About Hull York Medical School (2023 Edition)
HYMS adopts a PBL style of learning coupled with early patient contact from week one in first year.
It’s one of the smaller medical schools, allowing students can get to know the people in their year a little better. PBL also helps students closely connected to other medical students throughout the academic year as PBL sessions are held twice a week.
HYMS collects feedback periodically throughout the year to continuously keep track on how it could improve.
HYMS Interview Information
🔍 How does Hull York select candidates for interviews?
Applicants are screened academically to ensure they meet the grade requirements, before then being ranked, and then after this the decision as to who progresses to interviews is made. For this, Hull uses the following academic scoring system (total 100 points):
GCSE grades (up to 30 points, based on your best six grades)
6 GCSEs at Grade 9/A*-4/C or equivalent, including English Language and Maths at Grade 6/B or above.
A level/ IB grades
Current offer is AAA at A2 or equivalent level, including biology and chemistry.
UCAT sections 1-4 (up to 40 points)
‘University Clinical Aptitude Test’ - an admissions test required by the vast majority of UK medical schools. Points for this test are noted once the UCAT scores are released to the universities in November, UCAT situational judgement score (up to 15 points are rewarded for this specific section of the UCAT)
UCAT situational judgement (up to 15 points)
The situational judgement section of the UCAT is often used in isolation by medical schools when ranking candidates, as this gives a better view of how students solve nuanced ethical dilemmas relating to medicine. This is evidently crucial when choosing our future doctors.
Contextualisation (up to 15 points)
The contextual data is applicable for candidates with at least two of Hull’s contextualisation criteria - this includes your postcode, your parents’ highest level of education, and UCAT bursary eligibility.
On top of the academic scoring system, Hull medical school takes a holistic approach when screening applicants for interview selection, taking into consideration experiences mentioned in your personal statement in addition to information from your academic reference which demonstrate your aptitude for medicine:
Personal statement/ work experience
The medical school at Hull York looks for students who demonstrate not only academic proficiency, but also the skills required by a doctor. As such, beyond grades your personal statement is screened for specific qualities such as empathy, compassion, and resilience. Candidates who can give evidence as to experiences that they have had which have helped to develop such soft skills and prepare them best for the questions asked at interview will be more likely to progress to the next stage of the application process. Clinical experience, such as shadowing a doctor on their ward round, is not necessary but can be a good way to demonstrate knowledge of the demands of the career.
Academic reference
Finally it is worth noting that all applicants must additionally provide an academic reference giving further evidence of your academic proficiency and aptitude for studying and practising medicine in order to progress to the next phase of the application process.
🧬 What is the interview format?
Hull medical school uses the ‘MMI’ (Multiple Mini Interview, 6 stations lasting 5 minutes each) format which is designed to test your personal skills and attributes which are required by a good doctor. The stations include: three mini interviews, group work and individual scenarios, and a student situation. See ‘📝 What are the main topics I will be asked at the interview?’ section for more detail on this.
🤵 What to expect on interview day?
Interviewees sit in a room with other prospective medical students and there are current HYMS medical students around to answer questions you may have or to have a chat with interviewees. The interviews are assessed by interview panels that include health professionals, academic staff, and senior medical students as well as people outside of the medical profession. Dressing smart makes a good impression.
⏰ When are the interviews usually held?
Interviews are held in December and January.
📝 What are the main topics I will be asked at the interview?
During the interviews they are especially looking for your oral communication skills as this will test how well suited you are to the style of teaching on the course - this is enquiry-based learning, which shifts the focus away from simply providing students with facts and information, and more towards presenting questions, scenarios and problems to work through individually. The MMI is split up into sections as follows:
Three mini-interviews
During the three mini interviews you may be asked about current affairs in the medical field, your understanding of medicine as a career and particular drive to want to work in this field, as well as your ability to think critically and solve problems.
Group work station
The group work scenario is designed to test whether you have the skills required to work well in a team such as compromise, leadership, understanding, and resilience.
Individual station
In the individual scenario the interviewer will assess your personal judgement to a theoretical situation.
Student station
In the student situation, real medical students will ask you about your motivation to study medicine and work as a doctor. As such, thinking about what aspects of the career you will find rewarding and how you will cope with the stresses of the course and the job may be useful in preparation for your interview.
📚 Examiner review
The HYMS interview experience was very friendly, relaxed and supportive.
📨 What to expect after the interview?
Offers are given on a rolling basis, students usually start hearing back after a month.
☑️ How will my interview be marked?
