Free practice questions for the Exeter medicine interview, with the interview format taken from the university's own admissions pages.
Exeter interviews by Multiple Mini Interview and says the stations assess non academic qualities such as communication, reflectiveness and empathy. Interview performance usually decides whether you get an offer. Exeter does not publish a station count, station timings or a delivery mode, so check your invitation before you travel. Practise a full circuit built around communication, reflection and empathy. Check your invitation for current timings.
Original MedicHut practice questions. Real interviews may differ.
Exeter Medical School uses a specific curriculum structure designed to prepare students for clinical practice in diverse environments.
Please explain:
1. Which specific teaching methods or course structures at Exeter appeal to you most and why.
2. How the location and demographic of the South West will shape your clinical learning.
3. How you plan to engage with the university community outside of your medical studies.
Follow-up:
"What do you think is the biggest challenge of studying medicine using small group learning, and how will you overcome it?"
The medical curriculum at Exeter includes placements in rural and community settings across the South West, rather than just large city hospitals.
Please explain:
1. Why training in a rural or community setting appeals to you.
2. How the healthcare needs of a rural population might differ from an urban one.
3. The challenges a medical student might face when living and working outside of a major city.
Follow-up:
"How do you think spending time in a small community hospital will make you a better doctor in the long term?"
Moving to university often involves adapting to a new region and managing a demanding workload. The Exeter medical school welcomes students from across the UK and beyond to the South West.
Please talk me through:
1. How you plan to settle into a new city and a new region while starting the course.
2. What you know about the student support structures available at Exeter.
3. Why maintaining a healthy work-life balance is important for medical students.
Follow-up:
"Imagine you are struggling to keep up with the academic workload during your first term. Who would you speak to first?"
The Exeter medical curriculum places a strong emphasis on a patient-centred approach from the early years of the course.
Please explain:
1. What the term 'patient-centred' means to you.
2. How you think this approach benefits student learning.
3. Why this style of learning appeals to you personally.
Follow-up:
"Can you give an example of a time when you saw patient-centred care, or a lack of it, during your work experience?"
Medical training often involves facing unexpected obstacles and learning from mistakes or failures.
Please tell me about a time when a project or task did not go as planned. In your answer, include:
1. What the specific challenge was and how you initially reacted.
2. The steps you took to resolve the situation.
3. What you learned about your own resilience during the process.
Follow-up:
"How will this specific experience shape your attitude when dealing with setbacks as a junior doctor?"
The General Medical Council requires doctors to regularly reflect on their practice.
Please explain:
1. What self-reflection means to you in a professional context.
2. Why it is important for doctors to reflect on both positive and negative experiences.
3. A specific time when you reflected on an experience and changed your behaviour as a result.
Follow-up:
"Some doctors argue that formal written reflection takes time away from patient care. How would you respond to this view?"
Receiving and acting on feedback is a crucial part of medical training.
Think of a time when you received constructive criticism. Please explain:
1. The context of the situation and what the criticism was.
2. How you initially felt when receiving the feedback.
3. The steps you took to act on the criticism.
Follow-up:
"Looking back, is there anything you would change about the way you handled that situation?"
Describe a significant achievement in your life and reflect on the process of reaching your goal.
1. What made this achievement meaningful to you?
2. What obstacles did you face along the way?
3. What did this experience teach you about your own character?
Follow-up:
"How will you apply what you learned from this achievement to your studies at medical school?"
You are a medical student sitting in on a GP consultation. The GP has just informed a patient that they have been diagnosed with a life-changing chronic illness. The GP leaves the room for a few minutes to print some information leaflets, leaving you alone with the visibly upset patient.
Please talk me through:
1. How you would initially approach and comfort the patient.
2. What professional boundaries you need to keep in mind as a medical student.
3. How you would handle any specific medical questions the patient asks you.
Follow-up:
"The patient turns to you and says, 'I am completely overwhelmed and I did not understand anything the doctor just said.' How do you respond?"
You are a medical student on placement at a busy GP surgery. A patient in the waiting room approaches you. They are visibly angry and loudly complain that their appointment was scheduled for 45 minutes ago.
Please talk me through:
1. How you would initially approach and speak to this patient.
2. The steps you would take to de-escalate the situation.
3. What factors might be causing the patient to react this way.
Follow-up:
"The patient tells you they have a very important work meeting and demands to see a doctor right now. How do you respond?"
