Ultimate Guide to Anglia Ruskin Medicine Interviews (2023) - Questions & Tips

Anglia Ruskin Medical School: Overview

Anglia Ruskin medical school is one of the most recently built UK medical schools. Thanks to that, it can provide students with innovative teaching methods and facilities, including state-of-the-art skills laboratories, simulation rooms, Harvard-style lecture theatres and many others.

Moreover, as a fresh medical school, the staff at Anglia Ruskin is keen on learning from students’ feedback, constantly adapting and striving for the best quality teaching.

The medical course at Anglia Ruskin will especially suit those who are looking forward to hands-on, clinical exposure, which starts as early as in year 1.

💡 How To Prepare for Medicine Interviews at Anglia Ruskin (ARU)?

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 Anglia Ruskin Medical School select for interviews?

GCSEs & Predicted Grades: GCSEs and Predicted Grades aren’t used beyond checking if you’ve met the minimum entry requirements for medicine at Anglia Ruskin.

Personal Statement: The personal statement is not used to shortlist candidates for medicine interviews, but maybe discussed during the interview.

UCAT: The UCAT is the most significant factor for Anglia Ruskin when shortlisting students for medicine interviews. All applicants who have met minimum entry requirements are ranked in descending order according to their UCAT score and the top 600 students are invited to an interview at Anglia Ruskin. It’s important to note that ARU automatically rejects students with Band 4 in Situational Judgement.

📊 What is the lowest required UCAT score to get an interview at Anglia Ruskin (ARU)?

🇬🇧 Home Students: For 2022 entry, the lowest UCAT score to get an interview at Anglia Ruskin was 2370 (in previous years the score circled around 2400). Therefore, even with an average or below average UCAT score, you still stand a chance of getting invited to a medicine interview at Anglia Ruskin University!

🌍 International Students: Anglia Ruskin Medical School has not been accepting international students to date.

📈 Want to save yourself some time, stress and money preparing for the interview at Anglia Ruskin University? Prepare with Medfully, the best interview preparation tool for self-paced interview preparation.

📤 When does Anglia Ruskin send out interview invitations?

Historically, Anglia Ruskin has been sending out interview invitations between November and the end of December.

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

🇬🇧 Home Students: Out of 1243 candidates who applied for 2022 entry, 600 were invited to an interview at Anglia Ruskin (48%). In fact, in the past few years, the number of medical school interviews at Anglia Ruskin has been capped at exactly 600.

🌍 International Students: Anglia Ruskin Medical School has not been accepting international students to date.

Interviews at Anglia Ruskin (ARU):
🗓️ Anglia Ruskin Medicine Interview dates (2024 Entry):

In the past years the interviews at ARU took place between the 6th and 14th of December and then between the 6th and 14th of January.

💬 What’s the interview format at Anglia Ruskin?

Anglia Ruskin University has been known to use the MMI interview format. MMIs at ARU historically involved 6 stations, each lasting 6 minutes.

Typically there has been one interviewer per station, except for role-play stations which may come up at Anglia Ruskin medicine interviews. (A role play station is where you have to impersonate someone, typically a medical student or a friend and play out a scene with an actor. You can find more about role play stations in our free interview guide under “Miscellaneous”).

💯 Anglia Ruskin MMI Scoring System:

During the MMI interviewers at Anglia Ruskin will assess you across three domains: communication and interpersonal skills, initiative and problem solving, personal integrity and moral reasoning, each worth 5 points (in each station). Therefore, you can score a maximum of 90 points in total.

You can find more details on the medical school interview at Anglia Ruskin on their official website.

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

🇬🇧 Home Students: 2022 entry data (obtained from FOI) shows that out of 600 students interviewed, 227 (38%) have received offers to study medicine at Anglia Ruskin.

🌍 International Students: Anglia Ruskin Medical School has not been accepting international students to date.

💅 What to do before the interview at Anglia Ruskin Medical School?

• read Anglia Ruskin’s guide about their interview process (Our Multiple Mini Interview process)
• find and bring your ID to the interview
• increase your confidence and interview knowledge by preparing using Medfully
• prepare a formal interview outfit in advance, try it on and see if you feel confident and comfortable in it (you can read more about the interview dress code here)
• plan your journey - if you are invited for an in-person interview and have to travel from far away, make sure to arrive in Chelmsford a day or two in advance so that you can be fresh on the day of your Anglia Ruskin medicine interview

⏳ How long does it take to hear back from Anglia Ruskin Medical School?

You’ll only hear back after your medicine interview at Anglia Ruskin once all interviews have been conducted, which should fall around early February.

🧠 Anglia Ruskin Medicine Interview Questions:

Personal Statement:

• You’ve written in your personal statement about working with care home residents who had dementia: How were you able to tell if a patient had dementia?
• What did the online work experience you did reveal to you about the challenges doctors face in their profession?
• 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?

Communication Skills & Critical Thinking:

• Would you approach a patient with dementia any different from a 30-year old with a sports injury? If yes, how?
• Tell us about the last time you failed and how you overcame that failure.
• What would you do if you had unlimited time and money?

Moral Reasoning:

• Can you see any ethical arguments against the use of AI in medicine?
• In your opinion, should physician-assisted suicide be legalised in the UK?

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?
• Can you think of any examples from your work experience when doctors showed empathy?
• Can empathy be taught at medical school? If so, how can it be taught?

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 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 playing basketball in front of your house with a friend. You wanted to pass the ball to them, but they made a dodge and it hit your neighbour's new car instead. As you approach the car you see that the ball caused one of the windows to shatter. You don't know your neighbour very well but heard rumours about him being grumpy and rude. Break the news to your neighbour.

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

✅ Anglia Ruskin Medical School Interviews: 3 Tips

Know Your Personal Statement Inside Out

According to Anglia Ruskin’s official website, the content of your personal statement may be discussed in the interview. How can you prepare for such questions?

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 about 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.

Practise With As Many People As You Can

Practice is the best prevention for interview stress. The more you practise, the more confident and at ease will you be on the interview day.

Ask anyone you come across to conduct a short mock with you; your teachers, friends, family members, private tutors, reach out to candidates via online forums like TSR or Reddit.

This will help you get used to the MMI format and converse with different interviewers with varying interviewing styles. Moreover, those that don’t know you as well, may be able to offer a fresh, less biased perspective and help you polish your interview skills.

Demonstrate How Passionate You Are:

Your motivations to study at ARU always exude enthusiasm whenever talking about medicine or your work experience. But don’t just say how excited you are to join ARU - show it too. Demonstrate how passionate you are through smiling and body language. Remember that actions speak louder than words!