Free practice questions for the Lancaster medicine interview, with the interview format taken from the university's own admissions pages.
Lancaster's 2027 entry admissions policy confirms Multiple Mini Interviews alongside UCAT and a fitness to practise assessment. Invitations mostly go out in December with interviews in January and February, and offers go to the top ranked MMI scorers. Interviews run online through Microsoft Teams and most stations last 5 minutes. Lancaster does not publish the total number of stations. Check your invitation for current timings.
Original MedicHut practice questions. Real interviews may differ.
Candidate instructions
You will be asked questions about what you have learned from your work experience, volunteering, caring responsibilities, employment or other experiences.
You are not expected to give a prepared speech about your experiences, but instead answer specific questions asked by the interviewer.
Interviewer questions
Question 1
Tell me about an experience that changed your understanding of what working in healthcare involves.
Question 2
What did you learn about yourself from this experience?
Question 3
How will this change the way in which you approach your future studies and work in healthcare?
Clear communication is a fundamental skill for doctors. It is essential for building trust with patients and working safely with colleagues.
Tell us about a time you observed effective communication in a healthcare or care setting.
Please structure your answer to include:
• A brief description of the situation and who was involved.
• The specific communication techniques that you saw being used.
• Why these techniques were effective in this particular situation.
Follow-up:
"What would you have done differently if the patient in your example did not speak English as their first language?"
Scenario
You are a medical student observing a multidisciplinary team (MDT) meeting on a geriatric ward. The team is discussing an 82-year-old patient who is medically fit for discharge after a fall. However, the patient lives alone and is very anxious about going home.
Questions
1. Which healthcare professionals would you expect to be present at this MDT meeting?
2. What specific role would each of these professionals play in planning the safe discharge of this patient?
3. How does the MDT approach benefit this specific patient compared to a single doctor making all the decisions?
Follow-up:
"The occupational therapist believes the patient needs a daily care package at home, but the social worker says there is a two-week wait for this service. How should the team manage this disagreement?"
Think about a time during your work experience or volunteering when you encountered something challenging or surprising.
Please discuss this with the interviewer. Include the following points:
• What the situation was and why you found it challenging or surprising.
• How you handled the situation or what you learned from it.
• How this experience has influenced your understanding of a medical career.
Follow-up:
"If you could go back and repeat that experience, is there anything you would do differently?"
Candidate instructions
You have five minutes to speak with a member of the public and find out about their life.
This is not a simulated medical consultation.
The focus is on how you ask questions and how you respond to the conversation.
Candidate instructions
You are a university student. Your friend and coursemate, Jamie, has just received the results of an important exam. You passed, but Jamie has failed.
Jamie is visibly upset and has asked to speak with you in the student cafe.
You have five minutes to have this conversation.
This is a role play exercise, not a simulated medical consultation.
Actor instructions
You are Jamie. You are visibly disappointed and anxious about your future on the course.
At first, you are quiet and wait for the candidate to initiate the conversation.
If the candidate simply tells you not to worry, respond defensively: 'It is easy for you to say that, you passed.'
If the candidate is empathetic and asks open questions, explain that you are worried about failing the whole year and letting your family down.
Follow-up:
"Out of character, the interviewer asks: 'How would you change your approach if Jamie had become angry with you instead of upset?'"
Candidate instructions
You are volunteering at a community centre for older adults. You meet a local resident who has recently retired from a long career.
You have five minutes to have a conversation with them. Find out about their working life, their transition into retirement, and how they are adjusting to the change.
This is a conversational role play, not a medical consultation.
Tutor instructions
You are playing the role of the retired local resident. You recently retired from working as a primary school teacher for forty years.
You loved your job but felt it was time to leave. You are currently finding the days quite long and lack structure, though you enjoy spending time in your garden.
Answer the candidate's questions naturally. If they show empathy and ask open questions, provide more detail about your feelings of loneliness.
Candidate instructions
You have five minutes to speak with a fellow student who is anxious about moving away from home for the first time.
This is not a simulated medical consultation.
Tutor preparation
You will play the role of Alex, a first-year university student. The applicant is your friend and flatmate.
Actor instructions
Begin the conversation by looking away and giving short answers.
If the applicant asks how you are, admit that you are feeling very anxious about being away from home.
Tell them you are struggling to sleep and feel overwhelmed by the change.
If the applicant offers a quick fix, say: "It is not that simple."
If they listen and show empathy, reveal that you are thinking about dropping out and going home tomorrow.
Follow-up:
"Out of role: How do you think Alex felt at the end of that conversation, and why?"
Candidate instructions
You will be asked to give another person clear verbal instructions so that they can complete the task. You must not physically complete the task yourself.
