Edge Hill Medical School: Overview

As one of the newest medical schools in the UK (the first cohort started in 2020), Edge Hill Medical School is also one of the smallest, holding only 20 places for new students each year.

However, Edge Hill University isn’t a new university in itself - the first students in fact enrolled in 1885! Since then, beautiful and innovative facilities have been built and the teaching staff at Edge Hill has earned enough experience to expand to other courses, including medicine.

Located on a picturesque, award-winning campus in Ormskirk, Lancashire, the calmness of the surrounding nature will aid all medical students studying at Edge Hill on their journey to becoming the best doctors.

💡 How To Prepare for Medicine Interviews at Edge Hill?

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 Edge Hill Medical School select for interviews?

GCSEs + Predicted Grades: The admissions officers at Edge Hill Medial School won’t use your GCSE or predicted grades, beyond checking if you’ve met the minimum entry requirements. You can find the latest entry requirements for medicine at Edge Hill University here.

Personal Statement: The personal statement is not taken into account in the process of selecting students for a medicine interview. However, they may be used to distinguish between applicants after interviews in borderline cases.

UCAT: UCAT cut-off score is set each year by the Edge Hill Medical School, which can vary from year to year, depending on the scores of other students who applied to Edge Hill. All students who score above the UCAT cut-off and have met minimum grade requirements will be invited to a medicine interview at Edge Hill (unless they have scored Band 4 in the SJT section of the UCAT, which will translate to an automatic rejection).

📊 What is the lowest required UCAT score to get an interview at Edge Hill Medical School?

🇬🇧 Home Students: The UCAT cut-off for 2021 entry was 2450, and for 2022 entry UCAT cut-off was 2500 points.

🌍 International Students: International students cannot apply to Edge Hill Medical School as of 2023.

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📤 When does Edge Hill send out interview invitations (2023)?

Edge Hill Medical School will most likely start sending out interview invitations around December 2023 and will continue until February 2024.

👨‍👩‍👦‍👦 How many candidates get interviewed for Medicine at Edge Hill University?

🇬🇧 Home Students: For 2022 entry, 311 students have applied from the UK and 107 of those (34%) have been invited to a medicine interview at Edge Hill.

🌍 International Students: International students cannot apply to Edge Hill Medical School as of 2023.

Interviews at Edge Hill Medical School (2023):
🗓️ Edge Hill Medicine Interview dates (2024 Entry):

Although information about the precise dates of medicine interviews at Edge Hill have not yet been published, they will most likely take place between December 2023 and March 2024.

💬 What’s the interview format at Edge Hill Medical School?

In the past two years, Edge Hill conducted MMI interviews via Microsoft Teams.

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

🇬🇧 Home Students: For 2022 entry, 107 have resulted in 28 offers (26%).

🌍 International Students: International students cannot apply to Edge Hill Medical School as of 2023.

💅 What to do before the interview at Edge Hill Medical School?

• prepare a formal outfit in advance, checking for any stains, marks or rips
• boost your confidence and improve your interview knowledge by preparing using Medfully
• plan your journey - chances are you will be coming from a different city, so make sure to come to Lancashire a day or two before your interview (if you are invited to an in-person interview) to be fresh on the day of the interview

⏳ How long does it take to hear back from Edge Hill Medical School?

In the past years, the admissions team at Edge Hill Medical School has been sending out responses with interview outcomes only once all interviews have been completed. Most likely, if you’ve sat an Edge Hill medicine interview, you’ll hear from Edge Hill in March 2023.

🧠 Edge Hill Medicine Interview Questions:

On their official website, Edge Hill lists topics that can come up on the medicine MMI:

Understanding and motivation for wanting to join the MBChB programme at Edge Hill University;

• Why would you like to study at Edge Hill Medical School?
• Why should we choose you?
• Why would you make a good doctor?
• How can you contribute to the student community at Edge Hill?

