FOI_26-187 MB BS Medicine Interview scoring
Date of response: 10 September 2026
We have now considered your request of 20 August 2026 for the following information:
I am writing to make a request under the Freedom of Information Act regarding the interview processes used for undergraduate-entry Medicine admissions at your university.
Please provide the information below for:
• Undergraduate Medicine (MBBS, MBChB or equivalent undergraduate medical degree).
I am enquiring about the previous application cycle, for 2026 entry. If the requested information for 2026 entry is not yet available, please provide the equivalent information for 2025 entry instead.
For the purposes of this request, I am primarily interested in how the undergraduate interview itself is designed, organised, conducted and assessed. I am not requesting information about how applicants are selected for interview.
Except for the specific information requested in Section 6 regarding interview score thresholds for offers, I am also not requesting information about how interview performance is subsequently combined with other elements of an application when making offers.
1. Interview format and structure
Please provide:
1. The type of interview used, for example:
• Multiple Mini Interview (MMI);
• panel interview;
• structured/semi-structured interview;
• group interview; or
• another format.
Our response:
Multiple Mini Interview (MMI).
2. Whether interviews are:
• in person;
• online;
• hybrid; or
• offered in more than one format.
Our response:
In person.
3. The total expected duration of the interview process for an individual candidate.
Our response:
45 minutes.
4. The number of interview stations, panels or separate interview components completed by each candidate.
Our response:
6 Stations.
1 Situational Judgement Test.
5. Whether all candidates complete the same number and type of stations/components.
Our response:
Yes.
6. The duration of each station/component.
Our response:
5 minutes for each station.
7. Any preparation or reading time provided immediately before each station/component.
Our response:
1 minute 30 seconds.
8. Any transition time between stations.
Our response:
No set time, but time allowance between stations will be ss practical as possible.
9. Whether candidates receive scheduled breaks during the interview circuit and, if so, their length and placement.
Our response:
No.
10. Whether there are rest stations that are not assessed.
Our response:
No.
11. Whether interviews are conducted individually or whether any station/component involves multiple applicants simultaneously.
Our response:
Stations are conducted individually.
12. Whether any component is written, computer-based, practical or otherwise conducted without a conventional interviewer-candidate conversation.
Our response:
No.
Section 2. Interview stations and content
For each station or interview component, please provide, where held:
1. The station/component title, category, theme or broad subject area.
Our response:
We don’t disclose the questions, but each question is written based on the Medical Schools Council (MSC) statement on the core value and attributes needed to study medicine.
2. The competency, attribute, skill or domain it is designed to assess.
Our response:
Please see above (MSC) statement.
3. Whether the station is:
• question-and-answer;
• scenario-based;
• role-play;
• discussion;
• task-based;
• data/image/text interpretation;
• calculation/problem-solving;
• presentation;
• group-based; or
• another format.
Our response:
It excludes Group based and presentation.
4. Whether candidates receive written, verbal, visual or electronic instructions.
Our response:
Visual and written instructions.
5. The approximate amount of information provided to candidates before beginning a station.
Our response:
One minute 30 seconds.
6. Whether candidates may make notes during preparation time.
Our response:
No.
7. Whether candidates may retain or use those notes during the station.
Our response:
No.
8. Whether candidates are permitted or expected to ask clarifying questions.
Our response:
Yes.
9. Whether interviewers use:
• a fixed script;
• standardised questions;
• predetermined prompts;
• follow-up questions; and/or
• discretionary/probing questions.
Our response:
A mixture of all of the above.
10. Whether the same questions/scenarios are used for all candidates within an admissions cycle or whether multiple versions are used.
Our response:
The overall questions are the same, but multiple versions are rotated during the cycle.
11. Any interview blueprint, station map or equivalent document showing the domains assessed across the interview.
I appreciate that disclosure of live interview questions may compromise the integrity of the admissions process. I am therefore not requesting disclosure of confidential questions that are intended to be reused and whose disclosure would prejudice future interviews.
However, where held and disclosable, please provide:
• sample questions;
• publicly releasable examples;
• retired questions/stations;
• generic station formats; and
• descriptions of the competencies or domains assessed.
Our response:
We don’t disclose the questions but each question is written based on the Medical Schools Council (MSC) statement on the core value and attributes needed to study medicine.
Section 3. Interviewers and assessors
Please provide:
1. The number of interviewers/assessors normally present at each station/component.
Our response:
One interviewer per station.
2. The categories of people who may act as interviewers, for example:
• academic staff;
• clinicians;
• practising doctors;
• other healthcare professionals;
• admissions staff;
• university professional-services staff;
• medical students;
• patients;
• members of the public; and
• external assessors.