You are a medical student observing a busy outpatient clinic. The consultant explains a new asthma diagnosis to a patient using complex medical terminology, then leaves the room to take an urgent phone call. The patient turns to you and says they did not understand what the doctor meant.
Please detail:
1. How you would respond to the patient in the room.
2. The steps you would take to check their understanding.
3. How you would discuss this situation with the consultant afterwards.
Follow-up:
"The patient becomes angry and says the consultant was arrogant and unhelpful. What do you say to the patient?"
A friend confides in you that they are struggling with their mental health but asks you not to tell anyone. What do you say to them?
Prompt - How would you balance respecting their wishes with keeping them safe?
You are a medical student volunteering in a hospital waiting room. An anxious relative approaches you and demands an update on their family member who is currently in surgery. As a student, you are not authorised to access or share patient medical information.
Please talk me through:
1. How you would initially respond to the relative.
2. What steps you would take to de-escalate their anxiety.
3. How you would ensure the relative gets the correct information safely.
Follow-up:
"The relative becomes angry, raises their voice, and accuses you of hiding bad news. How does this change your approach?"
A local NHS trust is considering a trial of artificial intelligence software. The software will help doctors screen patient scans and will predict which patients are at the highest risk of missing their appointments.
Please explain:
1. The potential benefits this technology could bring to the NHS.
2. The ethical and safety concerns the trust should consider before implementing it.
3. How the introduction of AI might change the day-to-day role of a doctor.
Follow-up:
"A patient refuses to have their scan assessed by the new software because they do not trust computers with their health data. What would you do?"
An elderly patient with multiple long-term health conditions is recovering in hospital. The NHS trust is using a new scheme to provide their ongoing medical care in the patient's own home, rather than keeping them on the ward.
Please consider:
1. The potential benefits of treating patients in community settings instead of hospitals.
2. The practical and clinical challenges this approach creates for NHS staff.
3. How a multidisciplinary team would need to adapt to provide this type of care.
Follow-up:
"A relative of the patient complains that the hospital is just sending them home early to save beds. How would you address these concerns?"
You are attending a careers event for prospective healthcare students. A panel is discussing the reality of working in the NHS today. The speakers note that while the career is rewarding, staff face significant daily challenges.
Please discuss:
1. What you consider to be the most pressing challenges facing NHS doctors right now.
2. How these challenges impact patient care.
3. What steps can be taken by the NHS or individual doctors to manage these pressures.
Follow-up:
"If a secondary school student asked you why you still want to be a doctor despite these problems, what would you say?"
A local health board has published a report showing that attendance at GP surgeries varies significantly between different neighbourhoods in the same city. Some communities have very low appointment booking rates despite having higher levels of chronic illness.
Please consider:
1. The potential practical and social barriers preventing these patients from accessing healthcare.
2. How communication issues or language barriers might contribute to the problem.
3. What strategies a GP practice could use to make their services more accessible.
Follow-up:
"A patient tells you they avoid the doctor because they feel judged about their weight. How would you build trust with them?"
A local NHS commissioning group is holding a public consultation. They are discussing a proposal to charge a small fine to patients who miss GP appointments without cancelling in advance, in order to reduce wasted clinical time.
Please detail:
1. The potential benefits of introducing fines for missed appointments.
2. The ethical and practical problems this policy might create.
3. Alternative strategies a GP practice could use to reduce missed appointments.
Follow-up:
"A patient tells you they missed their appointment because they could not afford the bus fare to the surgery. How does this influence your view on charging fines?"
A local community centre is hosting a health forum. Many residents are expressing frustration that they cannot get a GP appointment within a reasonable timeframe. You have been asked to explain the current pressures on primary care in the NHS to the group.
Please outline:
1. The main factors driving the high demand for GP appointments.
2. The challenges related to the supply and retention of general practitioners.
3. How other parts of the NHS multidisciplinary team are being used to support primary care.
Follow-up:
"A resident suggests that people should just go to the hospital emergency department instead of waiting for a GP. How would you explain why this is not a sustainable solution?"
An NHS trust is reviewing its annual budget. The board must decide whether to allocate a new pool of funding to a community obesity prevention programme, or to expand the capacity of a surgical ward that treats weight-related complications.
