Test taken: BMAT

Number of interviews: 4

Skype interview: No

Interview spread: 2, about 2 hours apart, at one college; then 2, also about 2 hours apart, at another college

Length of interviews: less than 20 minutes each

Each interview was slightly different, but were all based on chatting about questions, and never arriving to a definite answer.

At the first college, I had one interview which focused more on ethical ideas, being given a scenario at a GPs and talking through the issues with the examiners, as well as asking a little about my experiences with work experience and school.

In the second interview I was asked to imagine and think about several hypothetical questions about the future of medicine and genetics.

In all of my interviews I was at some point shown a graph or picture and asked to explain, to my knowledge, a little about it. These were then discussed with the interviewers, and they gave me extra information and if that would change my thoughts. At first it was a bit nerve wracking, but the style of the interviewers was much more chatty than I'd expected.

At the second college, I also had two interviews.

The first asked me questions about my personal statement, and my experience at school, and was more focused on personality, and we talked about my hobbies and interests more than in other interviews.

The second was more science based, as in they gave me diagrams and asked me questions about these. They also allowed me to steer the conversation a bit more, asking questions about what interested me most in medicine, and about the books or articles I'd read recently. All the questions in all interviews were really open, there weren't any right or wrong answers, and it was mainly about my opinions and first impressions. A lot of the time they'd pick up on something I'd said and then ask me another question about that, and it kind of flowed pretty naturally from one topic to another.

I took practice BMAT papers that I found online, as well as keeping up with newspapers and current medical news to help with the essay section.

I also read example essays, and reviewed some physics, chemistry and biology that I'd done in school.

I re-read my personal statement the night before, and thought about questions that they could ask about my work experience and stuff like that. I'd read a couple of books that I'd mentioned in my personal statement, so I recapped them in my head and what I'd found interesting about them. I prepared much more for the BMAT than the interview, but I did ask one of my teachers to do a 'practice interview', which, although it was pretty different to my actual interviews, helped with the pre interview nerves!

I think the best advice I've got for people about to have an interview or to apply is to focus on what interests you. If you find something interesting, so will your interviewers, and they're really looking for enthusiasm for the subject among other things. I didn't expect the interviewers to be as relaxed and chatty as they were, but I'd say, apart from the serious nervousness, its actually pretty fun. Some of the questions I got asked were interesting to think about, and talk about to people who know a lot about them. So try to relax, don't go crazy trying to learn loads of information, and try to enjoy yourself!