Leeds Medical School: Overview

For numerous reasons, Leeds Medical School is a fantastic place to study medicine. Firstly, Leeds is a very comfortable city to live in as a student: On the one hand, Leeds is large enough to offer loads of varied opportunities and fun things to do, but on the other is not as overwhelming as larger cities like London.

As a part of the prestigious Russell Group, the medical curriculum at Leeds is highly scientific and research-focused.

Furthermore, Leeds is known for its Peer2Peer support system, where you get paired with your medical family, students from your and older years, and help each other out survive the challenges of being a medical student at a demanding school like Leeds.

Many medical students at Leads praise the high quality of teaching alongside a friendly environment, so no matter if your ambitions are high or more relaxed you should feel at home at Leeds Medical School!

Pre-interview Selection:
🔢 How does Leeds Medical School select students for interviews in 2023?

GCSEs: As a part of the selection process at Leeds, your GCSE scores, predicted grades and the BMAT are converted into a combined score of 37, out of which 24 points (over 60% weight) are for the GCSE grades. A* or 8/9 is awarded 3 points, A or 7 equals 2 points, B or 5/6 is awarded 1 point.

A-levels: Out of the 37 points mentioned above, 8 are available for A-level grades (or equivalent). Everything above AAA equals 8 points, so A-level grades aren’t given much weight by Leeds during the admissions process.

Personal Statement: Quoting the official website of Leeds Medical School “personal statements are extremely important”. Unlike most medical schools nowadays, Leeds places a high emphasis on personal statements and scores them alongside the predicted grades and GCSEs.

BMAT: During the selection process, admissions officers at Leeds will plot your raw BMAT score onto a graph, alongside the scores of other candidates. Those in the top 20% (specifically of those who applied to Leeds) will get 5/5 points, those between the top 60-80% will get 4/5 points etc.

BMAT scores form only 13% of the total combined score, so even with a fairly average BMAT score, you should stand a good chance to get an interview at Leeds!

📊 What is the lowest required BMAT score to get an interview at Leeds?

Unfortunately, Leeds does not hold or publish raw BMAT scores of their candidates. Moreover, there is no BMAT cut off, as such, at Leeds. However, since Leeds does not place a large emphasis on the BMAT score when selecting for interviews, even with a low/average BMAT, but excellent GCSEs and Personal Statement, you should have a solid chance to get invited to an interview at Leeds.

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📤 When does Leeds send out interview invitations?

Interview invitations at Leeds are usually sent out on a rolling basis from early December until early February.

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

🇬🇧 Home Students: For 2022 entry, 940 out of 1980 who applied were invited to a medicine interview at Leeds. That forms around 47% of all students who applied and this percentage have been similar to previous years.

2023 Interviews at Leeds Medical School:
🗓️ Leeds Medicine Interview dates (2023):

The first interviews at Leeds begin in December and continue until the beginning of February.

💬 What’s the interview format at Leeds?

For 2022 entry, as well as in previous years when interviews were conducted in-person, MMI interviews were done at Leeds. The exact format, including the number of stations and their content, varied in the past years, as a consequence of the pandemic’s disruptions.

In past years, the MMI tended to last 50-70 minutes and was comprised of 7-8 stations, each held by a separate interviewer and involving several questions. Students were always given 1-2 minutes to familiarise themselves with the main question/topic before the station started. The beginning and end of the station were signalled by a ringing bell when interviews were conducted in person (so prepare yourself mentally for a possible rough, sudden interruption!)

Make sure to visit Leeds University's official website for the latest information. You should also get more details on the format of the interview alongside the interview invitation.

💡 How To Prepare for Medicine Interviews at Leeds?

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:

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

🇬🇧 Home Students: For 2022 entry, after 940 interviews, 300 UK students received offers to study medicine at Leeds (32%). This proportion was similar in previous years.

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

• plan your journey - if you are invited for an in-person interview and have to travel from far away, make sure to arrive in Leeds a day or two in advance so that you can be fresh and rested during the interview
• prepare a formal outfit in advance - check how you feel in it, how well it suits you
• find and bring your ID
• review your personal statement (you may be asked questions about specific achievements, interests or work experience)
• increase your confidence and interview knowledge by preparing using Medfully (use code BLOG5 for 5% off!)

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

Interviewers at Leeds aim to inform all students about the outcome of their interview, after all, interviews are completed, which falls usually around the end of February/beginning of March.

🧠 Leeds Medicine Interview Questions:

Motivations to study medicine:

• Why would you like to study medicine?
• Is there a particular person, book or event, which has inspired you to pursue a career in the medical field?
• How do the responsibilities of a surgeon and a GP differ?

Personality:

• What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
• What would you do in life if you had unlimited time and money?
• How would your friends describe you?

The NHS & Hot Topics:

• Currently, around 9.6% of the UK’s GDP goes to funding the NHS. Should the UK spend a larger percentage of the GDP on healthcare?
• What has been the most memorable thing about your work experience?
• What are some factors contributing to the staffing crisis in the NHS?
• What do you understand by the term “universal healthcare”?

Leeds Medical School:

• Why would you like to study at Leeds Medical School?
• What are some challenges that medical students at Leeds face?
• How will you be able to contribute to our community at Leeds?

Medical Ethics:

• When can doctors breach confidentiality, if ever? Can you give a specific example of such a scenario?
• 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?
• 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?

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 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.

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

✅ Leeds Medical School Interviews: 4 Tips

Use The Reading Time Efficiently

Like in most MMIs, at Leeds you’ll be given 1-2 minutes of reading/thinking time before the question starts. Don’t waste this time by stressing over the station or looking at the ceiling.

Instead, use this time efficiently to read the question 2 times to ensure you understand it and think about the structure of your answer, as well as the arguments you can use. Think of this exercise as drafting an answer in bullet points.

Know Why You’d Like To Study at Leeds

Leeds, by itself, is a fantastic city and the University of Leeds, a member of the prestigious Russell Group, has one of the top medical schools in the UK. These are really compelling reasons to study there but are not unique and sufficient for an MMI at a competitive place like Leeds.

Since you might be asked about your motivations to study medicine at Leeds, make sure to do some digging; ask current medical students at Leeds about their experiences, go on forums like TSR or Reddit, research the curriculum, and learn about the research facilities etc.

Practise With Strict Timing

Although you should have ample time for an answer at Leeds MMIs, the bell system makes the timing at Leeds interviews strict; if the bell rings in the middle of your answer you won’t have a chance to finish it.

Therefore, when practising for your medicine interview at Leeds, make sure you work on the conciseness of your answers (don’t waffle too much, have a clear structure to your answer, cover 2-4 points per question). Measure how much time each question takes you to answer and work on those that take you too long.

Read Up On Medical Ethics

Medical Ethics is a common topic that comes up on MMIs. Make sure you understand all the basic terms related to ethics and can use them to analyse a clinical scenario involving medical ethics.

We’ve carefully collected all the ethics knowledge you need for your interviews in our interactive interview knowledge bank. A great source of knowledge, which will also aid you when answering ethics questions, are the GMC’s Good Medical Practice guidelines, which describe all the do’s and don’t’s for medical professionals.