INTERVIEW PREPARATION CURRICULUM - MEDICINE

Note - this is a medical interviews course. A separate programme for dental applicants with small-group preparation, supplemented by a one-off, one-day interview course, will be launched in the next couple of weeks!

Large group lessons will be run as follows:

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

Week 1 

Saturday, 19th October - 6.00-7.30 PM     [Intro]

• Learn about the structure of an MMI, and how this differs from a group or a panel-style interview

• Observe a demonstrative mock interview with one of our expert medical student volunteers

• Create a plan for your medical interview preparation

• Meet your university-specific mentors

Sunday 20th October - 11-12.30 PM     [Reflecting on Work Experience]

• Exploring the concept of reflection in medical school interviews

• Covering how to discuss 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 medical career that you may have witnessed and how to discuss them

• Learning about the members of the multidisciplinary team

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

Week 2

Saturday, 26th October - 6.00-7.30 PM     [Personal Attributes]

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

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

• Outlining the most important qualities of a doctor as per the Medical Schools Council and how you can demonstrate them in your interviews

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

Sunday, 27th October - 11-12.30 PM     [Medical Training Pathway & Challenges]

• What does the medical training pathway look like in the UK? 

  • • What are STs and CTs and FY1s? 

    • Who is the registrar and the GP/consultant? 

    • What are the different specialities in medicine? Should I pick one if my interviewer asks me?

•  Different styles of medical education (e.g. case-based/integrated/PBL/traditional)

  • • Using that to answer "why this uni?"

Week 3

Saturday, 2nd November - 6.00-8.00 PM     [Structure of the NHS]

• NHS, GMC, BMA - structure/roles/function

  • NHS Long Term Plan, 6 Cs, CCGs vs Integrated Care Systems 

  • Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Care

• Comparisons between private and NHS healthcare

  • Is everything on the NHS truly free? (e.g. dental care/prescription charges)

  • Would charging for GP consultations be a solution to the primary care crisis?

Sunday, 3rd November - 11-12.30 PM     [NHS Challenges]

• Ageing population

• Mental health crisis 

• Obesity

  • New anti-obesity medications, flaws and strengths of BMI as a metric

  • Role of a 'sugar tax' 

Week 4

Saturday, 9th November - 6.00-7.30 PM     [Organisational Failings, Patient Safety]

• Discrimination cases

• Medicolegal cases e.g. Dr. Bawa Garba

• Martha's rule & implications for medical interviews 

• Medical Mistakes & intro to roleplays (across Saturday + Sunday)

Sunday, 10th November - 11-12.30 PM     [Medical Malpractice]

• Historic success and failure of the GMC

• Harold Shipman

• Lucy Letby

• Yaser Jabbar

• Revalidation and appraisal process following landmark cases 

Week 5

Saturday, 16th November - 6.00-7.30 PM     [More NHS Challenges]

• A&E and GP Crisis

  • Ambulance waiting times

• Healthcare inequalities

  • Intersectionality of disadvantage

  • Marmot Review

  • North/South divide, rural vs urban care, BAME and the NHS

• Role of technology/AI e.g. virtual wards

Sunday, 17th November - 11-12.30 PM    [Solutions to NHS Challenges (yay! or is it all that it seems...)]

• NHS doctor strikes

• Recruitment and retention - understaffing?

• New junior doctor pay deal

• Increase in medical school places & the degree apprenticeship - are these viable solutions?

• Role of physician associates, ARRS in primary care and the wider multidisciplinary team

  • Medical students/doctors leaving the NHS - who/what/why, impacts + solutions?  

Week 6

Saturday, 23rd November - 6.00-7.30 PM     [SJT-Type Questions]

• Conduct as a medical doctor

• Academic dishonesty 

• Patients giving monetary gifts

• Historic cases & outcomes

• Framework to answer SJT-type questions 

Sunday, 24th November - 11-12.30 PM    [Roleplays]

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

• Conflict resolution

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

Tuesday, 26th November - 4-8 PM     [Group Task Practice]

• Only for students interviewing at universities where this is applicable - e.g. Edinburgh/Hull York/Southampton

• Dates/times for each group's slot TBC

Week 7 - Both MMI and Oxbridge Friendly before Oxbridge Interviews

Saturday, 30th November - 6.00-7.30 PM     [Interpreting Data, Research Papers & Articles]

