Free practice questions for the Sunderland medicine interview, with the interview format taken from the university's own admissions pages.
Sunderland uses Multiple Mini Interviews as the third phase of selection, after academic screening and shortlisting. Some stations are built around your work experience and look at teamwork, communication, resilience and empathy. All interviews are face to face in the Murray Health building. Shortlisting happens in November and December, with interviews running from the week beginning 7 December 2026 into early January and offers from February. Sunderland does not publish a station count or station timings. Check your invitation for current timings.
Original MedicHut practice questions. Real interviews may differ.
You have reached Phase 3 of Sunderland's selection process after your UCAS application and UCAT score were already assessed.
1. What single reason for choosing medicine would you want to come across most clearly at this stage?
2. How has your motivation for medicine been tested so far in your life?
3. What would make you question your choice of career, and how would you respond?
Follow-up: If you were offered a place at Sunderland but at no other medical school, would that change how you feel about your motivation?
Medicine involves many years of training before a doctor practises independently.
1. What keeps you committed to a goal that is still several years away?
2. How would you measure whether you were making good progress?
3. What would you do if your progress felt slower than you had hoped?
Follow-up: A relative suggests you try nursing first to 'see if you like it'. How would you respond?
Many applicants say they want to help people, which interviewers hear very often.
1. What makes your motivation different from a generic answer about helping people?
2. What evidence from your own life supports this?
3. How would you explain your motivation to someone who has never met you?
Follow-up: Suppose during your first year you found you disliked the scientific content far more than expected. What would you do?
Sunderland's admissions process involves three separate stages before an offer can be made.
1. Why might a medical school choose to assess candidates in several stages rather than one?
2. How did you prepare differently for the UCAT stage compared with your approach to this interview?
3. What do you think each stage is trying to find out about you?
Follow-up: If you had performed poorly on the UCAT but strongly at interview, what would that suggest about your suitability for medicine?
Medicine is sometimes described as both a vocation and a long technical training.
1. Which of these two descriptions feels closer to your own reason for applying?
2. Give an example from your own experience that supports this.
3. Why might the balance between vocation and technical skill matter to patients?
Follow-up: A friend says doctors are 'just well-paid scientists'. How would you respond?
Sunderland is a smaller medical school compared with some larger established schools.
1. What do you think are the advantages of training at a smaller medical school?
2. What challenges might come with a smaller cohort, and how would you manage them?
3. What have you found out about the way Sunderland structures its medicine course?
Follow-up: A friend suggests a larger school would give you more variety of clinical placements. How would you respond?
You have been invited to interview at Sunderland during the December to January window, alongside interviews at other medical schools.
1. What specific features of Sunderland would you mention if asked to compare it with another medical school?
2. How did you research these features?
3. What would be the biggest personal adjustment for you in studying in Sunderland?
Follow-up: If you were offered places at Sunderland and another school, what single factor would most influence your decision?
Sunderland is located in the North East of England, a region with its own particular health needs.
1. What do you know about the health challenges facing communities in this region?
2. Why might training in this region be good preparation for a career in medicine?
3. What would you want to learn in your first year about the local population you may serve?
Follow-up: How would you respond if you discovered that patients in this region had notably different health needs from where you grew up?
Sunderland's medicine course leads to registration as a doctor after graduation, like other UK medical schools.
1. What have you found out about the structure of the course, such as how clinical and academic teaching are combined?
2. Why does this structure appeal to you?
3. What do you still want to find out before you would be ready to start?
Follow-up: If you found that the way the course was taught did not suit your preferred way of learning, how would you adapt?
Think about what a new medical school or a school with a smaller history of training doctors might offer compared with long-established ones.
1. What opportunities might come from studying at a school still building its reputation?
2. What responsibilities might students have in helping to shape that reputation?
3. How would you contribute positively to the culture of your medical school?
Follow-up: A classmate says they are worried their degree will be seen as 'less respected'. How would you respond to them?
Think about a period of work experience, paid work, or volunteering you have completed.
1. Describe a specific moment where you observed a healthcare professional demonstrate good practice.
2. What made this a good example, in your own words?
3. How has this shaped what you expect from medical training?
Follow-up: What would you have done if you had instead observed a moment of poor practice?
Many applicants will have carried out virtual or in-person work experience before applying.
