Medicine at University of Sunderland Medical School & Interview Questions 2024
Overview of Sunderland Medical School
đŤ
The MBChB honours degree is designed to ensure you meet the necessary standards in terms of knowledge, skills and professionalism that all new doctors should have as they embark on further training. You will study alongside pharmacists, nurses, paramedics, biomedical, sport and physiological scientists offering opportunities for inter-disciplinary working. More can be seen at the Sunderland Medical School open day.
đ
Course Structure at Sunderland University Medicine
Phase 1: Years 1 and 2
Overview with early clinical exposure. You will learn the fundamentals of biomedical, behavioural and social science with a focus on sciences, research, study and communication skills, basic clinical skills and professionalism.
Phase 2: Years 3 and 4
You get a second run through of many aspects of biomedical, behavioural and social science with an increased emphasis on complexity and pathology, combined with learning fundamental clinical skills and knowledge.
Phase 3: Preparation for Professional Practice - Year 5
Very extensive student assistantships to prepare you for practice as a Foundation Year 1 doctor.
â
Sunderland Medical School Entry Requirements
GCSE
5 subjects at grade A (7) with a minimum of grade B (6) in Maths, English Language, Biology, Chemistry and Physics.
A Levels
AAA
Completed within two years and including Chemistry or Biology plus a second science subject. Only one subject from a combination of Maths or Further Maths or Statistics will be considered within the three A Levels. A Level grades must be achieved in one sitting.
Contextual Offer: AAB (2023 entry)
Predicted grades not looked at during the process.
IB
35 points
Three grade 6 passes at IB Higher Level and grades of 6, 6, 5 at Standard Level are required.
Higher Level subjects must include Chemistry or Biology, plus one from Chemistry, Biology, Physics or Maths and a third rigorous subject. Any science not taken at the Higher Level must be offered at Standard Level grade 5 or GCSE grade B (or equivalent).
Scottish Higher
Minimum of AAAAB, including Chemistry/Biology plus a second science both at A, to be achieved by the end of S5 (i.e. before applying)
Scottish Advanced
Minimum of AB from two subjects (both sciences) sat in S6. Any additional subject sat at Higher level in S6 must be achieved at grade B or higher
Degree (Graduates)
Minimum of 2:1 in any subject; masters' degrees/doctorates not accepted in compensation for bachelor's degree below 2:1. The degree will have been completed within 5 years of application and gained at point of entry onto the course.
đ
Admission Tests for University of Sunderland Medicine
UCAT
Yes
How Does Sunderland Medical School Look At The UCAT?
Sunderland UCAT Cut Off 2024 for 2025 Entry
UCAT score must be in the top 8 deciles. This meant that the minimum score for 2024 entry was 2300.
Predicted grades are not looked at (2024 Entry)
They have a numeracy test to sit during the interview selection process.
đđź LOWEST UCAT Score INVITED TO INTERVIEW ie Sunderland UCAT Cut Off Score:
2023 Entry: 2280 (note some documentation states 2260)
2022 Entry: 2540
đđź MEDIAN UCAT Score Invited to Interview:
2022 Entry: 2540
đđź AVERAGE UCAT Score INVITED TO INTERVIEW:
2023 Entry: 2554
đđź LOWEST UCAT Score GIVEN AN OFFER ie Sunderland:
2023 Entry: 2260 (some say 2300)
2022 Entry: 2310
2021 Entry: 2290
đđź AVERAGE UCAT Score GIVEN AN OFFER at Sunderland A100:
2023 Entry: 2578
2022 Entry: 2570
2021 Entry: 2552
đŠ SJT Band 4 = rejection.
Sunderland Interview Selection Tool (Roles & Responsibilities Form) - unclear if this is changing for 2024 Entry
The interview selection tool is a survey used as part of the shortlisting process for selection for an interview. Here are some helpful tips for completing the survey:
This survey is used as part of the shortlisting process for selection for interview
This is a survey about your work experience over the past 2 years only (if your work experience is still ongoing and commenced more than 2 years ago that can be included)
We class âwork experienceâ as hands-on work in a public-facing role. This can be either voluntary or paid. In addition to the above, significant caring responsibilities for the family will also be included as work experience: this will typically be caring for an unwell or disabled family member.
We do not include school- or college-organised programs as work experience, unless you have helped to develop these yourself
Shadowing staff in clinical environments should not be included in this survey but is useful in preparing you for an interview
You can list up to 4 work experiences, however, please note it is not the number of work experiences we look at but the total commitment you have shown with your experience(s)
For any sections, you are not completing please leave blank
You must supply contact details for your most significant work experience provider (employer/provider) or give the contact information of a teacher who knows your family situation.
