Queen Mary Dentistry School (A200 BDS)

🎓 Queen Mary's Dentistry Interview Questions & Topics for 2023 & 2024 entry

Several topics are more likely to come up at the University of Queen Mary's Dental School Panel Interview, which can be derived from past Queen Mary's Panel stations, including:

• There is a video component in the dental (A200) interviews, where applicants watch a video and give their observations on its content. They may also have an article that they use in the interviews.

• Work experience

• Problem-solving ability

• Knowledge of common dental problems and their presentation

• Understanding of dentistry issues

• Organisation skills

• Problem-solving and analytical skills

• Enthusiasm, interest and motivation to study dentistry

• Communication and interpersonal skills

• Teamwork

• Manual dexterity skills

• Contribution to student/university life

Other things looked at:

Motivation and reality of a career in dentistry

• Initiative, resilience and maturity

• Teamwork

• Organisation and problem solving abilities

• Contribution to university life

• Communication skills

Feedback

Requests for feedback after an interview should be made in writing by email to the Admissions Office. Candidates should indicate their full name and address, UCAS number and the programme for which they are requesting feedback. Feedback will normally be provided within 20 working days of receipt of the feedback request. Requests should be sent to smdadmissions@qmul.ac.uk and must be made directly by the candidate and not a third party.

Barts and the London Interview Scoring 2023-2024

At QMUL you will be marked on: 

• Empathy and Integrity

• Evidence of Commitment and Interest (including work

• experience)

• The realities of Dentistry

• Teamwork and Leadership Skills

• Communication Skills

• Overall Global Score

❓  Queen Mary's Interview Questions - Past, Recent & Likely Questions 2023

Motivation to study Dentistry

1. Why Dentistry?

2. Why Queen Mary's?

3. What did you learn from your dental work experience?

4. What qualities of a dentist did you see from your dental work experience?

5. What do you know about the Queen Mary's Dentistry course? How is it taught?

6. Why do you think you will be well suited to this course?

7. Why Dentistry and not medicine or nursing?

8. Tell us about your volunteering.

9. What does professionalism mean to you?

10. What are your hobbies?

11. What are the negatives of a career in Dentistry?

12. Are there any societies you would like to join at Queen Mary's?

Personal Insight/Qualities

1. Why should patients trust you?

2. What are your best qualities?

3. How do you manage stress?

4. There are many applicants with good grades, why should we take you?

5. What are the challenges currently faced by dentists?

6. Why is delegation important as a leader?

7. Can you provide an example of a time when you demonstrated resilience?

8. Give us an example of a time when you demonstrated teamwork.

9. What are your strengths and weaknesses?

10. How would your friends describe you?

11. How would you handle complaints and criticism?

12. Give us an example of a time when you were resilient. Why is this important in dentistry?

13. What's your favourite medium as an artist?

14. Tell us about an article that you have recently read.

Dental Situations

1. I'm at A&E where a patient comes in with health complications that originate from dental disease. Can you explain how that can happen?

2. What is it called when a dental infection spreads to the jaw and neck?

3. If a patient collapses in the waiting room, how would you assess them?

NHS & Local Area

1. What is the CQC?

2. What are AGPs?

3. What is NICE?

4. What is the GDC?

5. What do you know about how the NHS charges for appointments?

6. What are the NHS values, and why are they important?

7. What is it like to be a dentist?

8. How do you deal with overpopulation?

9. What do you know about the local area here in Queen Mary's?

10. What are the main challenges facing the future of dentistry in the UK?

11. How has COVID changed the way that dental practices operate?

12. How does oral health differ here compared to other areas in the UK?

Ethical Scenarios

1. Understanding of the four ethical principles

2. Should all dentists have good teeth?

3. If you notice that a colleague has turned up to work drunk, what would you do?

4. Who can you escalate concerns to within a practice?

Other Stations including Manual Dexterity

1. Is it necessary to know the chemistry behind the materials you'll use as a dentist?

2. Talk us through this article - what do you know about the authors? What are they arguing here?

3. Photo: the image of decayed teeth - describe what you see here

4. Role play: explain to someone how to tie shoelaces

5. Role play: teach this person how to build this origami plane

6. Role play: the nurse leaves the room to attend to an emergency, and speak to the patient (general talk)

👉🏼 Read more: 230+ Dentistry Interview Questions for 2023

🗣️ Queen Mary's Dentistry Interview Tips for 2024

1. How to answer the “Why Queen Mary's” question. Make sure that you can differentiate Queen Mary's from other dental schools in the UK. Model answer: “I'm excited to attend Queen Mary's Dental School for its exceptional reputation in producing high-quality dental professionals and its location in the heart of London. The school's Institute of Dentistry is home to state-of-the-art facilities such as digital imaging systems, cone beam computed tomography, and laser dentistry equipment, which I'm eager to use in my future practice. The Barts and the London Community Engagement Program also provide unique opportunities for students to gain real-world experience in providing dental care to underserved populations. Lastly, I'm excited to learn from distinguished faculty members such as Professor Christopher Tredwin, Head of the Institute of Dentistry, and Professor Farida Fortune, Head of Clinical Dentistry. Overall, the unique features and opportunities at Queen Mary's Dental School make it an ideal choice for me to pursue my dental education.”

