MMI Interview: The Ultimate Guide (150 Sample Questions Included)
/Learn the different types of MMI interview questions and how to answer them. Plus, 150 MMI interview questions and the complete list of medical schools that use MMI.
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Part 1: Introduction to MMI interviews
Medical school admissions is unlike any other admissions process in the world. Between the rigorous medical school requirements you have to complete before even applying and the countless essays you’ll write (e.g., personal statement, secondary essays), you’ll likely be exhausted by the time you finally hit send on your last applications.
But come fall or winter of your application year, it’s time to re-energize for interview season.
Medical school interviews come in a few different forms. You might have “traditional” interviews, where you’ll be asked about your professional and academic background, your strengths and weaknesses, why you want to go into medicine, etc.
You might also be subject to the multiple mini-interview, or MMI, which many medical schools are increasingly adopting as an alternative to the traditional one-on-one interview. Many applicants find the prospect of MMI interviews frightening—perhaps you’ve heard they involve role-play, pretending to be a real live doctor, working with actors, and solving complex biomedical questions on the spot.
But the MMI is actually beneficial for you as an applicant. MMI interviews allow schools to get a more holistic understanding of how you think. They can reveal your thought process, teamwork ability, and character traits—strengths and weaknesses alike.
In this guide, we’ll explain what the MMI is, what types of MMI interview questions you might run into, and how to succeed in different scenarios. We’ll review common pitfalls and discuss how you should approach MMI interview prep. By taking the time to understand and practice the skills covered in this guide, you’ll be well prepared to ace your MMIs.
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Part 2: What is the MMI?
The MMI, or multiple mini-interview, consists of a series of short interview stations that are independent of one another. Together, the 6–10 stations assess your capabilities in the following areas:
Teamwork
Communication
Self-awareness
Maturity
Empathy
Critical thinking
Crucially, you should think of the MMI interview as a way of assessing your thought processes and situational aptitude rather than content knowledge. In other words, you will not be asked to diagnose a patient based on symptoms or solve a medical mystery.
Different medical schools offer different numbers of stations and the questions they ask vary. You might find as few as 6 or as many as 10 stations. In general, you can count on most of the following information to be consistent across schools.
We’ll go in-depth into the nature of each type of station later on, but here’s a high-level summary to get you started. Each MMI station generally involves a chance to prepare for two minutes by reading the question/scenario. Once you enter the room where the station takes place, you’ll have eight minutes to provide your answer to the question or scenario to an interviewer/evaluator.
Some schools offer a break station where you will have ten minutes to relax in between interview stations. The entire process typically takes around two hours, but may take less time depending on how many stations there are.
(COVID-19 note: Many MMIs will be conducted in the format of an asynchronous video interview (AVI). This simply means you and your interviewer need not do the interview live. For instance, you might be asked to record your answers to predetermined questions.)
Why do schools use MMI?
Before you learn how to prepare for MMI interviews, you should understand why the MMI has come about, and why it’s increasingly popular. Many schools, such as Duke School of Medicine, UCSD School of Medicine, and University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, have transitioned to MMI-only interview formats or a hybrid format with both MMI and traditional, one-on-one interviews.
There are a few reasons for this shift:
MMIs involve more than one interviewer. Schools want to see how multiple people interact with you, rather than basing their decision on the subjective opinion of just one interviewer.
MMI interviews are more standardized, with rubrics for evaluation, which limits the subjective factors that may influence an admission decision, such as chemistry with the interviewer.
MMIs offer an indication of how you behave rather than just inviting you to share your backstory. Medical schools hope that MMI interviews will let them better assess your teamwork and communication skills, maturity, empathy, situational responses, and overall thought process.
The shift can come with some drawbacks. You may feel more stressed about the MMI process because you need to impress many different evaluators in a day. You may also feel uncomfortable because MMI interviews are fast-paced or because they feel more like a test than a traditional interview setting where you can have a conversation with an evaluator.
If you’re concerned, try to think about the MMI format in this way: it works to your advantage to have many people working together to get a better picture of who you are as an applicant. Your admissions decision doesn’t rest on the subjective opinion of just one or two interviewers. If you underperform in one of two traditional interviews or simply don’t click with one of the interviewers, you might find yourself out of luck. But an MMI allows you more chances to impress.
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Part 3: Types of MMI questions—and how to answer each type
MMI questions can be broken down into three main categories:
Ethical scenarios (with or without acting)
Character development (with or without acting)
Teamwork
We’ll discuss how to succeed at each of these stations.
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Type 1: MMI ethical scenario questions
Ethnical scenario questions—often the most stressful for applicants—are designed to test how you respond to a high-pressure and morally challenging situation. They’re not aimed to check whether or not your personal ethical compass is pointing true north. Rather, they’re meant to see how you process a difficult situation. Interviewers will ask themselves questions like:
Do you display care and deliberation?
What questions do you ask?
How calm do you remain?
Do you get flustered?
Do you have a process for facing down challenges?
You might be asked about scenarios that you’ll encounter in the future as a physician—a patient in a persistent vegetative state, for instance. But not every question has to do with healthcare. You could also be asked about scenarios that involve your role as a citizen or in personal relationships.
The University of Washington Department of Bioethics and Humanities runs an ethics in medicine website that's a valuable resource for gaining exposure to these varied issues. With topics like confidentiality and dealing with diverse beliefs, it can help you bolster your knowledge of potential ethical scenario questions for the MMI.
It is impossible to prepare for every potential question that you could run into during your interview, but you can follow a step-by-step process to ensure you have a strong framework for evaluating any situation an MMI might throw at you.
How to answer an MMI ethical scenario question
Here’s our suggested process:
Step 1: Brainstorm. You’ll have two minutes outside the interview room to consider what the prompt is trying to test you on.
We’ll go through many practice scenarios below, but here’s one we’ll follow as we explain the brainstorming process:
You are a physician who has been taking care of a 45-year-old Native American man who has three teenage children. He has been on dialysis for five years and is now in dire need of a kidney transplant. Fortunately, he is now near the top of the list and is called into the hospital for tests. He then decides to go home to partake in a healing ceremony, a tradition that is very important to him and his family, after hearing this great news; however, after he has left you receive word that a kidney has become available. What do you do?
Here’s how to think through the scenario during your brainstorming time:
Identify the key factors that you need to think about in order to answer the question. Some prompts may be filled with extraneous information that is unnecessary to your answer or understanding of the scenario. You must be able to focus on what is most important in these situations. In the case above, the most important factors are:
The kidney transplant is ready to go immediately.
The patient has already left to partake in a healing ceremony.
The information that he is a long-term patient of yours, has three children, and was just at the hospital are unimportant to your understanding of the scenario.
Define the primary problem. There may be secondary or tertiary problems in a given prompt, but your answer must address the primary issue at hand. Most primary problems are complex enough to take up the full eight minutes in order to properly address; however, if you have time, you can choose to discuss the other issues, but it is unnecessary to do so.
In the case above, you could easily get stuck on the following issues:
Who cleared the man to go attend a healing ceremony?
Is it OK for him to not be monitored before his kidney transplant?
Does the healing ceremony entail anything that might hurt his chances of a successful kidney transplant or increase his probability for organ rejection?
Although all of these questions are important, the primary problem of this scenario can be determined by using the key factors discussed above. The primary problem boils down to this: What do you do if you tell your patient that a kidney is ready for immediate transplant but he refuses because he hasn’t participated in his healing ceremony yet?
