The interview centre
The main stage of your application to IMT is the interview. All interviews will be held online via Qpercom Recruit, a bespoke system used in specialty recruitment. This section has some general notes about the format of interview, and information about the content can be found on the 'Structure & content' tab of this page.
Consistent for all applicants
The structure and content of IMT interviews will be consistent among all applicants; all online interviews will follow exactly the same format and cover the same areas of assessment.
Multi-station interview
All interviews will be delivered using a multi-station format, where questions will be divided across more two stations with a different pair of interviewers asking and scoring the questions in each station.
All interview stations will consist of two scoring interviewers. In some cases a third clinician may be present to share questioning of candidates and help with the running of the day. However, you will only be scored by two clinician interviewers in each station.
Time required at interview
The exact timings can vary slightly but typically will involve the following:
- Arrival - most regions set the interview slot times that you book up to 30 minutes before your interview is planned to begin. This time is used to register your arrival and check your identification.
- Interview - the time allocated for you with interviewers is about 30 minutes; this is made up of two stations of 11 minutes each, with a few minutes before each station for reading/preparation.
- After interview - in most cases you will be free to go as soon as your interview ends. If there is any need to discuss anything with you after the interview you will be notified, but this is not usual.
- Total time - the advice is that you should expect to spend up to two hours for your interview. In most cases this will be a lot less, but schedules can often over-run. This is just a rough guide and it cannot be guaranteed that all candidates will be able to leave within two hours of their arrival time so please bear this in mind when planning the rest of your day.
Presentation
One of the questions requires you to prepare an oral presentation prior to the day, the 'Structure & content' page provides details.
Note taking during interviews
You are allowed to make notes during the interview to help you structure your answers; this is most likely to be for the clinical scenario, with designated reading time before the question starts. Any notes taken must not be shared with anyone and must be destroyed as soon as the interview has been completed.
Sharing information about the interview
Whilst it is natural that you may wish to discuss your experience at interview with others, you must not share detailed information about the interview, beyond that which is publicly available (ie which is available from this website) - specifically, the content and format of questions asked. Ultimately, this may reduce your own chances of success and is unfair to all other candidates.
Individual questions are also changed regularly and candidates are advised against altering their behaviour based on the advice of other candidates.
Lay representatives
Lay representatives will be used to monitor IMT interviews at all centres. They will not be involved in candidate assessment; their role is to assist in the quality assurance of the interview process.
They will observe a selection of interviews so you may or may not have one present during your interview.
The interview will consist of two stations that each last for 11 minutes. Each station will see you assessed on three areas, so overall you will be scored on six areas:
- Station 1
- Application and achievements
- Suitability for IMT
- Ethical, professionalism and governance scenario
- Station 2
- Clinical scenario - Investigations/diagnosis/management
- Clinical scenario - communication mark
- Clinical scenario - handover
Including the time between stations, the interview will last approximately 30 minutes.
Details about the question areas can be viewed by clicking on the tabs below.
The interview will start with a six-minute exploration of your achievements to date and your suitability to be an internal medicine trainee; you will be awarded two scores from each interviewer on these two areas.
This question is divided into two sections:
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Presentation – you are required to start the interview with a two-minute presentation on the following: Give an overview of your achievements to date which are most relevant to your application to be a trainee in internal medicine
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Questions – you will then be asked questions about your suitability to be an internal medicine trainee, this may include clarifying questions about your achievements and application.
Presentation guidance
When preparing your presentation, please bear in mind the points below:
- Give headlines and brief descriptions of your achievements to maximise the time available.
- Ensure your presentation is clear and well-structured.
- Credit will be given to achievements which demonstrate skills transferrable to being an internal medicine trainee; these achievements do not necessarily need to have been gained in physician-related activity.
- Two-minute time limit - Your presentation must last for no more than two minutes, and you will be stopped at this point.
- No aids/resources allowed – you are not allowed to use any visual representations, such as PowerPoint, when giving your presentation and you must not share your screen. You are welcome to use notes, but these should be for your own use only.
Scoring guidance
Application and achievements
Your self-assessment application score will not directly be counted towards the total score used for ranking. The score from this section of the interview will reflect your achievements to date, taking your personal circumstances into account. The interview scoring section of the website details the guidance that interviewers will be using for scoring this question.
Suitability for IMT
You will be scored based on demonstrating knowledge and enthusiasm for medicine and commitment to a career as a physician.
You will be asked a question which focuses on one or more of these areas. This question will not be available to you to consider in advance and the hypothetical scenario will be given on completion of the previous question.
This question will not focus on clinical aspects, and will deal with the moral, ethical, legal, etc. issues of a particular situation. Your answer should be guided by GMC Good Medical Practice.
This question will last up to five minutes.
Before entering the station, you will be given three minutes to review a clinical scenario. After the three minutes, you will be asked questions relating to this scenario.
Questioning in the scenario may cover the following:
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what next steps you would take, e.g. further investigations
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your differential diagnoses
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any potential treatments possible
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any further information you would gather
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how you would go about communicating with any people (e.g. patients, family members, colleagues) involved in the scenario.
The clinical scenario will be relatively brief (a few sentences), so most of the three minutes will be used for mental preparation. Whilst it is permitted to make notes, these must be destroyed as soon as your interview is completed and not shared with anyone.
Questioning on the clinical scenario will last for up to ten minutes. After this, you will be asked to do a one-minute handover of the patient to a colleague. This will require you to speak for up to one minute as if you were speaking to the person being given the handover.
Areas for assessment
There are three separate marks awarded for the clinical scenario question:
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The investigations you would do, your diagnosis given the information available and subsequent management of the patient
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Your communication skills, both in terms of how you would communicate with patients, colleagues, etc. in the scenario, as well as of how well you communicate with interviewers.
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Your handover of the patient and your ability to relay information in a clear, concise and accurate way.
Where possible, reasonable adjustments will be made at interview to meet the needs of applicants with disabilities. You must ensure that you detail any adjustments required on your application form, as well as uploading documetary evidence; failure to provide information and documentation, may result in adjustments not being met.
Additional reading time
The most common form of adjustment made is for applicants who are neurodivergent and require additional reading time. This is most frequently seen in the case of dyslexia where an educational psychologist report recommends 25% extra time.
Where this comes into play for IMT interviews is for the clinical scenario, where candidates are given a written scenario prior to the start of that question and three minutes to review it. Upon arrival in the interview room, you will be asked questions relating to this scenario.
The actual text in the scenario is quite short - usually two/three sentences at most - and so the bulk of preparation time is to allow you to consider the scenario and the next steps you would take (e.g. diagnosis, treatment, further questions, etc.), rather than it being 'reading time' as such.
However, extra time will be granted in accordance with the recommendations of the evidence supplied. The standard time for scenario consideration is three minutes; therefore, for a 25% extra adjustment, the time would be adjusted to three minutes 45 seconds. The exact adjustments will depend on: the recommendation, whether it can be considered a reasonable adjustment and documentary evidence of your circumstances.