Aston Medical School: Overview

Aston Medical School is one of the newest medical schools, which opened in 2018. Despite its young age, it has completed the rigorous GMC approval process and the teaching at Aston is undoubtedly of excellent quality. Moreover, Aston is willing to listen to feedback from students and staff and committed to constantly improving their course.

Aston offers a 5-year MBChB medical course, which is split into two phases: pre-clinical (years 1 and 2) and clinical. Each student at Aston is allocated a Personal Tutor, which looks after your well-being and study progression.

Aston medical school is located in the very centre of Birmingham. As the 2nd largest city in the UK, Birmingham is a bustling and diverse city with loads on offer, meaning you can easily find a perfect getaway from the demanding course that medicine is.

Pre-interview Selection in 2022:
🔢 How does Aston select candidates for interviews?

A-level Predicted Grades: Predicted grades are just checked if they meet the minimum entry requirement and are not used to select candidates for an interview.

GCSEs: Scores from Maths, English, Biology, Chemistry and two other subjects (in which you scored highest of the remaining subjects) are converted to a score out of 24. A*/9/8 = 4 points, A/7 = 3 points, B/6 = 2 points, C/5 = 1 point.

Personal Statement: On their website, Aston states that the following makes a personal statement stand out for them: acknowledgement of a gap in your skills and actively working on it, being a prefect at school or a mentor for younger students, volunteering and reflections.

UCAT: There is no UCAT cut off at Aston and SJT Band 4 can be accepted. UCAT score is converted into a score from 0-12, based on the following principle: 3600-3500 = 12 points, 3500-3400 = 11.5 points, 3300-3400 = 11 points and so on.

Overall, the UCAT and GCSE grades form a total of 36 points when converted into the Aston score. Historically, anything above 28 should put you in a safe position to get an interview invitation.

📊 What is the lowest UCAT score to get an interview at Aston?

Home Students: In the past years the lowest scores that got home students an interview at Aston were: 2050, 2110, 2150.

International Students: In the past years the lowest scores that got international students an interview at Aston were: 2060, 1510, 1570.

Since Aston is a fairly new medical school (the first cohort enrolled in 2018), its competitiveness is fairly low now, but steadily increases from year to year.

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📤 When does Aston send out interview invitations?

Since Aston is a UCAT university, they tend to start sending out interview invitations fairly quickly, as early as November and they continue until January/February.

👨‍👩‍👦‍👦 How many candidates get interviewed for Medicine at Aston?

Home Students: Out of 1066 candidates who applied in 2021, 363 were interviewed.

International Students: Out of 227 international students who applied 78 were interviewed.

This means that roughly 34% of all students who apply for medicine at Aston receive an interview invitation.

Medical School Interviews at Aston University 2022:
🗓️ Aston Medicine Interview dates:

MMIs at Aston take place from December until March and invitations are sent out on a rolling basis. Once you receive an interview invitation (fingers crossed!) you’ll be able to choose a date that most suits you.

💬 What’s the interview format at Aston?

Since the interviews were moved online, Aston conducts them in the same, Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) formats as before. You can expect there to be 7-10 different stations, each of which tests a different attribute of a “good doctor” (see questions below). The stations at Aston are highly likely to include some form of role play with an actor.

Each station lasts between 5 and 8 minutes, with 1 minute of reading/preparation time before each station. Hence, the interview lasts slightly over an hour in total.

👀 What does Aston look for during a medicine interview?

On their official website, Aston states they look for the following qualities during an MMI:

• Good Oral and written communication
• Good listener
• Empathetic, compassionate, respectful
• Having high emotional intelligence
• Keen to solve problems
• Motivated
• Great at team work
• Being able to lead as well as follow
• Knowing your limitations and knowing when to ask for help.

No medical knowledge will be tested during your MMI at Aston.

🎬 Watch Dr Afshan Ahmad (Admissions Lead at Aston) talk about the interview process at Aston:

Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC3vOTZewJw&ab_channel=AstonUniversity

🏆 How likely is it I’ll be given an offer after an interview at Aston?

Home Students: In 2021, after 202 interviews 152 offers were made.

International Students: In 2021, after 78 interviews, a total of 59 offers were made.

This means that you have as much as a 76% chance of getting in, once you’ve received an interview invitation from Aston!

💅 What to do before the interview at Aston Medical School?

