Free practice questions for the Hull York (HYMS) medicine interview, with the interview format taken from the university's own admissions pages.
Hull York interviews across several graded stations and includes a group exercise where you work in a group of up to ten. Home applicants interview in person and overseas applicants interview online by Zoom, with a compulsory briefing beforehand for overseas candidates. Each station has its own scoring rubric. HYMS does not publish a full station count or station timings. Check your invitation for current timings.
Original MedicHut practice questions. Real interviews may differ.
HYMS states it wants to understand your personal characteristics and values, not just your academic record.
1. What single value do you think should sit at the heart of a career in medicine?
2. How has this value shown itself in your own choices so far?
3. What would challenge this value most during medical training?
Follow-up: A tutor tells you this value sounds admirable but naive for the realities of the NHS. How would you respond?
HYMS explicitly says it wants to see a realistic understanding of medicine, not an idealised one.
1. What is the least glamorous part of a doctor's job that you have learned about?
2. Why does this not put you off?
3. How did you find out about this less glamorous side?
Follow-up: If your first placement turned out to be mostly administrative paperwork, how would you feel?
Many applicants describe a single moment that sparked their interest in medicine.
1. Describe your own moment, if you have one, or explain why your interest built up gradually instead.
2. How has this interest been tested or changed since then?
3. What would it take to change your mind now?
Follow-up: Suppose a close friend chose not to apply to medicine after seeing what it really involved. How would that affect your own confidence in your choice?
Training to become a doctor takes many years, often longer than training for most other careers.
1. What keeps you motivated for a goal this far in the future?
2. How will you measure whether you are still on the right path during the degree?
3. What would you do if your motivation dipped significantly in year two?
Follow-up: If a careers adviser suggested a quicker route into a related healthcare role, how would you respond?
HYMS asks you to demonstrate critical thinking at interview, including about your own motivation.
1. What is the strongest argument against choosing medicine as a career, in your own view?
2. How do you personally answer that argument?
3. Why might an interviewer want to hear you engage with the case against your own choice?
Follow-up: If you could not give a convincing answer to that argument, would it change how certain you feel about medicine?
HYMS is a partnership between two universities, with students working across Hull and York.
1. What have you found out about how this partnership works for medical students?
2. What do you think are the particular benefits of training across two linked sites?
3. What would you want to know about how placements are allocated between the two?
Follow-up: If you were allocated to the site you preferred less, how would you adjust your plans?
HYMS places strong emphasis on small group teaching and teamwork from early in the course.
1. Why does a teaching style built around small groups and teams appeal to you?
2. What is challenging about learning this way compared with lectures?
3. What would you personally bring to a small teaching group?
Follow-up: A fellow student in your small group rarely contributes. How would this affect your own learning, and what might you do?
You are comparing HYMS with another medical school offering a broadly similar course structure.
1. What specific feature of HYMS would you mention to explain your choice?
2. How did you research this, beyond the prospectus?
3. What would be the biggest personal adjustment in studying at HYMS?
Follow-up: If you were offered places at both schools, what single piece of information would most influence your final decision?
HYMS trains doctors who go on to work across a wide region including rural, coastal, and urban communities in Yorkshire and the Humber.
1. What have you learned about the health needs of this region?
2. Why might training in this area be good preparation for a future NHS doctor?
3. What concerns, if any, do you have about the region if you are moving from elsewhere?
Follow-up: If you discovered placements would require significant regular travel within the region, how would you plan around it?
HYMS wants evidence of a realistic understanding of medicine, often drawn from work experience or volunteering.
1. Describe one specific moment from your work experience or volunteering that surprised you.
2. Why did it surprise you?
3. How has it changed your expectations of medical training?
Follow-up: What would you have done if this placement had been cancelled before it happened?
Reflect on a time you observed a team working together in a healthcare or caring setting.
1. What roles were involved, and how did they depend on each other?
2. What happened when something did not go smoothly?
3. What did this teach you about the limits of a single person's contribution, including a doctor's?
Follow-up: If you had been in charge of that team, what would you have changed?
During observation, you noticed a healthcare professional handling a difficult or emotional conversation with a patient.
1. What specifically did you notice about how they communicated?
2. Why do you think they approached it that way?
3. What did you learn about your own ability to handle difficult conversations?
Follow-up: How would you prepare yourself in advance to have a similarly difficult conversation one day?
Think of an experience, inside or outside healthcare, where you had to work closely with people from very different backgrounds to yourself.
1. What did you learn about communicating across different viewpoints?
2. What was the most difficult part of this experience?
3. How will this help you work in a diverse medical team?
Follow-up: If two people from different backgrounds on your team strongly disagreed, how would you help them find common ground?