Verbal communication skills;

• 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 as a GP?

Integrity/probity;

• What will hold you back at medical school?
• A 19-year old patient comes to your GP practice and discloses they regularly engage in the use of illicit drugs. They ask you not to tell anyone, including the police. What factors should you consider in such a scenario, and who would you inform about the situation?

Teamwork/leadership;

• 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 (the interviewer) and discuss the issue with them.

Awareness of current health challenges;

• What do you understand by the term ‘mental health crisis?’ How can the UK tackle the mental health crisis?
• Have you read about any breakthroughs or recent technologies being introduced/used in the NHS?
• What are some of the long-term impacts of Covid-19 on the NHS and NHS patients?

Ethical awareness;

• What do you understand by the term “Gillick’s competence”?
• A 14-year old boy is rushed into A&E after a car crash. The patient is unconscious and has sustained huge blood loss as a result of the accident. Together with your team, you decide the boy requires an urgent blood transfusion. As you are about to take the boy into the OR, his parents arrive and forbid you to carry on with the blood transfusion on religious grounds. How would you proceed, and what factors should you consider?

Awareness of self and others;

• What helps you keep a healthy relationship with school duties?
• What’s your understanding of the term empathy, and what role does it play in medicine? How can medical schools teach their students to be more empathetic individuals?
• How would you support a friend at university that feels discriminated against due to their ethnic background?

Prioritisation/decision making;

• You are an FY1 doctor about to end your shift. You look at your watch and realise you'll be late for a date this evening, but you still have a few tasks to deal with. Talk us through the order in which you'd do each of the following tasks:"
  1. Call the restaurant to postpone your reservation.
  2. A nurse has bleeped you to help you clog a haemorrhage in the A&E.
  3. A 7-year-old patient is waiting for a discharge and complains about missing home.
  4. A 77-year old patient with arthritis sits in the corridor waiting for a recurring prescription for pain medication.
  5. Your parking ticket has expired 5 minutes ago. You need to get a new one or you'll be fined.
  6. Reply to an email from an aspiring medical student about organising work experience.

Interpretation of data.

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

✅ Edge Hill Medical School Interviews: 3 Tips

GMC’s Good Medical Practice Guidelines Are Your Best Friend.

The Good Medical Practice guidelines published by the General Medical Council (GMC is a body that sets standards for doctors in the UK and oversees them) is a must-read for any student applying to medical school.

Although “a set of guidelines” sounds bureaucratic and dull, it is in fact a concise and compelling read. The document outlines how are doctors working in the NHS duty-bound to behave. Reading it will help you understand what it means to be a “good doctor”, as well as give you a framework for answering questions about medical ethics or clinical judgement. And don’t forget to take notes and review them before your interview!

Practise With Other Candidates:

The best way to relieve interview stress? Practice. The more you practice and the more varied your practice, the calmer and the more confident you’ll feel on the day of your medicine interview.

It’s important to make your interview mocks a realistic representation of the actual medicine interview. Therefore, make sure to set it up properly - explain the timing to the person interviewing them, hand them a list of questions and ask them to assess you on both the content and non-verbal aspects of your answer.

Moreover, to get used to the MMI format, where you’ll face different interviewers at each of the stations, try to practise with as many people as possible. Ask your friends, family, and teachers and reach out to other candidates on forums like TSR or Reddit. This will help you get used to being interviewed by different people and the varying reactions or interviewing styles that they may have.

Keep Up With The News

Questions about the latest, major events in medicine or science are likely to come up in your Edge Hill medicine interview. But how do you best prepare for them, if there is no guidance on topics that will only happen in the future?

Just keep up regularly with the latest articles on BBC Health. Check the website every few days and take notes on the articles that you feel are the most significant. And don’t worry about those questions too much - you won’t be expected to know the details of every event. Just show that you are following the news and are interested in what’s happening, as it demonstrates passion and commitment to medicine.