Free practice questions for the Manchester medicine interview, with the interview format taken from the university's own admissions pages.
Manchester publishes a five station MMI for 2027 entry, with each station lasting eight minutes and a different interviewer at each one. Manchester says it is considering small changes, possibly replacing one station with a group task; this is not confirmed, so check your invitation. Interviews are held online on Zoom or in person on campus and shortlisted applicants pick their preferred option, with the same choice for home and overseas applicants. Each interviewer scores your station without seeing any other score, and the station scores are collated to reach a decision. Manchester looks for communication, reasoned argument, experience of a caring role, reflection on those experiences, awareness of medical issues in the media and understanding of the ethical dilemmas doctors face.
Original MedicHut practice questions. Real interviews may differ.
You are at the start of your Manchester MMI circuit, and the first station asks about your motivation for medicine.
1. What is the central idea behind your motivation for applying?
2. What personal experience best illustrates this?
3. How would you expect this motivation to be tested across a demanding degree?
Follow-up: If you discovered during year one that you missed something about your previous life, such as a hobby or job, would that change your motivation?
Manchester's interview does not test medical knowledge, focusing instead on motivation and personal qualities.
1. Why do you think a medical school would choose to focus an interview this way rather than testing scientific knowledge?
2. What does this tell you about what the school values in its students?
3. How does this match your own view of what makes a good doctor?
Follow-up: If you performed poorly in a science-based written test but excelled at this kind of interview, what would that suggest about your suitability for medicine?
Some applicants are drawn to medicine by a single defining moment, others by a gradual build-up of interest over several years.
1. Which of these better describes your own path to applying?
2. What evidence can you give to support this?
3. What would you say to someone who suggested your reasons were not strong enough?
Follow-up: If a careers adviser suggested a related but shorter course, such as physician associate training, would you consider it instead?
Medicine requires years of study and ongoing professional development throughout a career.
1. What keeps you motivated for a goal this far away?
2. How will you track whether your motivation is holding up during difficult periods of study?
3. What would you do if your motivation dipped significantly during a hard placement?
Follow-up: If a close friend told you they thought you had chosen medicine for the wrong reasons, how would you respond?
Applicants often describe wanting to combine scientific interest with working closely with people.
1. How do you personally balance these two interests in your motivation for medicine?
2. What would you do if you discovered during the course that you preferred one far more than the other?
3. Why does this balance matter for the kind of doctor you hope to become?
Follow-up: If scientific research excited you more than patient contact, would medicine still be the right choice for you?
Manchester allows candidates to choose between an online or on-campus interview.
1. Which format would you choose, and why?
2. What specific preparation have you done for that format?
3. What do you think is the main difference in how you present yourself between the two formats?
Follow-up: If your chosen format experienced a technical problem on the day, such as a lost connection or a delayed arrival, how would you want this handled?
Manchester is one of the largest medical schools in the country, based in a major city.
1. What do you see as the advantages of training within a large student cohort?
2. What challenges might this bring, and how would you manage them?
3. How have you prepared, personally, for studying in a large city?
Follow-up: A new student tells you they feel lost in such a large course. What would you suggest to them?
You are comparing Manchester with another medical school at which you also have an interview.
1. What specific features of Manchester would you mention if asked to compare the two?
2. How did you research these features?
3. What would be your biggest personal adjustment in choosing Manchester?
Follow-up: If you were offered places at both schools, what single factor would most influence your decision?
Manchester's course places emphasis on early development of clinical and communication skills.
1. What have you found out about how communication skills are taught and assessed on the course?
2. Why does early development of these skills matter to you personally?
3. What concerns, if any, do you have about being assessed on these skills early in your training?
Follow-up: If your early assessment in communication skills did not go as well as you hoped, how would you respond?
Think about a period of work experience, paid work, or volunteering relevant to your application.
1. Describe a specific moment where you observed good communication between a healthcare professional and a patient.
2. What made this a good example, in your own words?
3. How has this shaped what you expect from your own training in communication skills?
Follow-up: What would you have done if you had observed the opposite, a moment of poor communication?
Many applicants to Manchester will have completed virtual or in-person work experience, given that medical knowledge is not tested at interview but insight is.
1. What is the most useful insight you gained from your work experience that reading alone could not have given you?
2. How did this experience change your understanding of a doctor's role within a wider team?
3. What limitations does work experience have in preparing you for medical training?
Follow-up: If your planned work experience placement was cancelled at short notice, what alternative steps would you take?
During a period of observation in a healthcare or care setting, you noticed how a professional adapted their approach for a specific patient.