Please talk me through:
1. The arguments for investing in preventative medicine.
2. The challenges of shifting funding away from immediate treatment.
3. How you would approach making a decision in this scenario.
Follow-up:
"The surgical ward currently has a waiting list of over a year for operations. Does this change your decision on where the money should go?"
You are volunteering on a hospital ward. The nursing team is unusually short-staffed today. The ward sister steps up to organise the remaining staff, clearly delegating tasks and checking in on everyone's wellbeing throughout the shift.
Please outline:
1. The key qualities the ward sister is demonstrating in this scenario.
2. Why effective leadership is vital for patient safety and care.
3. How a leader can maintain team morale during a highly stressful shift.
Follow-up:
"You notice that a junior member of the team is ignoring the ward sister's instructions and doing things their own way. How should the leader address this?"
Effective teamwork is essential for patient safety and problem solving in a clinical setting.
Please describe a specific situation where you worked in a team to solve a difficult issue. Detail:
1. Your specific role and contribution to the group.
2. How the team navigated any disagreements or obstacles.
3. What you learned about your own teamwork skills from the experience.
Follow-up:
"Tell me about a time when a team you were part of failed to achieve its goal. How did you handle the situation?"
You are a medical student working on a group presentation about a public health topic. You and another group member have a strong disagreement about which information to focus on, and the deadline is approaching.
Please outline:
1. How you would approach your colleague to resolve the disagreement.
2. The steps you would take if you could not reach a compromise.
3. Why effective conflict resolution is important in a healthcare team.
Follow-up:
"Your colleague tells you they are dealing with personal issues and have not had time to research their part. How does this change your approach?"
You are part of a study group preparing for a presentation. You prefer to plan everything well in advance, but your partner prefers to do things at the last minute. This difference is starting to cause friction.
Please detail:
1. How you would approach your partner to discuss this issue.
2. The steps you would take to find a compromise that works for both of you.
3. Why it is important to be able to work with different personality types in the NHS.
Follow-up:
"Your partner tells you they feel you are being too controlling. How do you respond?"
You are part of a university society organising a large charity event. One of your committee members has missed three consecutive meetings and has not completed their assigned tasks. The event is only two weeks away.
Please explain:
1. How you would initially approach the committee member.
2. What factors you should consider before making a judgement about their behaviour.
3. How you would ensure the charity event still goes ahead successfully.
Follow-up:
"The committee member confides in you that they are struggling with severe financial stress and have had to take on extra paid work. How does this change your approach?"
You are a first-year medical student. A classmate approaches you the day before an important anatomy exam. They show you a photograph on their phone of what appears to be the official answer sheet. They offer to send you the picture.
Please detail:
1. How you would handle this immediate situation with your classmate.
2. The ethical issues and professional guidelines involved.
3. The steps you would take after the conversation ends.
Follow-up:
"What do you understand by the term 'whistleblowing' in the NHS?"
"Your classmate begs you not to report them. They say they are at risk of failing and leaving the medical school. Does this change your approach?"
You are a medical student on a ward round and discover that a doctor has made a medication error that could potentially harm a patient. The doctor asks you not to report it because they intend to “deal with it themselves.” What would you do and why?
An adult patient who has capacity is advised to receive urgent intravenous antibiotics for a severe infection. After receiving understandable information about the likely outcomes and alternatives, they refuse treatment. Their family asks staff to treat them anyway.
1. How should clinicians assess capacity, explore concerns and ensure the refusal is informed and voluntary?
2. How should they respect the patient’s decision while supporting distressed relatives appropriately?
3. What should be documented, and when should senior advice be sought?
Follow-up: Later the patient becomes unconscious. Does losing capacity automatically invalidate the earlier informed refusal? What factors must the team establish before deciding on treatment?
You are a medical student on a busy ward. A junior doctor asks you to quickly check a patient's blood pressure. When you report the reading, the doctor realises they forgot to record it an hour ago as requested by the consultant. The doctor asks you to write down the current reading but backdate it by an hour to save time and avoid getting in trouble.
Please explain:
1. What the ethical issues are in this situation.
2. How you would respond to the junior doctor in the moment.
3. What steps you would take if the doctor insists you do it.
Follow-up:
"The junior doctor says: 'It is just a minor detail, and the patient is perfectly fine. You are making a big deal out of nothing.' How do you reply?"
