2026 entry · Medicine interview
UCL
Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) · format, dates and preparation
At a glance: That's 2 more stations than the average UK MMI (6).
Each station is shorter than the 7-minute UK average: practise being concise and getting to the point fast.
Interview timeline
When are UCL medicine interviews?
| Invitations released | Often at around a week's notice |
|---|---|
| Interviews held | December to March |
| Delivery | In person (home); online (international) |
How interview waves work
Interview invitations are not sent in one batch. Schools release them in waves across the cycle, so the date you hear back depends as much on when your application was processed as on how strong it is.
- Most invitations go out in waves from November to January, with interviews held between late November and March.
- A quiet December does not mean a rejection. Later waves are normal, and some schools (Southampton, King's, Brunel) run well into the new year or beyond.
- When an invitation arrives you usually have to respond fast, often within two weeks, or the place is released.
- A handful of schools interview early: St George's from November, Oxford and Aberdeen in mid-December.
What changes year to year
The biggest change year to year is delivery mode. Many schools moved online during the pandemic; some have stayed online (Bristol, Glasgow, Keele, Nottingham, Plymouth, Aston), while others returned in person (Aberdeen, Leeds, Anglia Ruskin, St George's). Exact calendar dates move by a few weeks each cycle, but the month-level windows below have stayed stable.
Cross-checked for 2026 entry. Windows are month-level and describe the most recent (2026-entry) cycle. Exact dates shift by a few weeks each year and are confirmed only in a candidate's official invitation email. Always treat the invitation as the source of truth. The Medic Portal and Blue Peanut interview guides (2026 entry)
The interview day
How it actually runs
up to 8; 2-3 questions per station
Real experiences
What applicants actually say about the UCL interview
Gathered from applicant forums, weighted by how many independent sources agree. These are unverified community reports, not official university information, and can shift between cycles.
6 insights · 1 widely reported
Applicants crowd-track UCL's effective UCAT interview cutoff each year and consistently find it among the highest in the country. 2026-cycle families put the non-contextual bar around 2190-2210 (new scale) with 2180 B1 narrowly missing, contextual reportedly lower (~2130-2180); 2025-cycle TSR reports clustered invites at 2950+ on the old scale.
Widely reported · 4 sources(spans several cycles)
Applicants crowd-track UCL's effective UCAT interview cutoff each year and consistently find it among the highest in the country. 2026-cycle families put the non-contextual bar around 2190-2210 (new scale) with 2180 B1 narrowly missing, contextual reportedly lower (~2130-2180); 2025-cycle TSR reports clustered invites at 2950+ on the old scale.
"UCL has still not sent pre-interview rejections, but have appeared to allocate all their interview dates in March with the cutoff at 2190 and DD is 2180 b1."
Mumsnet Medicine 2026 Part 3 thread, poster inae (13 Feb 2026)"reported scores of 2210 B1 for non-contextual applicants and 2180 B1 for contextual applicants... for contextual applicants, the cutoff was believed to be around 2130"
TSR UCL A100 2026 Entry thread (Dec 2025-Feb 2026, via search snippet)"non-contextual applicants with high UCAT scores (2950+) received interviews, though no internationals had been reported"
TSR 'Interview invites from UCL?' thread (2025-entry cycle, via search snippet)"disappointing about UCL the cut off seems so high for them"
Mumsnet Medicine 2026 Part 3 thread, poster bluefineliner (24 Feb 2026)Expect invites to trickle out weekly from December right through to the final early-March interview dates. Silence before Christmas does not mean rejection, and some applicants were still waiting on an invite in February.
Several reports · 2 sources(2026 entry)
Expect invites to trickle out weekly from December right through to the final early-March interview dates. Silence before Christmas does not mean rejection, and some applicants were still waiting on an invite in February.
"UCL is slowly (and painfully) releasing invites each week. If you don't hear from them before Christmas, they will probably send invitations in the first two weeks of January as well, for the remaining interview dates in January and for the two interview dates in March."
TSR UCL A100 2026 Entry thread (Dec 2025, via search snippet)"STILL waiting for a UCL invite and, as it stands right now, DD will either make their last interview date (3rd of March) or will narrowly miss the ranking cut-off by 10 points."