2. Dress well - What to wear for your Queen Mary's Dental Interview - Queen Mary's asks you to dress smartly as if you were going to a job interview. Make sure you dress appropriately so you then feel as comfortable as possible at the interview. Also, check your email from Queen Mary's as there are various documents they ask you to bring on the day.

3. Know your personal statement - reread any books or papers mentioned in your dental personal statement and try to follow up on any research that has been done on the topic since. This makes it easier to discuss should this be raised in the interview. These frequently come up at interviews - so make sure you can talk about everything written on your Dentistry personal statement and your UCAS reference.

4. Practice video scenarios - This is fundamental as it comes up year after year at Queen Mary's, they love using video scenarios in their interviews. Practice watching consultations on Youtube, or some medicine consultations (like in the BSMS work experience and the RCGP Observe GP work experience) and comment on them, rehearse writing down your thoughts on the way the consultation was conducted, what was good, and what could be improved.

5. Have examples ready to use: many of the questions asked at Queen Mary's are example-based, ie, they require you to draw on examples from your personal life, dental work experience and dental volunteering to help make key points that the selectors are looking at. As such, it is paramount that you spend time learning about these examples and thinking about different scenarios that you can use at the interview. It is helpful if these scenarios are malleable and apply to questions e.g. being a football captain, deputy head girl or playing in the school orchestra.

6. Personal Attributes - Queen Mary's has mentioned that they will ask you about personal attributes during the Panel interview. As such it is paramount that you go through and learn these. Queen Mary's has asked questions concentrating on your strengths and weaknesses, so ensure you have suitable examples. Check out our 200+ interview question and answer guide for dealing with similar interview questions. 

7. Know the dentist training pathway: this is useful to mention in answers to show awareness about the career in Dentistry - and demonstrates that you have a considered approach. Fortunately, we have created a guide for you to learn about the dentistry training pathway here.

8. Know the Queen Mary's Course - we would always recommend doing this for every university that you plan to apply to. It is paramount that you know about the different topics covered each year. How does this differ from other universities? What is their policy on intercalation? Have you any idea about what you would plan to intercalate in at Queen Mary's if you could or need to? If relevant, what do you know about graduate entry dentistry there? Remember there is very early clinical exposure at Queen Mary's - this can be an advantage!

9. Know the local area - Queen Mary's is a diverse region of London, with several local factors and diseases that differentiate the Barts region from the rest of the UK. Ensure that you research factors that can influence the oral health of residents of the area. How might this impact dentistry provision in the area?

10. Reflect Well - the Queen Mary's Dentistry selectors love reflection, make sure that you are good at not just stating what you have learnt, but also how this helped and what you benefitted from, and what you will carry forward about this at dental school and in clinical Dentistry. This is especially true when reflecting on your dental work experience during the dentistry interview, or if you are applying with low grades to study dentistry or have taken a gap year before applying to study dentistry or via dentistry clearing.

11. Practice Role Plays: Role plays are unique to Dentistry Panel interviews as they do not tend to occur in panel interviews. The only way to ace these stations is to practice! There are so many different Dentistry role-play scenarios that can come up, it is paramount that you read about tips for answering role-play scenarios. You might want to also consider practising this with a Dentistry interview tutor, or booking a 1-1 online mock interview.

12. Don’t over-rehearse - this is a common theme amongst interview students and is very obvious to a trained examiner. As such, we would recommend focusing on the structure of your answer, and then naturally letting it flow when speaking to the answers, concentrating on the delivery of your interview answers. Read about our top tips for Dentistry interviews here. If you are struggling with this, consider booking sessions with an expert Dentistry interview tutor or via one of our Dentistry Application Packages.

13. Learning about the non-academic societies at Queen Mary's is important and might augment your Why Dentistry question as well as help you formulate an answer to how you will contribute to life at QMUL. Spend time on their website, or looking at their Instagram for ideas about societies that you could think about joining.

14. Learn dental ethics & NHS Hot Topics - you will likely be asked about dental ethics at a Dentistry interview at Barts, so there is no excuse not to brush up on your knowledge on these topics. Learn how to provide a balanced argument. Check out some of our free articles on NHS Hot Topics and our ultimate guide to applying to dentistry here. It is good if you have an opinion on them, as long as you present a balanced and well-reasoned argument, which side you choose does not matter but is helpful to have. Check out our bank of 200+ Dentistry interview questions.

15. Learn the NHS Core Values - This can be drawn into different answers about personal qualities or qualities of a dentist, which has formed a feature of stations in the past, and a good understanding of these core values will help you stand out against others. It is important to know about the NHS in general for your dental interviews - read our article here on this.

16. Good dental Practice - Queen Mary's also emphasises knowing the values and qualities of a good dentist, which can be found in this document and are likely to come up at the interview in the Panel stations. This is universal to many universities, and something that we always recommend students cover during their Dentistry interview preparation.