Test taken: BMAT

Number of interviews: 4

Skype interview: No

Interview spread: 2, a couple of hours apart, one day; same next day

Length of interviews: about 30 minutes each

We spoke about basic science - they gave me problems / questions to work through, and it was kind of a mix of me giving suggestions and them teaching me. They weren’t expecting me to know the answers, so they guided me towards the right answers when I was getting lost or going slightly in the wrong direction. There wasn’t a particular theme, all interviews were mainly science based questions with a bit on me (ie one had one question about a sentence in my personal statement, one asked about hobbies, etc). There were a couple of questions on photos (ie: looking at an x-ray and discussing what we could see), then more general ones, eg on animal experiment ethics.

I was obviously nervous but the atmosphere in the room was encouraging - they weren’t trying to trip me up and were happy to give hints and guide me a bit if I was floundering. It was fairly formal but not too stressful! I definitely relaxed into it and by the end you almost forget you’re in an interview because you’re just having an interesting conversation about a subject you’re really interested in.

To prepare for the BMAT, I bought a book from Amazon and also used GCSE science revision guides.

I didn’t do a huge amount of prep for Oxford in particular, but for medicine generally it is very important to:
- read up on one or two health news stories / a recent study
- be able to talk about your work experience / volunteering
- be able to talk about other interests / hobbies
- be able to talk about why you would make a good doctor
- prepare for the ‘classic’ questions: 'Why do you want to do medicine?', 'Talk about a time you failed,' 'Why this particular medical school?', 'Talk about a time you led a team,' 'Talk about a time you showed teamwork skills,' etc etc (less for Oxford but definitely for other medical schools)

You need to have these things at your fingertips so you’re confident ticking these easy boxes!

If I could give my younger self advice it would be to just enjoy the opportunity to spend a few days in Oxford, and realise that the tutors aren’t looking for a genius or a finished product - they are looking for someone they want to teach and who they think they could teach. They aren’t expecting polish, just passion and evidence of interest and engagement with your subject!

I think also that there’s a reputation that Oxford interview questions are crazy off the wall, but that’s mostly not true! A lot of mine were pretty straightforward science, but it was just extrapolated and I was encouraged to use it to help me solve problems I hadn’t ever seen before. They really aren’t trying to trip you up!

You just need to be engaged, willing to have a go, and listen to the tutors - they will be giving you hints! In the end, the interview is just your tutor's way of deciding whether they want to teach you and whether they think you will suit the tutorial style of teaching, so the most important thing is to be interested and give it a go. You don’t have to know everything!