Sheffield Interview Questions

[maz]

Hiya, got an interview at sheffield in Jan just wandering if anyone's got any tips/advice? what sort of questions did they ask?

[Catherine]

*how was the tour? what did you like most about the university?
*what qualities should a good doctor have? which of the ones you listed do you feel you have? how do you know you have these qualities?
*tell me a little about your work experience..you said in your personal statement that you didn't feel satisfied with the work experience you'd done?
*how do you feel about working on human/ animal tissue?
*what set-backs do you think doctors find in their careers?
*did you see the dissection room on your tour? how do you feel about dissection?
*what do you like about the medical course at sheffield? (hint.. they expect you to know the outline of the course structure)
*did you know the peak district is a short walk from the university? and how do you like walking?
*what are your hobbies?
*what recent medical issues did you read about?
*quoted something about the law being that if an organ was removed from some-one's body then it belonged to the government...comment on that
and say you had just removed someone's appendix...it belongs to science now not to the patient..how would you feel about using it for research?
*then the medical student wanted to ask me a question..i did not expect him to ask some-thing nasty..i thought he'll ask something on my hobbies..instead he asked:
*if you could organise a panel to discuss the organ-scandal..who would you have on the panel and why?
*Why do you want to come to Sheffield (as a city and as a medschool)?
*Have you been to Sheffield before? (talked about open days etc)
*What activities are you looking forward to taking part in in Sheffield?
*What do you do to relax?
*Do you read any newspapers/medical journals? -Can you tell us about a story you've read recently?
*What branch of medicine do you see yourself going into?
*something about music that I can't remember
*something about my volunteer work
*Why Medicine?
*Why Sheffield?
*How I cope with stress?
*Qualities of a good house officer?
*What was more beneficial, the medical conferences or work experience?
*Do you think you'll be able to cope as a house officer and why?
*"Why do you want to be a doctor?"
*What are your hobbies?"
*"What do you think would be the most difficult thing about being a doctor?"
*"Would you find it difficult to cope/stressful?"
*"How do you cope with stress?"
*"If you came to Sheffield, what activities would you like to become involved in?"
*Recent medical issue
*"Is there anything we've missed that you would like to talk about?"
*What experience has your previous employment given you that will be useful in a medical career?
*What do I think the NHS will be like in the future? (?!)
*What about all the criticism of doctors nowadays and the pressures doctors face. Have doctors you have spoken to discouraged you?
*What do you think of league tables. If I want to be at the top of my league table for surgery what do I do to ensure that?
*Have you always wanted to be a doctor or is this something you have decided in recent years?
*What societies will you join if you come to the university?
*You read? What kind of books?
*do I read?
*whats the best book I ever read? (we talked bout that 4 ages!)
*what did I know bout the course?
*what would I do if I didnt get in this year?
*had I spoken to any junior doctors?
*work experience
*was I put off by the jr doctors sayin how hard it was
* Importance of IT
* nhs under critism from the press
What is good about Sheffield as a city?
If I gave you a thousand pounds and you had to spend it on YOURSELF in the next hour what would you buy?
What medical features have you seen in the news recently?
Should failing doctors be re-educated or thrown off the register?
What are the bad things about medicine
* Tell me about team-working (!)
* What specialty do I want to go into.
*Why Sheffield?
* How long u wanted to do medicine for?
* What can u bring to Sheffield medical school?
* What do I like about the course?
* tell me 3 good things about you and 3 bad
* What do u do in your spare time ?
* What area of medicine would u like to go into ?
* What do you do to in your spare time?......followed by loads of Q's on the TA
* A recent medical article??....talked about how a doctor is up before the GMC because he wouldn;t give a man a smear test......this lead on to.....
* So what do u think the medico-legal aspects of medicine then?
* Do you think doctors practise defensive medicine? errrrmmm yes
* Why?
My interview last year was based around my personal statement-they didn't ask any awful questions and were really friendly.The above questions are a selection from other interviews. Good Luck!


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[maz]

thanks! that really helpfull x

[Eponine_hugo]

When did you send your UCAS form off cos i haven't heard anything from anywhere yet?

[georgia_s]

Hey!

I had an interview for Sheffield on November the 30th. They were sooo friendly! Honestly, you have nothing to worry about its more of a chat than a grilling and they don't actually ask you that many questions. Mine took about 10 minutes and they gave me an offer

My advice is just to be reallly enthusiastic and smile lots like I did. Oh, and wear sensible shoes because the tour is miles :!:

Good Luck!!!

Just relax!!!

Georgia xxxx

p.s. Feel free to ask me anything you like!! I've also had interviews at Hull York and Peninsula.