Mumsnet Medicine 2026 Part 3 thread, poster inae (3 Feb 2026)Pre-interview rejections arrive very late (mid-to-late February) and in staggered batches, appearing as a UCAS update citing UCAT score, so applicants effectively learn nothing until nearly all interview slots are allocated.
Several reports · 2 sources(2026 entry)
Pre-interview rejections arrive very late (mid-to-late February) and in staggered batches, appearing as a UCAS update citing UCAT score, so applicants effectively learn nothing until nearly all interview slots are allocated.
"UCL has started to send pre-interview rejections today, and it looks like they don't even send those all at once!"
Mumsnet Medicine 2026 Part 3 thread, poster inae (17 Feb 2026)"a confirmation from UCL that they won't invite.. they updated UCAS today to rejection due to low UCAT. DD had 2180 B1"
Mumsnet Medicine 2026 Part 3 thread, poster inae (23 Feb 2026)"DD also got the expected UCL rejection today 2150 B2."
Mumsnet Medicine 2026 Part 3 thread, poster notsoperfect33 (23 Feb 2026)Before interview season, UCL medical-student societies (RUMS ISoc, Muslim Medics) run cheap or free mock-MMI practice days at the Cruciform building in Bloomsbury, advertised via their Instagram pages with sign-up confirmed by email. Parents of multiple applicants rated them very helpful versus paid courses.
Several reports · 2 sources(2026 entry)
Before interview season, UCL medical-student societies (RUMS ISoc, Muslim Medics) run cheap or free mock-MMI practice days at the Cruciform building in Bloomsbury, advertised via their Instagram pages with sign-up confirmed by email. Parents of multiple applicants rated them very helpful versus paid courses.
"an MMI practice session is scheduled for Sunday at the Cruciform, UCL's Medical School [organised by UCL Muslim Med students, advertised on Instagram]"
Mumsnet Medicine 2026 Part 2 thread, poster inae (4-6 Nov 2025)"My DD went to a similar one organised by UCL's RUMS ISoc students and it was very helpful."
Mumsnet Medicine 2026 Part 2 thread, poster inae (23 Nov 2025)"Thanks so much @inae ! We've signed up!... My son will be there"
Mumsnet Medicine 2026 Part 2 thread, poster MyGreyBiscuit (4-5 Nov 2025)Go in expecting to think on your feet rather than pattern-match: applicants complain UCL is unusually tight-lipped about what its MMI stations actually contain, with no reliable community consensus on whether role-play or calculation stations feature.
Single report(older cycle)
Go in expecting to think on your feet rather than pattern-match: applicants complain UCL is unusually tight-lipped about what its MMI stations actually contain, with no reliable community consensus on whether role-play or calculation stations feature.
"UCL's MMI interviews seem to be very secretive about what they entail... questioning whether there is a roleplay station, calculation station, reasoning station etc like other universities or if it's different"
TSR 'UCL Medicine A100 2024' thread (2024-entry cycle, via search snippet)Post-interview offers are not held to a single release date. At least one 2026-cycle family reported an offer landing in mid-February while other candidates were still being interviewed into March, so a long post-interview silence is normal for later interviewees.
Single report(2026 entry)
Post-interview offers are not held to a single release date. At least one 2026-cycle family reported an offer landing in mid-February while other candidates were still being interviewed into March, so a long post-interview silence is normal for later interviewees.
"Daughter received offer from UCL just now so excitement here xx"
Mumsnet Medicine 2026 Part 3 thread, poster HelenofSparta (12 Feb 2026)Free prep guide
How to prepare for UCL
- Each station is scored independently by a different assessor: a weak station doesn't sink the ones before or after it, so reset your mindset walking into each one.
Verified against the university's own admissions page.
UCL: official Faculty of Medical Sciences interviews pageResearched 2026-07-03 for 2026 entry. Formats can change year to year: next check due 2026-09-01.
Practise for UCL
10 free practice questions with full AI feedback: no card required.
Other Multiple Mini Interview schools
Compare universitiesSame interview format, different school.
See all 32 universities →