• Structure of an academic paper

• Covering and analysing research papers relating to the topics discussed above and below

• P-values

• Forest plots

• Framework for answering questions about data/papers/graphs

Sunday, 1st December - 11-12.30 PM     [More on Research]

• Clinical trials

• Research ethics

• Drug calculation questions e.g. at Birmingham/Leicester/Sunderland/Oxford/Cambridge

Week 8

Saturday, 7th December - 6.00-7.30 PM  [Few left-over things]

• Mid-Staffordshire Failings & Francis Reports

• Shropshire Maternity Scandals

• Lord Darzi Report 

• (If time: infected blood scandal) 

Sunday, 8th December - 11-12.30 PM     [Medical Ethics]

• Capacity and consent

  • Role of Mental Health Act 2005

  • Advance directive, LPA, assessment of competence

  • Fraser guidelines

  • Gillick competence

• Confidentiality 

• 4 Pillars of Medical Ethics

• Ethical theories e.g. virtue ethics/deontology/consequentialism

• Common ethical scenarios

Week 9 - Please watch week 8 recording/attend week 8 otherwise week 9 won't make sense!

Saturday, 14th December - 6.00-7.30 PM     [Ethical Cases]

• Jehovah's Witnesses & blood transfusion ethics

• Charlie Gard

• Archie Battersbee

• Indi Gregory

• Alfie Evans

• Baby Doe

Sunday, 15th December - 11-12.30 PM    [COVID-19 & the NHS]

• Impacts of COVID-19 upon the NHS - both positive and negative

  • Waiting lists 

  • Mental health impacts

  • COVID-19 and research/trials/drugs e.g. remdesivir/dexamethasone/mRNA vaccine

• Global vaccine roll-out

• Nightingale hospitals, PPE crisis

• Emerging diseases and pandemics

Week 10

Saturday, 21st December - 6.00-7.30 PM     [Ethics II]

• Euthanasia

• DNACPR, withdrawals of treatment, physician-assisted dying

Sunday, 22nd December - 11-12.30 PM     [Ethics III]

• Mandatory vaccinations for both doctors and patients 

• Vaccine hesitancy

• Pseudoscience, homeopathy & alternative medicine - Nita Arshad case

• Andrew Wakefield, the MMR vaccine scandal & 'autistic enterocolitis' (hint: no such thing - was a scam!) 

WINTER HOLIDAYS + NEW YEAR PERIOD BREAK

Week 11

Saturday, 4th January - 6.00-7.30 PM     [Ethics IV]

• Organ donation legislation

• Mandatory organ donation - pros and cons of opt-in vs opt-out approach

• Healthcare economics type scenarios

  • How should the NHS fund treatment of 'lifestyle diseases'? 

  • Should cosmetic procedures be funded on the NHS?

  • "There are 4 people in need of a liver/organ - decide who should it be provided to"

Sunday, 5th January - 11-12.30 PM     [AI and NHS Developments]

• Uses of AI in the NHS

  • Improve quality of care e.g. cancer diagnosis

  • Improve capacity/alleviate burdens on healthcare professionals 

• Use of new drugs e.g. ozempic/kymriah

  • Cost concerns

Week 12

Saturday, 11th January - 6.00-7.30 PM     [The Unexpected]

• Abstract picture interpretation and task-based questions (including communication skills) 

• Unexpected questions & coping with these in a systematic way

Saturday, 12th January - 11-12 PM     [Goodbye]

• Advice from an ex-interviewer

• Q&A with all the mentors

• Final tips

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™. 

Interview Buddies

Eight sessions with your Interview Buddy™ will be decided as per mutual convenience of the 5-6 students in your group. 

You may also contact one of your UCAT Buddies™ around the clock with any questions!

The topics below are suggested for most medical schools. Some deviation from this can be made if needed on a university-specific basis - e.g. for the Oxbridge group, sessions in November and December can be tailored to Oxford or Cambridge-style interview preparation. 