Reflect on a specific setback during work experience, paid work, or volunteering.
1. What happened, and what was your immediate reaction?
2. What insight into resilience or problem solving did you gain?
3. How did this change the way you now plan for setbacks?
Follow-up: If a similar setback happened again during your first year at HYMS, what would you do differently?
HYMS says it wants to understand your personal characteristics, not just your exam results.
1. What personal quality do you think will matter most for you personally during medical training?
2. Give a specific example of when you have shown this quality.
3. What personal quality do you think you most need to develop further?
Follow-up: How would you know, in practice, whether you had actually developed that quality by the end of your first year?
Self-awareness about limitations matters for safe medical practice.
1. What do you consider your biggest area for improvement as a future medical student?
2. Give a specific example of when this has affected you.
3. What concrete steps are you taking to address it?
Follow-up: How would you feel if a tutor pointed out this same weakness during group teaching, in front of others?
Imagine you are a first-year student who receives a lower than expected mark on an assessment that matters to you.
1. What would your first reaction be?
2. How would you work out whether the result reflected a genuine gap in understanding?
3. What would you do differently before the next assessment?
Follow-up: A friend tells you not to worry because 'everyone does badly sometimes'. Is this helpful advice? Why or why not?
Honesty under pressure is a quality expected throughout a medical career.
1. Describe a time you told the truth even though a different answer would have been easier.
2. What made honesty the right choice in that situation?
3. Can you think of a time where honesty and kindness seemed to be in tension?
Follow-up: If being completely honest with a patient might upset them, how would you balance the two?
HYMS asks candidates to show critical thinking, including about their own assumptions.
1. Describe a time you changed your mind about something important after new information came to light.
2. What made you willing to change your view?
3. Why might this matter for a doctor who has made an initial diagnosis?
Follow-up: What would you do if you found it hard to accept you were wrong, even with good evidence against your view?
HYMS places strong weight on group work, with a dedicated group exercise station assessed worth significant points at interview.
Imagine you are in a group of up to 10 candidates asked to agree, as a team, on how to allocate a limited budget between three community health projects.
1. How would you make sure every member of the group had a chance to contribute?
2. What would you do if the group could not reach agreement within the time given?
3. What role do you naturally take in this kind of group task, and is it always the most useful role?
Follow-up: One member keeps proposing new options just as the group seems close to agreement. How would you handle this?
In a group task, one member is clearly more knowledgeable about the topic than everyone else, but talks over quieter members.
1. How would you make sure quieter members were still heard?
2. How would you use the knowledgeable member's input without letting it dominate the discussion?
3. Would you say anything to that member directly during the task, and if so what?
Follow-up: After the task, that member tells you privately that you made them feel unfairly singled out. How would you respond?
You are part of a team task where the group is given incomplete information and must still reach a decision within a set time.
1. How would you approach a decision with incomplete information as a group?
2. What would you prioritise if time ran out before full agreement was reached?
3. What does this exercise tell you about teamwork in an NHS setting, where time and information are often limited?
Follow-up: After the decision is made, new information arrives that suggests it was wrong. What should the group do next?
Reflect on a time you held a position of responsibility, formal or informal, such as team captain, student representative, or shift supervisor.
1. What was the hardest part of that responsibility?
2. Describe a moment someone did not follow your lead, and how you responded.
3. What would you do differently if you held the same role again?
Follow-up: How would leading a team of future doctors differ from leading the team you have just described?
In a group discussion task, you notice one member has stopped speaking entirely, though they contributed well earlier.
1. What would you do, and when, during the task itself?
2. How would you balance drawing them back in with not putting them on the spot?
3. What might explain this change in behaviour?
Follow-up: After the task, you learn the member felt their earlier idea had been dismissed too quickly. How would you reflect on your own role in that?
HYMS uses an individual scenario station based on a pre-recorded video rather than a live actor.
Imagine the video scenario shows a patient explaining, in their own words, that they are nervous about starting a new long-term medication.
1. How would you respond to their specific worry, in plain language?
2. What questions would you want to ask them before giving more detailed advice?
3. How would you check they had understood what you had said?
Follow-up: The video scenario then shows the patient saying a friend told them the medication 'causes more harm than good'. How would you respond to this?
Imagine a video scenario shows a worried parent describing that their teenage child has been referred for further tests after a routine check-up.
1. How would you acknowledge the parent's worry in your response?
2. What would you avoid saying, and why?
3. How would you balance honesty about uncertainty with offering reassurance?
Follow-up: The parent then asks directly whether you think it is something serious. How would you respond?
