Reference

Learn the engine, not the fourteen answers. They will run a scenario you have not seen.

The eight competencies

From the Trainee Selection Policy: MMI stations assess “real life knowledge and experience from clinical and non-clinical settings, which align with the key dermatological competencies”. Name the competency to yourself before you answer.

Medical ExpertCommunicatorCollaboratorLeaderHealth AdvocateScholarProfessionalCulturally Responsive Practitioner

The page · the one form, every station

Pen and paper are provided and the paper goes in with you, so this is a script you can glance at mid-answer rather than something to memorise. Draw the same grid every time. The left column is your issues answer and the right column is your approach answer, so you walk the same three rows twice: once as nouns, once as verbs.

?The question, in your own three wordsthe guard against answering the clinical preamble instead of what was asked
PPatientAnyone unsafe right now? Is their care delayed, denied or misunderstood?
PePeopleWho else is in this, and who is in trouble underneath it? What is my standing - junior, peer, bystander?
SSystemWhat let this happen? Would it happen again tomorrow to someone else?
+Who else is at risk?the line most candidates never say, and often the highest-scoring issue on the station
★The story that is comingname it before you go in - this is the one people skip and then regret

If the clock is against you

First 15 seconds: write ? and ★. These two prevent the two most expensive failures: answering the preamble instead of the question, and freezing when they ask for a story.
Next 30 seconds: write P · Pe · S, three or four words each. Nouns, not sentences. A sentence here means you are rehearsing, and rehearsing in two minutes is how people walk in with one polished paragraph and nothing after it.
Whatever is left: write the → column, then +. The verbs can be filled live while you talk. The + line costs four seconds and is nearly always available.

One fork: Is the subject a situation, or is it me?

A situation - P · Pe · S down the middle. Roughly 35 of the 42 stations.

Me - CV, motivation, why dermatology, a time you failed. Same page, but CAAMP replaces P · Pe · S down the left, and the ★ at the bottom matters more than anything above it.

The page becomes seven minutes

0:00One sentence of principle, then signpost.Three things stand out: the patient, the people around them, and the system that let it happen.
0:15Issues. Read the left column, top to bottom.Finish with the + line: I'd want to know whether other patients are affected by the same problem.
2:00Approach. Same three rows, now as verbs.Name who you escalate to and why them. Land the last sentence on the patient.
4:30The story. Read the ★.Say I, not we. Explain every abbreviation as you use it - a non-clinician on that panel marks Communicator.

The sandwich - every answer, whatever is inside it

From the 2022 College interview-prep webinar. Whichever framework you use in the middle, it sits between these two.

Motherhood statement

One sentence establishing the principle before you touch the specifics. 'Patient safety is the first consideration in any situation like this.' It buys three seconds, signals values, and stops you starting mid-thought.

The framework

CAMP, STAR, SPIES-D, or the three-part opinion structure.

In summary statement

One sentence summarising what you said and linking it back to the question. Never finish on a cliff-hanger - panels will prompt you for an ending, and it sounds far better arriving on its own.

When the scenario withholds something

“For the purposes of answering this question, I'm going to assume [X].”

Say it out loud rather than guessing silently. It costs three seconds and it stops the panel marking you down for an assumption they never heard you make.

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