Medicine @ Merton, Oxford in 2017

Interview format

5x 10-20 min interviews, over 2 days

Interview content

Open-ended science questions, inference from diagrams / graphs, personal statement, NHS

Best preparation

Used online resources; practised questions found online with parents

Advice in hindsight

-

Final thoughts

Try to relax before interviews.

Remember this advice isn't official. There is no guarantee it will reflect your experience because university applications can change between years. Check the official Cambridge and Oxford websites for more accurate information on this year's application format and the required tests.

Also, someone else's experience may not reflect your own. Most interviews are more like conversations than tests and like, any conversation, they are quite interactive.

Interview Format

Test taken: BMAT

Number of interviews: 5

Skype interview: No

Interview spread: 3 first day at one college, 2 next day at different college

Length of interviews: 10-20 minutes each

What happened in your interview? How did you feel?

Each interview was quite different, but they mainly consisted of the interviewer asking me an open ended question related to science, or showing me a diagram/graph and asking me to infer certain information. It was more about seeing how I thought through the problems and how I could apply high school biology and chemistry principles; they didn't really need you to know any higher level stuff.

One of the five interviews asked about my personal statement and some experience I'd had running a social initiative.

One of the interviewers also asked questions about the NHS.

How did you prepare?

Online resources - The Medic Portal is great!

I Googled and looked at online forums and websites that described the typical Medicine interview experience. I also practised the common questions I found with my parents.

What advice do you have for future applicants?

Looking back, what advice would you give to your past self?

I'm not sure medicine interviews at Oxford can really be prepared for as they don't really ask you the typical "Why medicine?' type questions, so you should just be ready to think on your feet and get comfortable being in a relatively high pressured environment.

I would just relax before the interview and not prepare much.