You must summarise a piece of public health advice, such as the importance of regular exercise, in two or three short sentences suitable for a public health leaflet.
1. Give your summary.
2. What is the risk of oversimplifying this kind of advice?
3. How would you make sure people knew where to find more detailed information?
Follow-up: Someone reading the leaflet says the advice does not apply to them because of a health condition. How would you respond if they raised this with you directly?
Imagine a video scenario shows a classmate explaining, by message, that they have fallen behind on coursework due to personal difficulties and are considering leaving the course.
1. How would you respond with empathy, in your own words?
2. What would you avoid saying, and why?
3. What support might you suggest they look for, beyond your own response?
Follow-up: The classmate replies that they do not want this shared with anyone else. How would you balance their wish for privacy with your own concern for their wellbeing?
A medical student on placement overhears two staff members discussing a patient's case by name in a public corridor.
1. What is the ethical concern here?
2. What should the student do, if anything?
3. Why does confidentiality matter even in small, informal moments like this?
Follow-up: One of the staff members is someone the student needs a reference from. Does this change what the student should do?
A patient with full mental capacity refuses a treatment that the team believes would clearly benefit them.
1. What ethical principle protects the patient's right to refuse?
2. What should the team do if they strongly disagree with the decision?
3. Are there any circumstances in which a capacitous adult's refusal could be overridden?
Follow-up: The patient's family asks the team to persuade the patient to change their mind. How should the team respond?
During a group task at interview, you notice another candidate taking credit for an idea that was actually suggested by someone else in the group.
1. What are the ethical issues at stake here?
2. Would you say anything during the task itself, and if so what?
3. How would you reflect on this afterwards if you chose to stay silent?
Follow-up: The candidate whose idea was taken seems not to have noticed. Does this change your answer?
The NHS has a fixed budget and must decide between funding one very expensive treatment for a few patients or several cheaper treatments for many patients.
1. What are the competing ethical principles in this decision?
2. Who should be involved in making such decisions?
3. Is it ever possible to make this kind of choice in a way everyone agrees with?
Follow-up: A media campaign puts pressure on the NHS to fund the expensive treatment. How should this affect the decision?
A 16-year-old wants a medical procedure that their parents strongly oppose, though the procedure is otherwise permitted for their age group.
1. What are the key ethical and legal issues to consider?
2. How would a doctor assess whether the 16-year-old can make this decision themselves?
3. What should happen if the young person and their parents cannot agree?
Follow-up: The parents threaten to complain about any doctor who proceeds without their consent. How should this be handled?
Long waiting times for routine hospital appointments remain a widely reported problem.
1. What do you understand to be some of the causes of these waiting times?
2. What trade-offs are involved in trying to reduce them?
3. How might this affect a newly qualified doctor's daily work?
Follow-up: A patient tells you they went private because of the wait. How would you feel hearing this as a future NHS doctor?
Rural and coastal communities across Yorkshire and the Humber, the region HYMS serves, can face particular difficulty accessing healthcare.
1. What specific challenges might rural or coastal geography create for patients needing care?
2. What challenges might this create for doctors working in such areas?
3. What solutions have you heard of to address healthcare access gaps like these?
Follow-up: A patient says they missed a check-up because of the distance to travel. How would this shape how you organise your own practice, in your view?
Staff shortages and burnout across the NHS workforce are frequently in the news.
1. What do you think are the main causes of this problem?
2. What could be done to support new doctors in their first years of practice?
3. What personal strategies might help protect your own wellbeing in a demanding career?
Follow-up: If you noticed a colleague showing signs of burnout, what would you do?
Health inequalities mean that people in different parts of the same region can have very different life expectancies.
1. What do you understand to be some of the main causes of health inequality?
2. What role, if any, can an individual doctor play in addressing it?
3. What are the limits of what a doctor working alone can achieve on this issue?
Follow-up: A patient says their poor health is 'just where I live, nothing to do with doctors'. How would you respond to this view?
Remote GP consultations, by phone or video, became far more common after 2020 and remain widely used.
1. What are the benefits of remote consultations for patients and for the NHS?
2. What are the risks or limitations?
3. What kinds of consultations do you think should always stay in person?
Follow-up: A patient insists on a video consultation for a symptom you think needs a physical examination. How would you handle this?
The following is an illustrative figure. A trial of a new asthma inhaler finds that symptoms improved in 140 out of 200 patients, compared with 70 out of 200 patients given a placebo inhaler.
1. Calculate the improvement rate in each group.
2. What does this difference suggest, and what further information would you want before drawing firm conclusions?
3. Why is a placebo-controlled design useful here?
Follow-up: If this trial only included 15 patients per group, would you trust the result as much? Why or why not?
