Medicine at University of Liverpool Medical School & Interview Questions 2024

🎓 Liverpool Medicine Interview Questions & Topics 2024

There are a number of topics that are more likely to come up at the University of Liverpool Medical School MMI Interview:

• Applicant’s core values and attributes (using applicant’s personal statements)

• Teamwork

• Communication skills

• Ethical views

• Learning from work experience and caring contribution

• Health-care awareness and insight to current affairs

• Numeracy

The criteria used are currently under review but previous stations explored: the applicants’ core values and 8 attributes (using the personal statement), teamwork, communication skills, ethical views, learning from work experience and caring contribution, health-care awareness and insight and numeracy.

❓ Liverpool Medical Interview Past Questions 2024 & Likely Topics

Please find below a list of suggested questions that could come up at your interview this year, created by our team to help guide your preparation. 

In the past, each attribute is scored as poor, satisfactory, good, very good or excellent, and then converted to a numerical score. The numeracy component is scored on a point basis, with each correct answer being worth one point and contributing to the candidate's overall score on the interview (there are a maximum of 120 points that can be stored in the interview). It is not clear if this is still the case this year.

Motivation to study medicine

1. Why medicine?

2. Why Liverpool?

3. What did you learn from your work experience?

4. What qualities of a doctor did you see from your work experience?

5. What do you know about the Liverpool Medicine course? How is it taught?

6. Why do you think you will be well suited to this course?

7. What are the strengths and weaknesses of PBL and the aspects that you feel will suit you?

8. Why medicine and not dentistry or nursing?

9. Tell us about your volunteering

10. What are your hobbies?

11. What are the negatives of a career in medicine?

Personal Insight

1. Why should patients trust you?

2. What are your best qualities?

3. How do you manage stress?

4. Can you provide us with an example of a time when you demonstrated resilience?

5. Give us an example of a time when you demonstrated teamwork.

6. What are your strengths and weaknesses?

7. How would your friends describe you?

8. What are the values needed to be a doctor?

9. Tell us about an article that you have recently read.

NHS & Local Area

1. What changes would you make to the NHS if you could?

2. What are the NHS values and why are they important?

3. What is it like to be a doctor?

4. How do you deal with overpopulation?

5. What do you know about the local area here in Liverpool?

6. What are the main challenges that face the NHS?

7. How has COVID changed the way the NHS operates?

8. What do you think are going to be the long-term consequences of COVID on the NHS?

9. How does the healthcare system differ here compared to other areas in the UK?

Ethical Scenarios

1. If a colleague has made a mistake prescribing a drug, what would you do?

2. Understanding of the four ethical principles

3. Understanding of the GMC’s good medical practice

4. What is the debate surrounding euthanasia, should it be legalised?

5. Who would you give this organ to? [Prioritisation]

6. You are on your first clinical placement, and the nurses are extremely busy and have asked you to help. What do you do?

7. What do you know about the Charlie Gard case / Harold Shipman / Abortion debate?

8. If you notice that a colleague has turned up to work drunk, what would you do?

9. Who can you escalate concerns to within a hospital?

10. Should smokers and people who are obese receive treatment on the NHS?

11. How would you tackle current public health issues such as obesity?

Other Stations

1. Discussion on the personal statement - anything that you have mentioned!

2. Coping with NHS pressures - what would you do?

3. Role play: explain to someone how to draw this picture

4. Data interpretation: draw this graph

5. Talk us through this article

6. Role play: explain to someone how to tie shoelaces

🗣️ Liverpool Medicine Interview Tips 2024

1. Calculation station - You will be asked to undertake simple mathematical calculations involving data that has clinical relevance. The mathematical skills that are being tested are at or below GCSE level, and those taking A-level Mathematics are not necessarily at an advantage. The numeracy station usually involves five questions with multiple choice options as well as a calculator provided. The challenge is often more related to deciphering relevant information than completing complex calculations. Questions may also involve drug, dosage and flow rate calculations which are likely to be unfamiliar to many candidates.

2. Have examples ready to use: many of the questions asked at Liverpool are example-based, ie, they require you to draw on certain examples from your personal life, medical work experience and medical volunteering to help make key points that the selectors are looking for. As such, it is paramount that you spend time learning about these examples and thinking about different scenarios that you can use at the interview. It is helpful if these scenarios are malleable and can be applied to a number of different questions e.g. being a football captain, deputy head girl or playing in the school orchestra.