Some follow-up thoughts that you may want to address after answering the primary question/follow-up questions that may be asked by your evaluator include:
Is his health more important than his culture and autonomy?
What if he decides to get the transplant but the rest of his family is opposed because he hasn’t had the healing ceremony yet?
Step 2: In the MMI. Once you’ve gotten inside the interview room, you can begin the actual process of playing out the scenario.
Collect information. Now it’s time to either begin asking the actor in front of you questions, or, in the case of a non-acting scenario in which you cannot interact with an individual to gather more data, to make educated assumptions aloud. In the latter case, you will most likely have to include both sides of the situation, ultimately giving two different answers. In the example above, you might say:
If I told the patient that a kidney was ready for immediate transplant and he refused, I would ask why? It is important to note that this is nonjudgmental and will just help me understand his thought process. After hearing his answer, I would do my best to educate him on why I believe he needs to come back to the hospital and get the transplant immediately. If he still refuses, I would then confirm that he understood everything that I said, so I know that he is making a well-educated decision on this important choice that he is making…
(This is just a short excerpt of what your answer should look like. We’ll provide full-length answers later.)
Make a decision. At the end of the day, you must make a decision as the “doctor.” Ambivalence will not do. The decision you make should fall between two different potential extremes, or in the grey zone when black and white answers are possibilities.
We will now jump into two full-length examples of how to apply this step-by-step process in answering practice questions, one acting and one non-acting.
MMI ethical scenario: acting example
Note that actors will have different demeanors depending on how a given school directs them to behave. Some actors might be rude or non-cooperative patients, whereas others will be pleasant and easy. Prepare yourself for both situations.
Here’s the prompt:
You are a pediatrician working in a small-sized community at a county hospital. Your second patient of the day is a 14-year-old girl whom you have taken care of since she was a young child. You know her parents very well. During her physical exam, her dad leaves the room. As you finish the exam and are about to call her father back in, she asks you for birth control pills. She requests that you do not tell her parents. What do you do?
Step 1: Identify key factors.
Key factors in this scenario include:
A physician must have the patient’s best interest in mind
A physician must respect the patient’s autonomy
The importance of the patient’s age
The first two should be considered in every situation. As a physician, your focus should always be on how to best take care of your patient while respecting their autonomy. But for this case, that first principle is complicated by age. If the patient was 18 or older, she would be considered an adult and able to make her own medical decisions without a parent’s consent.
So how will you navigate the balance between the patient’s autonomy and her age?
Step 2: Define the problem.
Here’s our primary question: Do I give a minor birth control pills without parental consent?
Below, we have italicized the parts of the prompt that are important; you should be doing this mentally for every prompt that you see before you enter the room and begin interacting with the actress.
You are a physician working in a small-sized community at a county hospital. Your second patient of the day is a 14-year-old girl who you have taken care of since she was a young child, and you know her parents very well. During her physical exam, her dad leaves the room. As you finish up the exam and are about to call her father back in, she asks you for birth control pills. Additionally, she requests that you do not tell her parents. What do you do?
After identifying the key factors in the question, the prompt is reduced to the following: You are a pediatrician, a 14-year-old girl asks you for birth control pills. She requests that you do not tell her parents. What do you do?
Step 3: Collect information.
Now that you’ve identified the key factors and defined the problem, it’s time to collect additional information pertaining to this specific situation
Because you’re in an acting scenario, you can ask questions. In fact, you should not make assumptions about the patient. Avoid sounding judgmental. Your goal is to find out more information while being supportive.
Here are some good questions to ask:
What do you know about safe sex?
Are you, or have you been, sexually active?
If she has been or currently is: Have you or are you practicing safe sex?
What do you know about the birth control pill?
Do you know about the side effects of the birth control pill?
Why do you want to have birth control pill?
Do you plan on using protection or only birth control?
Why don’t you want your parents to know? (Ask this last: You want to gain trust and understanding about the patient before jumping to the patient’s family life.)
Step 4: Make a decision.
Now that you have data, let’s go over how you’re going to make your decision now. Remember, your answer should fall between two extreme possibilities:
Extreme option 1: Don’t give her the birth control pills. However, this would bring up the following issues:
No respect for patient autonomy.
You would blatantly be rejecting her request, which may cause further issues and points to a lack of trust.
Extreme option 2: Give her the pills without asking questions or wanting to know why she requests them. This would present issues such as:
What is best for the patient isn’t always what the patient wants. In this case, even if you give her the pills, prescribing birth control without proper education shows a severe lack of responsibility. Even if birth control pills are taken correctly, they do not block 100% of all pregnancies.
The pills do nothing to protect against STIs.
Answer: Give her the pills after asking questions, making sure she understands what they are used for, how to use them, what safe sex looks like, and so forth. This option respects the patient’s autonomy while looking out for the patient’s best interest.
The word-for-word answer you give will differ depending on the level of knowledge the patient currently has (such as if she knows what birth control does, what safe sex is, if she will decide to use protection, etc.). You may also want to give her time to think about her decision if you find that she is uncertain after being informed of the information that you’ve told her.
What makes this an effective response: By discussing what the pills are used for, how they are used, and safe sex practices, the physician demonstrated that the patient’s best interests are the top priority. Though she is a minor, the patient still has a right to bodily autonomy and this response shows respect for that. Furthermore, by engaging with the patient under these circumstances, the physician has shown themself to be someone the patient can trust, which will be important as other issues may arise.
It shouldn't take very long to state your decision! Be clear and concise and explain your thought process.
MMI ethical scenario: non-acting example
Prompt:
A 20-year-old patient with Down syndrome has become pregnant. The patient does not want an abortion, but her mother and father want the patient to have an abortion. What should you do as the physician taking care of this patient?
This question is on the more difficult end of the spectrum, but the same concepts used in the first example can be applied here as well. Let’s walk through the step-by-step process once again and see how to answer this question correctly.
Step 1: Identify key factors.
A physician must have the patient’s best interest in mind
A physicians must respect their patient’s autonomy
The importance of the patient’s competency
The biggest factor here is the competency of the patient because they have Down syndrome.
Step 2: Define the problem.
This is the question: Do I side with the patient and allow her to keep the baby or do I side with the parents and allow an abortion?
The case would be quite simple for a patient without Down syndrome. Given that the patient is 20 years old, she should be able to make her own medical decisions without a parent’s consent.
However, in this scenario, your main objective should be to determine if the patient is competent or not. (Note that being legally dependent is not the same as being deemed competent to make medical decisions.) This will determine if you will side with the patient or the parents. This prompt is short and to the point, so you do not have to worry about any extraneous information.
Step 3: Collect information.
For non-acting scenarios, you will have to discuss your entire thought process because you will not be able to ask questions to narrow down the specifics of the situation. You’ll be sitting across from an interviewer with no other individuals to interact with in the room.
We recommend talking through both sides of the situation in your answer. Below is an example script for doing so.
I would first start off by talking to the patient and asking why she would want to keep the baby. Depending on her answer, I would then follow-up by asking her if she understands what it means for her if she were to keep the child.
Does she understand what it means to be pregnant and what truly becoming a mother entails? Is she fantasizing about the idea of potentially being a mom and having a baby without understanding the responsibilities? Or does she understand how difficult the transition may be—physically, mentally, and lifestyle-wise?
Ultimately, her answers will help me determine if she is truly competent and understands the situation, or if she is deemed incompetent to make her own medical decision. This is really important to understand because Down syndrome is on a spectrum-scale, and everyone is unique.
