijuana should be provided free to particular patients on the
NHS?
166. Do you think alternative or complementary medicine should have an increased
role in the NHS?
167. Should vaccines be made compulsory for medical students?
168. What would you do if a patient with an STI was refusing to tell their partner about
their STI and plans to continue to have sex with this partner?
169. What issues would you consider when deciding to allocate an organ to a patient?
170. How would you react as a medical student if a patient told you only your private
information and asked you not to tell anyone?
171. What would you do as a GP, if a 13 year old patient asked you for the
contraceptive pill?
172. What would you do as a doctor, if you overheard someone on the phone in the
supermarket having a conversation about their recent symptoms and you believed
that they had cancer?
173. Do you think animal testing should be used for drug development?
174. Should doctors complain about their employer or colleagues on social media?
175. What consequences might a doctor face from whistleblowing?
176. What do you know about the Junior Doctors contract dispute?
177. Do you think it was right for doctors to go on strike?
178. What do you know about the proposals for a 7 Day NHS?
179. Should there be a 7 day NHS?
180. What can you tell me about the Charlie Gard case?
181. Name an ethical dilemma that has been raised after the case.
182. Name one consequence you think Brexit will have on the NHS?
183. What do you know about the Dr Bawa Garba case?
184. How do you think further cases like the Dr Bawa Garba case can be prevented?
185. What can you tell me about the government’s view about Mental Health?
186. How would you tackle the current mental health crisis?
187. What are the challenges of having an ageing population?
188. What do you know about the current obesity crisis?
189. Do you think the sugar tax has been effective?
190. Give a two line summary of the NHS and its role in society.
191. How does the NHS finance its services?
192. Could you tell me about the principles of the NHS that it is based on?
193. Give me two new changes to the NHS due to the Health and Social Care Act
194. Could you give me reasons why the government carried out this reform?
195. Do you support changes to the National Health Service? Why?
196. What has the reaction been to the Health and Social Care Act?
197. How can we save money on the NHS?
198. How do you think privatisation will impact the NHS?
199. What are the pros and cons of private healthcare?
200. What would you do to increase retainment of NHS staff?
201. How could artificial intelligence be utilised in healthcare?
202. Should GPs consultation time be extended to 10 minutes long each?
203. What is the role of the General Medical Council and British Medical Association?
204. Why is antibiotic resistance a global threat?
205. How does antibiotic resistance develop?
206.
207. Should wearing masks in public places e.g shops be made compulsory?
208. What measures did the government use to tackle Covid-19?
209. What do you think the government could have done more effectively to help
reduce the spread of the virus?
210. Should people be fined for breaking Covid rules e.g ignoring social distancing
rules?
211. Is it right for PCR tests from certain countries to not be accepted by the UK?
212. What is herd immunity?
213. What is an RNA vaccine?
214. Should the vaccine be made compulsory for everybody?
215. What places have been more affected by coronavirus than others?
216. Why was there a shortage of ventilators?
217. What has been the impact of coronavirus on mental health?
218. What do you think is going to be the long-term impact of coronavirus on the
NHS?
219. Do you think influencers should be used to encourage the general public to take
the vaccine?
220. What are the pros and cons of paying people to take the vaccine?
221. How would you tackle the rise in coronavirus vaccine misinformation?
222. Why do you think some people may be reluctant to get the vaccine?
223. How would you explain the importance of wearing a mask to a 10 year old child?
224. Do you think people should share coronavirus information on social media?
225. Why do you think obesity has risen during the pandemic? How would you tackle
this?
226. Should hospitals have let visitors in to see their relatives when it was clear their
relatives would pass away?
227. How do you think coronavirus has impacted the morale of healthcare workers?
228. How has coronavirus impacted your view on medicine and working in the NHS?
229. Was it right for care homes to ban visits from relatives?
230. How does politics influence healthcare?
231. Do you think it should be mandatory that the Health Secretary have a healthcare
background?
232. Should health decisions be made by the Health Secretary?
233. Who would you prioritise to get the coronavirus vaccine first?
234. What do you think will be the impact of countries hoarding vaccines?
235. Should pharmaceutical companies charge countries for the vaccine?
236. What do you think is the current greatest threat to the health of the UK
population?