My King's Interview

[daft]

Just came back from London - got a grilling from Kings!

Questionnaire was quite straight forward - Why Kings? What have you done recently that you are proud of? What could you bring to Kings? What other careers have you considered? Tell us about your work experience. (these are the ones that stick out)

My ethical case study involved a doctor whose senior surgical colleague's performance had been deteriorating following her husbands death a year ago, culminating in her missing a morning clinic.

The actual interview itself I found quite nasty - good cop bad cop style. I had a lady who described herself as head of the course (perhaps the A103 conversion course, but I can't remember her name) and a doctor, who was described by the lady as "the expert" (he was the bad cop). Interview started with a few friendly questions from the lady - 'tell us a bit about yourself' (eurgh), 'I see your house is called farm - are you from a farming family?' (?). Then over to the man - 'why do you want to be a doctor - why no science a-levels?' (I applied for the A103 conversion course), 'tell us a bit about your work experience', 'you mention Behcet's disease - what do you understand this to be?', 'why did you feel compelled to put this in your personal statement?', 'what do you think causes these effects?' (I said I'd been shocked by the physical effects of the disease - multiple amputations. I didn't really know what caused these amputations in particular, so I said I didn't know, but said as a guess that perhaps blood vessels burst causing internal bleeding [probably wrong, he didn't say]).

We then got onto the ethical case study, discussed that for a bit. I tried to argue both points of view, but in the end stated that if patients' lives were at risk then I might have to go above this senior colleague's head. Bad cop seemed to agree with this, and cited a similar case about an anaesthetist in Bristol who had been struck off for complaining about surgeon's not doing things by the book. This lead on to talk about the future of the NHS - my thoughts on MMC and the ability of EU graduates to work freely. I was then asked what I would do if I found myself unable to get a job after graduation. This concluded the interview - I wasn't asked if I had any questions (is this a bad sign?).

All in all for me it was not an enjoyable interview, especially considering it was my first one and King's is my top choice I got a bit flustered at some points, and lost my train of thought but otherwise I just about managed to answer all the questions. Very nervous about the outcome though, I really hope they just accept or reject me, and don't put me on the waiting list!

Hope this is helpful!

[Sakura]

Hello 'daft',

I'm sure this interview will work out fine...Don't worry..Btw, are you an EU applicant?

Thanks...

[daft]

Nope, UK applicant, I live in Essex.

[Sakura]

Ohh..okie..thanks lots..=)

[Ish]

Thanks alot for the info daft! I mentioned in my PS about helping in a genetic disorders clinic - so i better read up on what i saw!
Im sure u'v done fine! Best of lucky,

Ish

[moon-stars]

do home/eu students have interviews earlier than international students?
does king's care about ukcat scores very much?

thanks in advance

["Khilla Doc"]

All in all for me it was not an enjoyable interview, especially considering it was my first one and King's is my top choice I got a bit flustered at some points, and lost my train of thought but otherwise I just about managed to answer all the questions. Very nervous about the outcome though, I really hope they just accept or reject me, and don't put me on the waiting list!

Hope this is helpful!

Hey man! Hope u get an offer from them soonish!!!!Medicine is such a noble and unique course and im sure it will fall 4 u. Thanks for the information btw and i totally get what u mean by not being on that waiting list cos i was on it last year and it stings x10 worse when they reject ppl l8er after giving false hope (in my case anyway..).
Best of luk....

[daft]

Thanks alot mate, still a bit down from it but hopefully my passion for med and Kings shone through! Good luck for the 18th, I'm sure you'll be fine

[Spur]

Good luck 'daft'.

You sound like a decent, sincere person. I hope you get it.

I found out today I have an interview on January 15th, so trying to do some prep. Argh!

[Min]

Just had my interview it was pretty much the same as daft's except my bad cop was the one asking PS based questions, I think it went ok, hope it did anyway! Good luck to everyone else