1. What was the most useful thing you learned that you could not have learned from reading alone?
2. How did this experience change your understanding of teamwork in healthcare?
3. What limitations does work experience have in preparing you for medical school?
Follow-up: If your planned work experience placement had been cancelled at short notice, what would you have done instead?
During a period of observation in a healthcare or care setting, you noticed a difference in how two staff members communicated with the same patient or service user.
1. What differences in style did you notice?
2. Why might communication style matter as much as technical skill?
3. What did this teach you about your own communication style?
Follow-up: How would you check whether your own communication style was working well with a patient?
You have spent time observing or working alongside a multidisciplinary team, such as in a hospital ward, GP practice, or care home.
1. Describe one example of effective collaboration you observed.
2. What roles were involved and how did they depend on each other?
3. What did you learn about the limits of a doctor's role within that team?
Follow-up: If you saw two team members disagree in front of a patient, what would you expect good practice to look like?
Reflect on an experience, inside or outside healthcare, where things did not go as planned.
1. What was the situation and what went wrong?
2. What specific insight did you gain about resilience or problem solving?
3. How did this experience inform how you now plan for setbacks?
Follow-up: If a similar setback happened again next month, what would you do differently?
Self-awareness and honesty about limitations are both valued qualities in medicine.
1. What do you consider your biggest area for improvement as a future medical student?
2. Give an example of when this has affected you.
3. What specific steps are you taking to address it before starting university?
Follow-up: How would you feel if a tutor identified this same weakness publicly during a teaching session?
Doctors are expected to maintain high standards even under pressure.
1. Describe a time you kept high standards while under time pressure.
2. What helped you maintain those standards?
3. What would you do if you found you could not maintain them?
Follow-up: If a supervisor asked you to cut corners to save time, how would you respond?
Reflect on a piece of feedback, positive or negative, that significantly changed how you approached a task.
1. What was the feedback and how did you receive it at the time?
2. What did you change as a result?
3. Why is being open to feedback important in medical training?
Follow-up: How would you respond to feedback that you believed was unfair?
Imagine you are a first-year medical student and a classmate frequently makes comments that make you uncomfortable, though not directed personally at you.
1. How would you decide whether and how to raise this?
2. Who might you involve, and in what order?
3. Why does raising such concerns matter for the culture of a medical school?
Follow-up: The classmate says you are 'overreacting'. How would you respond?
Resilience is often tested during long periods of study and training.
1. Describe a time you had to keep going despite feeling discouraged.
2. What strategies helped you cope?
3. Why is this kind of resilience relevant to a career in medicine?
Follow-up: If those same strategies stopped working during a difficult placement, what would you do next?
You are part of a sixth-form project team producing a presentation for younger pupils about healthy lifestyles. One member keeps missing meetings.
1. What steps would you take to address this?
2. How would you balance fairness to the absent member with fairness to the rest of the group?
3. What does this situation teach you about managing teams in medicine?
Follow-up: The member says they have been struggling with a family issue. How does this change your approach?
Imagine you are leading a small group project and two members strongly disagree about the best approach.
1. How would you facilitate a resolution?
2. What principles would guide your decision if no agreement is reached?
3. Why is this kind of mediation relevant to working in a clinical team?
Follow-up: One member tells you privately that they think you favoured the other person. How would you respond?
You are asked to be the spokesperson for a group project, although you were not the strongest contributor to the content.
1. How would you prepare to represent the group fairly?
2. How would you make sure credit is shared appropriately?
3. What qualities make someone a good representative rather than just a confident speaker?
Follow-up: After your presentation, a teacher praises you individually. How would you respond?
You are coordinating a small team for a charity fundraising event and a key supplier lets you down the day before.
1. What would your immediate priorities be?
2. How would you communicate the problem to your team?
3. What qualities help a leader stay effective under sudden pressure?
Follow-up: A team member suggests cancelling the whole event rather than adapting it. How do you respond?
You are asked to explain, in plain language and without medical jargon, what a vaccine does to the body.
1. Give your explanation as you would to a worried parent.
2. What questions might this parent reasonably ask next?
3. Why is plain language important in a doctor's communication?
Follow-up: The parent says they read online that vaccines are not properly tested. How would you continue the conversation?
A school pupil visiting an open day asks you why doctors sometimes seem rushed with patients.