• find a private, quiet space with a good wifi connection (Aston offers a private, COVID-safe space to conduct your online interview in if you aren’t able to find one where you live)
• prepare a formal outfit in which you feel confident and comfortable
• if you want to make your interview preparation fun, structured and affordable, prepare using Medfully.

⏳ How long does it take to hear back from Aston?

That can vary from year to year, but generally, it takes quite a while to hear back from Aston. You can expect to hear back from them in approx. 2 months after your interview.

🧠 Aston Medicine Interview Questions:

Oral and written communication

• Could you please explain to me how to tie a shoelace, without using your hands or a shoe?
• Describe your journey here.
• What’s more important for a doctor - to have excellent communication skills or well-grounded scientific knowledge?

Empathy, compassion and emotional intelligence

• Can you tell us about a recent experience where you were able to demonstrate empathy?
• A young mother comes with their 3-years old child to your GP practice as a part of the routine immunisation schedule. However, the mother reveals that she decided not to vaccinate their child against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) and appears to be anxious. What would you do?

Problem-solving and Role-play:

• One of your best friends is hosting her 18th birthday party on Friday evening. It's Thursday evening now. As you advise her on the outfit for tomorrow you realise you are responsible for interviewing with a professor of cardiovascular surgery for members of your medical school's surgical society on Friday at 6 pm. Tell your best friend that you won't be able to attend their party tomorrow.
• You are required to calculate the volume of the syringe, expressed as a percentage of the total volume, that the patient requires. The label of the syringe containing the drug states the recommended dose is 1.25mL/kg, and the syringe contains 80mL. The paediatric patient weighs 24kg.

Motivation

• Why would you like to study medicine?
• Why would you like to study at Aston?
• Why would you make a good doctor?

Teamworking

• You are a 3rd-year medical student. Together with a group of your classmates you've been working on a presentation on the impact of different calcium sources on hip fractures in older adults. As you prepare the setup you realise you forgot to save your part of the presentation. In turn, your group's presentation is incomplete. Approach your group leader and discuss the issue with them.
• Tell us about a situation when you had to work in a team.
• In your opinion, what makes a good team? Follow-up: How can these values be encouraged within a healthcare setting?

Being able to lead as well as follow

• Do you work better in a team or alone?
• Are you rather a leader or a follower?

Knowing your limitations and knowing when to ask for help.

• How do you deal with criticism?
• Working as a doctor can be immensely stressful and one needs to be able to manage stress well not to burn out. How do you take care of your mental health? Follow-up: Burnout is increasingly common in medicine, especially now during the Covid-19 pandemic. What are the consequences and risks of physician burnout?

🚀 TOP Tip: Have a hard time answering any of the above questions? You’ll find insider tactics to tackle all of the above questions and formulate convincing and structured answers at Medfully - The Best Medicine Interview Preparation Resource.

Please note that these aren’t questions that have been asked at Aston Medical School in past years. Publishing such information would be against Aston’s policy. The above questions are adjusted for the interview style at Aston and are meant to give you a broad sense of the questions you may face.

✅ Aston Medical School Interviews: 4 Tips

🎭 Prepare for a role play:

Role-plays are very likely to come up on your MMI at Aston. Role-play stations are some of the most challenging MMI stations, as they require you not only to demonstrate knowledge and insight but also skills and qualities.

Make sure you dedicate time to practising role-plays with your friends and family until you get comfortable and confident performing them.

❓ Expect follow-up questions:

MMI stations at Aston tend to be quite long, so you can expect at least 2-3 questions per station. Some of those questions may be based on what you’ve mentioned in your answer. To prepare, make sure to exercise the skill of thinking on your feet by exposing yourself to questions you aren’t familiar with. A good exercise would be to go through our list of 250+ medicine interview questions, pick questions randomly one by one and try answering them out loud.

🎓 Get ready to talk about your motivations to study at Aston:

Aston medical school has only opened quite recently and doesn’t have the prestige that other universities like Oxbridge, UCL or Imperial can boast. Therefore, make sure you think through your reasons to study at Aston and select convincing arguments, as to why you would like to study there. Some of the aspects that you can think of include (but are not limited to): the location, research facilities, course structure, opinions of current medical students, the city, societies or distance from your home town.

🤩 Be passionate:

Whenever talking about medicine, your motivations to study at Aston or your work experience exude enthusiasm. Demonstrate how passionate you are through smiling and body language. Remember that actions speak louder than words!

🤞 Good luck with preparing for the Aston Medicine interview! Fingers crossed!