Medicine 2023 Entry - Part 2

[opoponax]

Anyone out there with DC applying or reapplying for Medicine 2023, please join a friendly thread for mutual support and useful advice.

DD was out tonight and just got in to me going ‘check your emails!’ Invite from Sheffield was there. Also in the dark about how the pre provided questions work- any advice very welcome. Hope everyone waiting gets good news soon- such a stressful process

The 20 questions game at sheffield seems to be a regular feature. Both my dss had it at their sheff interviews and it is genuinely exactly what it says and nothing to worry about. Last year Ds practised by playing a few games with me and by absolute fluke the very last thing I gave him to guess the evening before the interview turned out to be the actual interview answer! Not that getting the answer 'right' matters.
My guess (with no inside knowledge) is that they're assessing whether the candidates are making logical deductions. Perhaps they're also looking at demeanor and whether the candidate can relax and be natural - after all it is the only unknown unprepared factor of the whole Sheffield interview. Or perhaps they just really like playing 20 questions a lot!

Congrats on all the interviews ! Anybody invited to Sheffield interview with UCAT of 2710 ?

thanks

Peachy2005 This is from the website, so yes looks like it is still used - The Situational Judgement Test component of the UCAT is considered as a virtual 9th station in the MMI.

From TSR threads, international invites may not have gone out yet and potentially still more to come out, but currently the minimum UCAT score at Sheffield for interview is 2850!

@Haffdonga can you please give examples of how to practice these questions. I am clueless what these questions are about. My DS has not applied to Sheffield but this sounds similiar to KMMS

Dd had a Newcastle invite to interview yesterday (in person). Her 2 friends have not heard yet - one has 2850 UCAT... which is not a lot lower than dd.... fingers crossed for her.

@kk10 playing 20 questions the only answers are yes and no. So you often start with something like "Am I a living thing?", If "Yes", "Do I have a heart", constantly narrowing down what it might be. I think it uses some of the skills a GP might use when trying to narrow down what is wrong with someone. Some people have experienced the interviewers giving wrong answers - I don't whether that is deliberate or because they get confused! They might be trying to see how you react to confused people!

Yes, as monkey says, think of anything - a giraffe, the world cup, Big Ben - and then the guesser asks questions to find out what it is, to which you can only answer yes or no. It's called 20 questions because the aim of the game is to guess in under 20 but I dont think they count in the interview.
Ds definitely found the worst thing about the Sheffield interview was having the questions for so long beforehand so it was difficult to get the balance of being well-prepared but still coming across naturally. But an advantage turned out to be that when he got similar questions at other places he already had a well thought out answer he could talk to. Very strange way of doing an interview!

@Haffdonga @Monkey2001 thank you

Anybody know if Sheffield interview invites will continue on Monday ? Or all sent already ?
thanks

Nobody other than the Sheffield Medical School team knows. In previous years they have done all the interviews in one batch, it appears that any Home applicant who meets entry requirements and has a UCAT of 2850 or higher this year has an interview (with the odd exceptions which look like mistakes). This is such a big jump that people are wondering whether they have changed the way they are doing it and might have a second batch coming, but that would be a change in approach for them. It was not expected that the cut off could get so high and it is not expected that there will be another batch, but one of those unexpected things is happening this year.

@kk10 see contentrules.com/20-questions-a-game-of-taxonomy/#:~:text=The%20premise%20of%20the%20game,within%2020%20questions%2C%20they%20win.

@Monkey2001 thank you

@Monkey2001 Thanks for explaining this !

@kk10 thank you!

Hang in there everyone. My username stems from being the mum of a medic applicant 😊

DD has a f2f interview at anglia ruskin in December. She hasn't yet started interview practicing. Guess that is our next challenge.

Could I ask, in the MMI medical schools, would my DD be allowed to ask what each of the stations are? I don't think this info is in her interview invitation, just that the format will be MMI?

I have had a little look on the websites and can't see any more info.

@BungledBundle if they don't publish it, they won't tell you, all of them want to ensure fairness, so information is freely available or not available. Which one is it?

It would be very unusual for a med school to tell you what the MMI stations are. The MMI stations are set up a bit like like speed dating. You go into a booth usually not knowing what to expect and have to deal with whatever meets you there (sometimes there's an instruction written on a sheet outside). Knowing the stations beforehand would be like knowing the questions in the exam before it starts.Sheffield are definitely an outlier doing it this way. After a certain amount of time a bell goes and you all move on to the next one. It's very intense and ds says take a bottle of water because by the time you're on your 6th or 7th station your head is spinning and mouth is dry.

FWIW in the interviews my 2 ds had MMI stations included:
role plays e.g. help somebody (an actor) who is distressed
ethical questions (referencing the 4 pillars)
talking to a real patient
chatting to current med students (about whatever you wanted to chat about)
questions about themselves/ personalities (what are you most proud of type questions)
questions about the course/uni/ town
questions about NHS (including importance of all roles within teams)
questions about their experience - tell us about a time when you ...
questions testing their general thinking (e.g. most important scientific invention, biggest challenge to health in next century, look at this graph - what do you think it shows etc)
puzzles ( e.g. build a tower following incomplete instructions while talking about a topic)
maths e.g. calculating dosage from chart,
communication tasks e..g describe an object to someone who can't see it

The interview book (referenced several times on this thread) really covers it all so if you've read through the knowledge sections and practised some of each type of question nothing that comes up in an MMI is going to be too much of a shock. After all the med schools are trying to assess potential and want the experience to be positive for applicants (as much as interviews can ever be).

Could someone please remind me what the book is called? Many thanks!

@justjuggling the interview book is Medical School Interviews by Olivier Picard and George Lee.

Thanks so much @Haffdonga and @Monkey2001 . I feel so stressed. For reasons which are very identifying, DD is out of action and has an interview quite soon. She can't do any prep at the moment at all; in fact she might even struggle to physically make the interview. I think it's madness and she needs to contact the uni and delay the interview (utterly valid reason). The other one is nearer Christmas so a bit more time. They're Dundee and Aberdeen.

Good morning all, does anyone know the best place to stay near Sheffield medical school, as we will need to stay overnight before my daughters interview next month? Thank you! I don't know Sheffield at all 🙄

@BungledBundle it sounds like she might do best to delay the first one, you really don't want poor health to mean she under-performs. Hope she recovers soon.