MyUCAT Interview Programme

BASED ON HISTORICAL DATA, WE GUARANTEE THAT ALL PARTICIPANTS IN THE SUPREME/ULTIMATE PACKAGES WILL CONVERT AT LEAST ONE DENTAL SCHOOL INTERVIEW TO AN OFFER - IF NOT, A FULL 100% REFUND!

• Expert-led guidance: instruction by experienced dentists and dental students in a combination of large and small group sessions, ensuring tailored and up-to-date interview preparation for 2025 entry!

• Assigned to a group of 5-6 students applying to similar universities who will work together to ace their medical interviews

• Each group is assigned their own personal 'Interview Buddy' = a student or graduate from your top choice university who will offer assistance around-the-clock across the duration of the programme

• Regular meetings with your 'Interview Buddies,' arranged at times of mutual convenience each week - these will be very interactive, covering bespoke practice with opportunities to develop your communication skills. This will be particularly tailored to questions requiring personalisation like role-play/personal attributes/motivations to pursue dentistry

• Tutors successfully holding offers from all the following dental schools: Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Dundee, Glasgow, KCL, KCL (Graduate), Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Plymouth, Queen Mary, Queen's Belfast, Sheffield

  • • Students are all expected to actively participate to simulate interviews as closely as possible!

TOTAL: 17+ hours of support and assistance

Disclaimer: to be eligible for the guarantee, students must attend all preparation sessions offered or view recordings of all sessions, attend a dental school interview + remain engaged with their Interview Buddies™ throughout the programme. 

INTERVIEW PREPARATION CURRICULUM - DENTISTRY

Large group lessons will be run as follows:

In these sessions, you will be given the opportunity to answer questions & debate about all of the below!

Important Notice: 

While large group sessions have fixed timings, timings for small groups are approximate only. These will be arranged at a time of mutual convenience between members of the group and the group mentor. 

Week 1 

Session 1, Small Group: Motivations for Dentistry  [Approx. 17/11/2024; 1 hr+]

• Discussing how to respond to the question 'why dentistry?' 

  • • Including follow-ups e.g. why not medicine/allied healthcare

• Exploring the concept of reflection in dental school interviews

• Covering how to reflect on your work experience or volunteering, including how to structure answers, important buzzwords and exactly what to pick up on!

• Exploring some of the challenges of a dental career that you may have witnessed and how to discuss them

Week 2

Session 2, Large Group: Dental Ethics & Hot Topics I  [Fixed timings - 4pm, 23/11/2024; 1.5-2 hrs]

• NHS vs private practice

• Payments and bandings/UDAs

• General Dental Services (GDS) contract & need for reform

• 'Minimally-invasive dentistry' and respecting patient preferences

• Mental health in dentistry

Session 3, Small Group: Personal Qualities and Attributes  [Approx. 24/11/2024; 1 hr+]

• Outlining the most important qualities of a dentist (including, though not limited to, the 9 Outcomes from the General Dental Council) and how you can demonstrate them in your interviews

• Preparing answers for all the most common personal-attribute questions (including pre-session work)

  • • E.g. communication/teamwork/leadership/empathy/greatest strength/greatest weakness/'give an example of a time that you made a mistake'

• Manual dexterity - how to demonstrate this; what may questions look like?

Week 3

Session 4, Large Group: Dental Ethics & Hot Topics II  [Fixed timings - 4pm, 30/11/2024; 1.5-2 hrs]

• Antibiotic resistance 

• Phase-down of dental amalgam

• Benefits and drawbacks of a sugar tax

• Water fluoridation & public health

Session 5, Small Group: Situational Judgement  [Approx. 1/12/2024; 1 hr+]

• GDC 'Standards for the Dental Team'

  • 9 GDC Principles (recap)

  • Conduct as a dentist & role of the GDC

• Academic dishonesty 

• Patients giving gifts

• Discrimination

• Framework to answer SJT-type questions 

Week 4

Session 6, Large Group: Dental Ethics & Hot Topics III  [Fixed timings - TBC ~2pm, 7/12/2024; 1.5-2 hrs]