I would then ask the parents questions after talking to their daughter alone. I would start by asking them to tell me about their daughter: What does her day-to-day life look like? Do they believe she is competent enough to make her own decision? Does their daughter really understand what is going on? The answers to these questions will further provide me a more well-rounded understanding of the patient’s Down syndrome.
I would then move on to ask why they don’t want their daughter to continue with the pregnancy. Chances are, the parents will restate that the patient isn’t competent or independent enough to take care of the child on her own. They might say that they would end up taking care of the newborn and that they no longer have the energy or maybe even the money to support an extra mouth with their current financial situation.
Or maybe they are worried that a pregnancy for a Down syndrome individual would be dangerous to their daughter’s life. It is important to understand that there could be a large variety of answers that are given to these questions and as a physician, I need to be able to listen to their concerns.
Finally, I would ask them why they believe their daughter wants to keep the child if we hadn’t yet covered this.
After talking to the parents separately, I would then go back to the child and ask if she grasped why her parents were against keeping the child. Then, with all the questions and responses I’ve gained, I would be able to determine if the patient is competent or not. My decision would be based on the competence of the patient.
There are, of course, always many other factors to consider in the real world, such as malpractice suits and the logistics of delivering care. But know that in the MMI scenario, you’re looking to genuinely determine the human aspects of the case.
Is the patient competent or not competent in this case? That’s what you need to focus on.
Step 4: Make a decision.
Now that you’ve covered your bases on both sides of the situation, it’s time to make your decision. Again, this will come at the end of your data collection process and shouldn’t take long to state.
Similar to acting scenarios, the answer will fall in between two extremes. However, unlike the acting scenario, most non-acting scenarios will have two answers between the two extremes, given that there are two sides that could be “right” in a situation. Let’s take a look at the options:
Extreme option 1: Siding only with the parents with little to no reason. However, this would show a lack of respect for patient autonomy. You would blatantly be rejecting the patient’s request in order to avoid conflict with her parents.
Extreme option 2: Siding only with the patient with little to no reason. The problem with this answer is that you wouldn’t be looking out for the patient’s best interest or safety. If she were deemed not competent to make her own medical decisions, allowing her to follow her wishes would be detrimental to her health and that of the infant. Again: what the patient wants is not always best for them.
Answer: Make your decision based on the patient’s competence. If you deem the patient competent, side with them. If you deem the patient not competent to make her own medical decisions, side with the parent.
Here’s another sample script:
Based on the discussion that I’ve had with the patient and parents, if I deemed the patient competent, I would advise keeping the baby. My role as a physician is to provide the best care to the patient and respect her autonomy. If she is a competent adult, the patient’s wishes take priority of her parent’s in this case.
However, if I were to deem the patient not competent enough to make her own medical decisions, I would side with the parents and allow for an abortion. In this case, the patient cannot truly understand the situation and having the baby would not be in her best interest.
What makes this an effective response: In this situation, the respondent was not provided an actor to work with, so they had to think out loud to emphasize a clear understanding of the biggest issue at hand: patient competency. This stream of consciousness highlights the interactions that would take place with both the parents and the patient, and it shows an awareness of their conflicting desires while keeping any judgmental thoughts out of the picture. Additionally, it addresses the patient’s unique circumstance by acknowledging that not all patients with Down syndrome are the same and it specifies the considerations in this particular case.
Note that interviewers will continue asking you questions until time runs out—they’ll fill the full eight minutes. If you finish the primary question early, they will ask follow-up questions—rebuttals are meant to put you on edge.
As long as you have covered both sides of the story and relied on logic, be confident and collected! Take a moment to think, smile, and answer the questions presented to you. For the second example, a follow up could be: “If you allow the patient to keep the baby, how would you handle the parent’s reactions? What if they are mad? What would you do in this situation?”
Remember: the questions aren’t implying that you’re wrong. The interviewer is just trying to find out more about how you would react in a difficult situation. Plus, your ability to maintain composure in the stress of an interview speaks about your ability to be professional and confident.
We’ve given you a highly organized script above, but your response will likely be more fluid in real life. The lines between the third and fourth step may blur—that’s fine!
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Type 2: MMI character development questions
How to answer MMI character development questions: non-acting
You’ll likely be familiar with questions like these from traditional one-on-one interviews, but they’ll feel different when delivered in an MMI context. You will still be given two minutes outside the room to prepare and eight minutes inside the room with an interviewer. But you may be able to relax a bit more in these rooms because these types of questions tend to come from the standard interview book.
Be prepared to answer questions like, “What is your greatest weakness?” and “Tell me about a time when you made a mistake.”
It is expected and crucial that you draw from your past experiences to answer these questions. Admission committees don’t want to see generic answers to these personal questions. So prepare some personal anecdotes to illustrate your character traits rather than speaking in the abstract.
Let’s go into more detail on the two common questions above.
“What is your greatest weakness?”
Questions about weaknesses are always difficult to answer. Do I tell them I have a weakness? Do I turn a weakness into a strength? Do I make up a weakness?
Always admit that you have a weakness. Admissions committees don’t want individuals who are too proud or scared to admit their flaws.
Always discuss a legitimate weakness. Never give a made-up or almost nonexistent weakness that doesn’t affect you as a human being. You’re not just “too hard-working” or “too nice.”
At the same time, never offer a weakness that may automatically dismiss you, i.e. “I crack under pressure.”
Always talk about how you are working on your weakness. This last step is crucial. It’s great that you know your weaknesses, but have you done anything about it? This part shows the admission committee that you are motivated to improve yourself.
Some schools will not allow you to state your weakness but will ask you to choose from a list in the room. You might encounter a paper with many “negative” words (for example: pessimistic, stubborn, greedy, forgetful, impatient, selfish, nervous, oversensitive, resentful, temperamental) and you’ll be asked to circle a few that describe you. You might also encounter a paper with many “positive” words (positive, honest, loyal, respectful, empathetic, responsible, humble, forgiving, kind, optimistic) and you’ll be asked to circle a few that least describe you.
If you have extra time or if something you said doesn’t make sense to the interviewer, you may be allowed to follow up. You should explain:
Why you circled a particular word
How it appears in your life
How you have tried to fix it
How you will continue to grow past this weakness.
If you happen to find your pre-planned weakness on a list, great! If not, don’t freak out. The same principles apply!
Here’s an example that answers this character development question:
“Pessimistic” immediately stood out to me when I saw the paper. In the past, I’ve struggled with things like assuming the worst outcome would happen or automatically assigning negative intentions to other people’s actions, which has resulted in misunderstandings that, in retrospect, could have been avoided. Another symptom of my pessimism is that I’ve sometimes felt hesitant to enter new situations because I’ve baselessly assumed I wouldn’t enjoy them, like when I kept declining my roommate’s invitation to go rock climbing because I assumed it would be boring. Fast-forward six months to when she practically strong-armed me into going—it turns out I love rock climbing, and now I can’t imagine not hitting the climbing gym at least once a week. Little situations like this gradually made me wonder what else I had been missing out on and led me to actively work on not jumping to conclusions. Now when I feel a pessimistic thought rising in me, I remind myself to keep an open mind and to remember that things usually turn out better than I think they will. Something that’s really helped me is keeping an “optimism journal” in which I write down pros and cons for situations I’m feeling negatively about. For every con I can think of, I force myself to also write down a pro, which has helped me keep a more balanced perspective. I admit that pessimism can still challenge me on occasion, but I’ve found that consciously trying to adjust my thought patterns has opened my life to opportunities that I might have otherwise missed and more trusting, empathetic relationships.
