Your Guide to Multiple Mini Interviews (Plus Sample Questions & Prep)

What MMIs Test

MMIs assess non-cognitive qualities. They test beyond the information you can memorize and, instead, observe how you communicate and interact with the world around you. MMIs test skills like: 

• Character development
• Communication
• Critical thinking
• Empathy
• Integrity/ethics
• Interpersonal skills
• Maturity
• Professionalism
• Problem-solving
• Reliability
• Self-awareness
• Sensitivity to culture and diversity
• Teamwork

If a situation is hard to test by asking data-driven questions but still may come up during a medical career, you can probably expect it to be asked at an MMI. These MMI interview questions assess your beliefs, thought processes, and communication skills (things you can’t change in a short period of time).

Format and Length

The multiple mini interview format offers a unique alternative to traditional one-on-one or panel interviews. With short breaks between sessions, the MMI process typically takes around 2 hours and is conducted over 6-10 stations. 

Each station occurs in a different interview room. Expect to spend about 7-12 minutes at each station. You’ll be given a specific prompt and have 5-8 minutes to deliver your response. 

Sometimes, the instructions for the station are posted outside the interview room, and the applicant is given about 2 minutes to prepare. Other times, the interviewer presents the instructions as soon as they enter the room. The interviewers remain at the same station for the duration of the entire MMI process, asking every applicant the same question.

The specific details of each interview station vary tremendously from school to school and year to year. In general, you should expect:

• Roleplay
• Teamwork tasks
• Ethical dilemmas
• Questions about social, health, or policy issues
• Traditional interview questions
• Essay writing

There are strict time restrictions for every station, and the interviewer is prohibited from giving the applicant feedback of any kind. Each interviewer rates the applicant on their response.

In contrast, the traditional interview usually consists of two interviews with 1-3 admissions committee members, each approximately 20-45 minutes long. One interviewer is typically a faculty member, physician, or researcher, while one is a medical student.

Common MMI questions include both acting scenarios and non-acting questions. During acting questions, you’ll be expected to roleplay a circumstance. You may also be asked to do teamwork scenarios in which you work with another applicant to accomplish a specific task.

Some admissions committee members compare the MMI to speed dating because you meet so many people in a short time and must constantly think on your feet and talk about various topics. 

Scoring

MMIs are scored on a 10-point scale, where 1 is the best potential score. Each station’s interviewer will score the applicant, and the scores are aggregated together for a final interview score. Many schools tend to drop the lowest and highest stations’ scores to get a more accurate evaluation. This frees you from the worry of having one interviewer you really do not click with.

MMIs vs. Traditional Panel Interviews

There really isn’t a better or worse interview format, as all medical school interviews (traditional panel interviews or multiple mini interviews) are designed to assess the same qualities. 

Why Do Medical Schools Use This Interview Format?

Research shows that the MMI format may provide a more reliable assessment of a candidate and reduce bias, particularly gender bias. That’s why many colleges of medicine, dentistry, and nursing now implement them as a normal part of their admissions process.

During a traditional one-on-one interview process, an applicant interviews with two to three people at most. That means admissions decisions are based on the opinions and biases of only a few people.

The MMI is much more objective, given that applicants meet with 8-12 interviewers assessing applicants in a number of stations. This allows prospective students multiple opportunities to showcase their competencies on interview day.

This gives students an advantage. If you didn’t perform well in one MMI station, you can regroup before starting the next station with an interviewer who didn’t see your mistakes. Traditional panel interviews don’t offer that level of redeeming potential.

However, more comprehensive studies suggest that this format alone is not sufficient for eliminating all bias, particularly for applicants of dramatically different cultural or socioeconomic backgrounds than their interviewers. Later research found that adding normative rating scales to this process may further improve the validation of this interview format.

Types of MMI Questions and Scenarios

The MMI format evaluates a range of skills through different types of questions and MMI scenarios. Let’s take a closer look at the various key categories you can expect to encounter. 

Ethical Scenarios

At these stations, you’ll face medical ethics dilemmas that assess your ability to navigate complex healthcare situations. There are hundreds of topics this might cover, but common ethical scenarios can be centered around topics such as:

• Patient confidentiality
• Patient preferences (regarding everything from sexual health to alternative medicine)
• Bodily autonomy and consent
• Safety of others
• Euthanasia
• Contraception and family planning
• Delivering bad news to patients and their family members

Evaluators probably won’t be looking for a “correct” answer that reveals your moral principles. Instead, they will be grading how well you handle yourself in a morally complex situation.

