Test taken: Biomedical Admissions Test (BMAT)
Number of interviews: 2
Time between interviews: 20 minutes
Length of interviews: ~30 minutes
Online interview: No

Both of my interviews were science-based except for one or two ethics questions. The only thing they asked from my personal statement was in relation to my work experience. Each interview jumped very quickly between about ten very unrelated questions in each one, as well as follow up questions within each topic question. I was asked many questions about maths, physics, chemistry, and biology, so make sure that you revise these topics before your interview. A lot of the science questions I was asked were based on interpreting and drawing graphs and equations. The ethics questions were discussion-based and I was asked to suggest factors that would influence a certain ethical decision. The interviews were in the fellows' offices which were cosy and made the environment a lot less intimidating. The interviewers were nice but purposefully didn't give too much away.

I think the two most important things to prepare for interviews are to review your personal statement and have a good knowledge of all the subjects you mentioned on the SAQ. For example, the week before my interview I reread the book I mentioned on my personal statement so it was fresh in my mind, and I went through all my notes from Years 12 and 13. For medicine, it's also important to know the GMC guidelines for professional practice, as well as a bit about how the NHS is structured and what its core values are. It's also a good idea to make a list of some current health news stories that you can bring up in the interview if appropriate.

I found the Medic Portal website had a lot of good tips as well as a BMAT question bank. Before I started doing practice questions I went through the knowledge specification for part 2 and made sure I was familiar with everything on it. I found the best way to practice was by doing timed past papers, which are all available for free on the BMAT website.

The questions are all designed to trigger a thought process: you're not expected to know the answer straight away but are instead meant to figure it out with help from the interviewers. Basically, don't panic if you have no idea what the answer to the question is! Don't worry if the interviewers refuse to shake your hand or if they laugh at your answers, they want to see how you handle a high-pressure situation (I was quite scared of my interviewers, but now I have them as my supervisors and they're lovely, they're just putting on an act in the interviews). Walk into the interview ready to make the most of the experience, rather than feeling as if your life depends on it going well. Remember that the interviews are meant to mimic a supervision and these aren't about getting the answer right - in fact, the interviewers would much rather you made mistakes and then figured out the correct answer than if you answered everything perfectly because you memorised a textbook. The interviews are meant to assess how you think more so than what you know, so if you're passionate about you're subject and you want to learn more about it you'll be ok.