Tutor preparation
Prepare a simple construction using some objects you can find, for example blocks/cubes that differ by size or colour.
The applicant cannot see the model.
The actor/tutor must recreate the structure solely from the applicant's instructions.
Example structure
The final arrangement could contain:
• three cubes in a vertical column
• one cube placed immediately to the right of the bottom cube
• one cube placed immediately in front of the middle cube
• a differently coloured cube placed on top
Actor instructions
Follow the applicant's instructions literally and do not make assumptions about unclear spatial language. But also, do not deliberately sabotage the task. If the applicant gives a clear instruction, follow it.
If an instruction is ambiguous, ask: "Could you clarify what you mean?"
Task
The actor has a sheet of paper containing a simple 3 × 3 grid.
The applicant has the same blank grid.
The actor's grid contains symbols in five of the nine squares.
The applicant must instruct the actor where to draw each symbol.
Example actor grid
Circle Triangle
Cross
Star Square
Candidate task
Give verbal instructions so that the actor reproduces the arrangement.
Actor guidance
Do not tell the applicant where anything goes.
If they say "top left", follow that instruction.
If they say "over there", ask:
"Could you be more specific?"
Candidate instructions
Read the short information below.
You will have a few moments to consider it.
Background material
Antibiotic resistance is influenced by antibiotic use. Public-health organisations therefore monitor antibiotic prescribing and consumption.
Recent UKHSA data show that total antibiotic consumption in England was:
Month Total antibiotic consumption
December 2024 18.03 DID
March 2025 15.92 DID
June 2025 15.08 DID
September 2025 15.67 DID
December 2025 17.73 DID
DID = defined daily doses per 1,000 inhabitants per day.
The data come from the UK Health Security Agency's antimicrobial consumption dashboard.
Questions
1. What does this data show?
2. Why might antibiotic use be higher in December than in the summer?
3. What would you want to know before deciding whether antibiotic use in England is well controlled?
The applicant must verbally guide the actor through making a paper aeroplane.
The tutor should provide:
• one sheet of A4 paper
• the actor
• no visual instructions.
The applicant must explain the folds.
Actor guidance:
Follow instructions literally.
Do not rescue the applicant.
If an instruction is unclear, ask:
"Which part should I fold?"
or
"Do you mean towards me or away from me?"
Candidate instructions
Read the information below. You will have a few moments to think about it before discussing it with the interviewer.
Background material (practice figures)
A hospital trust reports that the number of patients waiting more than 12 hours in A&E rose from 5% to 11% over two winters. Over the same time, the number of beds taken up by patients who were well enough to go home, but had no care in place, went up by 30%.
Questions
1. What does this information show?
2. How might the two trends be linked?
3. What could be done to improve the situation?
Candidate instructions
Read the short information below.
Background material
NHS data on GP appointment types in England show the following approximate proportions for a recent quarter:
Face to face 65%
Telephone 27%
Video or online 3%
Home visit 5%
The figures are illustrative and drawn from routinely published NHS appointment data.
Questions
1. What does this data show?
2. What are the pros and cons of telephone and video appointments for patients and for doctors?
3. Which patients might find remote appointments hardest, and why?
Candidate instructions
The interviewer will describe a situation and ask how you would respond.
Scenario
You are working on a group project with three other students, and one member of the group has contributed very little and the deadline is tomorrow.
The rest of the group is considering removing their name from the final submission because they feel that it would be unfair for them to receive the same credit.
What would you do?
Follow-up questions
1. What would you do if they explained that they had been experiencing personal difficulties?
2. What would you do if the rest of the group went ahead and removed their name?
3. What would you do differently next time to prevent this situation?
Scenario
You are part of a university society organising an event.
Two members disagree strongly about how money should be spent.
One wants to spend almost the entire budget on making the event impressive.
The other wants to reserve most of the money in case something goes wrong.
The disagreement is becoming personal.
What would you do?
Scenario
You are on a group placement and a fellow student takes credit for an idea that was actually yours during a feedback session with a supervisor.
What would you do?
Follow-up questions
1. Would your answer change if this happened repeatedly?
2. How might you raise this without damaging the working relationship?
Scenario
You are part of a student committee running a busy charity fundraising stall at your college. There are four of you managing the stall. One team member keeps arriving late for their shifts and taking long breaks. The other two team members are getting annoyed, and the stall is struggling to keep up with the queue of visitors.
Questions
1. What are your immediate priorities in this situation?
2. How would you approach the team member who is arriving late?
3. What steps would you take to manage the frustration of the other two team members?
Follow-ups:
"The late team member tells you they have been feeling very anxious because they have fallen behind on their coursework. How does this change your approach?"