1. Describe what you observed and why the adaptation was needed.
2. What did this teach you about communication in medicine?
3. How confident are you that you could make a similar adaptation yourself?
Follow-up: If the patient had seemed confused by the professional's explanation, what should happen next?
You have spent time observing or working alongside a multidisciplinary team.
1. Describe one example of effective collaboration you observed.
2. What roles were involved, and how did they depend on one another?
3. What did you learn about the boundaries of a doctor's role within that team?
Follow-up: If you saw two team members disagree in front of a patient, what would you expect good practice to look like?
Reflect on a time, in a healthcare setting or elsewhere, when something did not go as planned.
1. What was the situation, and what went wrong?
2. What specific insight into resilience or problem solving did you gain?
3. How has this shaped the way you now plan for setbacks?
Follow-up: If a similar setback happened again next month, what would you do differently?
Manchester's MMI explores personal qualities relevant to a future career in medicine rather than scientific knowledge.
1. What personal quality do you think is your greatest asset for a career in medicine?
2. Give a specific example that demonstrates this quality.
3. What quality do you think you most need to develop further?
Follow-up: How would you respond if an interviewer disagreed with your own view of your strengths?
Self-awareness and honesty about limitations matter in medical training.
1. Describe a time you had to admit a mistake to someone else.
2. How did you handle that moment at the time?
3. Why does this matter for patient safety later in a medical career?
Follow-up: If admitting the mistake would have embarrassed you in front of people you respected, would that have changed how you handled it?
Doctors are expected to maintain high standards even under significant personal pressure.
1. Describe a time you kept high standards in your work despite being under pressure.
2. What helped you maintain those standards?
3. What would you do if you found you genuinely could not maintain them?
Follow-up: If a supervisor asked you to cut corners in order to save time, how would you respond?
Reflect on a piece of feedback, positive or negative, that significantly changed how you approached something.
1. What was the feedback, and how did you receive it at the time?
2. What did you change as a result?
3. Why is openness to feedback especially important for a doctor in training?
Follow-up: How would you respond to feedback you believed, at the time, was unfair?
Manchester's interview looks for insight into yourself as well as into the profession.
1. What is something about yourself that has surprised you in the last few years?
2. How did you come to realise this about yourself?
3. How has this self-knowledge changed how you approach challenges?
Follow-up: If a close friend disagreed strongly with this view of yourself, how would you respond?
You are part of a sixth-form group producing a presentation for younger students about a health topic. One member consistently misses meetings.
1. What steps would you take to address this?
2. How would you balance fairness to the absent member with fairness to the rest of the group?
3. What does this situation teach you about managing teams in medicine?
Follow-up: The member says they have been dealing with a difficult family situation. How does this change your approach?
Imagine you are leading a small group project and two members strongly disagree about the right approach to take.
1. How would you try to help the group reach a resolution?
2. What principles would guide your decision if no agreement could be reached?
3. Why is this kind of mediation relevant to working in a clinical team?
Follow-up: One member tells you privately that they felt you favoured the other person. How would you respond?
You are asked to represent your group in presenting joint work, although you were not the strongest contributor to the content.
1. How would you prepare to represent the group fairly?
2. How would you make sure credit is shared appropriately?
3. What qualities make someone a good representative, beyond simply being a confident speaker?
Follow-up: After your presentation, you receive individual praise that should really go to the whole group. How do you respond?
During a group task, you realise the group is heading towards a decision you believe is mistaken.
1. How would you raise your concern?
2. What would you do if the group disagreed with you after you raised it?
3. Why does this situation matter for working safely within a clinical team?
Follow-up: If time ran out before the disagreement was resolved, what would you prioritise?
You are coordinating a small team for a volunteering event, and a key arrangement falls through the day before.
1. What would your immediate priorities be?
2. How would you communicate the problem to your team?
3. What qualities help a leader stay effective under sudden pressure?
Follow-up: A team member suggests cancelling the whole event rather than adapting it. How do you respond?
You are a medical student meeting a simulated patient who has just been told they need to start a long-term medication and looks visibly anxious.
1. How would you open this conversation to help put them at ease?
2. What would you say if they admitted they were worried about side effects?
3. How would you know the conversation had reached a good point to end?
Follow-up: The patient says they would rather try to manage without medication first. How do you respond in the moment?
In a role play station, you are asked to explain to a simulated patient why they are being referred to a specialist for further tests, without causing unnecessary alarm.
1. How would you begin this conversation?
2. What specific language would you avoid using, and why?
3. How would you handle the patient asking directly whether it could be something serious?
Follow-up: The patient becomes tearful partway through. How do you adjust your approach?
You are asked to explain, to someone with no medical background, what high blood pressure is and why it needs ongoing monitoring.