Only complete one form. If you do submit two forms, we will only look at the first one that was submitted
Application Statistics:
2023 Entry: 944 Applications, 180 Offers, 100 places
2023 Entry: 203 on the reserve list, 41 made an offer
2022 Entry: 631 Applications, 169 Offers, 100 places
2021 Entry: 490 Applications, 252 Offers, 100 places
đ PS - Have your PS checked - 5â Rated
đď¸ Interviews - 1-1 Online Medicine Interview (Panel & MMI) Tutoring & Mocks tailored to Sunderland - 5â Rated
đđź Latest UCAT Cut Off Scores Per Medical School (Updated for 2024 Entry)
đđź Where to apply with a low UCAT score in 2024 (2025 Entry)
BMAT
No
GAMSAT
Required for some.
Applicants not meeting the minimum requirements in A-level subjects or grades or Science GCSEs may be considered for Medicine if they have taken the GAMSAT prior to application.
Our minimum requirement is either(a) 55 overall with a minimum of 58 in section III or (b) 58 overall with a minimum of 55 in section III - no section score below 50 accepted.
â Applying in 2024 for 2025 Entry?
â Join our incredibly successful Ultimate Package programme
â
Receive 1-1 mentoring from qualified doctors & dentists
â
Advice on work experience, volunteering, wider reading & universities
â
Expert UCAT Tutoring, PS Editing & Interview Tutoring
â 100s of successful students
đ
Course Information
Graduate Entry
Nil
Intercalation
Optional
Intercalation is available as an option after Year 2 as a BSc degree or Year 4 as an MSc degree. You will have the opportunity to undertake a course at the University of Sunderland, or at another University, subject to approval by the School of Medicine.
Applications : Place
Application Statistics (Home)
8.01
Application Statistics (International)
NA
Applications : Interview
1.71
NA
International Student Tuition Fee
NA
đŠş
Work Experience at Sunderland University School of Medicine
They want to see that you understand what a career in medicine involves. Work experience, and other related experiences, are only as valuable as the way you talk about them. Needs to show that you are people-focused, attitudes towards being a doctor and a realistic understanding of Medicine.
đđź Ultimate Work Experience Guide 2024
đ
Personal Statement for Sunderland Medical School
Not used or assessed.
There is a Roles and Responsibilities form that needs to be filled out as part of the application process which enables us to make an initial assessment of your non-academic achievements and aptitude for a career in medicine.
đđź Ultimate Medicine Personal Statement Guide 2024
đđź Successful Medicine Personal Statement Examples 2024
đ
Does This Medical School Have A Gateway or Foundation Year?
Website
Description
Criteria
đ¤
Sunderland University Medicine Interview Questions 2024
Key Details
- Virtual MMI (Multiple Mini Interviews) at Sunderland
- Virtual (on MS Teams) confirmed for 2023 entry
Interview Dates
- December and January every year
- We will complete all interviews before we make any decisions regarding offers. As a result, we anticipate that applicants will be informed of the outcome of their interview in February. All final decisions will be submitted by the 31 March UCAS deadline. Offers are made on the basis of score at interview and passing the numeracy test.
Key Aspects
đ The University of Sunderland Medicine Interview Questions & Topics for 2025 entry
For September 2025 entry, our multiple mini-interviews (MMIs) will take place in person, where candidates undertake a series of six interview stations. The stations will examine a range of skills and aptitudes. The format of stations may vary from a 1:1 traditional interview to a role-play.
The MMI assesses a range of attributes of applicants, including:
Motivation/experiences informing your decision to pursue a medical career
Empathy and insight
Responsibilities and challenges of being a doctor
Looking and interpreting data and trials
Awareness of ethical issues in health and society
Resilience
Difficult interactions
Comprehension
Effective communication
In addition, interviewees will complete a 40-minute online numeracy test at Sunderland. which will assess their ability to perform clinically relevant calculations. This is a pass/fail test. Interviewees who do not achieve the passing score will be unsuccessful at the interview.
â Sunderland Medical Interview Past Questions for 2024 entry & 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.
Motivation to study medicine
Why medicine?
Why Sunderland? Why have you applied here?
What did you learn from your work experience?
Your best friend has lost her pet dog and she is heartbroken - have a conversation with her.
What makes you suited to Medicine?
Have you ever doubted whether you want to do medicine?
What qualities of a doctor did you see from your work experience?
What do you know about the Sunderland Medicine course? How is it taught?
Why do you think you will be well suited to this course?
Why medicine and not dentistry or nursing?
Tell us about your volunteering
What are your hobbies?
What do you understand about what a career in medicine entails? How will the Sunderland course help you towards this?
What are the negatives of a career in medicine? How did you overcome these thoughts?
Personal Insight
Why should patients trust you?
What are your best qualities?
When have you displayed great teamwork skills?
Have you ever been in charge of a group of people?
How do you manage stress?
What are the qualities of a good doctor?
Can you provide us with an example of a time when you demonstrated resilience?
Give us an example of a time when you demonstrated teamwork.
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
How would your friends describe you?
Tell us about an article that you have recently read.
Are you a good teacher?
NHS & Local Area
What changes would you make to the NHS if you could?
What are the NHS values and why are they important?