"The other two team members demand that the late person is sent home. What would you say to them?"
Candidate questions
1. What do you think makes someone a good doctor?
2. Which of those qualities do you think you already possess?
3. Provide an example of when you have displayed one or more of these qualities?
Question
"University students should be required to complete some form of community service every year."
Do you agree or disagree?
Follow-up challenges
• What if students already work part-time?
• Should volunteering be compulsory?
• Does compulsory volunteering undermine the meaning of volunteering?
• Who should decide what counts as community service?
• Would this disadvantage students with caring responsibilities?
• Could there be benefits for future healthcare professionals?
Medicine can be demanding career at times, with busy schedules, and emotionally challenging conversations. How will you cope with the demands of a career in medicine?
Follow-up: How have you already proved that you can cope with a demanding career?
There is an ongoing debate about the most effective way to test medical students. Some people argue that traditional written examinations are an outdated method of assessment.
Consider this statement and answer the following:
* Do you agree that traditional exams are outdated?
* What are the advantages and disadvantages of traditional exams compared to practical assessments?
* How do you personally learn best when preparing for different types of tests?
Follow-up:
"If a medical school replaced all written exams with continuous ward-based assessments, what problems might this create?"
Question
"It is more important for a doctor to be liked by their patients than to be right."
Do you agree or disagree?
Consider the following points in your answer:
- What it means for a doctor to be liked versus being right.
- The role of trust and rapport in the doctor-patient relationship.
- The importance of clinical accuracy and evidence-based practice.
Follow-up:
"Can you think of a situation where being right might negatively impact the way a patient feels about their doctor? How should a doctor handle this?"
Scenario
A general practice in a busy urban area is planning to move entirely to an online appointment booking system. The practice manager believes this will reduce waiting times on the telephone and ease the workload for reception staff.
Questions
1. What are the potential benefits of moving to an online booking system for both patients and staff?
2. What disadvantages might this system create for specific patient groups?
3. How could the practice mitigate these negative effects while still modernising their services?
Follow-up:
"If a significant number of elderly patients complain that they cannot use the new system, should the practice abandon the idea completely?"
Candidate instructions
The following question concerns a current issue.
There is no single correct answer.
Question
"Artificial intelligence should be used routinely to support doctors in making clinical decisions."
Do you agree or disagree?
Scenario
An NHS trust is reviewing its staffing strategy for a new community hospital. One proposal suggests hiring a smaller team composed entirely of highly experienced senior clinicians. An alternative proposal suggests hiring a larger, multidisciplinary team that includes junior doctors, newly qualified nurses, and healthcare assistants.
Questions
1. What are the advantages of having a smaller team of highly experienced professionals?
2. What benefits does a larger workforce with a wider range of experience bring to a hospital setting?
3. Which approach do you think is more sustainable for the NHS in the long term, and why?
Follow-up:
"How might a team made up entirely of senior clinicians affect the training and development of the future healthcare workforce?"
Candidate instructions
Read the short scenario below and consider your response.
Scenario
You are a medical student attending a local NHS Trust board meeting. The board is discussing long-term strategic planning for the hospital over the next ten years. They are concerned about increasing pressures on the health service.
Questions
1. What do you consider to be the two biggest challenges facing the NHS in the next ten years?
2. How might these challenges impact patient care on a day-to-day basis?
3. What potential solutions or strategies could the NHS implement to address the challenges you have identified?
Follow-up:
"If funding were completely frozen for the next five years, which of your proposed solutions would you prioritise and why?"
Scenario
You are shadowing healthcare professionals during a placement.
A healthcare professional makes a small mistake when explaining something to a patient.
The patient does not appear to notice.
Afterwards, the professional says:
"There's no point correcting it now. It wasn't important."
What would you do?
Scenario
You are on a university placement.
Another student tells you privately that they are struggling with their mental wellbeing.
They ask you not to tell anyone because they are worried that people will think they are unable to cope.
What would you do?
Follow-up question: What if you became concerned that they were at immediate risk?
Scenario
You are a Foundation Year 1 doctor working on a busy surgical ward. You notice that one of your colleagues, another junior doctor, smells strongly of alcohol. They are about to prescribe medication for a patient.
Questions
1. What are the primary ethical and professional issues in this situation?
2. What immediate actions would you take to ensure patient safety?
3. Who would you need to inform about this incident?
Follow-up:
"Your colleague becomes defensive and says they only had a drink the night before. They ask you to ignore it just this once. How would you respond?"
Candidate instructions
The interviewer will describe a situation and ask how you would respond.
