About Leicester Medical School (2023 Edition)
University of Leicester Medical School is an extremely supportive and welcoming environment.
Early patient contact, full body dissection and detailed exam feedback are all standard practice.
They also have a very approachable and highly qualified set of lecturers and clinical teaching fellows, who produce excellent lectures, practice papers and question banks.
Medicine is taught as a mixed traditional/PBL format.
Everyone at UoL wants you to succeed and will help you a lot along the way.
University of Leicester Interview Information
🔍How does Leicester University select candidates for interviews?
GCSEs/ A-levels/ Advanced higher: 50% of the selection process is reliant on your achieved grades. 8 of your GCSEs are converted into a score out of 32. Grade 8/9 or A* will score 4 points and decrease in a stepwise fashion. You must achieve at least a grade 6 or B to be awarded 1 point. They require AAA at A-level including Chemistry or Biology, and one of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Maths or Psychology, however these are not used to select for interviews. Scottish students are required to sit advanced higher and standard offer if AAA including chemistry or biology and one of chemistry, biology, physics, maths or psychology. Applicants will also be considered if you have 2 sciences at advanced higher at AA plus 3 other subjects at higher at levels AAB.
Personal Statement: The personal statement and reference are not routinely scored, except for candidates applying with an Access to Medicine qualification. However, for borderline candidates, or in tiebreak situations, the personal statement and reference may be used.
UCAS: Applicants must sit the UCAT. This accounts for 50% of total score. The UCAT score is converted to a score out of 32 and the corresponding number of points are allocated. The SJT is not taken in to account in selection process.
Your academic results and UCAT results are combined to give give a possible score of 64 points. The score is then used to determine if invited to interview. If borderline between two applicants, persoanl statement and reference will come into use. There is no set score to garuntee interview as it is due to ranking, which can change due to thereshold.
🧬What is the interview format?
Leicester use MMI interviews. This year the will be held online. MMI interview consists of 8/9 stations. Candidates have approximately 1 minute to read the station information before the station begins. Each station has a different interviewer and will be held in a different breakout room on Blackboard Collaborate. Overall the interview lasts between 60-90 minutes.
📆 When will you get interview invitations?
Leicester will begin sending out interview invitations by email in December and this will be an ongoing process until the end of February.Invitations to interview are sent by email. Sometimes these may end up in junk mail so its importnant to check.
👩💼 When are the interviews usually held?
Interviews for 2022 entry to Leicester Medical School are scheduled to take place between December 2022 and March 2023.
📝 What are the main topics I will be asked at the interview?
Motivation to study medicine and genuine interest in the medical profession
Personal attributes, for example, honesty, emotional intelligence, resilience, conscientiousness, personal organisation, ability to work as a team member
Academic ability and problem-solving skills
Ability to reflect on your work, strengths, weaknesses, as well as your own health
Effective communication, including reading, writing, listening and speaking
Ability to deal with uncertainty, manage risks, deal with problems and take responsibility for your actions
Ability to be empathetic and treat people with compassion, respect and dignity
Ethical Judgement
☑️ How will my interview be marked?
Each station will be scored and you will be ranked on the basis of those scores. Where two or more applicants are equally ranked, your UCAS form score may be used as a tie-breaker.
🏠How many applicants are there per interview? (Home)
2 home applicants per interview.
🌎How many applicants are there per interview? (International)
4.1 applicants per interview.
✨How likely is it that I will be given an offer after an interview?
Home: Leicester interviewed 1136 students and 542 of applicants received an offer. This means 48% of those who were interviewed were succesful.
International: 168 international students were interviewed and 56 were offered a place. This makes it a 33% chance of receiving an offer.
Check the Leicester Medical School website for interview details, and make sure you know the unique selling points of UoL med school such as full body dissection and HCA opportunities.
Have a good response for why you want to do medicine and why Leicester?
Know the pillars of medical ethics and do lots of interview practice with friends/family/teachers.
Try and link every answer point back to why that's an important quality to have as a doctor.
Think about WHY they're asking you these questions.
