The Flinders University Medicine Interview follows a vastly different format to that which we are used to seeing from the other medical schools across Australia. Instead of the typical ‘Multiple Mini Interview’ format, the Flinders University medicine interview utilizes a 45-minute panel interview to select their candidates for the Doctor of Medicine (MD) programme.

The interview takes place at Flinders’ Bedford Park campus, around 25 minutes south of the Adelaide CBD by car. In your interview, you will be joined by 3 interviewers from the University, the Flinders Medical Centre, and the community. When the Flinders medicine interview offers are released, you’ll receive an allocated interview time over a 1-2 week period, which will be accompanied by information on what the interview entails and the registration process on the day of your interview (which is provided via the interview tracker). Something important to bear in mind is that there is a $50 fee charged upon acceptance of your Flinders medicine interview offer in order to attend, which is non-refundable even in the unfortunate circumstance that you are unsuccessful in your application.

On the day of your Flinders medicine interview, you will need to find your own way to the Bedford Park campus. Luckily, there are a plethora of options to get there, including by bus, by train (with a short walk), or by car with hourly parking options for those not from Flinders University. Once you’ve arrived on campus and made your way to the location allocated to you, you’ll need to register, which includes providing a photo ID and surrendering your phone to the front desk for the duration of your interview.

The Flinders medicine interview questions are a protected resource, and as such you will be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement that states you will not provide detail of the questions you encounter during your interview. Following this, you are called upon and are taken to a holding room with around 8 other candidates while you wait for your interview. The chaperones from the Flinders Medical School provide lollies while you wait, and allow you to chat amongst your fellow candidates while you patiently wait for your turn.

Once the wait is over, you are given a sheet of paper that outlines a scenario, and you are asked to prepare a presentation of the scenario to the interview panel at the commencement of your Flinders university medicine interview. Once you receive this sheet of paper, you are given 20minutes to prepare your presentation (in the same room as the other applicants) before you are escorted to your interview room by your interviewer, where the other 2 interviewers are waiting. Thus, begins your Flinders university medicine interview!

The interview begins with your prepared presentation, in which you have a whiteboard should you wish to use it. Following your presentation, the interviewers may ask you some follow up questions. After those follow up questions, you are asked to take a seat across the table from the interviewers, at which point the interview panel will begin to ask you a series of questions. The Flinders medicine interview questions kick off with the staple of many medical schools, “Why do you want to do Medicine?”, which is swiftly followed by a number of other questions (to which there is usually a set of follow up questions) pertaining to ethical scenarios, problem-solving skills, public health knowledge, and teamwork.

Once question time is complete, your interviewers thank you for your time and you leave the room, and wait outside. The interview panel has a discussion, and may call upon you to return to the room should they have any follow-up questions they wish to clarify with you. If, however, they are satisfied with your responses, you are allowed to leave the interview, collecting your phone on the way out of the building. Now the anxious wait begins for the release of Flinders medicine offers!