Scenario
You are on placement and overhear two staff members discussing a patient's diagnosis by name in a hospital lift, where other visitors can hear.
What would you do?
Follow-up questions
1. Why might this be a serious issue?
2. What would you do if one of the staff members was more senior than you?
Scenario
You are a work experience student shadowing a doctor on a busy hospital ward. The doctor leaves the bay to answer a pager. A patient calls you over and asks you directly what is wrong with them. They say they have been waiting all morning for their test results and are getting very worried.
Questions
1. How would you immediately respond to this patient?
2. What ethical principles must you consider in this situation?
3. What are the risks of a work experience student discussing clinical information?
Follow-up:
"The patient becomes angry and says: 'You are wearing a uniform, you should know what is going on.' How would you manage this reaction?"
Scenario
You are a university student. A classmate, David, asks to borrow fifty pounds to pay for his groceries. He has borrowed money from you on two previous occasions and failed to repay it both times. He tells you that this time is different because his student loan is arriving next week.
Questions
1. What are the main issues in this situation?
2. How would you approach this conversation with David?
3. What factors do you need to consider before making a decision?
Follow-up:
"David tells you that if you do not lend him the money, he will not be able to eat this weekend. Does this change your approach?"
Deciding to pursue medicine involves understanding both the rewarding and challenging aspects of the career. Think about a time when you saw or experienced something that made you question whether medicine was the right path for you.
Please discuss this with the interviewer, making sure to cover:
• A brief description of the situation or experience.
• What specific aspects of the situation caused you to doubt your choice.
• How you resolved these doubts and reaffirmed your decision to apply.
Follow-up:
"What do you think is the most common misunderstanding the general public has about the daily life of a doctor?"
Healthcare is delivered by multidisciplinary teams. Members of these teams, such as nurses, paramedics, and physiotherapists, all play vital roles in patient care.
Please discuss your career choice with the interviewer, making sure to cover:
• Why you have specifically chosen to apply for medicine over other healthcare professions.
• The unique responsibilities a doctor holds within a multidisciplinary team.
• An example from your work experience or reading where a doctor's role clearly differed from that of an allied healthcare professional.
Follow-up:
"If you were told today that you could never become a doctor, which other healthcare profession would you choose and why?"
Deciding to study medicine requires a realistic understanding of the career and its daily demands.
What specific steps have you taken to confirm that medicine is the right path for you?
Please cover the following in your answer:
• The types of experiences, volunteering, or research you have undertaken.
• A specific challenge of a medical career that you discovered during this time.
• How you have prepared yourself to handle that challenge in the future.
Follow-up:
"If you were unable to secure a place to study medicine this year, what would you do next and why?"
Medical training involves long periods of study and complex clinical challenges. It is important for students to be able to persevere when tasks become difficult.
Describe a time when you had to work on a difficult or challenging task.
In your answer, please explain:
• What made the task specifically challenging for you.
• The strategies you used to maintain your motivation and focus.
• What you learned about your own resilience from the experience.
Follow-up:
"How would you apply what you learned from this experience to a situation where you are struggling with your academic workload at medical school?"
Candidate reads a short scenario, has a brief period to think, then discusses it with the interviewer.
No detailed medical knowledge is needed.
Scenario:
A 52-year-old man attends his GP because he has been experiencing chest discomfort for the past three weeks.
He describes it as a "tight feeling" in the centre of his chest. It tends to occur when he is walking quickly or climbing stairs and improves after he stops and rests.
He has noticed that it has become more frequent over the last week.
He has a history of high blood pressure and is a smoker.
You do not need to reach a diagnosis.
Take a moment to consider the information before discussing the case with the interviewer.
Interviewer questions
1. What are the key issues that you have identified from this case?
2. What additional information would you want to find out about this patient?
3. What possible explanations for his symptoms would you want to consider?
4. If this were a PBL case, what learning objectives would you suggest the group investigate?
5. Which learning objective would you prioritise, and why?
You are taking part in a group task designed to reflect the collaborative nature of problem-based learning.
You will work with other applicants to discuss a short case.
Your task is not to reach a single correct diagnosis. Instead, work together to identify the important
issues raised by the case, decide what information you would want to know, and agree a small number of
learning objectives that the group would want to explore further.
Lancaster University uses problem-based learning as a core teaching method. This requires students to work together in small groups under the guidance of a tutor.
Please discuss your understanding of this approach by addressing the following:
* What are the characteristics of an effective tutor in a problem-based learning group?
* What is the role of the student in ensuring the group functions well?
* How would you handle a situation where a member of your group never contributes to the discussion?
Follow-up:
"The quiet student tells you privately that they are struggling to understand the medical terminology and feel too embarrassed to speak up. How would you support them?"