“Tell me about a time when you made a mistake.”
You’ll approach this question with a similar method as the “weakness” prompt. But in this case, you need to pick a story that accurately conveys a weakness—one you’ve worked to improve since!
“What is your greatness weakness?” asks you to name your trait first. “Tell me about a time when you a made a mistake,” on the flip side, requires you to tell a story to demonstrate a weakness. They both get the interviewer similar information, but you must follow inverse structures in responding.
In this case, keep the scenario as simple as possible. Excessive details can clutter and confuse the evaluator. The purpose of your story is not to tell an intricate narrative. Your story should be a platform that you use to explain a mistake, show how you dealt with the mistake, what you learned, and how you’ve grown since.
Here’s a process—it’s very similar to the response we’ve suggested for “What is your greatest weakness?”
Always offer a story that can be linked to a character trait. The story is meant to show something intrinsic about you, not just to demonstrate a random fumble.
Always give a true story that accurately portrays a genuine mistake.
Always talk about the consequences of your mistake. It helps ground the story and will allow you to better discuss the ways in which you’ve grown since.
Never provide a story that would automatically dismiss you as a candidate.
Never make excuses for your mistake/behavior.
Always talk about what you learned, what you did to fix the problem, how you have changed, and are continuously working to make yourself better
Here’s a sample response that works:
Sophomore year, I decided to get involved with my university’s student-run environmentalism center. I’ve been interested in environmentalism and sustainability since I was in high school, and after I learned about the work that the organization was doing, I was inspired to join. After a couple of months, I was asked if I could help lead a campus educational campaign about reducing water use. Long story short: due to stress from my course load that semester and the fact that organization has never been my strong suit, I accidentally wrote down the wrong date for a crucial grant deadline with our student affairs office. This resulted in the environmentalism center not receiving the funding it needed to create materials for the campaign. I felt awful and embarrassed—it was my first big project with the center, and on top of that, reducing water use was an issue I felt passionately about, having grown up in a desert environment. After I realized that there was no way we’d be able to pull off the campaign we’d initially imagined, I quickly switched gears and moved the campaign online exclusively, so that the cost of overhead would be much lower. The project actually turned out better than I’d imagined, and I’m proud of the way our members came together to execute a solution. That said, I learned a valuable lesson in attending to details and staying organized, which has actually improved the way I do things in both my academic and personal life. You can bet I always triple-check my dates now.
How to answer MMI character development questions: acting
These questions are not testing you on making ethical decisions; rather, they assess how you deal with difficult situations that you may run into during your time in medicine or in life outside of medicine.
You might be asked to simulate a difficult conversation with a family member or a friend, for instance. In these cases, you can follow the same general rubrics as above, taking care to respect the other person’s personal values while maintaining a basic moral standard yourself. The best way to prepare for these is to reflect on times you’ve had to make tough ethical decisions and to ensure you know what your core values are and how you weight them.
The answer to these questions will give insight into how you have acted or will act in the future in these situations. As long as you are empathetic and respectful, these questions should answer themselves. Again, these questions should be easier than the other two types of questions in this category because you’ve probably faced similar situations before in your life.
MMI character development: acting example
Prompt:
You have promised your best friend that you would attend their wedding; however, the day before the wedding, your dad has a stroke and is hospitalized. Enter the room and talk to your friend.
Like most character development acting questions, this prompt doesn’t involve reasoning through an especially difficult or thorny choice. Rather, the decision is simple or even self-evident. What’s tricky is delivering that decision in a way that conveys personal traits like compassion, respect, fairness, dependability, and so on.
Before you enter the room, you need to choose whether you’ll attend the wedding or skip it to be with your father. Think through each outcome. If you attend the wedding, you risk minimizing the severity of your father’s condition, which might reflect insensitivity and a lack of reliability as a family member. If you don’t attend the wedding, you risk upsetting your friend. While your friend might also feel that missing their wedding reflects unreliability, we believe that the majority of people would understand missing a wedding due to such a serious incident.
Thus, our goal in the conversation would be: convey to your friend that you won’t be able to attend the wedding, making sure to attend to the reality that they will likely be disappointed.
Here’s one way to begin the conversation:
I have some bad news. My dad had a stroke yesterday and is in the hospital. I’m really sorry to say this, but I need to go be with my dad, so I won’t be able to attend the wedding. I was so looking forward to seeing you get married and I’m incredibly sad to miss this important day, but I know you’ll have an amazing time and I can’t wait to celebrate with you another time.
You can take it from there depending on how the actor reacts, remembering to demonstrate compassion while adhering to your own standards.
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Type 3: MMI teamwork questions
Another category of questions will ask you to prove yourself in a team environment. Whether you’re working with other physicians, PAs, nurses, or other members of the clinical team, as a future physician, you will never be working alone. Once you understand that admission committees are looking for team players, these scenarios are easily demystified.
Here’s how they go. Depending on the school, you will either enter a room alone or with another applicant. You’re then responsible for completing a task—often building or assembling something—either alone or together. In the room, you might see a pre-built structure made of, for instance, Legos, K’Nex, or Jenga blocks, or a piece of paper with a design that only one person will see. The goal, in this case, might be to replicate the design, using only words.
If you’re alone in the room, your job will be to deliver instructions to your interviewer out loud. If you’re one of two people, you will probably give instructions once and receive instructions a second time so you undergo both experiences. (It’ll be with different partners; you won’t be working with the same person twice). In some cases, you might be in a room with a larger group, but following the strategy you’d follow with just one partner will work just fine then, too.
In both cases, you’ll face some constraints. You may not be able to look at your partner, or the words you can use might be limited (e.g. no colors, no shapes, etc). In total, you’ll have around six minutes to work together with the remaining two minutes used for follow-up questions by your evaluator. If there are two candidates in the room, there will be two evaluators—one for each of you.
Here’s how to succeed in both roles, that of the instructor and that of the doer or performer.
How to answer MMI teamwork questions: instructor role
The instructor must lead the performer through the simulation. As the instructor, your goal is to work with your partner—either your interviewer/evaluator, who will be acting as the performer, or a fellow applicant—to replicate the design in front of you in the given timeframe.
As the instructor, keep the following things in mind:
Put yourself in the performer’s shoes. What may seem very simple and common sense to you will be foreign and unknown to the performer. Are you being sensitive to the information imbalance between the two of you without being condescending?
Use clear instructions and speak at a slow and steady pace. Giving complex directions or even multiple directions at any given time can be overwhelming to the performer. Treat the performer as if you are teaching someone a new skill, such as tying a pair of shoelaces.
Check in with the performer. Sometimes a confused performer may not ask questions for fear of holding the team back. As the instructor, you have an obligation to make sure your partner is not lost—whether or not they admit to being lost. Try saying, “Can you please tell me what you see in front of you, so we know that we’re on the same page?” This quote shows that you care about the performer’s understanding and demonstrates your willingness to work as a team. (Using “we” instead of “I” is a good way to help with that.)
You do not have to finish the project. No one will tell you this on interview days, but you are not being tested on whether or not you complete the task. We cannot stress this enough. Many candidates rush, thinking they need to finish to get a passing score. Admissions committees do not care about completion; they’re looking for a window into your communication and teamwork skills.
How to answer MMI teamwork questions: performer role
The performer will be working with the instructor to replicate the given design. If you are in the role of the performer, the instructor will likely be a fellow candidate.
