Preparing for your medical interviews is essential and will also calm your nerves on the actual day. A great way to start is to practice answering some questions with the following blog post by FutureDoc: Interview question and Model Answer Bank Scenarios. However, there is no way of knowing exactly which questions will be asked, no matter how many questions you do! So, what if I told you there was a fool-proof structure for answering competency-based questions? The STARR technique will enable you to confidently answer questions whether you have practiced them or not.

Firstly, what are competency-based questions? These questions often start with phrases like “tell us about a time when…” or “describe a time when…” and give you a chance to tell the interviewers how you handled certain situations. These questions are great for showcasing why you would be a great future Doctor and after reading this article you will feel well equipped to answer them.

STARR stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result and Reflection.

Situation

Describe the context for your answer. Be specific and really set the scene, your example could be from work experience, volunteering, school etc.

Task

Here is where you will describe your responsibility or duty in the particular situation already stated. For example, did you lead a group project with a time constraint? Or perhaps you had to adapt your communication for a patient during work experience?

Action

This is the time to describe how you completed the task or the actions you had to take to address the challenge. Remember to use ‘I’ words – focus on what you did, not what anyone else in the situation did. Doing this will ensure the focus is only on yourself, you are the one wanting to ace this interview and study medicine – not the rest of your team or co-workers etc.!

Result

Explain what happened and link this with how it came about as a result of your actions. Keep this positive and emphasise what you achieved.

Reflection

Lastly, reflect on the situation. This is the part which can set you aside from other candidates. Reflection shows that you can analyse a situation from different perspectives, consider alternative courses of action and identify areas for improvement. Being able to reflect effectively also shows you are well suited for medicine as reflection is assessed and used throughout medicine. You should make sure you include what you learnt from the situation and how this will impact how you would act in similar future situations.

Example – Can you tell me about a time you had to work in a group?

Situation – In school during drama class we were assigned a group project.

Task – In our groups of 6 we had to write a short 5-minute play using props given and perform this at the next class.

Action – At the beginning of the assignment, my group quickly shouted out lots of ideas. I realised that assigning tasks to different group members would make this time more effective. I suggested writing down the ideas and stated how having a group leader could ensure everyone’s ideas got heard. I also suggested someone else could add up votes for each idea to help decide which to do.

Result – Taking the lead and structuring the assignment in this way meant that we came to a conclusion about ideas and characters a lot quicker and gave us more time for practicing. The end result was a well-rehearsed play which all of our peers enjoyed.

Reflection – This situation really highlighted the importance of leadership and organisation when faced with group tasks. Communicating with my peers and suggesting writing down the ideas of everyone enabled us to listen to everyone instead of just shouting over each other and also meant we had a visual list of ideas. This meant we could sift through the ideas quicker and weren’t wasting time repeating ourselves. Assigning different roles to people also meant we worked effectively as a team. In the future I would definitely implement this strategy again and I feel this would work for all group work, not just in drama class!

Hopefully after reading this article and the example question and answer you feel a bit more confident in using the STARR technique. Although there is no way of knowing what questions you will be asked during your interview, preparing a few scenarios which you feel correlate with NHS values will be of benefit. Practice structuring these scenarios using the STARR technique and check out FutureDoc’s Medicine Interview Course: Panel & MMI Interview Success to fully succeed in your interviews.

Written by Ellie Zelisko