Aberdeen Medical School: Overview

University of Aberdeen Medical School is a fantastic place to study medicine, thanks to its dynamic, systems-based approach to teaching. Students at Aberdeen medical school benefit from early patient contact and state of art research facilities on one of the largest health campuses in Europe.

Moreover, medical students at Aberdeen have ranked the support system very highly. The vast majority of students at Aberdeen think their opinion is valued by staff and that Aberdeen creates an environment that fosters creativity, independence and self-development.

💡 How To Prepare for Medicine Interviews at Aberdeen?

Preparing for medical school interviews requires more than just reading an article or doing a mock interview. It requires intentionality, structure and commitment. Luckily, with Medfully it is simpler and more efficient than ever:

Pre-interview Selection:
🔢 How does Aberdeen select students for interviews?

GCSEs + Predicted Grades + Personal Statement: All of these elements account for 60% of your score before the interview.

UCAT: The UCAT score is just 40% of the score. Hence, you can safely apply to Aberdeen medical school with an average UCAT score. If you’ve scored below the average, here’s where you can apply with a low UCAT score.

Your Aberdeen interview performance is afterwards added to the mix and it accounts for 50% of the final score (UCAT - 20%, other elements - 30%) that will determine if you’ll get an offer.

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

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🇬🇧  RUK (Rest Of UK): For 2022 entry, the lowest UCAT score to get an interview was 2650 for RUK school leavers and 2620 for RUK graduates.

🌍  International Students: For 2022 entry, the lowest UCAT score to get invited to an interview at Aberdeen was 2600 for international students.

If you are interested, you can find more admissions statistics under this link.

📈 Want to save yourself some time, stress and money preparing for the interview at Aberdeen? Prepare with Medfully, the #1 interview preparation tool for self-paced interview preparation.

📤 When does Aberdeen send out interview invitations?

Aberdeen medical school starts sending out interview invitations in November and continues to do so, on a rolling basis, until early March.

🚀 TOP Tip: Check your spam and offer folders regularly during the interview season! Aberdeen, like many other medical schools, gives you only a few days to book the date for your interview. At Aberdeen, if you miss the deadline, you miss the chance for an interview (the mere thought sends shivers down my spine!). On the other hand, don’t get obsessive - checking your email once a day or every few days will be absolutely sufficient, but just keep it in the back of your mind to check the spam too.

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

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scottish: For 2022 entry, 1226 students applied for medicine at Aberdeen, and out of those 587 (48%) were interviewed.

🇬🇧 RUK (Rest Of UK): Since places for RUK students at Aberdeen are capped at only 21, it’s much more competitive for RUK students to receive an interview. For 2022 entry, 543 RUK students applied, but only 80 (15%) have been invited to an interview.

🌍 International Students: The application for international students is also more competitive, as there are only 19 places available at Aberdeen medical school. Last year, out of 596 international students who applied, only 122 (20%) have been invited to an interview at Aberdeen.

If you are interested, you can find more admissions statistics under this link.

Interviews at Aberdeen Medical School:

🗓️ Aberdeen Medicine Interview dates:

Interviews at Aberdeen are usually conducted between December and March of the given application cycle.

💬 What’s the interview format at Aberdeen Medical School?

For 2021 and 2022 entries Aberdeen held online MMIs via a platform called Blackboard Collaborate. Except for the online format, all other components of the Aberdeen interview remained the same as before:

• students rotate around 6 different stations (you can find the topics of the stations below)
• during each station, students are assessed by 1-2 interviewers
• each station revolves around one question and lasts 5 minutes
• the interviewers are assessing not only the content of your answer but also your communication and other interpersonal skills
• the entire interview lasts about 1 hour in total
• When interviews were held online all students were instructed to join the interview 30 minutes before their interview slot. During that time they were briefed and their IDs were checked.

We don’t yet know whether Aberdeen will interview candidates in-person or online for 2023 entry, but this section will be updated as soon as this information becomes public. For the latest information on the Aberdeen interview, check Aberdeen’s official website.

🏆 How likely is it I’ll be given an offer after an interview at the University of Aberdeen?

🏴 󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Scottish: For 2022 entry, out of 587 Scottish students who were interviewed, 125 were offered a place (21%) making Aberdeen a fairly competitive medical school to get into.

🇬🇧 RUK (Rest Of UK): 2022 entry data shows that out of 80 students who were interviewed, 49 were offered a place to study medicine at Aberdeen (61%).

🌍 International Students: For 2022 entry, 122 international students were invited to an interview, but only 31 got offered a place (25%).

If you are interested, you can find more admissions statistics under this link.

