MMI practice questions, and how to answer them out loud

The Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) is a circuit of short stations. At each one you read a prompt, then talk it through with an interviewer or act out a scenario. Below are 24 practice prompts we wrote for this page, a structure that works for most of them, and one worked example.

How an MMI works

Formats vary by school, so always read what each school sends you. A typical circuit looks like this:

• Several stations, often somewhere between six and ten.
• A short reading period before each one (commonly about two minutes) to read the prompt on the door or screen.
• A few minutes at each station (commonly five to eight) talking with an interviewer, answering follow-ups, or role-playing with an actor.
• A fresh start every time. Each interviewer usually scores only their own station, so a rough station does not follow you to the next one.

Many schools now run MMIs online, with the same timing over video.

What interviewers listen for

Most MMI prompts have no single right answer. Interviewers are listening to how you think: whether you see more than one side, treat people with respect, reason your way to a decision, and explain it clearly under time pressure. A confident, well-reasoned answer that lands on either side of a debate usually beats a hesitant one that refuses to choose.

A structure that works for most stations

1. Name the core issue. One or two sentences: what is actually in tension here?
2. Say what you'd want to know. Missing facts often change the answer (Is the patient competent? Is anyone in danger? What does the law say?).
3. Weigh the people and principles involved. Who is affected? For ethics stations, the four classic principles help: respect for autonomy, doing good (beneficence), avoiding harm (non-maleficence) and fairness (justice).
4. Lay out two or three options and what each would lead to.
5. Choose one and say why. Then say what would change your mind. That shows judgment, not indecision.

Role-play stations are different: there, the skill being scored is how you treat the person in front of you. Listen first, acknowledge how they feel, be honest, and agree on a next step.

Practice questions

Set a timer: two minutes to read and plan, then about seven minutes to talk. Say your answers out loud. An answer that sounds fine in your head often runs long or loses its thread when spoken.

Ethics

1. An adult patient with full decision-making capacity refuses a blood transfusion for religious reasons. Without it, they may die. What do you do?
2. You're a medical student. A resident asks you to sign off on a note for an exam you didn't watch them perform. How do you respond?
3. A 16-year-old asks their family doctor for contraception and asks that their parents not be told. Discuss the issues. (The law on this varies by state.)
4. Before a procedure, you notice a senior colleague seems impaired. Nobody else has said anything. What do you do?
5. A patient is diagnosed with an infection that could put their spouse at risk, and asks you not to tell the spouse. What are your obligations?
6. A drug company offers to pay for lunches and a conference trip for your clinic's staff. Should you accept?

Health care and society

7. Should organ donation be opt-out instead of opt-in?
8. A hospital has too little of a drug for every patient who needs it. How should it decide who gets it?
9. Should governments tax sugary drinks to improve public health?
10. What role should artificial intelligence play in diagnosing patients?
11. Rural areas have far fewer doctors per person than cities. If you could change one thing, what would it be?
12. Should physicians be allowed to go on strike?

Role-play and communication

13. A patient has waited three hours past their appointment time and is angry when you walk in. (The interviewer plays the patient.)
14. Tell your close friend you can't come to their wedding because you have to retake an exam you failed.
15. Explain to a worried parent, without jargon, why their child doesn't need antibiotics for a cold.
16. Describe a simple drawing to your partner, who can't see it, so they can reproduce it. You can't look at what they draw.

Teamwork and personal

17. Tell me about a time a team you were part of disagreed. What did you do?
18. Why medicine, and not nursing, physician assistant or public health?
19. Tell me about a failure and what you changed because of it.
20. Describe a time you got difficult feedback. How did you respond?
21. What will you bring to our class that others might not?

Critical thinking

22. A study finds that people who drink coffee live longer. Should doctors tell patients to drink more coffee?
23. Is it ever acceptable for a doctor to withhold the truth from a patient?
24. A celebrity promotes an unproven supplement and your patient wants to try it. How do you handle the conversation?

Worked example: the transfusion refusal

Here is how the structure plays out on question 1. This is an outline, not a script: the goal is to show the reasoning, not to memorize words.

• Core issue: respect for an adult's right to refuse treatment versus the wish to save their life.
• What I'd want to know: Does the patient truly have capacity right now? Do they understand the consequences? Is anyone pressuring them? Is there a written advance directive? Are there acceptable alternatives (for example, blood-sparing techniques or certain blood products some patients accept)?
• People and principles: the patient's autonomy and beliefs; the team's duty of care; family members, who may disagree but do not decide for a competent adult.
• Options: transfuse anyway (overrides a competent refusal, so not acceptable); accept the refusal without further discussion (misses alternatives); or confirm capacity, make sure the decision is informed and free, explore alternatives, involve the hospital's ethics or liaison resources, and document carefully.
• Decision: the third option. If a competent adult still refuses, I'd respect it and keep caring for them. What would change my answer: if capacity were in doubt, or if the patient were a child, which raises different legal and ethical questions.

How to practice

• Out loud, against a clock. Timing is half the skill. Most people either run out of things to say at minute four or never reach a conclusion.
• Practice the follow-up, not just the opener. Interviewers push: "What if the patient were 15?" "What if the colleague is your friend?" Have someone ask you those.
• Don't memorize scripts. Interviewers can tell, and a small twist in the prompt breaks a script. Memorize the structure instead.
• Review a recording. Listen for filler words, long preambles and answers that never commit.