As the performer, keep the following things in mind:
Actively ask clarifying questions. Do not get comfortable being confused. If something that the instructor says gives you any doubts or concerns, immediately ask them to repeat or clarify. Do not be afraid to ask the instructor to repeat directions multiple times if they are still confusing. Remember, you are both working together to complete the project, so do not feel that you are holding the team back. Not seeking help when you’re confused is a sign that you might be a passive person, or that you don’t prepare yourself to succeed.
Check in with your partner by asking, “Can I please tell you what I see in front of me right now, so that we know that we’re on the right track?” This shows that you are taking a proactive approach to working as a team.
You do not have to finish the project! Chances are, if you’re composed and relaxed, and your partner is rushing to finish (due to stress or anxiety), they will calm down. The calm individual sets the pace. If this isn’t the case, just do your best working with your partner while doing your role. It’s probably not a good call to explicitly say, “Calm down, we don’t need to finish.” Instead, say, “Let’s calm down and work together to get through as much of this as possible” is much better.
MMI follow-up questions
After you are given six minutes to work with your respective partner, there will be a two-minute period during which your evaluator will ask you a few questions. “How did you think you and your partner did?” “Why do you think the project was incomplete or had errors?”
Here's a key trick: always speak positively about your partner’s performance and more critically about your own performance. Whatever the reason for the incompletion of the project or errors that occurred, never blame your partner and always reflect on how you could have done a better job in your respective role. Blaming your partner will result in immediately failing this station (no matter how poorly you think your partner did).
As a bonus, think about and mention how teamwork is important in your future success as a physician—no physician works alone.
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Part 4: How to prep for the MMI interview
You’ve likely prepared for traditional interviews before by asking friends, colleagues, or mentors to do mock interviews with you. You might even have a pre-medical or pre-health advising office at your college that offers interview advice or practice. (If you haven’t looked one up, do so! Even if you are an alumnus of your college, you may be able to set up a remote interview.)
But given the MMI’s unique demands, how can you prepare for it?
You can still ask advisors and friends to do mock interviews with you, especially in non-acting scenarios. And consider asking your most theatrically-minded friends to try out some of the acting scenarios. You can also learn how to make the most of the two minutes by reviewing our questions, setting a timer, and planning out your response. That will help you warm up so that you don’t get paralyzed under the time pressure on the day of your interview.
As you practice, do not memorize answers. Understanding and knowing how to apply the concepts discussed in this guide will allow your answers to be spontaneous and real.
Consider doing some basic research on current healthcare systems and how they may change. This is not officially tested in MMIs, but understanding the basics of healthcare systems will help give you context for your answers, especially in ethics-related scenarios. You should also develop an opinion on potentially controversial topics such as abortion or physician-assisted suicide.
(Note: We also encourage you to study Multiple Mini Interview (MMI): Winning Strategies from Admissions Faculty for guidance.)
About the Author
Dr. Shirag Shemmassian is the Founder of Shemmassian Academic Consulting and one of the world's foremost experts on medical school admissions. For nearly 20 years, he and his team have helped thousands of students get into medical school using his exclusive approach.
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Looking for MMI interview coaching?
In addition to the interview support we provide our students through our premium 1:1 application plans, we offer à la carte interview coaching to help you present your best self on the big day. It would be a pleasure to guide you!
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Appendix A: Sample MMI interview questions
In this section is a bank of MMI prompts that you might encounter inspired from recent interviewees, questions major universities such as the University of British Columbia have made public, and our collective experience advising students. You can use these in practice interviews to prepare for your first MMI.
MMI ethical scenario question examples
Acting
You are a third-year medical student doing your rotation in OBGYN. You notice that a fellow classmate, Michael, often shows up late or slightly hungover. One day you find him in the break room alone. You decide that you want to talk to Michael about this. Please enter the break room.
The night after college graduation, you attend a party with your best friend Julia and some other friends. Midway through the night, you see her leaving the party with a group. The next morning, Julia calls you and reveals that she drove home despite drinking that night. Enter the room and talk to Julia.
You are an emergency room physician taking care of a patient who has come in requesting painkillers for his back. After a physical examination, you find no injuries or other causes of pain. You review his medical chart and realize that he frequently comes to the hospital requesting painkillers. You politely tell the patient that you cannot provide painkillers. He tells you that he will inject himself with heroin if he does not get the painkillers. What do you do? Enter the room and proceed with the conversation.
You are a student working in a free clinic. After going through the scheduling, you notice that some appointment times are double-booked. Enter the room to talk to the receptionist about this.
You are a physician taking care of a male patient. After a complete physical exam and workup, you discover he has HIV. He tells you that he doesn’t want his girlfriend to know about this diagnosis in fear that she will leave him. Enter the room and have a discussion with the patient.
You are a family doctor taking care of a child with flu-like symptoms. Upon physical examination, you notice a pattern of bruises on the boy's torso. You being to worry that his may be a case of physical abuse. You ask the mother where the bruises came from but she speaks minimal English. When you touch the boy's chest with your stethoscope, he winces in pain from the bruises. What should you do?
You are seeing a patient with kidney failure who refuses dialysis, a life-prolonging procedure. He tells you that he is tired of this procedure and would rather die. His family members request that you dialyze him immediately. Enter the room and talk to the family members.
A 13-year-old girl is diagnosed with early stage lymphoma and has a great chance of survival due to advancements in cancer therapies. When you tell her parents about the treatment, they refuse and tell you that they are planning to travel out of the country for alternative, experimental therapies. Enter the room and talk to the parents.
A chronically ill patient has requested that she would like to have her code status changed to DNR. As she is eating dinner, she suddenly enters cardiac arrest and her daughter who is visiting requests CPR to resuscitate her mother. Enter the room.
You have a non-English speaking patient who has recently suffered a stroke and is currently not allowed to eat or drink. You hear from the nurses that there are currently family members feeding him. What do you do? Enter the room.
A man brings his elderly mother to you because he is concerned about her driving. She insists that she is fine. After examining the woman, you agree that it is no longer safe for her to drive. However, you don’t want to breach doctor-patient confidentiality by talking to her son. Enter the room and talk to the woman.
Your niece cut class to see a movie and missed an important test. She calls you asking if you can write her a doctor’s note explaining that she was absent due to illness; otherwise, she will fail the class. Enter the room and talk to your niece.
Your next-door neighbor frequently asks you for medical advice or to “have a quick look” at his ailments. While you want to be helpful to your neighbor, you are tired of working for free. You decide to address the issue the next time he asks you for advice. Enter the room and speak with your neighbor.
You’re spending time with your sister and her four-year-old daughter. Your niece is misbehaving, causing your sister to become frustrated and hit her daughter. Your sister becomes deeply upset and tells you this has never happened before. Enter the room and talk to your sister.
A pregnant patient and her husband have learned that their child will be born with Down syndrome. They have decided that they do not have the financial resources to care for a child with disabilities and want to seek out an abortion. Enter the room and talk to the couple.
A terminally ill patient calls you to say goodbye because she is planning to take a lethal dose of painkillers. Enter the room and speak to the patient.
You have a five-year-old patient with severe autism. His father plans to take him overseas to receive a stell cem treatment not offered in the U.S. Enter the room and speak to the father.
You are a medical student doing clinical rotations. One day in the hospital you walk in on a fellow student putting medical equipment in his bag. Enter the room and talk to the student.
