Medicine at University of Norwich Medical School & Interview Questions 2023

Key Aspects

🎓 East Anglia Medicine Interview Questions & Topics 2023

There are a number of topics that are more likely to come up at the University of East Anglia Medical School MMI Interview, which can be derived from past UEA East Anglia MMI stations, including:

• An acceptable approach to decision-making when given incomplete or conflicting information

• The ability to learn and work effectively in partnership

• A caring and supportive attitude

• An empathetic and caring approach

• Insight into Medicine as a career and personal suitability for the profession

• Honesty, integrity, and personal effectiveness.

UEA have stated that they do look at and ask candidates some scenario-based questions and questions about their own experience within medicine.

The UEA interview will contain 4 question types, which will be shared on-screen with you one by one. You receive 90 seconds of reading time, followed by 5 minutes to answer the question.

💯 UEA (Norwich) Medical MMI Interview Questions Scoring 2023

• Following the completion of interviews, interviewed applicants are ranked (by interview scores – which include the UCAT SJT subsection score and UCAT overall scores) within the applicant cohort. The interview score and UCAT score are weighted equally, and the top-ranking applicants will receive offers.

• Personal statements, on submission, to check they have the correct subject choice but are not scored or used at any other point during the admissions process.

• There is no threshold or cut-off score. Applicants are ranked after the interview.

• All students are ranked to decide on acceptance and rejection.  The Admissions Director reserves the right to make decisions outside of the guidelines in complex and exceptional cases.

❓ East Anglia Medical Interview Questions 2023 and likely topics

Please find below a list of suggested questions that could come up at your interview this year, created by our team to help guide your interview preparation for East Anglia.

Motivation to study medicine

1. Why medicine?* very common at UEA

2. Why East Anglia?

3. Why did you do work experience?

4. How did the work experience impact you?

5. What did you learn from your work experience?

6. What qualities of a doctor did you see from your work experience?

7. What do you know about the Norwich East Anglia Medicine course? How is it taught?

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

9. Why medicine and not dentistry or nursing?

10. Tell us about your volunteering

11. From your extra reading, what have you learnt about medicine?

12. What are your hobbies?

13. What are the negatives of a career in medicine?

14. How will you contribute to student life at UEA?

Personal Insight

1. Why should patients trust you?

2. What are your best qualities?

3. How do you manage stress?

4. Tell me about a stressful situation you were in and how you dealt with it.

5. Why is medical school and medicine stressful and what support is there to help people under stress?

6. What do you do in your free time?

7. Tell us about your extra-curricular activities and how do they show evidence of caring or commitment to the community.

8. How have you dealt with challenges in the past?

9. Can you provide us with an example of a time when you demonstrated resilience?

University Questions (Common at UEA)

1. What is PBL?

2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of PBL compared to lecture-based learning?

3. How do you know you’re suited to PBL?

4. Have you ever been in a group situation or task that is similar to PBL?

5. Why do universities use PBL?

NHS & Local Area

1. What changes would you make to the NHS if you could?

2. What are the NHS values and why are they important?

3. What is it like to be a doctor?

4. How do you deal with overpopulation?

5. What do you know about the local area here in East Anglia?

6. What are the main challenges that face the NHS?

7. How has COVID changed the way the NHS operates?

8. What do you think are going to be the long-term consequences of COVID on the NHS?

9. How does the healthcare system differ here compared to other areas in the UK?

Ethical Scenarios

1. Understanding of the four ethical principles

2. Understanding of the GMC’s good medical practice

3. What is the debate surrounding euthanasia, should it be legalised?

4. Who would you give this organ to? [Prioritisation]

5. Speak to an actor, who is a family member of a patient. Explain to the family member that the patient has unfortunately been diagnosed with cancer, and offer support.

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

7. Who can you escalate concerns to within a hospital?

Other Stations

1. Role play: breaking bad news

2. Role play: comforting others

3. Role play: explain to someone how to draw this picture

4. Role play: substance abuse

5. Data Interpretation: Analyse a graph on mental health and social media, what are your thoughts?

6. Talk us through this article

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

8. Questions around the new NHS app and digital healthcare.

9. Lots of current affairs!

🗣️ UEA - East Anglia Medicine Interview Tips 2023

1. Practice video scenarios - This is fundamental as it comes up year after year at East Anglia, they love using video scenarios in their interviews. Practice watching consultations (like in the BSMS work experience and the RCGP Observe GP work experience) and comment on them, practice writing down your thoughts on the way the consultation was conducted, what was good, and what was bad?

2. Know “Why Norwich” - This is a modern medical school with modern facilities. The campus is supposed to be fantastic, set in acres of parkland with a large lake. Many students love modern architecture such as the Sainsbury Building designed by Norman Foster. The beautiful Norfolk broads are adjacent and Norfolk Research Park and Norfolk Hospital are next to the University. UEA is fortunate enough to have its own nightclub (LCR) and bars on campus meaning that in your first year (and later years too) that is the main place to go for a good night out.