Take your time to think pre-answer and relax.
Example interview questions
🔥Motivation Interview Questions
Why do you want to do medicine?
Why Leicester?
What made you choose medicine, rather than other options?
What did you want to do before medicine?
What subjects did you study?
What was your favourite subject?
What happens once you’ve graduated?
What can you bring to the University?
Do you have a particular field in medicine in which you are interested?
🤯Values and Skills Interview Questions
You have to create and present an A4 poster about yourself, the details of which will be emailed to you prior to interview.
What bad qualities do you have and how are you working to overcome them?
What are your strengths/weaknesses?
What are your hobbies?
If you could change one thing about yourself what would that be?
📰NHS Interview Questions
What do you think about doctors who are criticised in the press?
Would you stay in one place or move around?
What role does politics play in the NHS?
What do you consider to be a problem/issue within the NHS?
What area should research be concentrated on in the future?
What major health issues are around at the moment?
🧐Problem Solving Interview Questions
A maths test, nothing beyond GCSE maths. Read a passage, then recall details about it when questioned without being able to look back.
Practice talking through your working in a concise, step by step way. Always be careful of the units you use in drug calculations, and practice your conversions between different metrics - e.g. micrograms to grams.
Describe an object or a task to another person who is visually impaired
Teach a patient to use an inhaler (with/without having an inhaler in front of you)?
Explain how to tie your shoelace without using your hands?
🎭Roleplay Interview Questions
Comfort a distressed patient whilst the interviewer watches, you are not expected to give medical advice or assume the role of a medical professional. For example, talk to this person who is distressed about their missing sister. This is more about demonstrating compassion and empathy.
🏥Work Experience Interview Questions
Talk about a time where you learnt the importance of ______________, the blank could be anything relating to important qualities a doctor must possess such as candour, compassion, etc.
What did you observe in the oncology/haematology ward etc?
❤️ Medical Ethics Interview Questions
Watch a video of a doctor-patient interaction and point out all the areas for improvement and concern, such as breaches of patient safety. You can watch the video multiple times.
🗓 Current affairs Interview Questions
Read a passage about some current affair, one example is the rates of burnout in doctors. The interviewer will then ask questions pertaining to the passage which you must discuss.
UoL sports early patient contact from first year with the opportunity to become a healthcare assistant. Not only will this give you very sharp clinical skills early on, but also let you book paid HCA shifts. Full body dissection ensures complete and thorough anatomy teaching. Belbins are groups of 8 that you spend 2 hours with a day doing PBL questions, and some of the closest friends you will make. Everyone has the opportunity to intercalate. We also have an online 3d anatomy service and free subscription to TeachMeAnatomy.
Leicester is a large city with so much to do within close proximity to medical school, the vibrant city centre is only a 10 minute walk away. The closest campus accommodation is a 2 minute walk away. The train station is also a 10 minute walk from the med school. Main campus has great sports facilities, libraries, a new student union with loads of great places to eat, and the stunning Victoria park right next door. On campus you will find most societies you can think of, including MedSoc, Surgical Society, all the sports, music, dance, cultural and religious societies, etc. The brilliant atmosphere and range of things to do means you can have such a great work life balance you often forget the stresses of medicine.
At Leicester University, accommodations are mixed so there is plenty of opportunity to mix with non-medics. There are a huge number of medic only societies, but an even larger number of general university societies. In some weeks, there will be more events going on than you can physically attend. The diverse range of societies throw an equally diverse range of events, catering to everyone's personalities. Whatever your ideal social life is, at Leicester University there is a way to make it a reality. For people who are having a hard time socialising, there are buddy systems in place to make sure everyone can find their crowd.
Leicester MedSoc, known as LUSUMA is one of the best medical societies you will find. Members are present from every year of study, first through to last so its really easy to socialise with higher years. Notably great events include: Introweek (an extra freshers week for medics), outroweek, multiple balls and bar-crawls. There are equally as many non-drinking events. With around 300 new students joining every year, there is no better place to meet your fellow medics.
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