Interview Format (Historically)
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Cardiff bases their selection on multiple mini interviews (MMI). There are nine stations which applicants rotate around in turn. Each station lasts 8 minutes. The interviews focus on exploring the applicant’s personal qualities and attributes which are vital to becoming a good doctor in the future. The attributes include:

• Medical motivation and awareness of the career
• Caring ethos and a sense of social awareness
• Sense of responsibility
• Evidence of a balanced approach to life
• Evidence of self-directed learning and extracurricular activities
• Referee’s report

Each station attracts one of four grades based on the performance of the applicant; these are poor, borderline, good and excellent.

COVID-19 Update for 2021 Entry​

​Applicants who are shortlisted will be invited to interview in December or January. Invitations will be sent via email with a link to the online booking system during November. Dates cannot be changed. Interviews will proceed in an MMI format. ​

Before the Interview​​

• You will receive an email with information about the Cardiff medicine interview, including an overview of the structure. This email often contains instructions such as ‘consider preparing for…’ These hints may form the basis of the questions, so ensure that you can discuss these topics comprehensively.
• Annotate your personal statement and know it thoroughly, as this will form the basis of some of the questions.
• Ensure that you have a good understanding of the Welsh NHS.
• You will also need to keep up-to-date with any medical news and practice discussing its implications for the medical profession.
• You need to know why you want to study at Cardiff, especially if you are not currently living in Wales.
• Research the course, especially the new C21 course that they offer. Make a note of any unique aspects that particularly interest you.
• Practise systematically answering questions, structuring every answer like a little essay. The answers to the questions should take about three minutes. Have more than one point, explain each one and summarise at the end.

Recent MMI Stations

Motivation and Insight into Medicine – This includes knowledge of the course and evidence of your desire to study at Cardiff. Cardiff University is one of the very few universities that still do dissection – this fact, along with the structure of the new C21 course, are features you will be expected to know about. Interviewers will also be looking for ways in which you can contribute to Cardiff as a student and a potential ambassador. They will also be looking for evidence that you some insight into the career and pathway’s within medicine. It is essential to know the differences between the Welsh NHS and the NHS elsewhere in the UK, as well as issues facing each.

• What made you choose medicine?
• Why do you want to study at Cardiff in particular?
• How are you able to contribute to Cardiff as a student and a potential student ambassador?
• Will there be any difficulties you think you will face at Cardiff?
• Why not study closer to home?
• Why do you want to be a doctor rather than a nurse?
• What makes a good doctor?
• What are the qualities that doctors should have?
• What is a doctor’s role in confidentiality of a patient?

Personal statement/ General station – this includes your hobbies and extracurricular interests. It also includes evidence of self-directed learning, this may not necessarily have a medical context, but you should be able to articulate what you learnt from it and skills that could make you are a better doctor as a result.

• What are your hobbies?
• What country would you like to go to most? (Personal statement)
• Tell us about your travel abroad
• Why is your email address as it is?
• What are your parents’ jobs?
• Do you still sing/write music?
• How will your sport be of benefit at medical school?
• Give me an example of where you work in a team.
• If a patient died due to your negligence, how would you cope?
• How do you deal with difficult people in the workplace?
• What did you do on work experience at hospital?
• What work do you do in the community?
• Tell me about one particular patient you have worked with, what did you learn about them?
• In your personal statement you mention attending ethics conferences; can you give me an example of an ethical issue you encountered during your work experience?
• What have you learnt from your volunteer work?
• Did anyone from your work experience inspire you?

Ethical dilemmas – These are often scenarios which do not have a clear right or wrong answer. Instead the focus is on being able to communicate both sides of the issue in a cohesive and constructive way, before stating your opinion on the issue.

• What are your views on euthanasia (or other hot topic)?
• What is your view on organ donation in Wales?
• Could you perform an abortion? And if not, what would you do?
• Do you think mapping the human genome is a good idea?
• Further example MMI Stations with model answers can be found in the MMI Question Bank

Teamwork Stations – This may require you to work with someone else or discuss a time where you displayed skills which are necessary for operating as part of a team. These skills should be able to be related back to your career as a prospective doctor.  It is important not to underestimate the importance of this station; key tips on how to succeed in the teamwork station as well as common pitfalls can be found in the MMI Question Bank.

Case/Article Reviews – You will be given an article or case study to read and make notes on. From here you will be required to discuss the case and its outcomes with the interviewer.

• What do you think are the two major health issues in Wales at the moment?
• What do you think of the NHS bed crisis?
• What is your understanding of “bed blocking”?
• How would you go about solving the problem of “bed blocking”?
• Have you recently read any magazines/newspaper articles related to health issues?
• Give me a current medical issue you find interesting and explain why?

Data Handling and Calculation Tasks – these tasks may include simple dose calculations; expect to be given a piece of paper for calculations and no calculator.

Scientific/Medical Topics – while interviewers do not expect you to have a thorough knowledge of medical topics, a general ‘lay-persons’ understanding of common medical and scientific topics is expected.

• Why do people in Aeroplanes suffer from deep vein thrombosis from being still in one position, yet this doesn’t affect people when they are asleep despite being in the same position for hours?
• How would you go about solving the problem of diabetes?
• How does an MRI machine work?
• Do you know who invented CT scans?