Medicine at University of Aberdeen Medical School & Interview Questions 2024

Key Aspects

🎓 Aberdeen Medicine Interview Questions & Topics for 2024 entry

There are many ways that selectors may explore the domains that form part of an MMI.

Candidates may be asked to:

• Discuss their preparation for entry to Medicine

• Research into undergraduate curricula and postgraduate training

• Research then understanding of the implications of a medical career

• Experience in caring or other environments

• Consider a new situation and discuss their thoughts or suggest a solution to solve a problem

• Outline any learning points from previous experiences

• Reflect upon their own and others' skills and abilities

• Consider their potential contribution to the care of others

Key MMI Domains likely to be covered at Aberdeen:

• Work Experience*

• Motivation to study medicine

• Critical thinking and problem-solving

• Core qualities of a doctor

• Teamwork

• Professionalism

• Personal Statement

💯 Aberdeen Medical Interview Questions Scoring in 2024

The student will be scored in several areas including:

• Ability to express ideas freely and coherently

• How well they use their existing knowledge to formulate answers to unknown areas

• Their ability to follow a reasoned argument and formulate an opinion

• The degree to which they are prepared for questions

• Their ability to discuss different aspects (advantages & disadvantages) of a problem/situation

• The degree of motivation, commitment, reflection and sensitivity demonstrated

Each station will also independently score communication and interpersonal skills.

Aberdeen Medicine Interview Past Questions

Candidates were asked to imagine that they were a first-year medical students and at the end of the year had found out they had failed a very important exam.  The re-sit was in 2 weeks time and would establish whether the student could continue with the course. 

The student is also captain (and one of the top scorers) of the basketball team, with a very important match coming up that requires daily training sessions.  On top of that, candidates were informed that they had just received a text from a friend that they haven't seen for a while, asking if they wanted to go out 'to party'.

Candidates had 2 minutes to consider this situation and think of possible questions that might arise and how they would go about answering them.  They then enter the station and are 'interviewed' for 7 minutes.

❓Aberdeen Medical Interview Questions 2024

Please find below a list of suggested questions that could come up at your interview in 2023/2024 based on the information provided by the university. 

Motivation to study medicine

1. Why medicine?

2. Why Aberdeen?

3. What did you learn from your work experience?

4. What do you know about the Aberdeen Medicine course? How is it taught?

5. What is the remote rural practice offered by Aberdeen medical school?

6. What is the difference between medicine in cities and in rural areas in Aberdeen?

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

8. Why medicine and not dentistry or nursing?

9. Tell us about your volunteering

10. What are your hobbies?

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

12. What are the careers of your family?

13. Are you the 1st of your siblings to go to University?

14. How are you going to finance medical school?

15. What first made you realise you wanted to be a doctor?

16. What would you do if you didn’t get into medical school this year?

17. Give us an example of a time when you have cared for others.

Personal Insight

1. Why should patients trust you?

2. What are your best qualities?

3. How do you manage stress?

4. Give us an example of a time when you demonstrated resilience.

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

6. What are your strengths and weaknesses?

7. How would your friends describe you?

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

9. Should doctors always tell the truth?

NHS & Local Area

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

2. How would you manage a public health campaign?

3. How would you improve the local A&E department?

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

5. What is it like to be a doctor?

6. How do you deal with overpopulation?

7. What do you know about the local area here in Aberdeen?

8. What are the biggest issues surrounding non-communicable diseases on a local, national and international level?

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

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

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

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

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

7. Role play: dealing with an aggressive customer

8. Role play: dealing with a patient who has added you on social media

🗣️ University of Aberdeen Medicine Interview Tips for 2024 Entry

1. Keep your answers succinct - this allows the Aberdeen selectors enough time to ask all of the interview questions that they want or need to - allowing you the best chance of scoring well.

2. No need to learn science - Given that the pre-interview scoring system selects candidates who appear to have sufficient academic potential, the interview does not test academic knowledge or have any questions relating to the school curriculum.

3. Have examples ready to use: many of the questions asked at Aberdeen 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.

4. Personal Attributes - Aberdeen 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. Check out our 200+ interview question and answer guide for dealing with such interview questions. 

5. Know the doctor training pathway: this is useful to draw into 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.

6. 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.

7. MMI Stations - remember that each MMI station at Aberdeen 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.

8. Know the Aberdeen Course - Make sure you know about the Aberdeen-specific aspects of their curriculum including the remote and rural options offered by the university. All students will enjoy a clinical attachment experiencing remote & rural medicine in year 4, with the opportunity to undertake the whole year out with Aberdeen.

9. Know the local area - Aberdeen is a diverse region of Scotland, with a number of local factors and diseases that differentiate the Aberdeen region from the rest of Scotland and the UK. Ensure that you research both communicable and non-communicable diseases in the area. How might this impact healthcare provision in the area?

10. Reflect Well - the Aberdeen 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.

11. Practice Medicine 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 and practice MMI calculation stations. You might want to also consider practising this with a medicine 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 medicine interviews here. If you are struggling with this, consider booking sessions with an expert medicine interview tutor.

13. Learn about the non-academic societies at Aberdeen - 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 Aberdeen University. Spend time on their website, or looking at their instagram for ideas about societies that you could think about joining.

14. Learn Medical Ethics & NHS Hot Topics - it is extremely likely that you will be asked about medical ethics at a medicine interview at Aberdeen, 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 200+ medicine interview questions.

15. 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.

16. Good Medical Practice - Aberdeen 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.