Non-acting
Your best friend confesses to you that she hit a person a month ago while driving under the influence. She tells you that she kept driving because she was scared and feels really guilty about this incident. How would your respond?
You witness two girls hitting a homeless woman and taking items that belong to her. The victim’s nose is bleeding. You approach her after the incident. She tells you that she is fine, and that the same girls have done this before. She promises it is no big deal and not to worry about her. What do you do?
A patient has just been diagnosed with stage IV cancer with a terrible prognosis. You know that he will most likely die within 9 months regardless of course of treatment. The patient is visibly upset and concern for his future. What do you tell the patient? How do you go about this difficult situation?
Your older sister tells you that she wants to have an IVF and have her child implanted into a surrogate mother for $3,000 through a company. Your mother is opposed to this idea whereas your father supports her decision. Your sister asks for your support. How would you respond to your sister?
You are a physician taking care of a patient with gastric cancer. You realize that your patient has occasionally been missing their chemotherapy and radiation appointments. You talk to the patient during your next appointment and realize that they’ve been seeing an alternative medicine practitioner who has recommend they stop their treatment. How would you respond?
A man has been taking care of his wife, who is in a vegetative state, for three years after she suffered severe brain damage due to cardiac arrest. She can breathe on her own but that is the extent of her abilities. He requests that her feeding tube be removed. What should you do as her physician?
Mrs. Miller is found brain dead and is determined to be a perfect candidate for organ transplants. The physician contacts her husband and son but is met with stern objection upon asking for consent. What would you do?
An 18-year-old female arrives in the emergency room with severe blood loss due to injuries she sustained in a car accident. As the physician, you decide that a blood transfusion is required immediately if she is to survive. You then realize that there is a card from Jehovah’s Witnesses Church in her purse that refuses blood transfusions You cannot ask her any questions because she is in a coma. What do you do?
You are on call as the attending physician in the emergency room. At 1:00am, a 3-year-old girl is brought in. You realize that she has lost a lot of blood and a blood transfusion is her only chance of survival; however, Jehovah’s Witness parents are adamantly against it. How would you react?
Your maternal grandfather is 65 years old and has been diagnosed with a slow developing cancer that will kill him within the next few years. There is a procedure that will remove the tumor with no long-term side effects or problems, but the procedure has a 25% mortality rate. He wants to have the surgery, but your mother is worried and would rather he forgo the surgery. How will you solve this problem?
You are notified that the hand sanitizer at the hospital has been running out more frequently than it should be. A week later, you are in the emergency room treating a patient for acute alcohol-related poisoning. Two days later, you notice that the same man is consuming hand sanitizer throughout the hospital. What do you do?
An 21-year-old female presents to the emergency room with vomiting, fever, and headaches. You realize that this is not the common flu but is likely bacterial meningitis. She doesn’t believe you as her symptoms have gotten better after resting for a bit. She refuses treatment and decides that she going back to her college dormitory. What should you do as the physician in this situation, knowing that bacterial meningitis can lead to death or permanent disability?
An individual requests needles and syringes at their local pharmacy. They do not present with a prescription, and based on the records you can access, they are not receiving treatment for diabetes. When you refuse to sell him needles, he threatens that he will go do heroin with needles he found. What do you do?
You are working in a clinic for street youth when a 17-year-old girl comes in seeking pain medication. After a physical exam and thorough past medical history, you determine that she doesn’t need them. She says she will see another doctor if you do not prescribe them. What would you do?
You are a physician who has just finished your long day at work and are finally able to go home at an appropriate time for the first time in weeks. You have already promised to meet your family for dinner. You suddenly receive a phone call from Mrs. Johnson, an 87-year-old patient in a nursing home who has been a patient of yours for 20 years. She’s in need of medical attention, but refuses to see another doctor. How would you approach this situation?
A 14-year-old girl is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Her parents insist that you do not inform her of the prognosis. What is the appropriate response in this situation?
You have a patient with CF, a terrible autosomal recessive disease. As a geneticist, you have decided to do a DNA screen of the mother, father, and child to determine which genes are mutated and assess risk chances. Upon screening, you realize that the father does not have any mutations that could cause CF – the husband is not the boy’s biological father. What do you do as the physician?
You have two patients who desperately need an organ transplant but there is only one organ available. One is a 18-year-old male who has been admitted to the emergency room multiple times due to overdose. The second patient is a 60-year-old female who is an outstanding member of the community, volunteering her time to the poor and needy. Who do you give the transplant to and why?
As a physician, you are caring for a high-risk pregnant woman. The child’s life is in jeopardy and delivery is urgently needed, but the husband won’t agree to the procedure because there is a 10% mortality rate. What do you do?
You are a primary care physician who has cared for Mrs. Carter for over 40 years. She has been diagnosed with a terminal disease and comes into your office asking for pills she can take when she is ready to die. What do you do?
Mr. Anderson is currently dying and is in tremendous pain. You want to give him morphine, but the medication will likely lower his blood pressure and hasten his death. Mr. Anderson is still in pain and wants you to end his life. You’ve exhausted all your options. What do you do?
During a physical examination, you notice that your 12-year-old patient has been physically abused, showing signs of scar tissue and long-term bruising. When you ask the child, you see that he tenses up. Both of his parents are in the waiting room. What would you do in this situation?
A 9-year-old boy has presented to your emergency department for the sixth time this month for seizures. Upon questioning you find out his mother has been neglecting to give him his anti-epileptic medications. What do you do?
An elderly woman shows signs of abuse. You believe that she is sustaining these injuries from her husband, her primary caregiver. This is confirmed upon questioning, but she begs you to not tell anyone. How would you handle this situation?
As a medical student, you are asked to obtain consent from an elderly woman for a hernia repair. You notice that she is hard of hearing and doesn’t really understand what you are telling her but nods her head as you speak. When you exit the room and tell the resident of this problem, she replies, “Just get it done.” How do you react?
Would you ever undertreat a patient’s pain if you are concerned about addicted?
The mother of a-12-month-old believes that vaccines cause autism and that she believes that immunity should be all natural. Her child is currently unvaccinated and is at risk for diseases that are otherwise nonexistent for the vaccinated community. Can parents refuse to immunize their children? What do you do as the physician?
A Native American man has broken his arm while working. Even in pain, the man asks for a medicine man and refuses treatment until then. What do you do?
You are certain a 5-year-old child has meningitis. When you discuss the need for an immediate antibiotic treatment, the parents refuse, saying, “We’ll take him home and pray over him instead.” What do you do?
A teenager has been in a vegetative state for over a year after a horrible skating accident. Even now, family members insist that “everything possible” be done to keep the patient alive. What are your thoughts?
Should a doctor's primary aim be to change behavior to prevent disease or treat existing disease? What are your thoughts on upstream and downstream care?
When is physician-assisted suicide appropriate? Please explain your reasoning.
You are the emergency doctor on duty when two patients are rushed in at the same time. Both need a heart transplant. You only have one donor organ available, but both patients are a match and are equally medically fit for the operation. One patient is a 35-year-old single dad with 3 children, while the other is a 35-year-old single male, who’s an Olympic Gold medalist. Who would you give the heart to and why?
You are currently taking care of an 80-year-old woman after she fell walking down the stairs. As you enter the room to tell her the diagnosis, her son stops you and asks that you do not tell her. He is worried that it will upset his mom and make her recovery more difficult
The son of a patient is a physician and calls you to discuss his father’s case. What do you do? What do you say?