[Stunt girl]

I had an interview in Nov and I got asked the following questions (exact wording may be different):

- You come from the south...What do you think the main difference between the North & South are?
- What kinds of diseases you think will have a high prevalence in the South Yorkshire area?
- Why do you want to come to Sheffield?
- What can you bring to this university?
- How is early clinical experience any use to a first year without any proper medical knowledge? Isn't this just clogging up the system?
- What medical issues have you read in the news recently?
- How would you deal with a patient with a heriditory form of cancer who was interested in preimplantation genetic diagnosis, whose father died from the disease? (This was following on from something I'd read in the use concerning PGD, so don't worry...they didn't ask it out of the blue)
I mentioned something along the lines discussing pros & cons of PGD concerning the disease...which was challenged by:
- But, if the patients father had died of the disease, wouldn't they already be aware of the pros & cons? (not necessarily...new advancements etc)
- What have you read/seen in the news lately which is outside of the UK/Europe, is nothing to do with medicine and...please *laughs*...nothing to do with Iraq & the George Bush administration?
- What work have you done that would be of benefit/give you an insight, to a career in medicine?
- If you were in charge of controlling MRSA in the NHS, what policies would you implement & what changes would you make? (Note, I mentioned MRSA in my PS)
- What are your hobbies interests?
- Who's your favourite band?
- So, I think we've grilled you enough, it's time to turn the tables...would you like us to answer any questions? (I took the thanks, but no thanks approach since knowing me I'd probably say something stupid and earlier that day on the tour, the med student showing us round said that the Head of Admissions had once told her that if you asked a question at the end he'd hold it against you on the grounds of not finding out yourself from other sources/not having read prospectus through enough etc, and that the only question he wouldn't penalise against was "What is this university's position on top-up fees?"...so, it's probs best to play it safe and not ask any questions!)

Good luck everyone!

[Catherine]

rusta_man
MSG Forum Rank: Fresher



Joined: 03 Mar 2005
Posts: 4

Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2005 9:13 pm Post subject: Interview Experience - 2005 entry

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Hi guys,
I thought it might help a few of you anxious people with interviews if you had an idea of what your in for.

People who've had your interviews, please post yours here

I had my interview on 25th Feb. There was only 3 other people being interviewed on the same day!
Here are my questions:

-Tell me about yourself (eek!)

-Why medicine?

-Why Sheffield?

-What did you do on your work experience?

-Give me an example of where you had to be caring

-What would you contribute if you came here?

-Give me 3 qualities that you think would be evident in a good doctor

-Talked about my duties with St. John Ambulance, so they asked me to give situations of where I had to be a leader and a teamplayer

-something about evidence based medicine

-what problems do you think will face in the future?

-any questions? (my advice is don't ask any here. When I said that all my questions had been answered by the prospectus, they smiled and one of them said "oh the sub-dean will be happy to hear that n smiled"

Overall, the interview lasted about 20 mins. I got an offer, ABB, yesterday, 3rd March

Hope this helps someone. Good luck if you've got an interview soon.
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NeXt TimE yOu WaVe aT mE, UsE mOrE tHaN oNe FinGeR...

[*~*Amy*~*]

Hey,
I had an interview at Sheffield in december and consequently and offer a few week's later so i thought I'd share my experience as It definatly helped hearing about other people's on here!

The first thing they said to me was that they saw I'd been to Medlink so they knew I'd have prepared answer's to all the usual questions like 'why do you want to be a doctor?' so they didn't ask me any of them! So I would watch out for that, although I think it helped me because it gave me more opportunity to show my personality, I can't really remeber all the questions they asked me but I'll try and think of a few:

Why Sheffield? Tell me something about Sheffield nothing to do with the Uni or the Course? (I struggled a bit on that one)

What good/bad things would your friends say about you?

What are you most proud of?

Recent medical stories I've read?

Asked me some ethical questions, one where I ended up criticising the pope, I was hoping so much they weren't catholics!

Also some questions on my personal statement, all in all they were really nice and it was much less formal than my Manchester interview, good luck for everyone that has there's whenever it is!

[mda01gar]

Dont worry too muchabout the interview, its so much more of a chat than being bombarded with questions. They will ask you why sheffield and why you want to be a doctor...i suggest an answer not about wanting to help and more about the "thrill of diagnosis" or something like that. If you just say the garbabout helping people they'll then say why dont you be a nurse instead. They often ask what have been the most important changes to medical practice or something aong those lines ( Harold Shipman is a goddie!) Essentially they want to make sure your a nice person so if you smile and are polite and perhaps have a giggle with the interviewers that should see ya rite x

[mda01gar]

Oh yeah there a new booklet produced by the GMC that you can find on their website that puts forward seven pricipals of good medical practice its always good to have an example of each that you have under your belt in case they ask you what make a g ood doctor and how do you fit with that x