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

• read Aberdeen’s “Coming To Interview” guide here
• increase your confidence and interview knowledge by preparing using Medfully
• plan your journey - if you are invited for an in-person interview and have to travel from far away, make sure to arrive in Aberdeen a day or two in advance so that you can be fresh on the day of your Aberdeen medicine interview
• find and prepare your ID
• prepare a formal outfit in advance to check if it’s fit for wearing to an interview
• read carefully the invitation email - it will contain important information on what to bring on the interview day and what to prepare for

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

You should hear back from Aberdeen after a few weeks after your interview and certainly before the end of March. Sometimes the reply may land in the spam folder, so make sure to check there from time to time.

🧠 Aberdeen Medicine Interview Questions (2023 Entry Update):

Admission officers at Aberdeen were so kind as to outline the exact topic of each of the stations you can expect in your Aberdeen medicine interview. Here are the topics along with example questions that can come up:

Motivation & commitment:

• Why would you like to join Aberdeen medical school?
• What makes Aberdeen special?
• Why would you make a good doctor?

Critical thinking and problem-solving:

• Imagine you are on a raft and swimming toward a deserted island. Luckily you have a backpack with a few necessary items for survival. Suddenly your raft starts to sink. You need to get rid of five out of the ten items listed below. Which one would you choose and why? The items: Box of matches, Water repellent jacket, hammock, sunscreen, a box of sardines, mirror, cell phone, encyclopedia, flip flops, a knife.
• How many basketballs would fit into a double-decker bus?

Core qualities:

• Why should we choose you?
• How would your friends describe you?
• What’s your greatest weakness?

Teamwork:

• Imagine 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. What would you do in that scenario?
• What did your work experience show you about the role of teamwork in medicine?
• What do you understand by the term Multidisciplinary Team (MDT)? Why do doctors work in MDTs and not alone?

Professionalism:

• You were supposed to take care of your friend's cat, while they were on holiday. A few hours before your friend was meant to come back, you realised you forgot to close the front door and the cat went missing. You tried looking around the house but to no avail. How would you break the news to your friend?
• Imagine you are an FY2 doctor, currently working on a paediatrics ward. You have been taking care of a 5-year old child with suspected leukaemia. As you are walking through the hospital hallway, you stumble across the child's parents, who have been waiting there for hours and look very distressed. As they ask you about the blood results, you realise you forgot to take the samples to the lab. How would you explain to the parents they have to wait another few hours because of your mistake?

Personal statement:

• In your personal statement, you mentioned the online work experience that you did. Could you please tell us a bit more about it and specifically about your key takeaways from it?
• In your personal statement you’ve mentioned that you have been playing in your school’s rugby team for the past 2 years. Could you please elaborate on that experience and tell us how it helps you grow as a person?
• There is a lot of information in your personal statement about your academic achievements that clearly show your commitment and hard work. How do you cope with pressures and stress?

🚀 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 Aberdeen in past years. Publishing such information would be against Aberdeen’s policy. The above questions are adjusted for the interview style at Aberdeen and are meant to give you a broad sense of the questions you may face.

✅ Aberdeen Medical School Interviews 2023: 3 Tips

Interview-Proof Your Personal Statement:

According to Aberdeen’s official website, the personal statement will be the focal topic of one of their MMI stations. How can you prepare for it?

Print out your personal statement with double spacing. Highlight all the individual points/achievements you mentioned in your personal statement (work experience, volunteering, sport, research, books etc.). Come up with a few basic questions about each of those points (for example, book → “What did I learn?”, “What challenges were depicted?” or EPQ → “Why not a career in research?”, “What did I do and accomplish?”, “What qualities did it help me develop?”). Once you come up with questions to each of those topics, try answering them out loud. See how fluently you can talk about each topic and focus on those that you find hardest to talk about.

Learn About NHS Scotland:

Although not stated explicitly on the website, questions revolving around NHS Scotland may pop up in your Aberdeen medicine interview. Make sure you understand how it differs from NHS England and the NHS overall, what it means that the NHS is devolved, as well as the pros and cons of the devolved system.

All of that information you can find in our distinguished interview knowledge bank written by doctors and medical students from top UK universities.

Prepare Answers For The Classic Questions:

Historically, the topics and questions used by Aberdeen have been pretty standard and predictable. However, this doesn’t mean they were easy: Would you be able to answer “What’s your greatest weakness?” or “Why should we choose you?” on the spot? Although these are straightforward questions, they aren’t easy to answer, if you haven’t prepared for them.

Here you can find a list of over 250 common interview questions. Make sure to prepare model answers (in bullet points) to the most common questions, such as “Why medicine?”, “Why Aberdeen?”, for your Aberdeen medicine interview.