Test taken: Biomedical Admissions Test (BMAT)
Number of interviews: 4
Time between interviews: Mine were over two days (2 one afternoon and 2 the morning after) - I had a pre-specified time to be there which was a total of 26 hours
Length of interviews: 20-30 mins
Online interview: No

In my interviews, I first had icebreakers asking about where I lived and why medicine etc. In some I had some graphs I had to interpret and explain the data, one had a picture of some cells, another a bone and I was asked various questions about them. I was also asked about some work experience I had mentioned in my personal statement. I also got ethics questions in two out of the four interviews. They weren’t as scary as I was expecting when I was sitting outside the room waiting to go in! The tutors were pretty friendly and helped guide me when I got stuck, and didn’t mind if I said I wasn’t sure but proposed a potential answer. The topics we were talking about were really interesting and the interviews went much faster than any of my others at different medical schools even though their stations were shorter!

I looked over my A-Level notes briefly and my personal statement more thoroughly. I also make sure I’d read the news regarding medicine the week before to know about current topics. I also had some practice interviews arranged at my sixth form which I think were the most helpful as they helped me prepare to say my answers out loud and work through my thinking with new concepts and ideas. If a mock interview can’t be arranged, even looking at past questions with friends/peers and going through what you’d say can massively help start to get used to the interview process. One of the most important things is saying all your thoughts out loud and being able to change your mind if you are given new information or you think of something else so explaining all your answers is good to practice.

I had a book of practice questions, I also used my online revision for the UCAT (which I did first) from a website called Medify for section 1. I used the specific BMAT syllabus to revise for the science section (section 2) as well as my A Level subjects and because I didn’t do A Level physics, I went back to GCSE level for that. For the essay, I think writing essay plans for past questions was really useful. Overall, it was mainly doing practice questions and papers, first to understand the question types and how to do them, and then in timed conditions to be able to do them in the short time given

I think the main things are speaking all your thoughts aloud, whether or not you think they are right and working through things in a logical order. It is also okay to start simple when answering the question and getting more detailed when you work out more information and have had more time to consider the question. Tutors are also not looking to trip you up or catch you out which I think is one of the biggest misconceptions - they will guide you in the right direction if you need help but also don't be alarmed if some tutors just sit there and don't say anything. There's no way to know what they're thinking so once you're done with your interview, just move on to the next one and don't agonise over anything (too much, as I know this is way harder than it sounds). Finally, just make sure you know everything in your personal statement as they could ask you about anything on it just to be prepared as this is stuff that you've done/read, so you should be able to explain any of it pretty well!