Medicine is just one of many vital professions within the NHS multidisciplinary team.
Please explain:
1. Why you have chosen to apply for medicine rather than nursing or another allied health profession.
2. The unique responsibilities a doctor holds within a healthcare team.
3. How your work experience or volunteering helped cement this specific choice.
Follow-up:
"Doctors often have the final say in complex clinical decisions. How do you feel about taking on that level of responsibility?"
Patients expect doctors to display a wide range of professional and personal qualities.
Please explain:
1. Two key qualities you believe are essential for a good doctor.
2. Why these qualities are important for patient care.
3. An example of a time you have demonstrated one of these qualities yourself.
Follow-up:
"Which quality do you think is the hardest to maintain during a busy or stressful shift?"
A career in medicine brings many rewards, but it also involves challenging and demanding aspects.
Please talk me through:
1. The part of a medical career you anticipate finding the most difficult or the hardest to enjoy.
2. Why you think this particular aspect will be a challenge for you.
3. The steps you plan to take to manage this difficulty.
Follow-up:
"How would you ensure that your personal dislike for a certain task does not affect the quality of care you provide?"
During your preparation for medical school, you will have researched the reality of working as a doctor in the NHS.
Please detail:
1. One aspect of a medical career that surprised you when you looked into it properly.
2. How this discovery changed your perspective on the profession.
3. How you have used this insight to prepare yourself for medical training.
Follow-up:
"If a prospective student asked you for the most realistic source of information about life as a doctor, what would you recommend and why?"
During your preparation for medical school, you will have observed frontline healthcare or caring environments.
Please talk me through:
1. A specific challenge or difficulty you witnessed staff facing during your work experience or volunteering.
2. How the team managed or attempted to overcome this challenge.
3. What this experience taught you about the realities of working in the NHS.
Follow-up:
"If you were a junior doctor facing a similar challenge on a busy ward, what steps would you take to ensure patient safety is maintained?"
Respecting patient dignity is a fundamental part of providing good medical care. You will have observed different healthcare or customer service environments during your preparation for medical school.
Please detail:
1. A specific time when you saw a person's dignity being protected, or not protected.
2. The impact this had on the person involved.
3. What you learned from this situation about the responsibilities of a healthcare professional.
Follow-up:
"If you saw a senior colleague accidentally compromise a patient's dignity on a busy ward, how would you approach them about it?"
The NHS relies heavily on the multidisciplinary team. During your work experience or volunteering, you will have seen healthcare professionals working together to manage complex situations.
Please explain:
1. A situation you observed where a healthcare worker could not manage a problem alone.
2. How the limits of what one person can do were managed in that situation.
3. Why it is important for doctors to recognise the limits of their own competence.
Follow-up:
"What would you do if a patient asked you for medical advice on a condition you have not yet studied?"
Medical students and doctors carry a significant amount of responsibility from early on in their careers.
Please talk me through:
1. A specific task from your work experience, volunteering or a part-time job where you were given responsibility.
2. How you ensured you carried out this task safely and effectively.
3. How this experience connects to the responsibilities of a doctor.
Follow-up:
"You are given a task on a ward that you feel is slightly beyond your current level of training. The doctor who assigned it is very busy. How do you handle this?"
You are the only medical student available on a ward when several requests come in simultaneously:
A patient has fallen out of bed.
A nurse asks you to collect a blood sample.
A relative wants to speak to a doctor immediately.
Your consultant asks you to prepare a patient summary.
Another patient is complaining of severe abdominal pain.
Please talk me through your priorities when deciding which task to complete first.
Follow up - At what point would you ask for help, and who would you ask?
Look at the graph below. It uses official ONS figures for healthy life expectancy at birth in England, 2022 to 2024.
Describe what it shows.
Follow-up: What causes deprivation, and how can it lead to poorer health and poorer healthcare?
Read the Guardian reading below about urgent mental health referrals for children in England.
Describe what the figures show, and what they do not show.
Follow-up: Why do you think more young people are being referred for mental health support?
A local NHS hospital recently introduced an automated appointment booking system. A few months later, the hospital management team reports that overall patient satisfaction scores have fallen significantly. Some staff are blaming the new booking system.
