Interview Preparation Doesn't Have to Be Daunting
My name is Tom Spalding, and I'm a medical student at ANU in Canberra. Like you, I've looked down the barrel of an upcoming medical school interview and thought, "where do I even start?" Every medical student and doctor you'll ever meet has been through exactly this. It's simply part of the process.
As the manager of Fraser's Interview, I've been through the process myself and helped thousands of students since work toward the same goal. Here are three things worth considering as you get started:
- Get in touch with your own motivations, values, and experiences, and understand how they've led you to this point.
- Start your preparation early, and build a timeline suited to your own situation.
- Practice deliberately, there are plenty of ways to do it well.
I'll keep this brief, but if you'd like to go deeper, get in touch with our team directly or join one of our free teaching sessions. No strings attached.
1. Understand What Makes You Different
The most common mistake we see in mock interviews, whether I'm running them or one of our tutors, is applicants saying what they think they're supposed to say, without stopping to consider whether they actually mean it, or why.
Most early attempts at interview answers end up bland, missing whatever it is that would actually make that applicant stand out. The strongest responses we hear are answered honestly, and are grounded in the applicant's own values, not a version of themselves they think sounds good.
If you're naturally empathetic, lean into that, and let the emotional weight of a scenario show through in how you respond. The same goes if you're a strong leader, a clear communicator, or a lateral thinker. Too many candidates end up filtering out exactly the qualities that would make them memorable.
Before you dive into formal preparation, take the time to properly reflect on your core values, motivations and experiences. These should sit at the centre of every answer you give, not just the ones about "why medicine."
2. Build a Timeline
Early preparation is one of the few genuine advantages in this process that's available to everyone, yet surprisingly few people actually use it well. Year after year, a clearly higher proportion of successful applicants are the ones who started months in advance. Writing your preparation plan down, rather than keeping it vague in your head, helps keep you accountable and builds real momentum.
Our advice: start slow. Set aside about an hour a week early on. Begin by reviewing the common question types you're likely to encounter (motivation stations, scenario-based stations, rural health, and so on), then build a structure for answering each type in full. There's no shortage of resources out there, including within Fraser's own materials, so spend some time finding the ones that actually suit how you think and communicate. Once you've got a foundation, put real time into high-quality practice. That's what builds genuine confidence and conversational ease on the day.
3. Find the Right Ways to Practice
When people talk about practising for interviews, most picture sitting down with a friend or family member and casually running through answers. That's a start, but it shouldn't be the whole plan.
First, the questions you practise with need real variety, different wording, different structures, different angles on the same underlying theme. A good question bank makes this much easier. You'll find plenty online, and Fraser's Interview has its own bank of over 200 verified questions. If a particular line of questioning keeps tripping you up, come back to it a few times and actually track how your answer improves.
Second, think carefully about the format of your practice. Friends and family are useful, but they bring their own biases, so it's worth diversifying how you prepare. Try practising solo, recording yourself or using a mirror. Try joining a study group with other applicants. And try at least one fully timed, format-matched mock interview. You can run these yourself, but Fraser's Interview also runs university-specific mock interviews built around real, current knowledge of each school's format.
I hope these tips help, and good luck with the final hurdle of your application journey. Reach out to our team any time if we can help along the way.
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- Common Undergraduate Medical Interview Questions — Common question types and how to approach them with genuine, personal answers.
- 5 Common Mistakes to Avoid in Medical Interviews — Red flags that undercut otherwise strong candidates.
- How to Perfect the Medical Interview Tone — Practical guidance on sounding calm, professional and genuinely yourself.