You are taking care of a 15-year-old for treatment of severe burns on his arms and hands in the emergency department. Further examination shows that he has bruises on his chest and abdomen. After working with the patient for a week, you ask about the other marks on the patient's body, and he admits to being abused by his parents. He begs you not to tell anyone. What do you do?
A physician colleague of yours has started dating one of her patients. The patient initiated the romantic relationship. Is it ethically sound for a physician to become romantically or sexually involved with a patient?
A man is rushed to the ER in need of an appendectomy. When it becomes clear to him that he needs surgery, he says he doesn’t want the procedure because he is uninsured. What would you do?
A colleague of yours has made a medical mistake and doesn’t want to tell the patient. What would you do?
You go to meet a new patient in the hospital. Later you learn that the patient has requested a different doctor because they would prefer a doctor of their same ethnicity. How would you respond?
Your employer is forcing you to work under unsafe conditions. Would you consider striking?
A 17-year-old girl is married, has a child, and lives independent from her parents. She wants to participate in a medical research study. Does she need her parents’ permission?
A primary care doctor went on a three-week vacation and did not get another physician to cover her practice. During that time, a patient developed shortness of breath but did not seek out care because he already had an appointment scheduled with the doctor as soon as she returned. The patient suddenly dies of a fatal arrhythmia. Is the doctor responsible?
A cyclist is injured in a hit-and-run accident. A physician drives by and, determining that the cyclist’s condition is critical, drives her to the ER rather than wait for an ambulance to arrive. In the hospital, the cyclist is revealed to be paralyzed. Is the physician at fault?
A 16-year-old girl is feeling unwell and is brought to see you by her mother. A urine test reveals that she is pregnant. She begs you to not tell her mother because she wants to have an abortion. The mother believes abortion is wrong. What should you do?
A patient sends you a friend request on Facebook. After a few days, he follows up with requests on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. He also has an appointment coming up in a few days. What would you do?
An elderly patient has recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The patient is not close with her son, who has a history of taking advantage of her financially. Nevertheless, he wants to be designated as her surrogate decision maker. How do you handle this?
Your sister is hiring an employee for her business. You’re at her house and happen to see the stack of resumes. You notice that the top resume belongs to a patient of yours who has a history of schizophrenia. Would you say anything to your sister?
Is it ethical for doctors to take part in behaviors that they advise patients to abstain from, such as smoking cigarettes or eating junk food? Should doctors be regarded as role models?
A patient desperately needs a kidney transplant and is low on the transplant waiting list. He wants to fly to a third-world country where he can buy a kidney from a willing seller. There is a good chance that otherwise he may die waiting. Discuss the ethics of this situation.
Your patient struggles with alcohol dependence and needs a liver transplant. Would you add this patient to the transplant waiting list?
MMI character development question examples
Non-acting
What is your greatest weakness?
What is your greatest strength?
Tell me about a time you made a mistake.
Describe a time you have failed at something in a non-academic setting.
Describe a time you have failed at something in an academic setting.
Tell me about a time when you faced a conflict with another individual.
Describe a time when you worked with someone who did not pull his or her weight.
Give me an example of a time when you were on a team and it didn’t work out. What would you do differently?
Describe a time you displayed leadership.
Describe a time you needed to ask for help.
Tell me about a time you had to assert yourself.
What challenges do you expect to encounter as a physician?
What personal challenges do you think you'll face as a physician?
What are some of the challenges you foresee in your career?
Can you tell me about a significant challenge you had to overcome? How did you handle it?
Tell me about a time when you handled a stressful situation poorly.
Tell me about a time when you were forced to make an unpopular decision.
Tell me about a time where you experienced conflict with a colleague.
Tell me about a time when someone criticized you.
Tell me about your greatest academic achievement and why.
Tell me about your greatest non-academic achievement and why.
How do you define “success”?
Tell me about a time when you had to build rapport quickly with someone under difficult conditions.
Tell me about a time you felt out of place.
How will you approach working with or caring for people who are different from you?
Tell me about a time when others working with you disagreed with your ideas. How did you handle it?
Tell me about a time when you had a difficult communication problem.
Tell me about a time you demonstrated empathy.
Tell me about a time someone demonstrated empathy towards you.
Tell me about a time when you had to go above and beyond the call of duty in order to get the job done.
Tell me about a time you had to think outside of the box in order to find a solution.
Give an example of a time you changed your position on a topic. Why?
Discuss a time when you went against the orders of your superiors.
Describe a time you faced a moral conflict.
How will you handle the stress of medical school?
From what you understand of medical school, what part of the program will be most difficult for you?
What do you think the downsides are to being a doctor?
If you didn’t get into medical school, what would you do?
Describe a situation that required a number of things to be done at the same time. How did you handle it? What was the result?
How do you think your role as a physician fits in with your role as a member of the community?
What does the doctor-patient relationship mean to you?
What makes a good physician and where do you fit in that category?
In an operating room, you’ll find many people: the surgeon, anesthesiologist, nurses, techs, etc. Who is the most important person in this room?
If your best friends were asked to describe you, what would they say?
Think about someone who doesn’t like you. What would they say about you?
What are you doing now to better yourself?
Who is someone you admire and why?
What aspects of your life’s experiences do you think make you a good candidate for medical school?
What does “professionalism” mean to you?
What does “integrity” mean to you?
Acting
You have promised your best friend that you would attend their wedding; however, the day before the wedding, your dad has a stroke and is hospitalized. Enter the room and talk to your friend.
Your patient is getting ready for surgery but is extremely anxious and nervous. Enter the room and talk to Maddie.
A close co-worker has recently lost their child due to a car accident. Enter the room and talk to your co-worker.
Your friend Jonathan hasn't come to class for a few days. He usually doesn’t miss class so you’re worried. You decided to pay him a visit after your classes. Enter the room and talk to Jonathan.
You and your best friend try out for the varsity soccer team. You find out you got in, but your friend was rejected for the second time. Enter the room and talk to your friend.
You are late to work. As you reverse your car in the driveway, you feel a bump. After getting out of your car, you realize that you have accidentally run over your next-door neighbor’s outdoor cat. You decide to go over to their house to break the news. Enter the room.
Your family is worried about Tim, your favorite uncle, who has been recently been drinking and smoking heavily after his recent divorce. As the medical student in your extended family, people have asked you to have conversation with Tim so that he can change his ways before it is too late. Enter the room and talk to Tim.
You are a first-year medical student and you have just failed your first block final. The school’s academic advisor wants to talk to you about this. Enter the room and talk to the advisor.
Your medical school roommate is feeling overwhelmed with the amount of material that is being covered. He tells you that he has failed his last block final, the midterm from last week, and is thinking about dropping out. Enter the room and talk to your roommate.
You are a cardiologist who has just finished your shift, and you need to run over to your daughter’s high school graduation ceremony. As you are leaving the hospital, Jennifer, a patient who knew you well, sees you from the waiting room and grabs your attention. Enter the waiting room and talk to Jennifer.
You are a manager of a tech company and have a very busy schedule ahead of you, filled with meetings and important deadlines. As you drive to work, you get a call from the office saying that there has been an incident in the parking lot involving two of your employees, Kate and Amanda. Tensions run high between the two. You ask that they be put in a room together so that you can talk them when you enter the office. After you enter the office, you take a deep breath. Enter the room where Kate and Amanda are waiting for you.
You are a supervisor at a fast food restaurant and have received multiple complaints about the hamburgers being poorly cooked since the shift change. There are two people (one male, one female both 18 years old) who have been cooking the meat for the past hour. The female is the storeowner’s daughter. How would you handle the situation? Enter the room to talk to them.