Please talk me through:
1. What alternative factors could explain the drop in patient satisfaction.
2. The specific information or data you would request before concluding that the booking system caused the drop.
3. How you would go about investigating the patient experience of the new system.
Follow-up:
"You discover that elderly patients are finding the new automated system very difficult to navigate. How would you solve this problem?"
A chart shows that a hospital's average waiting time in A&E has increased every winter for the last five years. What factors might explain this pattern?
Self-awareness is a key personal quality for medical students. The General Medical Council expects doctors to reflect on their own practice and identify areas for improvement.
Please detail:
1. A personal weakness or area for development that could affect your work as a doctor.
2. The steps you are currently taking to address this weakness.
3. How you will continue to monitor your progress once you start medical school.
Follow-up:
"Can you give an example of a time when this weakness negatively affected your performance in a team?"
Medical training requires a high degree of resilience, particularly when balancing academic work with clinical placements.
Please tell us about a time when you had to persevere with a difficult task or project even though you wanted to give up.
Please cover:
1. The situation and why it was so challenging.
2. The strategies you used to maintain your focus and motivation.
3. What you learned from this experience about your own resilience.
Follow-up:
"If you face a similar situation during your medical studies, at what point would you stop trying to push through and instead ask for help?"
Doctors frequently have to make clinical or ethical decisions in situations where information is incomplete or unclear.
Please talk us through:
1. A time when you had to make an important decision without having all the facts.
2. The steps you took to evaluate the information you did have.
3. How you managed any anxiety or uncertainty around making the final choice.
Follow-up:
"Looking back at that decision, is there anything you would do differently now?"
A career in medicine involves dealing with long hours, emotional situations and a heavy workload.
Please talk me through:
1. How you currently manage academic and personal stress.
2. The signs you look out for that tell you your wellbeing is starting to slip.
3. How you plan to adapt your coping strategies for life as a medical student and doctor.
Follow-up:
"Imagine you have an important exam tomorrow, but a close friend calls you in distress. How would you balance your own needs with supporting them?"
You are volunteering at a local community centre. A resident mentions they have been invited by their GP to take part in a clinical trial. They have no scientific background and are unsure what this involves.
Please detail:
1. How you would explain what a clinical trial is in simple terms.
2. The key information a patient needs to know before deciding whether to take part.
3. Why clinical trials are essential for the advancement of medicine.
Follow-up:
"The resident asks: 'Does this mean the doctors will just treat me like a guinea pig?' How do you respond?"
You are a medical student attending a university seminar on evidence-based medicine. The tutor presents two recent research papers. Both papers evaluate the same new blood pressure medication, but they reach completely different conclusions about its effectiveness.
Please explain:
1. What factors you would consider when trying to explain why these two studies produced different results.
2. How you would go about evaluating which study is more reliable.
3. Why it is important for doctors to critically appraise scientific research before changing how they treat patients.
Follow-up:
"A patient insists on being prescribed this new medication because they read the positive study online. How do you approach this conversation?"
You are a medical student working on a research presentation about a new treatment for diabetes. The field is changing rapidly, and older textbooks are out of date.
Please detail:
1. How you would go about finding reliable and up-to-date scientific information.
2. How you assess whether a source is trustworthy.
3. Why it is important for doctors to continuously update their scientific knowledge throughout their careers.
Follow-up:
"A patient comes to your clinic asking for a treatment they saw on a social media video. How do you respond to them?"
You are part of a medical student journal club. You have been asked to present a recent scientific discovery to your peers.
Please tell me:
1. Which recent scientific article or discovery you would choose to present.
2. A brief summary of the science behind it.
3. Why you believe your peers would find it interesting.
Follow-up:
"How do you think this discovery could change the way doctors practice medicine?"
Exeter uses this format for medicine: MMI circuit.
Interview timing for Exeter: Interviews normally run from December to January, with offers made in late February or early March. Always check the university's own admissions pages for this year's dates.
Exeter assesses: Communication, Reflectiveness, Empathy, Motivation.
No. They are 50 original MedicHut practice questions, written to match Exeter's published interview format. Universities do not share their real questions, so your interview may differ.
No. Every question is free with no sign-up. A free account just lets you save your notes and progress across devices.
Exeter medical school guide: entry requirements and interview advice
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