On the Day
The 2022-23 MMIs will take place remotely using Microsoft Teams. This can be downloaded for free and works best on a laptop or desktop PC. You should participate in a quiet space where you can be alone and not disturbed for the duration of the interview. Once the interview has started, any other devices (e.g. a phone or tablet) present with you in the room should be switched off and kept out of reach. You should make sure that you have a pen and paper with you so that you are able to make any notes that you need.
Lancaster Medical School uses the multiple mini interviews (MMI) format for our interviews and have endeavoured to adapt our MMI stations to suit remote interviewing. The MMI will consist of two small circuits and a group work task which you will complete:
- The group work task will occur at the start of your interview, following an applicant briefing. You will have 3 minutes reading time followed by 12 minutes for a group discussion.
- Circuit A will take about 30 minutes and consists of four stations where you will be given a different task or questions to answer and a form check meeting. For each station, you will have exactly 5 minutes to complete the station tasks. After each station has finished, you will have 2 minutes before the next interviewer joins you. The form check meeting will take place either before or after you complete circuit A dependent on your grouping, and a member of staff will join you to make sure you have completed all the necessary forms correctly.
- Circuit B will take about 1 hour and consists of a mixture of stations some of which will include some preparatory work to complete for 5 minutes (e.g. you will be asked to read and think about some information/answer some questions), followed by 5 minutes to discuss with an interviewer. You will have 2 minutes between each station and there will also be some 5 minute breaks in this circuit.
At each station, your performance will be assessed against a set of clearly defined criteria, allowing the interviewer to assign you a score for that station. Interviewers are drawn from a pool of trained individuals and will include academic staff, clinicians, students, patients and public representatives. At the end, an overall score is calculated by adding up all the individual scores and offers will be made to those who score highest overall in the MMI.
Examples of MMI stations
Example 1: Discuss an ethical scenario. You will have 5 minutes to read a short paragraph that outlines a current issue in medical ethics, make notes and consider your opinion. You will then have a further 5 minutes in the next station to discuss your thoughts with an interviewer. There is no right or wrong answer; this station will assess your ability to identify the issues and articulate your opinion.
Example 2: Explore your understanding of your chosen career, through discussion of your personal statement, and work and voluntary experience, including what you learned about your own suitability to be a doctor from these experiences.
Example 3: Talk to one of our patient and public representative group. You are not expected to take a medical history; we just want you to find out a bit about them. This will involve asking questions and responding to what the person says. We will be observing how you interact with the person and how you respond to their answers.