3. Dress well - UEA 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 UEA as there are various documents they ask you to bring on the day.

4. Know your personal statement - Reread any books or papers that you have mentioned in your personal statement and try to follow up on any work that has been done on the topic since. This will make it easier to discuss should the topic be raised in the interview. These almost always come up at interviews - so make sure you can talk about everything that is written on both your medicine personal statement and your UCAS reference.

5. Have examples ready to use: many of the questions asked at East Anglia are example-based, ie, they require you to draw on certain examples from your personal life, medical work experience and medical volunteering to help make key points that the selectors are looking for. 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 can be applied to a number of different questions e.g. being a football captain, deputy head girl or playing in the school orchestra.

6. Personal Attributes - East Anglia is very likely to ask you about personal attributes during the MMI interview. As such it is paramount that you go through and learn these. East Anglia have repeatedly focussed on your strengths and weaknesses as a person, so make sure that you have suitable examples for this. Check out our 200+ interview question and answer guide for dealing with such interview questions. 

7. Know the doctor training pathway: this is useful to mention in answers to show awareness about the career in medicine - and demonstrates that you have a considered approach, fortunately, we have a guide to the NHS and the doctor’s training pathway in 2023 here.

8. Read the MMI instructions carefully - you get enough time to read the instructions provided before the MMI station. Make sure that you don’t miss anything from this. Try and plan how you will structure your answer thereafter in the reading time that you get. Therefore it is really important that you practice MMI questions and ensure that you think about your structure for as many questions as possible before your interview.

9. MMI Stations - remember that each MMI station at East Anglia is independent of the other. Therefore it is paramount that you try to treat them as such, if you have a bad station, try to forget about it and reset for the next station, this gives you the best chance of scoring well overall. Read our ultimate guide to preparing for medicine MMIs here.

10. Know the East Anglia Course - we would always recommend doing this for every university that you plan to apply to. UEA has early clinical contact and has a spiral curriculum. This means that your teaching is supported by weekly lectures, GP visits and PBL sessions.  It is paramount that you know about the different topics covered each year. How does this differ from other universities? Each year is composed of 5-6 modules. Every year has a fitness-to-practice module and an integrative period. In addition, specific modules are studied each year: Locomotion; interprofessional learning; the human lifecycle. Blood and skin; circulation; respiration. Digestion/Nutrition; homeostasis and hormones; the senses. Growth and development; mind and body; reproduction; elective. Emergency care; clinical remediation; student assistantship. What is their policy on intercalation? Have you any idea about what you would plan to intercalate in at East Anglia? Remember there is very early clinical exposure at East Anglia - this can be an advantage!

11. Know the local area - East Anglia is a diverse region of England, with a number of local factors and diseases that differentiate the East Anglia region from the rest of the UK. The city of Norwich contains historical buildings including Norwich Castle and Norwich Cathedral. There is a traditional marketplace, and the two shopping malls provide most things you could possibly need. This is before you even make it onto the high street. Ensure that you research both communicable and non-communicable diseases in the area. How might this impact healthcare provision in the area?

12. Reflect Well - the East Anglia Medicine 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 medical school and in clinical medicine. This is especially true when reflecting on your medical work experience during the medicine interview.

13. Practice Role Plays: Role plays are unique to medicine MMI 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 medicine role-play scenarios that can come up, such as breaking bad news in the medicine interview, it is paramount that you read about tips for answering role-play scenarios. You might want to also consider practising this with a medicine interview tutor, or booking a 1-1 online mock interview.

14. 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 medicine interviews here. If you are struggling with this, consider booking sessions with an expert medicine interview tutor.

15. Learn about the non-academic societies at UEA - this is really important and might augment your Why Medicine question as well as help you formulate an answer to how you will contribute to life at the University of East Anglia. Spend time on their website, or looking at their Instagram for ideas about societies that you could think about joining.

16. Learn Medical Ethics & NHS Hot Topics - it is extremely likely that you will be asked about medical ethics at a medicine interview at East Anglia, so there is no excuse not to brush up on your knowledge on these topics, especially the four pillars of medical ethics. Learn how to provide a balanced argument on this. Check out some of our free articles on NHS Hot Topics here. It is good if you have an opinion on them, as long as you present a balanced and well-reasoned argument, ultimately, which side you choose does not matter, but is helpful to have. Check out our bank of 420+ medicine interview questions.

17. Learn the NHS Core Values - This can be drawn into different answers about personal qualities or qualities of a doctor, 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 medical interviews - read our article here on this.

18. Good Medical Practice - East Anglia also puts emphasis on knowing the values and qualities of a good doctor, which can be found in this document and are likely to come up at the interview in the MMI stations. This is universal to many universities, and something that we always recommend students cover during their medicine interview preparation.