• Structure of a dental appointment

  • Analysing a video of a patient/dentist consultation gone wrong - discussing what makes an ideal interaction

  • Members of the dental health team

• Role of preventative care

  • Role of dental teams in smoking cessation

• Dental treatments and illnesses

  • Common conditions e.g. scale/polish, restoration filling, root canal, extraction, veneer/brace

  • Common illnesses e.g. oral cancers, acid erosion, periodontal disease

  • Tooth whitening & safe practices

Session 7, Small Group: Roleplays  [Approx. 8/12/2024; 1 hr+]

• Breaking bad news clinically e.g. oral cancer - SPIKES framework, ICE (ideas, concerns and expectations)

• Conflict resolution

• Other common scenarios e.g. confidentiality/lost pet/smoking cessation/weight loss/worried relative

Week 5

Session 8, Large Group: Dental Ethics & Hot Topics IV  [Fixed timings - 4pm, 14/12/2024; 1.5-2 hrs]

• Training and career pathways in dentistry

• Continuous Professional Development (CPD) 

• Future of dentistry (including digital dentistry and teledentistry)

• Dentistry and COVID-19

• Dentistry and the cost of living crisis

Session 9, Small Group: University-Specific  [Approx. 15/12/2024]

• Rotate between break-out rooms for all 4 of your dental school choices, receiving university-specific advice from a dental student at your top choice university!

Week 6 

Session 10, Large Group: Mock Interview with Ojas  [Fixed timings - 4pm, 21/12/2024; 1.5-2 hrs]

• Covering everything above to test your knowledge and skills in an interview style!

• Prizes to be won (!) 

Session 11, Small Group: Communication Skills & The Unexpected  [Approx. 22/12/2024; 1hr+]

• How to systematically tackle unexpected questions on the day

• Task based questions & communication skills (e.g. describe a photo/20 questions to guess an object/give step-by-step instructions to tie a shoelace)

AND 

Book at discounted price 4 x 1-1, 1 hour university-specific interview practice sessions (OR) mock 1-1 MMI (OR) mock 1-1 panel interview   

• Recommended: attend these in January after the course is complete for realistic simulation 

• Alternative: use these sessions to get ahead on course content for any interviews before the completion of the course in mid-December  

Note: this will be an interactive format. Students will be encouraged to have microphones + cameras on for durations of the class (no pressure though!) 

Can't make these dates? Not to worry - the classes will all be recorded & hosted on our secure Google Classroom platform. For privacy reasons, these will not be shared widely (e.g. YouTube/offered for sale) and will only be available to those that sign up now. 

An opportunity for Q&A will be presented both during & at the end of each webinar. You may also share questions with your MyUCAT Interview Buddy™. 

FAQ: What do I do after purchase?

• Please fill in this form 

• Please do not fill in the form before/without making a purchase!

  • • This may cause delays for everyone & unnecessary and avoidable stress for our admin team

• The Zoom link will be shared with everyone at once, around a week before programme launch

• If you have not yet been allocated your mentors, please wait until the deadline 16/11/2024 before reaching out

FAQ: Are there still any places available?

• Yes, if you are seeing the purchase links above, there are places available!

• If you have purchased the programme, please note that your payment has been registered and a spot has been allocated, even if someone does not reach out to you immediately 

• It may be tricky to immediately reach out to everyone on launch day - information about your mentor allocation will arrive in the next week upcoming

  • • We will wait for all spots to be given out so that you are matched to the most appropriate groups

FAQ: When does this programme start?

• Mentors will be assigned on the 16th of November. You will meet mentors on Zoom and attend your first session shortly after this. 

FAQ: When does this programme end?

• We will have covered all the important areas and content by mid-December 2024

• If anyone wants more communication skills practice in February/March, we can explore launching more sessions 

• This will be something offered later in the year