Question
"Universities should prioritise applicants from the local region for professional courses like medicine."
Do you agree or disagree?
Follow-up challenges
- Would this disadvantage talented applicants from elsewhere?
- How might local recruitment benefit healthcare in the wider region?
Candidate reads a short scenario, has a brief period to think, then discusses it with the interviewer.
Scenario:
A 30-year-old woman attends her GP with persistent tiredness over the past two months. She works night shifts and says she often skips meals.
You do not need to reach a diagnosis.
Interviewer questions
1. What are the key issues you have identified?
2. What additional information would you want?
3. If this were a PBL case, what learning objectives would the group set?
Reflective practice involves evaluating your own beliefs and being open to new information. Think about a recent time when you changed your mind about something important.
Please explain:
* What your original view was.
* What new information or experience caused you to change your perspective.
* How this ability to adapt your thinking will help you as a medical student.
Follow-up:
"Can you think of a situation in medicine where changing your mind quickly could be vital for patient safety?"
Think of a recent situation where someone gave you constructive criticism about your work or behaviour.
Discuss this experience with the interviewer. Please cover:
• What the criticism was and who gave it to you.
• How you felt when you first received the feedback.
• What steps you took to improve or change your approach.
Follow-up:
"What would you do if a senior colleague gave you negative feedback that you felt was completely unfair?"
Identifying areas for personal improvement is a key part of reflective practice in medicine.
Consider a personal weakness that you are currently working on.
Please discuss:
• What the weakness is and how you identified it.
• A specific example of how it has impacted your work, studies or daily life.
• The steps you are actively taking to address it.
Follow-up:
"How would you respond if a tutor pointed out a weakness in your performance that you strongly disagreed with?"
Things do not always go as expected, and learning from these moments is an important skill for medical students.
Think about a specific situation you have experienced that did not go as planned.
Please discuss:
• What the original plan was and what actually happened.
• How you responded in the moment to manage the situation.
• The most important lesson you learned from the experience.
Follow-up:
"How have you applied this lesson to a different situation since then?"
Candidate instructions
Read the statement below. There is no single correct answer.
Statement
"Medical students should be taught more about the social causes of illness than the biological causes."
Questions
1. What do you understand by the social causes of illness?
2. Why might someone argue that social causes are just as important as biological causes?
3. Do you agree or disagree with the statement, and why?
Follow-up:
"Can you give an example of a condition where understanding a patient's social background is crucial for successful treatment?"
You are a medical student working on a ward placement. A consultant asks you a question about the mechanism of a new drug being used to treat a patient. You realise that you have not read about this drug and do not know the answer. The consultant tells you to find out and report back the next day.
1. How would you go about finding reliable scientific information about this new drug?
2. Why is it important for doctors to continuously update their scientific knowledge?
3. What methods might doctors use to stay informed about medical advances throughout their careers?
Follow-up:
"You look up the drug online and find two different medical websites giving conflicting information about its side effects. How do you decide which source to trust?"
You are in your first year of medical school. You have an upcoming exam on the anatomy of the nervous system. You are finding this topic very difficult to understand. Your usual study methods are not working and you are starting to feel stressed.
1. How would you approach learning this difficult topic?
2. Who could you ask for help in this situation?
3. How might learning complex scientific topics at medical school differ from studying at school or college?
Follow-up:
"You ask a tutor for help, but they tell you that they do not have time to explain it to you. What is your next step?"
A patient attends a clinic with a persistent cough and fatigue. The doctor has ordered several different tests and scans. All the results have come back completely normal. The doctor explains to the patient that they do not know what is causing the symptoms and cannot give a clear diagnosis.
1. How might the patient feel in this situation?
2. Why might medical science not always provide a clear answer for every symptom?
3. How can a doctor maintain a good relationship with a patient when there is scientific uncertainty?
Follow-up:
"The patient becomes angry and demands that you run more tests. How would you handle this?"
Lancaster uses this format for medicine: MMI circuit. Interviews are held online.
Interview timing for Lancaster: Invitations mostly in December, interviews in January and February. Always check the university's own admissions pages for this year's dates.
Lancaster assesses: Communication, Ethical reasoning, Values, Motivation.
No. They are 50 original MedicHut practice questions, written to match Lancaster's published interview format. Universities do not share their real questions, so your interview may differ.
Yes. Every question is free to practise, with no sign-up needed. You can make a free account to save your notes.
Lancaster medical school guide: entry requirements and interview advice
Book a Lancaster mock interview for £69 with a trained MedicHut interviewer, or a live MMI circuit for £89. Both include detailed feedback on every answer.
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