Sheffield Interviews

**Catherine** · 04-11-2006, 08:44 PM

Hello everyone,

Now that people are beginning to receive invites to interview, I thought I'd tell those of you who aren't aware of the system at Sheffield a little bit more about the way interviews are carried out and some general areas to think about before you come along.

On the day, you'll have the opportunity to go on a tour around the medical school and go to the hospital canteen or union to have some lunch before interviews begin -this tour is led by a medical student and I'd definitely advise you go on this as the students can be really helpful and answer most of your questions about student life in Sheffield and the course here. It might give you more ideas about how to answer some of the questions during the interview too!

After this, interviews take place in the afternoon from 2-5pm. Interviews last 20min and there will be 3 interviewers - at least one of which will be a doctor. Sheffield is different to a lot of medical schools in the way that they also have a current Sheffield medical student sit on the interview panel. Each interviewer's opinion is weighted as much as the other, so they will all score you individually and these scores will be collated to decide whether you will receive an offer.

There are 8 areas that you will be scored on (see below) and the scores vary from 1 (Excellent) to 5 (Extremely poor). Only candidates receiving a score of 8 or 9 are likely to receive an offer. That means you must be scored as Excellent in every category to have a good chance of a place.

The 8 categories are:

1) Motivation for Medicine
2) Evidence of committment to caring
3) Communication skills
4) Personal style / attitude
5) Work experience
6) Understanding of Medicine (e.g. insight into medicine as a profession/career)
7) Knowledge of Sheffield (course, area, etc)
8) Outside interests

My experience, and that of many others I know, is that Sheffield interviews are very chatty and relaxed compared to many other Universities and conversation is mainly focused on exploring things you've mentioned in your personal statement (which are likely to be things relevant to categories 1,2,5,6 and 8). It's important not just to list these experiences, but to emphasise what you have learned from them and how they've contributed to your interest / knowledge / understanding of medicine as a profession.

Dressing smartly and appropriately, communicating well and coming across as a nice, approachable person will get you a good score for categories 3 and 4 - and then if you've done a bit of research or been on the tour and spoken to the students before your interview, it's likely you've got something to say about Sheffield for category 7 - full marks - easy peasy!

The most important thing is to above all be yourself. If you dont know the answer then say 'I dont know, but I'll look into it' or something like that - acknowledging the limits of your knowledge is a vital skill for a doctor and lying or blagging will get you nowhere.

Good luck to all those who have an interview in the next few months - I'll be on the panel for 3 afternoons at some point in January, February and April so maybe I'll see you there!

**equium** · 05-11-2006, 06:46 AM

you absolute legend!

**Fawaz** · 05-11-2006, 04:31 PM

Thankyou! Scoring excellent in each category seems pretty darn hard.

**rozzy** · 05-11-2006, 05:04 PM

thanks so much catherine thats great help for everyone who will get an interview *fingers crossed*

yeah like fawaz said, scoring excellent in every catory will be extremely hard!

**Catherine** · 05-11-2006, 10:26 PM

It's true that getting into any medical school is getting increasingly hard, but remember that interviewers only have 20min to make a decision on all of these categories, so most of the decision will be made on how you come across overall.

You've already fulfilled the academic criteria by getting an interview (and of course living up to those predicted grades when exams come along!), so all the interviewers are looking for is if you seem like you'd be a nice doctor, whether you know how to relax and have a life outside work and whether you seem to have a realistic idea and interest in what you'd be getting yourself in for!

I don't think there's any harm in being prepared for the sorts of things you might be asked, as if you feel at ease you're more likely to show off the real you, but remember not to rehearse set answers, as interviewers will also be looking for an ability to think on your feet without getting too flustered - remember that 'i don't know' is always a valid answer!

Good luck again to all.

**gymmet** · 05-11-2006, 11:15 PM

Thankyou for those hints!

I haven't got an interview yet but on the scoring system thing, would it be partially based on things discussed in Personal Statement or just wholly on interview?