1. How would you answer honestly but sensitively?
2. What wider pressures on the NHS might you mention?
3. How would you reassure the pupil that quality of care still matters?
Follow-up: The pupil asks if this means they should avoid becoming a doctor. What would you say?
You need to explain to an anxious patient, in plain terms, why they are being referred for a blood test.
1. What would you say, step by step?
2. How would you check the patient had understood?
3. Why does clear communication matter at this early stage of care?
Follow-up: The patient says they are frightened of needles. How would you respond?
A colleague asks you to explain a complex idea from one of your A-level subjects in under a minute.
1. Choose an idea and explain it simply.
2. What techniques did you use to simplify it?
3. Why is the ability to simplify complex ideas useful in medicine?
Follow-up: The colleague says they still do not understand. What would you try next?
A patient tells you they do not want their family to know about a serious diagnosis, even though the family has asked staff directly for information.
1. What should guide your decision about what to tell the family?
2. What tension exists here between patient confidentiality and family concern?
3. Who could you involve to help resolve this situation?
Follow-up: The family says they will take legal action if they are not told. Does this change your approach?
A teenage patient asks a doctor not to tell their parents about a health issue they have come in about.
1. What factors should the doctor consider before deciding how to respond?
2. Why might the age of the patient affect the decision?
3. What role does confidentiality play in encouraging young people to seek help?
Follow-up: The teenager says they will stop seeking any medical help if their parents are told. What would you consider then?
NHS resources are limited and sometimes difficult decisions have to be made about who receives a particular treatment first.
1. What factors do you think should be considered when prioritising patients?
2. Why might this be more difficult than simply treating patients in the order they arrive?
3. What principles might help keep such decisions fair?
Follow-up: If a patient becomes angry about being lower on a priority list, how would you respond to them?
A patient refuses a treatment that doctors believe would clearly benefit them.
1. What is the doctor's responsibility once a competent adult has refused treatment?
2. Why is patient autonomy an important principle in medicine?
3. What would you do if you personally disagreed with the patient's decision?
Follow-up: What would change if the patient refusing treatment were a child rather than an adult?
The NHS has faced significant pressure on emergency departments in recent years.
1. What do you understand to be some of the reasons behind this pressure?
2. What approaches have been tried to address it?
3. What role might doctors play in managing this pressure day to day?
Follow-up: A patient complains to you directly about a long wait. How would you respond in the moment?
Many areas of the UK, including parts of the North East, face difficulty recruiting and retaining GPs.
1. What do you think might cause this kind of shortage?
2. What effect might it have on patients living in affected areas?
3. What measures could help address GP shortages in a region like this?
Follow-up: A patient says they have not been able to get a GP appointment for weeks. How would you respond to their frustration?
Health inequalities mean that people in different parts of the same country can have very different life expectancies.
1. What factors do you think contribute to health inequality?
2. Why might this be particularly relevant to medical schools training doctors in specific regions?
3. What could a future doctor personally do to help address health inequality?
Follow-up: A colleague says tackling health inequality is a job for politicians, not doctors. How would you respond?
The NHS increasingly relies on technology, such as online booking systems and remote consultations.
1. What benefits do you see in these changes?
2. What groups of patients might be disadvantaged by them?
3. How could a doctor help make sure no patient is left behind by digital changes?
Follow-up: An elderly patient tells you they cannot use the online system at all. What would you suggest?
A new over-the-counter medicine is approved after passing through several stages of testing.
1. What do you understand about why medicines go through multiple testing phases before approval?
2. Why might a treatment that works well in a trial behave differently in everyday use?
3. What role might doctors play in reporting problems with medicines after approval?
Follow-up: A patient tells you they do not trust 'newly approved' medicines. How would you respond?
Science taught at school is often presented as settled fact, but scientific understanding frequently changes over time.
1. Can you think of an example where scientific understanding has changed?
2. Why is it important for a doctor to accept that medical knowledge can change?
3. How would you keep your own knowledge up to date throughout a career?
Follow-up: How would you explain to a patient that medical advice they received years ago has since changed?
You are asked to explain a basic biological process, such as how the immune system responds to infection, to a non-scientist.
1. Give your explanation in plain language.
2. What parts of the process are hardest to simplify, and why?
3. Why does understanding this process matter for everyday medical practice?
Follow-up: How would you explain the same process to a school pupil with no biology background at all?
Medical research sometimes produces results that contradict earlier studies.