What is it like to be a doctor?
How do you deal with overpopulation?
What do you know about the local area here in Sunderland?
Why is it important to be aware of cultural differences when treating patients?
What are the main challenges that face the NHS?
How has COVID changed the way the NHS operates?
What do you think are going to be the long-term consequences of COVID on the NHS?
How does the healthcare system differ here compared to other areas in the UK?
Ethical Scenarios
Understanding of the four ethical principles
Understanding of the GMCâs good medical practice
What is the debate surrounding euthanasia, should it be legalised?
Who would you give this organ to? [Prioritisation]
How might you persuade someone to take a medicine that they dont want to take?
If you notice that a colleague has turned up to work drunk, what would you do?
Who can you escalate concerns to within a hospital?
Your friends have already completed their St Georges Medical School Interview and are talking about it in the playground - what do you do?
Should doctors be paid to go to pharmaceutical conferences?
Other Stations
Discuss the pros and cons of assisted dying. What is the difference between assisted dying and assisted suicide? Reflect on your performance in the group in front of everyone.
Discuss the pros and cons of a sugar tax. Each person must summarise their position at the end.
Antibiotic resistance. What would happen if they were banned tomorrow?
Advantages and disadvantages of free Wi-Fi in schools for 15-16 year olds
Understanding of communication techniques needed for different people
Data interpretation: explain what this graph shows
Talk us through this article
Analysis of a newspaper article about medical news, what are your thoughts on it
đŁď¸ Sunderland Medicine Interview Tips for 2024 entry
Practice, practice, practice for the numeracy test: The more you practice drug calculations, the more comfortable and confident you will become in dealing with them. Try to get your hands on as many practice questions as possible, and work through them at your own pace. You can also try timing yourself to see how quickly you can complete a set of questions, as this will help you get used to the time pressure of the test.
Focus on the basics: Make sure you have a solid understanding of the basic principles of drug calculations, such as units of measurement, ratios and proportions, and conversions. If you are struggling with a particular question, try breaking it down into smaller parts and working through each step methodically. Don't rush through the calculations or rely on guesswork, as this can lead to errors. Instead, take your time and double-check your answers to ensure they are accurate.
Ethical Scenarios - Sunderland have ethical scenarios every year at interview. They provided several tips on answering ethical questions. They have mentioned that there is not a single right answer, use evidence or explanation to back up your answers, explain your thought processes, donât assume prior knowledge on the interviewersâ part â not all interviewers will be medics, and show awareness and recognition of different viewpoints, donât âsit on the fenceâ â have an opinion and take a common sense approach
Practice Role Plays: Role plays are unique to medicine interviews and so common at Sunderland. 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.
Learn Medical Ethics & NHS Hot Topics - it is extremely likely that you will be asked about medical ethics at a medicine interview at Sunderland, 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 420+ medicine interview questions.
Have examples ready to use: many of the questions asked at Sunderland 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.
Know what to expect - Remember interviews can be conducted by a range of professionals and you may not only be interviewed by a doctor. You may encounter careers professional, actors, professional support staff, and teaching staff, particularly in MMIs. Avoid using very technical terms, you may have more clinical knowledge than those assessing you.
Personal Attributes - Sunderland is very likely to ask you about personal attributes during their vMMI interview. As such it is paramount that you go through and learn these.
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 doctorâs training pathway.
Read the MMI instructions carefully - you get enough time to read the instructions provided before the MMI station. Make sure that you donât 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.
MMI Stations - remember that each MMI station at Sunderland 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.
Know the Sunderland Course - we would always recommend doing this for every university that you plan to apply to. It is paramount that you know about the different topics covered each year. How does this differ from other universities? Remember there is very early clinical exposure at Sunderland - this can be an advantage!
Know the local area - Sunderland is in a diverse region of England, with a number of local factors and diseases that differentiate the midlands from the rest of the UK. Ensure that you research both communicable and non-communicable diseases in the area. They have a number of services here including Sunderland university medical centre to support students. How might this impact healthcare provision in the area?
Reflect Well - the Sunderland 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.
Donât 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.
Learn about the non-academic societies at Sunderland - 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 Sunderland University. Spend time on their website, or looking at their Instagram for ideas about societies that you could think about joining.
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.
Good Medical Practice - Sunderland 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.
đđź 280+ Medicine Interview Questions for 2025 Entry
đđź Medicine & NHS Hot Topics 2024
đđź Latest Interview Blog Articles
đ Elite 1-1 Interview Coaching
â Intense 1-1 interview tutoring - Panel & MMI & Mock Interviews
â
The Ultimate Interview Guide 2024 - 420+ Q&A by qualified doctors
â
Create model answers - work on content to stand out
â Perfect your delivery - build confidence and enthusiasm in responses
đ§
Contact Details
Address: The University of Sunderland, Edinburgh Building, City Campus, Chester Road, Sunderland, SR1 3SD
Telephone: +44 (0)191 515 2000
âĄď¸