Interview Format
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Exeter Medical School uses Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI) to determine whether applicants possess the non-academic qualities they are looking for such as:

• Good communication skills,
• Evidence of reflectiveness (insight into their own strengths and weakness)
• Decision-making skills
• Teamwork skills
• Evidence of the empathy required to become a successful doctor.

The MMI has seven stations, each lasting three minutes with generally three questions per station. There are three minutes in between stations which allows candidates time to move to the next station. There is no group work or written test, as this is not an academic interview. Candidates may be required to complete one role play station, which has one question. Each candidate is awarded a Yes / No judgement at each station based on the assessor’s judgement of whether the candidate has the necessary personal qualities and attributes to be a medical student at Exeter Medical School.

Before the Interview​​

As with any interview, it is all about managing the interviewer’s perception of you and painting yourself in the best light possible. With MMI’s you have multiple chances to impress/manage the perceptions of the interviewers. Therefore, it is essential that you treat each station as a new opportunity to showcase your skills, irrespective of how well the previous stations have gone.

• Practice verbalising the reasons for you studying medicine and why you have chosen Exeter over other universities.
• Consider any work experience you have undertaken. While Exeter University does not deem this essential to your entry, the skills you have learnt from it may assist your interview responses and help you to illustrate your answers in a mature way.
• Keep up-to-date with current health, NHS and scientific issues in the media.
• At Exeter Medical School, they focus on four key areas for research: Diabetes, Cardiovascular Risk and Ageing, Environment and Human Health, Health Services Research, Neuroscience and Mental Health, ensure that you are familiar with each of these domains.

Historical Interview Questions

The following interview questions have been used in Exeter Medical School panel interviews before their change to the current MMI format and are useful for practice purposes.

Why medicine/Exeter?

1. Why do you want to gain acceptance to this particular medical school?
2. Why do you want to be a doctor?
3. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Background/Personal Statement

1. Tell me about a challenge in your life and how you overcame it?
2. What would you do if you were not accepted to medical school?
3. How do your peers describe you?
4. How do you handle stress?
5. What do you do in your spare time?
6. What book have you recently read? What did you learn?
7. Looking over your application, I see you have received an under performing grade? Explain?
8. Who is the most influential person in your life? And why?

Work Experience

1. Tell me about your volunteering experience?
2. What exposure do you have to medicine? Tell me about a clinical experience

Attributes of a Good Doctor

1. What are the qualities that make a good doctor and do you have them?

Science/Medical Questions

1. What is the Hippocratic Oath?
2. What do you like most/ least about medicine?
3. What role does research play in medicine? Have you engaged in any research projects? Tell me about them?

Ethical Questions

1. What do you do in a situation where a 15-year-old teenager is asking for birth control?
2. Tell me about the Terri Schiavo case and what do you think about it?
3. What is your stance on euthanasia, abortion, stem cell research or Jehovah Witness?

NHS/Topical Issues

1. What are the current challenges in current health care and what can we do to improve it?
2. How do you feel about ‘Doctor Compensation’?