Interview preparation

This course has been devised and taught for over ten years by Theophano Megalokonomou, Educational Psychologist. Selection interviews usually have two parts (in other words, there are two interviews). One looks at the academic abilities of the student, the other is more interested in the candidate's personality and interests. Our interview preparation addresses both parts. Our training programme aims to familiarise candidates with the interview process, make them aware of what the interviewer is looking for and help them develop response strategies to interview questions.

We start with an overview of what the interview involves, move to non-verbals such as dress codes, general presentation and address relaxation techniques. The following part of the preparation involves discussions around the personal statement, personality characteristics with questions and answers in this respect. The third part addresses issues related to subject-specific requirements such as NHS ethical principles when a candidate is preparing for a medical or paramedical degree interview. Some universities ask the students to read and comment on an article; it is important for the student to have a general understanding on how to produce an answer, thus we work on the general strategy one can use. Although it might seem simple to an adult, young people do not always have a strategy on how to start and end an argument or presentation before they are well into a disoriented long speech. Thus another purpose is to teach them to have a plan and produce a three minute response with a beginning and an end. This exercise of course is harder for non-native speakers of the English language.

Our interview preparation training course envisages groups sessions as well as one to one mock interview practice. The purpose of the sessions is to understand the interview process and its requirements. One-to-one sessions fine tune the candidate's performance. Students are expected to have time for study and practice in-between sessions.

Our success rate to interview invitations is well above 90%, indicating that we are in a position to offer the training which will assist development of skills vital to this difficult stage of the application/admission procedure. More importantly, these are skills the candidates will need to possess throughout their education and beyond.