You are taking a history class in college with Jessica, a close friend. You are partners for a group project but notice that she hasn’t been coming to class or helping out with the project. Enter the room and talk to Jessica.
You tell your close friend Kevin a secret that’s been weighing you down and ask him to keep it confidential. However, later that week, another one of your friends tells you that Kevin told them your secret. You ask Kevin to talk. Enter the room.
You are the captain of your competitive basketball team. Your team has one last chance of tying the game, but your teammate loses the ball and your team ends up losing the game. You enter the locker room after the game and see your teammate who cost your team the championship. Enter the room.
You are with your co-worker, Tom, on an important business meeting. When you get to the meeting, you learn you have to go to the 35th floor. Tom has a severe fear of heights and refuses to get in the elevator. Enter the room and talk to Tom.
A patient has terminal cancer and will only live for three more months. Enter the room and deliver the prognosis.
You get to work early and notice that your employee, Sally, has been sleeping in her office. Based on other evidence, you realize that Sally has been sleeping in her office every night this week. Sleeping at work is prohibited by your office building’s management. Enter the room and talk to Sally.
You’re grabbing food with a friend during your lunch break. You’ve had a hard morning and are venting about your boss. Suddenly you realize your boss is also in the restaurant and has heard everything you said. When you get back to work, you ask your boss if you can have a word. Enter the room and talk to your boss.
You overhear two of your male co-workers making degrading comments about a female co-worker’s appearance. Enter the room and talk to your co-workers.
You invite your friend to dine with you at an expensive restaurant but she declines and says she’s trying to save money. You offer to pay, which leads her to reveal that the real reason she doesn’t want to go is that she feels out of place. Enter the room and talk to your friend.
You are working the reception desk in an emergency room. A seven-year-old boy is waiting to be seen after falling off his bicycle. His mother becomes angry because they have been waiting for a long time. Enter the room and talk to the mother.
A patient leaves a bad rating for your medical office on a reviews website due to the high cost of their bill. Enter the room and talk to the patient.
MMI teamwork question examples
Please describe to your partner what you see on the piece of paper on the desk. Your partner will be drawing images on a blank piece of paper based on your directions. You will not be able to see your partner during this exercise.
Upon entering the room, only you will be able to see a 3-D design made with Jenga blocks. Please work with your partner to recreate this design as exactly as possible. You will be given 6 minutes to complete this design.
You will be giving your partner instructions to finish a project. You are not allowed to use shapes to describe anything that you see in front of you. You will stand back-to-back with your partner.
In front of you are Lego blocks forming a structure, which you can see but your partner cannot. Your goal is to guide your partner verbally to help them recreate this design with their own set of Legos. You will not be able to see each other or refer to color.
You are sitting at a desk in front of the interviewer with a screen between you. There will be a set of blocks in front of you that must be arranged in a certain manner. The interviewer knows the solution but can only answer yes or no to any of your questions. Correctly assemble the blocks.
In front of you is a sheet of paper with instructions on how to fold a piece of origami. Your partner cannot see you and is sitting on the other side of the room with a blank piece of origami paper. Using verbal instructions, guide your partner through folding the piece of origami correctly.
You have a map of a college campus. Give your instructor directions to get from Building A to Building B.
Explain to your instructor how to tie shoelaces using only verbal instructions.
In front of you are the following objects: a ukulele, wrapping paper, tape, and a ribbon. Guide the instructor through wrapping the ukulele.
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Appendix B: List of medical schools that use MMI interviews
(Note: This list was last updated in June 2023.)
Albany Medical College
California Northstate University College of Medicine*
Central Michigan University College of Medicine
Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science
Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine
Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell
Duke University School of Medicine
Faculty of Medicine Université Laval
Florida Atlantic University - Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine
Geisinger Commonwealth
John Sealy School of Medicine (formerly UTMB School of Medicine)
Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine*
Max Rady College of Medicine at the University of Manitoba
McGill University Faculty of Medicine
McMaster University Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine
Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University
Memorial University of Newfoundland Faculty of Medicine*
Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
New York Medical College
New York University Long Island School of Medicine*
New York University Grossman School of Medicine
Northern Ontario School of Medicine
Nova Southeastern University Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine
Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine
Queen's University School of Medicine
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
San Juan Bautista School of Medicine
Stanford University School of Medicine
SUNY Upstate Medical University College of Medicine
TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine
Universidad Central del Caribe School of Medicine*
Universite de Montreal Faculty of Medicine
Universite de Sherbrooke Faculty of Medicine
University of Alabama School of Medicine*
University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry
University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson
University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix
University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine
University of Calgary Cumming School of Medicine
University of California, Davis School of Medicine
University of California, Riverside School of Medicine
University of California, San Diego School of Medicine
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
University of Houston College of Medicine
University of Illinois College of Medicine*
University of Massachusetts Medical School
University of Michigan Medical School*
University of Minnesota Medical School–Twin Cities
University of Mississippi School of Medicine
University of Missouri – Kansas City School of Medicine
University of Nevada Reno School of Medicine
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine*
University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine
University of South Carolina School of Medicine – Greenville*
University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School*
University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences
University of Utah School of Medicine
University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine
Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine
Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine*
Wake Forest School of Medicine
Washington State University Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine*
Wayne State University School of Medicine*
* Indicates a hybrid format (i.e., a mix of traditional and MMI interview formats).
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Looking for medical school interview coaching?
In addition to the interview support we provide our students through our premium 1:1 application plans, we offer a la carte interview coaching to help you present your best self on the big day. It would be a pleasure to guide you!
| 1 round |
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| 1 round | 90 minutes |
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Frequently asked questions
+ How are the 90-minute interview coaching sessions organized?
Your 90-minute interview coaching session(s) will be roughly organized as follows:
- 30- to 40-minute mock interview
- 50 to 60 minutes of question-by-question feedback, including opportunities to practice modified responses
+ How many rounds of interview coaching do you recommend?
Students vary with respect to the number of interview coaching sessions they seek. Some students sign up for just one session (e.g., for their dream school), but most students sign up for multiple sessions because they either don't feel very confident in their interview skills; don't want to leave anything to chance; or because they want to use one round to prep for traditional interviews, another to prep for MMI interviews, etc.
While the number of interview coaching sessions you sign up for is up to you, we recommend signing up for two or more sessions to maximize your odds of admission.
+ My interview is traditional/MMI/hybrid. Do these interview coaching sessions cover that?
Your interview coaching session will be specifically tailored to you and to the school that you've been invited to interview at. Therefore, we will provide traditional, MMI, or hybrid interview coaching based on your needs.
+ My interview is scheduled for [Date]. Will you have availability before then?
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+ Do you schedule interview coaching on weekends?
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+ Do you have experience coaching interviews at [School/Program]?
With 15+ years of experience, we've helped students successfully interview at every medical school (MD and DO), as well as every type of dual-degree program. (e.g., MD/PhD, MD/MBA, MD/MPH)
+ If I sign up for one session to start and add more sessions later, would I simply invest the difference?
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+ What happens after I sign up?
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- Your full name
- Your AMCAS (or AACOMAS) pdf
- Your interview date
- All of your specific availability (including time zone) for a 90-minute interview coaching session over a consecutive three- to five-day period
- Any details you'd like us to know about you or your upcoming interview
Shortly after, we will schedule your interview coaching session during one of your listed times.