1. Why might two studies on the same topic produce different results?
2. How should a doctor decide which evidence to trust?
3. Why is this relevant to how doctors explain evolving evidence to patients?
Follow-up: A patient shows you a news article about a study that contradicts your advice. How would you respond?
The following is an illustrative figure. A GP practice sees 50 patients a day. Records show 15 patients wait under 10 minutes, 25 wait between 10 and 20 minutes, and 10 wait over 20 minutes.
1. What percentage of patients wait over 20 minutes?
2. What further information would help you judge whether this waiting pattern is a problem?
3. Suggest one practical change the practice could test to reduce long waits.
Follow-up: If the practice could only change one thing, what would you recommend and why?
The following is an illustrative figure. Over five years, a region's GP registrations rose from 180,000 to 210,000 patients, while the number of full-time GPs fell from 90 to 80.
1. Calculate the percentage change in patients and in GP numbers over the five years.
2. What might this mismatch mean for patients and for GPs?
3. What other data would help explain the reasons behind these changes?
Follow-up: If most of the rise in registrations came from one new housing development, what might this suggest about possible solutions?
You are given a logical puzzle: three patients are waiting to be seen, and you are told only that patient A must be seen before patient B, and patient C must be seen last.
1. List the possible orders in which the patients could be seen.
2. Explain your reasoning process.
3. Why might the ability to reason through constraints like this be useful in medicine?
Follow-up: A fourth patient arrives who must be seen before A. How does this change the possible orders?
The following is an illustrative figure. A screening test correctly identifies 90 out of 100 people who have a condition, but also incorrectly flags 15 out of 100 people who do not have it.
1. In a group of 1,000 people where 40 actually have the condition, roughly how many would you expect the test to flag in total?
2. What problem does this illustrate about screening tests in a low-prevalence population?
3. Why is this relevant to decisions about offering a test widely?
Follow-up: How would you explain this result to a worried person who has just tested positive?
The following is an illustrative figure. A hospital ward has 24 beds. On a given day, 20 beds are occupied, and on average each patient stays 4 days.
1. Roughly how many new patients could the ward admit over a 7 day period if every bed were used efficiently?
2. What factors in real hospitals might make this estimate too simple?
3. Why is bed management relevant to the flow of patients through a hospital?
Follow-up: If average stay length suddenly increased to 6 days, how would this change your estimate?
Think of a time you changed your opinion about something significant after new information or an experience.
1. What was your original view and what changed it?
2. How did you handle the process of changing your mind?
3. Why is this kind of flexibility useful for a doctor?
Follow-up: How would you respond if changing your mind meant admitting you had previously given someone incorrect advice?
Reflect on the process of preparing your UCAS application and getting ready for Sunderland's three-phase selection process.
1. What has this process taught you about your own strengths?
2. What has it taught you about areas you still need to develop?
3. How will you continue this kind of reflection once you are a medical student?
Follow-up: If you were not offered a place this year, what would you take forward from this experience?
Consider a time you received disappointing results or an outcome that did not match your effort.
1. How did you respond at the time?
2. What did you learn about managing disappointment?
3. How might this learning help you cope with setbacks during medical training?
Follow-up: How would you distinguish between a setback you should push through and one that signals you need to change your approach?
Think about your performance in the earlier phases of Sunderland's process, such as your UCAT score, compared with how you feel about this interview.
1. What have you learned about your own strengths and weaknesses across different kinds of assessment?
2. How did you prepare differently for this interview compared with the UCAT?
3. What would you do differently if you had to go through this whole process again?
Follow-up: If your UCAT score was your weakest part of the application, how would you address that in this interview?
Reflect on a time you had to wait a long time for an important decision or result, similar to waiting between application phases.
1. How did you manage the uncertainty during that time?
2. What helped you stay focused on your goals?
3. Why might this experience of waiting be relevant to a career in medicine?
Follow-up: If you had been rejected after that wait, how would you have responded?
Sunderland uses this format for medicine: MMI circuit. Interviews are held in person.
Interview timing for Sunderland: From the week beginning 7 December 2026 into early January. Always check the university's own admissions pages for this year's dates.
Sunderland assesses: Teamwork, Leadership, Communication, Resilience, Empathy.
No. They are 50 original MedicHut practice questions, written to match Sunderland's published interview format. Universities do not share their real questions, so your interview may differ.
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