If you are fortunate enough to have been invited for an interview to study dentistry at Leeds University here are some helpful tips and information that you should consider. The very first thing to mention is that the interview process at Leeds dental University is extremely fair and impartial. Furthermore, they are rigorously audited and every year the format will differ from one year to the next. There are two reasons for this. Firstly it prevents students from getting the questions that may come up and more importantly, they are continually improving their selection process as a result.
Leeds Dentistry MMI interviews
If you have received information about your interview already, you will know that it is in the form of a mini mock interview involving several stations and not a traditional Panel Interview Style. Therefore in your preparation, you must be aware of this and make sure that your interview preparation and revision include this type of format. In general, however, the dentistry course at Leeds university is 5 years and the typical A-level grades required are at least A, A and A. however there is a caveat in that if you are an Access student, then the grades as above are reduced slightly. The UCAS identification for this course is an A200 and the course will start in September 2023.
Preparing for a Leeds Interview for Dentistry
So the next question is, how can I prepare for the interview for Leeds dentistry? Leeds dentistry interviews are on the whole not too difficult and not too easy but as well having said that, they generally tend to be quite relaxed because they want to see the student not being tense but relaxed so that they can perform the best interview. The admissions panel is not there to trick you or ask you awkward difficult questions. They simply want to ascertain for themselves if you have the motivation and knowledge for dentistry. As well as this, they want students to be well-rounded and therefore you should show them that you do have extracurricular activities. These extracurricular activities can have many formats such as playing a musical instrument, playing a team sport, drawing and art just to mention a few. The Leeds dentistry interview does assess communication skills and styles. They are also aware that everybody does have their own individual unique personality so they do take this into account. But at the same time, you have to act professionally and within their expectations.
Leeds Dentistry Interview Answers
So let’s now delve into the general type of questions you may be faced with at an MMI station. The most obvious type of questions have been addressed in our previous article on Leeds dentistry interview so it is a good idea to also refer to our original article as well. You can find it in the “TIPS” section above.
We mentioned earlier that your extracurricular activities are really important and these don’t have to be any specific hobbies or sports but they want to know that you are doing something. You won’t be penalized if, for example, you mention netball and somebody else mentions volleyball. In essence, Leeds University wants to know what you’ll get out of these activities as they want to know what skills you may have picked up along the way. This means that the longer you have played a sport or taken up a hobby, the better place you will be at the interview. They may ask you what you enjoy about a particular hobby or what you get out of it. In addition, they may also ask if you are in a leadership position within your sports or hobby. This has to be stressed that there will be some hobbies such as drawing or Henna design which are very individualistic and they are not team activities. Although you won’t be specifically penalized if you mentioned Henna design because it helps you with your manual dexterity, they do know that every year so many students will mention things like origami, Henna design, drawing and making plastic Airfix models that they are wise to this ploy so try not to think you know better than them!
Extracurricular Sports
Within the hobbies and sports that you do, then they ask for specific situations such as that when you communicated well within a team. They also want to know if you have self-reflection qualities so they may ask you to describe a time when things didn’t go well for you and how you coped. There are right and wrong ways in which to answer this type of question as you don’t want to fall into that trap by saying things that they don’t want to hear. When you are preparing this aspect of your interview, try to also know the types of clubs or societies you may join at Leeds. For instance, if you have been playing netball, you can mention that Leeds has a Netball Club which is in the University league as well.
Dentistry for Leeds Dental Interviews 2023
Let’s now look a little bit into dental knowledge. As previously stated it is extremely important to have a thorough knowledge of dentistry if you need to go into this. How much is required? Well, in as much detail but the more you know the more you can tell as the saying goes. They may ask what recent Dental journal article you are reading. Once you have mentioned this, they can specifically ask what your views are, what you learn, and why you actually read this particular article. Therefore you should be ready to cite the exact journal or paper including the author.
Dentistry UCAS Work Experience
Tied closely to this is your work experience and here you should know all aspects of the work experience.
Following on with your dental knowledge, they may ask about the career pathways for a dentist to carry out once they have qualified as a dentist. Here you could mention that some dentists stay on at hospitals to undergo a formal career pathway within the dental Teaching Hospital setting. Then there is General Dental Practice which dentists will tend to go down. Here you need to know what kinds of specialities are available and what the career paths are including what types of exams postgraduate levels you may carry out to become a specialist.
Leeds dental interviews also need to know how you approach problems within your personal life. Here they may ask you about a time when you made a mistake and how you went about dealing with this mistake. They don’t expect anything complex because they know at the same time that you are young and therefore you have limited life experiences so you have to mention something realistic.
Ethical questions MMI dentistry Stations
We have already discussed ethical dilemma questions at Leeds dentistry MMI interviews but also it is a good idea to prepare some questions around caring and empathy. Therefore you can mention that you carried out volunteering and how your volunteering impacted you as a caring person.
Dentistry Interview Coaching
If you have any specific questions that you would like to ask our in-house Dentist to address, please just fill out the callback form on the website homepage. In addition, if you think you may just need some further help, please do just give us a ring and initially we can have just a formal chat for up to half an hour ( FREE of charge) where we can see what your main worries are. The main thing is to stay focused and try to carry out your preparation at frequent intervals as we also appreciate that if you are a Year 13 student or you are in your gap year, you will have other commitments as well.