1. Give your explanation in plain, jargon-free language.
2. What question might the person reasonably ask next?
3. How would you check they had understood your explanation?
Follow-up: The person says they feel fine so they are not sure monitoring is necessary. How do you respond?
A simulated patient tells you they have not been taking their prescribed medication as directed, but asks you not to mention this to the rest of the healthcare team.
1. How would you respond to this request in the moment?
2. What would you say to encourage them to be honest with the full team?
3. What is the right balance between respecting their wishes and your responsibilities as part of the team?
Follow-up: The patient becomes upset and says they trusted you specifically with this information. How do you respond?
A medical student on placement overhears two staff members discussing a patient's case in a crowded hospital lift, using the patient's name.
1. What is the ethical concern in this situation?
2. What should the student do, if anything?
3. Why does confidentiality matter even in brief, informal moments like this?
Follow-up: One of the staff members is someone the student will be assessed by later that week. Does this change what the student should do?
An adult patient with full mental capacity declines a treatment that the healthcare team believes would clearly benefit them.
1. What ethical principle protects the patient's right to decline?
2. What should the team do if they strongly disagree with the patient's decision?
3. Are there any circumstances in which a competent adult's refusal could be overridden?
Follow-up: The patient's family asks the team to persuade the patient to change their mind. How should the team respond?
The NHS has a limited budget and must choose between funding one very expensive treatment for a small number of patients, or several cheaper treatments that would help a larger number of people.
1. What ethical principles are in tension in this kind of decision?
2. Who should be involved in making decisions like this?
3. Is it ever ethically straightforward to make this kind of choice?
Follow-up: A media campaign puts pressure on the NHS to fund the expensive treatment regardless of cost. How should this affect the decision?
A 16-year-old wants a medical procedure that their parents strongly oppose, though it is otherwise permitted for their age group.
1. What are the key ethical and legal issues to consider?
2. How would a doctor assess whether the 16-year-old can make this decision themselves?
3. What should happen if the young person and their parents cannot reach agreement?
Follow-up: The parents threaten to complain about any doctor who proceeds without their consent. How should this be handled?
A medical student on placement notices that a patient's notes contain an error that has not affected their care so far, but no one else seems to have noticed.
1. Should the student mention it to anyone, and why?
2. What ethical principle is most relevant here?
3. How might this situation differ if the error had been more serious?
Follow-up: A fellow student advises them just to leave it, since no harm has occurred. How should they respond to this advice?
The NHS frequently reports long waiting times for both emergency and routine care.
1. What do you understand to be some of the causes of these waiting times?
2. What trade-offs might be involved in trying to reduce them?
3. How might this affect a newly qualified doctor's daily work?
Follow-up: A patient tells you they went private because of the wait. How would you feel hearing this as a future NHS doctor?
Social care and the NHS are closely linked, especially in the care of older patients.
1. Why do pressures in social care affect hospitals?
2. What impact might this have on a ward you are working on in future?
3. What is the role of a doctor in a situation that is partly caused by problems outside the health service?
Follow-up: A patient is medically fit to leave hospital but has nowhere safe to go. What would you want to happen next for them?
Mental health services in the NHS have been under significant and widely reported pressure.
1. Why do you think demand for mental health services has risen in recent years?
2. What challenges exist in providing mental health care within current resources?
3. How might a doctor working in a non-mental-health specialty still need to engage with mental health issues?
Follow-up: A patient attending for a physical health issue mentions, almost in passing, that they have been feeling very low. How would you respond?
Health inequalities between different areas and communities remain a significant issue for the NHS.
1. What factors do you think contribute to health inequalities?
2. What role, if any, can an individual doctor play in addressing them?
3. What are the limits of what the health service alone can achieve on this issue?
Follow-up: If you were offered a post in an area with significant health inequality, how would you weigh this opportunity?
Staff retention and wellbeing within the NHS workforce are frequently discussed topics.
1. Why do you think staff wellbeing affects patient care?
2. What could be done to support new doctors in their first years of practice?
3. What personal strategies might help you look after your own wellbeing in a demanding career?
Follow-up: If you noticed a colleague showing signs of burnout, what would you do?
Manchester's interview does not test medical knowledge, but applicants are still expected to show scientific curiosity and understanding gained outside the interview room.
1. Can you describe a recent scientific or medical topic that has genuinely interested you?
2. Why did this topic interest you, specifically?
3. How do you keep yourself informed about developments in science and medicine?
Follow-up: How would you summarise this topic to someone with no scientific background in under a minute?
A type of cell in the human body divides regularly as part of normal growth and repair.