Indicative Sample Timetable 

• If requested, your mentor is permitted to deviate from the curriculum presented here, particularly where this may be appropriate for certain universities. This is following agreement of Ojas + all members of the group. Where universities are heavier on science (e.g. Oxbridge), maths skills (e.g. Birmingham/Sunderland/Leicester), group tasks (e.g. Edinburgh), panel-style interviews (e.g. Glasgow/Southampton) - these areas can be explored by mentorship groups more extensively. 

Interactive Mentorship Session #1

• Develop answers to "give an example of when you demonstrated ____" for all the important personal attributes that are commonly asked about

  • • • E.g. communication/teamwork/empathy/organisation/leadership/resilience/listening/reflection

• Practice discussing your 'greatest strengths' and 'greatest weaknesses'

• Explore the most important qualities of a healthcare professional 

• Discussing how to reflect on your work experience and volunteering

  • Including preparation for personal-statement-based questions

Interactive Mentorship Session #2

• Develop answers to 'why medicine?'

• Develop answers to 'tell me about a book/article that you've read recently' or 'area of medicine that interests you'

• Develop answers to 'why this university?'

Interactive Mentorship Session #3

• Quiz/challenge-based session covering major NHS challenges

• 'What changes would you make to improve the NHS?'

Interactive Mentorship Session #4

• Practising questions about healthcare inequalities and solutions 

• Practising questions about interpreting data and articles

Interactive Mentorship Session #5

• Practising situational judgement style questions in small groups 

• Practising roleplay style questions, with a specific focus on breaking bad news

Interactive Mentorship Session #6

• Practising communication skills type questions 

  • • E.g. giving/following instructions to draw something

    • E.g. 20 yes/no questions to guess an object (Sheffield-style) 

    • Describing images

Interactive Mentorship Session #7

• Part 1: Knowledge recap

  • AI and the NHS

  • COVID-19 and the NHS 

• Part 2: Ethical debate

  • Patient is refusing essential, life-saving treatment - what are the capacity/consent considerations to keep in mind?

  • An underage patient requests contraceptive treatment - what are the considerations?

  • Charlie Gard & other similar medicolegal cases - discuss

    • • Martha's rule: have doctors historically always acted in the best interest of patients?

      • Who knows best - the patient or the doctor? 

Interactive Mentorship Session #8

• • 'Is it ethical for doctors to strike?'

  • 'Should vaccination be made mandatory?'

  • 'What are the differences between alternative medicine and holistic care?'

    • • 'Is homeopathic medicine dangerous? Where do we draw the line?'

SUPER PACKAGE – KNOWLEDGE: just £20/week (!) → access to the MyUCAT interview resource bank AND daily NHS news updates on our group chat AND total 25+ hours bi-weekly ‘knowledge sessions’ bringing together every possible piece of knowledge you may need on NHS reforms/hot topics & developments in medicine/medico-legal cases/ethical scenarios/healthcare inequalities & more!

RECOMMENDED - SUPREME/ULTIMATE

SUPREME PACKAGE – COMMUNICATION: just £25/week (!) → all of the above AND be matched with a mentor & mentorship group of 5-6 people at your top choice uni → 8 x highly interactive small group sessions to practise, boost your confidence & develop answers to: personal attributes questions/interpreting data/role-play (e.g. conflict/breaking bad news)/”why medicine”/”why this uni” AND WhatsApp support around-the-clock for 3 months. 

Includes an average of 3.75+ hours of support each week (less than £7 an hour!)

Either one upfront payment for 12 weeks, or 3 x monthly instalments permitted on an interest-free basis.

Following October payment today, the next monthly installments will be due by 1 November & 1 December. 

ULTIMATE PACKAGE - ASSESSMENT: all of the above, plus for +£50 choose from either 

(a) MyUCAT’s ultimate 2024-edition updated MMI circuit with doctor & medical student panel

(b) 2 x 1-1 university-specific mock interviews (35-40 mins interviews; 20-25 mins feedback)

Ultimate package add-ons will be available for purchase by participating students following the launch of the programme, once we finalise MMI circuit dates - it is not necessary to purchase these today.

FAQ: What do I do after purchase?

• If the supreme package, 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

• For the super package, the Zoom link will be shared with everyone at once, around a week before programme launch

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 week commencing 14th of October. You will meet mentors on Zoom and attend your first session on the 19th of October. 

FAQ: When does this programme end?

• We will have covered all the important areas and content by mid-January 2025.

• 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