During the whole MMI, HYMS interviewers will be observing and scoring you in the following areas:
Your ability to work collaboratively in a group
Insight into a medical career
Your understanding of the values in the NHS Constitution
Motivation for a medical career
Your awareness and understanding of current medical issues
Your communication skills
Your understanding of and motivation for the Hull York Medical School MB BS course
Your personal qualities such as empathy, tolerance of ambiguity and resilience
Your ability to think critically
You will be scored out of a total of 80 points.
You can score up to 15 points each for the three mini interviews. Another 15 points can be achieved in the group work scenario. Up to a further 10 points may be awarded in the individual scenario. The last 10 points may be achieved in the student situation.
🏠 How many applicants are there per interview (Home)?
Number of applicants per interview: 1.7
Number of applicants per place: 6.7
🌎 How many applicants are there per interview (International)?
Around 11 places are offered to overseas fee paying students each year. However it is worth noting that Hull medical school does not accept deferred applications from international students.
Number of applicants per interview: 1.9
Number of applicants per place: 9.5
✨ How likely is it that I will be given an offer after an interview?
For the 2021 entry, Hull received 1808 applications for medicine, from which 815 were invited for interview and 505 offers were made - therefore after receiving an interview there is about a 60% chance you will be given an offer to study medicine at Hull.
Check out the HYMS Medicine MBBS website for information regarding the HYMS curriculum and style of interview.
Ensure that you understand the GMC Good Medical Practice document and different hot topics in healthcare news.
Hull York have a group exercise as part of the interviews, which is quite unique.
The assessors here will want to see how effectively you work in a group and communicate.
Make sure you are able to give clear detailed answers and are able to justify any opinions you give.
Check out our Medicine Interview Course!
Example interview questions
🔥Motivation Interview Questions
Why do you want to be a doctor?
Experience and understanding of a career in medicine
🏥 Work Experience Interview Questions
Your work experience, and what you learned from it.
What was the most important thing you learned from your work experience?
How did your work experience confirm this career choice for you?
🧍Values and Skills Interview Questions
Scenarios involving making hard decisions
How do you maintain a good work-life balance?
What do you do outside of your studies?
🎭 Roleplay Interview Questions
Breaking bad news
Gathering information
Your friend has just received very sad news. Go and have a conversation with her to support her.
📰NHS Interview Questions
Structure of the NHS
How do you think the COVID19 pandemic will affect the NHS?
📻 Current Affairs Interview Questions
Knowledge of current news regarding healthcare
⚖️ Medical Ethics Interview Questions
What are your views surrounding euthanasia? (discuss in group)
You have caught your friend at Medical School cheating on their exams. How do you react to the situation?
The weekly, early clinical contact from first year is a unique part of the HYMS experience. This really helps to develop your history taking, communication and clinical reasoning ability from early on. Students have found that ‘placement day’ each week is the highlight of their timetable as you can apply the content that you are learning from lectures and PBL to real life patients. In addition to this, students remain in the same PBL groups for the whole year which helps in forming friendships and study groups.
Hull is a busy - ish city with quite a lot to do in the city centre and student area. If you’re living on campus (which most 1st year students do) then the library and medical building are only ever a 5–7-minute walk away which students find super convenient! From the university quarter and campus accommodation, there is Newland Avenue which has a lot of restaurants, shops and takeaways. The main campus of York is just a short distance from the city centre where there is also plenty of activities, restaurants and bars. Being at HYMS means students can be involved in their resident university’s societies i.e. Hull University Basketball Society as well as HYMS specific societies such as MedSoc, Surgical Society, Wilderness Society and more.
At HYMS, students get a university-specific freshers as well as a HYMS freshers which creates plenty of space to make friends with medical students and non-medics too – for example, there is a university Freshers Fair as well as a HYMS Freshers Fair so there’s plenty opportunity to get involved in both. It’s easy to make friends with people from across the university through your accommodations, societies, sports and social events. Both York MedSoc and Hull MedSoc are active in coming up with events for students. There are many great social opportunities at HYMS: the Medsoc and medical society-organised events; events held by accommodation; university events and sports events (both medic sports and uni-wide sports).
The MedSoc puts on events that cater to a range of students such as quiz nights and bar crawls. We also have the Winter Ball and Summer Ball organised by Hull MedSoc and York MedSoc respectively whereby the Hull medical students go over to York for the summer ball and the York medical students go over to Hull for the winter ball! There are even more societies under the wider Medical Society such as Afro-Caribbean Medical Society, Paediatrics Society and Psychiatry Society which students can join and if there’s a society that a student wishes to create, they are able to do so!
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