3. Personal Attributes - Liverpool is very likely to ask you about personal attributes during the MMI interview. As such it is paramount that you go through and learn these. Liverpool have repeatedly focussed on your strengths and weaknesses as a person, so make sure that you have suitable examples for this. Check out our 200+ interview question and answer guide for dealing with such interview questions. 

4. Know the doctor training pathway: this is useful to mention in answers to show awareness about the career in medicine - and demonstrates that you have a considered approach, fortunately, we have a guide to the NHS and the doctor’s training pathway.

5. Read the MMI instructions carefully - you get enough time to read the instructions provided before the MMI station. Make sure that you don’t miss anything from this. Try and plan how you will structure your answer thereafter in the reading time that you get. Therefore it is really important that you practice MMI questions and ensure that you think about your structure for as many questions as possible before your interview.

6. MMI Stations - remember that each MMI station at Liverpool is independent of the other. Therefore it is paramount that you try to treat them as such, if you have a bad station, try to forget about it and reset for the next station, this gives you the best chance of scoring well overall. Read our ultimate guide to preparing for medicine MMIs here.

7. Know the Liverpool Course - we would always recommend doing this for every university that you plan to apply to. Ensure you recognise that Liverpool has a Problem Based Learning (PBL) course - what are its merits? How is that suited to you? It is paramount that you know about the different topics covered each year. How does this differ from other universities? What is their policy on intercalation? Have you any idea about what you would plan to intercalate in at Liverpool? Remember there is very early clinical exposure at Liverpool - this can be an advantage!

8. Know the local area - Liverpool is a diverse region of England, with a number of local factors and diseases that differentiate the Liverpool region from the rest of the UK. Ensure that you research both communicable and non-communicable diseases in the area. How might this impact healthcare provision in the area?

9. Reflect Well - the Liverpool Medicine selectors love reflection, make sure that you are good at not just stating what you have learnt, but also how this helped and what you benefitted from, and what you will carry forward about this at medical school and in clinical medicine. This is especially true when reflecting on your medical work experience during the medicine interview.

10. Practice Role Plays: Role plays are unique to medicine MMI interviews as they do not tend to occur in panel interviews. The only way to ace these stations is to practice! There are so many different medicine role-play scenarios that can come up, such as breaking bad news in the medicine interview, it is paramount that you read about tips for answering role-play scenarios and practice MMI calculation stations. You might want to also consider practising this with a medicine interview tutor, or booking a 1-1 online mock interview.

11. Don’t over-rehearse - this is a common theme amongst interview students and is very obvious to a trained examiner. As such, we would recommend focusing on the structure of your answer, and then naturally letting it flow when speaking to the answers, concentrating on the delivery of your interview answers. Read about our top tips for medicine interviews here. If you are struggling with this, consider booking sessions with an expert medicine interview tutor.

12. Learn about the non-academic societies at Liverpool - this is really important and might augment your Why Medicine question as well as help you formulate an answer to how you will contribute to life at Liverpool University. Spend time on their website, or looking at their Instagram for ideas about societies that you could think about joining.

13. Learn Medical Ethics & NHS Hot Topics - it is extremely likely that you will be asked about medical ethics at a medicine interview at Liverpool, so there is no excuse not to brush up on your knowledge on these topics, especially the four pillars of medical ethics. Learn how to provide a balanced argument on this. Check out some of our free articles on NHS Hot Topics here. It is good if you have an opinion on them, as long as you present a balanced and well-reasoned argument, ultimately, which side you choose does not matter, but is helpful to have. Check out our bank of 200+ medicine interview questions.

14. Learn the NHS Core Values - This can be drawn into different answers about personal qualities or qualities of a doctor, which has formed a feature of stations in the past, and a good understanding of these core values will help you stand out against others. It is important to know about the NHS in general for your medical interviews - read our article here on this.

15. Good Medical Practice - Liverpool also puts emphasis on knowing the values and qualities of a good doctor, which can be found in this document and are likely to come up at the interview in the MMI stations. This is universal to many universities, and something that we always recommend students cover during their medicine interview preparation.