1. What basic process allows one cell to become two?
2. Why might uncontrolled versions of this process be relevant to disease?
3. Why is understanding basic biology useful background for a future doctor, even if you will not go into research?
Follow-up: How would you explain cell division to a school pupil with no biology background?
A new medicine is approved for general use only after going through several stages of testing.
1. What do you understand about why medicines go through multiple testing phases before approval?
2. Why might a treatment that works well in a trial behave differently in everyday use?
3. What role might doctors play in reporting problems with medicines after approval?
Follow-up: A patient tells you they do not trust 'newly approved' medicines. How would you respond?
Scientific understanding of a health topic can change significantly as new evidence is published.
1. Can you give an example of a time that scientific understanding on a health topic has changed?
2. Why is it important for a doctor to accept that medical knowledge changes over time?
3. How would you keep your own knowledge up to date throughout a career?
Follow-up: How would you explain to a patient that medical advice they received years ago has since changed?
The following is an illustrative figure. A clinic sees 60 patients a day. Records show 15 patients wait under 10 minutes, 30 wait between 10 and 25 minutes, and 15 wait over 25 minutes.
1. What percentage of patients wait over 25 minutes?
2. What further information would help you judge whether this waiting pattern is a problem?
3. Suggest one practical change the clinic could trial to reduce long waits.
Follow-up: If the clinic could only change one thing, what would you recommend and why?
The following is an illustrative figure. Over six years, a hospital's outpatient appointments rose from 50,000 to 68,000 per year, while clinic staff numbers rose from 120 to 128.
1. Calculate the percentage increase in appointments and in staff numbers over the six years.
2. What might this mismatch mean for staff and patients?
3. What other data would help explain the reasons behind the rise in appointments?
Follow-up: If most of the rise in appointments came from follow-up visits rather than new referrals, what might this suggest about possible solutions?
You are given a logical puzzle: four patients need to be seen this morning. You are told patient P must be seen before patient Q, patient R must be seen last, and patient Q must be seen before patient R.
1. List the possible orders in which the patients could be seen.
2. Explain your reasoning process.
3. Why might the ability to reason through constraints like this be useful in medicine?
Follow-up: A new patient arrives who must be seen before P. How does this change the possible orders?
The following is an illustrative figure. A screening test correctly identifies 92 out of 100 people who have a condition, but also incorrectly flags 8 out of every 100 people who do not have it.
1. In a group of 1,500 people where 75 actually have the condition, roughly how many people in total would you expect the test to flag as positive?
2. What problem does this illustrate about screening tests in a population where the condition is uncommon?
3. Why is this relevant to decisions about offering a test widely?
Follow-up: How would you explain this result to a worried person who has just tested positive?
The following is an illustrative figure. A ward has four patients awaiting review. Patient E has mild nausea since breakfast. Patient F, two days after surgery, has become confused and their heart rate has risen sharply in the last half hour. Patient G is medically stable and waiting only for transport home. Patient H has a small bruise that is not causing pain.
1. In what order would you prioritise reviewing these four patients?
2. Explain your reasoning for the order you chose.
3. What additional information would you want quickly for the patient you prioritised first?
Follow-up: If you learned Patient H was on medication that affects blood clotting, would this change your prioritisation?
Think of a time you changed your opinion about something significant after new information or an experience.
1. What was your original view, and what changed it?
2. How did you handle the process of changing your mind?
3. Why is this kind of flexibility useful for a doctor?
Follow-up: How would you respond if changing your mind meant admitting you had previously given someone incorrect advice?
Reflect on the process of preparing for this interview, including thinking through how you would approach an MMI circuit.
1. What has this process taught you about your own strengths?
2. What has it taught you about areas you still need to develop?
3. How will you continue this kind of reflection once you are a medical student?
Follow-up: If you were not offered a place this year, what would you take forward from this experience?
Consider a time you received disappointing results or an outcome that did not match your effort.
1. How did you respond at the time?
2. What did you learn about managing disappointment?
3. How might this learning help you cope with setbacks during medical training?
Follow-up: How would you distinguish between a setback you should push through and one that signals you need to change your approach?
Manchester uses this format for medicine: MMI circuit. There are 5 stations, each about 8 minutes. Interviews may be in person or online.
Interview timing for Manchester: Confirmed in your interview invitation. Always check the university's own admissions pages for this year's dates.
Manchester assesses: Communication, Reasoned argument, Caring experience and reflection, Awareness of current medical issues, Ethical awareness.
No. They are 50 original MedicHut practice questions, written to match Manchester's published interview format. Universities do not share their real questions, so your interview may differ.
Answer each question out loud with the timer on, then note what you would change. When you feel ready, a mock interview with a trained MedicHut interviewer gives you personal feedback.
Manchester medical school guide: entry requirements and interview advice
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