HYMS states that candidates are not tested on medical knowledge, but basic scientific reasoning may still come up.
1. Can you think of an everyday example of cause and effect that could be misunderstood as correlation?
2. Why does the difference between correlation and causation matter in medicine?
3. How would you explain this difference to someone with no scientific background?
Follow-up: A news report claims eating a certain food 'causes' a disease, based only on a survey of eating habits in people who already have the disease. How would you respond to that claim?
Medical understanding is frequently updated as new research is published, sometimes overturning earlier advice.
1. Can you think of an example where scientific or medical understanding has changed over time?
2. Why is it important for a doctor to stay comfortable with changing knowledge?
3. How would you personally keep your own knowledge up to date across a long career?
Follow-up: A patient says they no longer trust medical advice because 'it keeps changing'. How would you respond?
A preliminary study, not yet peer reviewed, claims a common supplement reduces the risk of a serious illness, and this becomes a major news story.
1. What does 'not yet peer reviewed' mean?
2. Why does this matter for how much weight the claim should be given?
3. How would you explain this distinction to a worried relative who read the story?
Follow-up: The relative says 'it was on the news, so it must be true'. How would you respond?
The following is an illustrative figure. A community health team in a rural part of Yorkshire has 40 home visits to complete in a day, and has two staff members, each able to complete 15 visits.
1. How many visits will be left uncompleted if both staff work at full capacity?
2. What options could the team consider to address the shortfall?
3. What information would you want before deciding which option to recommend?
Follow-up: If one staff member calls in sick on the day, how would you prioritise which visits happen?
The following is an illustrative figure. Out of 120 patients offered a flu vaccination at a practice, 78 accepted and 42 declined.
1. What percentage of patients accepted the vaccination?
2. What further information would help you understand the reasons behind the decline rate?
3. Suggest one practical step the practice could take to increase uptake next year.
Follow-up: If a follow-up survey showed most decliners were simply unaware the clinic was running, how would you use that information?
The following is an illustrative figure. A screening programme tests 1,000 people for a condition that affects 15 people in that group. The test correctly identifies 13 of the 15 affected people, but also incorrectly flags 60 unaffected people as positive.
1. How many people in total test positive?
2. Of those who test positive, what proportion actually have the condition?
3. What does this tell you about the limitations of screening tests?
Follow-up: How would you explain a positive but possibly false result to a worried patient, using these figures?
You are given a simple problem: a ward has 20 beds and currently 17 patients. Four new admissions are expected tonight, and two current patients are due to be discharged.
1. How many beds short would the ward be if everything happens as planned?
2. What options would you consider if the ward could not accommodate all the new admissions?
3. What does this kind of problem illustrate about planning in a clinical setting?
Follow-up: One of the two expected discharges is delayed. How would this change your answer, and what would you prioritise?
HYMS wants to see evidence of critical thinking in how you reflect on your own experiences.
1. Describe a situation in the last year where you reflected on your own performance and changed your behaviour as a result.
2. What habits help you reflect regularly, rather than only after something goes wrong?
3. Why might reflection be especially important in a career with as much responsibility as medicine?
Follow-up: How would you build regular reflection into a busy medical career, rather than just during quiet moments?
Think about a time you received criticism from a group member or teammate that you initially disagreed with.
1. What was your first reaction?
2. What made you reconsider, if anything?
3. How did you change your view or behaviour afterwards?
Follow-up: If you still disagreed with the criticism after reflecting on it, what would you do next?
Consider your preparation for a group-based interview format like HYMS uses.
1. What have you found hardest to prepare for, and why?
2. What has this preparation taught you about how you behave in group settings?
3. What would you do differently if you had another month to prepare?
Follow-up: If the group exercise goes badly despite your preparation, how would you reflect on it afterwards?
Imagine, several years from now, you are a junior doctor looking back on your decision to apply to HYMS.
1. What do you hope will have been the most valuable part of training there?
2. What would make you feel your decision to apply had been the right one?
3. What would you want to tell your current self, at interview stage, if you could?
Follow-up: If you discovered during your first year that group-based learning suited you less well than expected, how do you think you would respond, based on what you know about yourself now?
Hull York uses this format for medicine: MMI with a group exercise. Interviews may be in person or online.
Interview timing for Hull York: Home applicants in January, overseas applicants online in December. Always check the university's own admissions pages for this year's dates.
Hull York assesses: Teamwork and collaboration, Communication, Contribution in a group, Values.
No. They are 50 original MedicHut practice questions, written to match Hull York's published interview format. Universities do not share their real questions, so your interview may differ.
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Hull York medical school guide: entry requirements and interview advice
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