To answer these ethical questions successfully, you’ll want to thoughtfully weigh the situation, make a justified decision, and discuss potential consequences. 

Character Development

These stations usually involve traditional interview questions that focus on self-reflection. Typically, this is the least stressful station for candidates because of the conventional material.

You may be asked to discuss your strengths, weaknesses, past experiences, or how you would handle a difficult healthcare scenario. You might also have to engage in roleplaying exercises that require you to speak to a friend, colleague, or family member.

Not all of these questions will directly relate to your career in medicine. The interviewer may throw in some “quirky” questions, like, “If you could have a superpower, what would it be?”

The purpose of this MMI station is for the interviewer to see and know how well you understand your personal growth and character. To get a high score, you’ll need to show that you’re comfortable in your own skin and willing to admit your faults. You should also stay on topic and use personal experiences in your answers. 

Teamwork

Teamwork MMI stations are meant to assess your ability to work well with others. Instead of being asked how you’ve worked with teammates in the past, you’ll be asked to complete some sort of team-based activity or problem. You could be asked to perform a task, work through a situational prompt, or debate a topic.

Depending on the school, you may enter the room with another interviewee and be asked to work together, or you may be asked to work with your interviewer to accomplish a task. These often involve one person giving instructions with the other physically following those instructions to complete the task.

These activities test your ability to communicate, follow instructions, and collaborate effectively with others, which are essential skills for medical school and your future health professional career. Group exercises like this aren’t about whether or not you solve a problem but how you solve it.

Here are some tips on how you can do well at this station:

• Ensure you verbalize instructions in a way another person can understand.
• Ask for clarification if you disagree with a team member.
• Don’t hesitate to contribute.
• Make sure to use your voice, specifically if you’re naturally more of a listener. Just don’t speak over your teammate continuously.

Role-Playing

Roleplaying stations require you to act out a scenario, allowing evaluators to observe how you respond to real-world situations “first-hand” – rather than just listen to how you think you’d respond. 

The prompts could range from delivering bad news to a patient’s family to confronting a superior about their behavior. The scenario may not even be a medical situation; it could involve how you handle angry neighbors, rebellious children, or emotionally dependent friends.

While you definitely want to pay careful attention to what you say and how you phrase it, there are several professional non-verbal behaviors that are critical to getting a good score for role-playing questions. You should make sure to:

• Maintain good eye contact.
• Exhibit body language that reads as positive, approachable, and confident.
• Mind your tone of voice.
• Engage in active listening.
• Watch your tendency to interrupt.

Writing

Some MMIs may include writing tasks, where you’ll need to quickly draft a response to a specific prompt. Written communication can be just as important to medical admissions committees as oral communication is, which is why some committees include writing stations.

Unlike AMCAS admissions essays, you don’t have the time to gather your thoughts, receive feedback, or make revisions. This is an impromptu writing assignment you have to ace on the fly. 

The time limit still applies to this station. You need to write your response quickly without rambling for too long. There usually isn’t a word limit, but that doesn’t mean you should write as much as possible. 

It’s best to approach this challenge as you would any other writing assignment:

• Introduce and conclude your ideas clearly and concisely.
• Provide strong examples to back up any claims you make.
• Organize your points so they flow smoothly from sentence to sentence.

Critical Thinking

These stations evaluate your ability to critically evaluate information, prioritize, and think rationally under pressure. While ethical dilemmas gauge your interpersonal and moral judgements, critical thinking stations judge your ability to reason in an emotionally tense situation. 

You’ll be asked to solve problems or make decisions in challenging, emotionally charged situations. When you answer questions that test your decision-making, clearly vocalize:

• What information you would need to solve a problem.
• Your thought process in finding a solution to the problem.
• Your response to any follow-up questions.

Knowing how to vocalize your thought process and respond professionally and thoroughly is essential to getting a great score at this station. 

15 Sample MMI Questions

There are hundreds of questions that may come up on interview day. For more in-depth practice, we have an article with even more sample questions to help you prepare. That said, here are a few sample MMI questions to get you started:

• What was the most difficult decision you’ve ever had to make? Why was it difficult, and were you satisfied with the outcome of your decision?
• Tell me how your cultural background has influenced your perspective of the medical community. How do you believe it will or will not influence your experience and passion as a member of the healthcare field?
• An unconscious ER patient urgently needs a blood transfusion, but their religious beliefs prohibit it. What do you do?
• A patient refuses treatment for a serious condition because they strongly favor alternative medicine. How would you handle the situation?
• A 14-year-old girl comes to your office requesting birth control pills and a pregnancy test. She tells you that she’ll need an abortion if the test is positive but that she doesn’t want her parents to know. How do you respond?
• What are your thoughts on the legalization of marijuana for medical and/or recreational usage?
• A major vaccine has been recently introduced to combat a deadly virus that is causing a pandemic. Some of your patients refuse to take the vaccine because they don’t trust it. What do you recommend to your patients?
• Describe the most frustrating coworker or boss you’ve ever had. How did that tension arise, and what did you do to attempt to overcome it?
• A pediatric patient approaches you privately about considering gender reassignment. They don’t want to share this with their family yet, but ask about hormone replacement therapy to begin this process. What is your response?
• Your relative has a major condition that is most likely fatal. They could have a procedure that would correct the condition, but it has a 20% mortality rate. Do you recommend that they take the procedure?
• A patient is having difficulty understanding the information you’re trying to communicate to them. They are not accompanied by anyone else, and your repeated attempts to rephrase the information have failed. What do you do?
• What is your biggest fear as a physician?
• You discover that your medical school roommate has been casually sharing patients’ confidential information in conversations with your mutual friends. Role-play the conversation when you confront them.
• What are the top three qualities of a great physician? Do you have any of these qualities?
• A long-time patient of yours has been repeatedly trying to reach you via social media, and you keep ignoring their communications. They have an office appointment soon, and you are concerned that they’re not emotionally stable enough to handle rejection. Role-play your conversation with this actor.

Related: How to Answer the Interview Question: “Why Do You Want to Be a Doctor?”

How to Prepare for Multiple Mini Interviews

You need to exhibit strong communication skills, interpersonal behavior, empathy, and problem-solving to get a high score on MMIs. Here are some of the best MMI interview prep tips so you can go into your interview confidently:

• Understand the format: Familiarize yourself with the MMI format. Timing is a key aspect here. If you’re given 2 minutes to prepare, use those 2 minutes to come up with a response that reasonably fits in the 5-8 minutes you’re given to answer.
• Practice, practice, practice: Answer sample questions and engage in mock interviews with honest mentors as much as you can. Even if the sample questions you rehearse don’t come up in your interview, they’ll prepare you to think quickly and deeply about important topics.
• Understand primary bioethical principles: Know the four bioethical principles — respect for autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice — and practice weaving them into your practice responses. Ethical questions are tricky because there isn’t always a right answer. However, you should be able to defend whatever answer you give.
• Know your personal morals and principles: You’ll be asked in MMIs how you’d behave in a certain situation. You’ll not only have to explain the actions you’ll take but also why you would take them. Be prepared for any follow-up questions about your reasoning in making a specific decision. Carefully consider your worldview prior to answering any of these questions.
• Work on being teachable and open-minded: Interviewers want to see that applicants are passionate and have a strong sense of personal ethics but also are very open to new ideas. Practice this with friends and/or fellow pre-med students who will be honest with you and respectfully question your reasoning, beliefs, and decision-making. It gives you the opportunity to articulate your thoughts while also being open to other ideas.
• Discover what it means to be patient-centered: “Patient-centered care” is a buzz phrase that many healthcare systems and medical schools emphasize as the culture of medicine shifts. You must do your best to see things from a patient’s perspective and be able to identify with them. A good way to start is by asking yourself, “If I were the patient and very unfamiliar with the world of medicine, how would I act in this situation?”
• Get comfortable talking to strangers: During MMIs, you’ll be answering all types of questions in person with people you don’t know. If you’re shy, this could come off as a lack of confidence. By now, you’ve hopefully spent enough time in clinical settings that this should be second nature. Otherwise, it’s worth honing these skills before any kind of interview.
• Practice your acting skills: At MMI “roleplay” or “acting” stations, you’ll be required to act out a scenario with the interview, such as speaking to a patient or addressing a colleague. While you don’t need acting lessons to make this work, it’s a good idea to prepare yourself for this non-traditional format. Take it seriously. You may be tempted to laugh or make off-hand comments if you’re uncomfortable, but work to keep your tone of voice and body language appropriate to the scenario.
• Stay calm and consistent: During the interview, listen carefully, ask clarifying questions, stay consistent in your worldview opinions, and answer confidently without second-guessing yourself. Use your personal ethics as a guide for responses. 
• Get adequate rest: Just as with important med school tests (e.g. MCAT, Casper), it’s important to ensure you get plenty of rest the night before your big interview day. Being well-rested will help you stay sharp, focused, and calm during your MMI. 

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