The first question parents ask us is what will my son/daughter expect at The Leeds University School of Dentistry interview? We advise a good core knowledge but also the type of areas/topics that Leeds have been asking their students to be knowledgeable about in their pre-interview advice in recent years. This information is readily available.
The Leeds University School of Dentistry
What can you Expect?
The Leeds School of Dentistry uses the multiple mini interview MMI format with their prospective dental students. There are usually between six to eight MMI stations. The normal number of MMI stations is usually five.
Students will have one/two minutes before they go into the station, and once they are in the station itself, they have a total of five/six minutes. Each station should be treated as a mini interview in itself. This acts as an advantage in that if one section does not go too well, you still have the other sections where you can still shine. The interview in one station does not know how you did in a previous station.
We asked our in-house dentist at University Expert what he knows about the interviews that Leeds School of Dentistry uses. He highlighted several aspects of your interview preparation format. These are further discussed as below.
One thing you need to be able to show is that you understand the importance of integrity and honesty as a dentist and even as a dental student. The University of Leeds dental school also wants to know how motivated and committed you are in studying Dentistry and ultimately becoming a dentist.
A dentist is also required to be flexible in how they treat patients and how they formulate their treatment plans. The Leeds University School of Dentistry always like to know if you are a person who is flexible in their problem solving and general skill set. Another important aspect is your leadership qualities. The way you will demonstrate this to the MMI station is by using examples from your personal statement and also into the activities you have done such as sports and other responsible roles, mainly volunteering.
And although the Leeds University School of Dentistry does not particularly want you to have in-depth knowledge of all Dentistry related matters, they nevertheless want you to show them insight into what it is to be a dentist.
They also want students and applicants to show insight into what it means as an ability to be a team player as dentists work within teams. Although we have already mentioned above, Leeds is very keen on student welfare and they want to know if you have a holistic approach to life and are able to deal with stress appropriately.
In this regard, and in relation to this they also will be testing your problem solving skills. Some of the questions are often abstract and you may think what has that got to do with Dentistry? Finally, students must know their strengths/weaknesses and are able to reflect on these accordingly using examples.
So how do we advise Y13 and gap year students to fully prepare for the University of Leeds Dentistry interview?
Here Are Some Pointers
Firstly, try to reflect on the work experience that you carried out and become very familiar with the skills and attributes that you took away. With regards to these reflections, you should be able to lend yourself to both your future career pathway and what you are currently studying. It also stresses how Leeds University want students who can have a conversation with the panel. In this regard, you should be having lots of practice scenarios with family or friends. Some of these scenarios can be abstract questions and others can be past questions such as ethical scenarios.
In this regard, you should also know the four ethical pillars. The more you practise Mock interviews, the better you will get in gaining confidence and that will ease the pressure of the interview from you. We often get phone calls from parents who say that their son or daughter has a University of Leeds Dentistry interview and how they could optimise their interview performance on the day. In this regard, we asked our in house dentist how students can learn the best interview strategies and how they can practice with questions and model answers for Leeds.
In recent years, according to Leeds University, ethical scenarios have been an important main focus of The Leeds, University School of Dentistry interviews. You can be given a very generic ethical scenario or you can be given a very specific Dentistry related ethical scenario. MMIs will, just before the interview, be given a pen and paper in which you can make notes and refer to these.
But you do afterwards, give any written information back to the interview panel. Although the initial questions are the same for each candidate, they are allowed to elaborate or digress slightly as they wish to. The interview panel is really looking if you do have the insight into your own abilities, attitudes and potential. Here are some of the questions that can come up during an interview:
- Tell us about a difficult time within your family and how you dealt with this situation?
- How do you also manage your studies together with your personal life?
- When can confidentiality be breached?
- So an example could be where a man who is suffering from AIDS comes over to your practice but asks you not to inform his partner.
How would you respond to this scenario?
An important part of being a dentist is being able to break and communicate bad news to patients. In this regard, a 10 year old child has x-rays which reveal that she may be suffering from dental decay. How would you communicate findings to her and her parents?
One of the stations at University of Leeds Dentistry interviews will be questions around self reflection. These could be giving examples when you are to communicate a difficult conversation with one of your friends.
- It can also be about telling them occasions when you had to work effectively within their team.
- Tell us also about your strengths and weaknesses.
- How do you deal with your own personal limitations, type of question?
- Leeds Dentistry interviews use a wide range of questions to really probe what type of candidate you actually are.
Practice Makes Perfect
If you would like a Mock interview or even a free initial chat with our in-house dentist then just give us a call on 07891414224 or fill out a callback form on our website.