Our response:
academic staff;
clinicians;
practising doctors;
other healthcare professionals;
3. Whether interviewers know any information about the applicant before or during the interview.
Our response:
No, interviewers are not provided any information about the applicants before, during or after interviews.
4. If so, exactly what applicant information is available to the interviewer.
Our response:
Not applicable.
5. In particular, whether interviewers can see any of the following:
• candidate name;
• photograph;
• UCAS application;
• personal statement;
• academic results;
• admissions test results;
• contextual information;
• previous interview scores; or
• any other applicant information.
Our response:
Candidate Name.
Section 4. Interview scoring and assessment
I am interested in how performance during the undergraduate interview itself is assessed.
Please provide:
1. The scoring scale used for each station/component.
Our response:
Each station = 12 points.
2. The maximum and minimum possible score for:
• each station;
• each component; and
• the interview overall.
Our response:
Minimum = 0
Maximum = 12
3. Whether scoring is:
• numerical;
• categorical;
• global;
• competency/domain based;
• checklist based; or
• another method.
Our response:
Numerical.
4. Copies of any scoring rubric, marking criteria, assessor score sheet or rating descriptors used.
Our response:
We do not have a separate scoring rubric or marking criteria separate to the interview question sheets.
5. Whether individual questions within a station receive separate marks.
Our response:
No.
6. Whether interviewers give:
• one overall station score;
• multiple domain scores;
• individual question scores; and/or
• global judgement scores.
Our response:
Multiple domain scores.
7. Whether different stations/components carry different weights within the overall interview score and, if so, the weighting of each.
Our response:
No.
8. Whether any stations are unscored.
Our response:
No.
9. Whether there are minimum performance requirements for individual stations or domains within the interview.
Our response:
No.
10. Whether any station/component is assessed on a pass/fail basis.
Our response:
No.
11. Whether any particular rating, score or behaviour results in an automatic interview-level fail, concern or flag irrespective of the candidate's overall numerical interview score.
Our response:
No.
12. Whether assessors can record professionalism, fitness-to-practise, safeguarding or similar concerns separately from the normal station score.
Our response:
No
13. Whether assessors are required to record written comments or justification for scores.
Our response:
Only where there is a very low score.
Section 5. Interviewer materials
Please provide copies of any interviewer/assessor materials that can be disclosed which explain how the undergraduate Medicine interview is to be conducted or assessed, including, where held:
• interviewer manuals;
• interviewer handbooks;
• assessor guidance;
• station instructions;
• scoring guidance;
• marking criteria;
• rating descriptors;
• examples of different levels of candidate performance; and
• other documents explaining how interviewers should conduct or score an interview.
Our response:
No – not for public admissions interview policy.
Section 6. Interview score required for an offer
For the 2026 entry application cycle, please provide the interview score required for a candidate to be selected for an offer for undergraduate Medicine.
If this information is not yet available for 2026 entry, please provide the equivalent information for 2025 entry.
Please provide this information separately for every applicant category, pathway or group for which the university applies or records a different interview threshold or offer-selection process.
For each group, please provide:
1. The minimum interview score/cut-off required to be selected for an offer.
Our response:
There is no threshold.
2. The maximum possible interview score against which that threshold was measured.
Our response:
There is no threshold. The maximum score is 84.
3. Where the university did not operate a predetermined fixed interview cut-off, please instead provide:
• the lowest interview score achieved by an applicant in that group who was selected for an offer; and
Our response:
Lowest interview score – 42
• an explanation that no predetermined fixed threshold was used.
Our response:
Applicants are ranked after interview alongside their UCAT score – see our web page for further information: https://www.uea.ac.uk/course/undergraduate/mbbs-medicine
4. Where applicants with the same interview score could have different offer outcomes, please state:
Our response:
UCAT score.
• the interview score at which this occurred;
• and what additional criterion or tie-break mechanism was used to distinguish between those applicants.
Our response:
UCAT score is the only overall ranking we only ever offer to all if applicant are of the same rank.
5. If there were multiple offer rounds and the interview score required for an offer changed between rounds, please provide the relevant score for each round.
Our response:
Not applicable.
6. If different interview score thresholds applied to different applicant groups, please identify how the university defines each group.
Our response:
Home and Overseas applicants are in separate interviews pools, but assessed the same.
7. If interview performance is not represented by a single overall numerical score, please provide the equivalent minimum interview performance requirement used when selecting candidates for offers, including any required:
• station scores;
• domain scores;
• pass/fail requirements;
• minimum number of stations passed; or
• other interview-level criteria.
Our response:
We use ranking with UCAT. Please see our MBBS Medicine webpage for further information on entry requirements and scoring :MBBS Medicine 2026/27 | Undergraduate Degree | UEA