IMT interview questions (formerly core medical training)
The Internal Medicine Training (IMT) interview, recruiting to the programme that replaced Core Medical Training, has two online stations of 11 minutes each, about 30 minutes in all. Station 1 opens with a two-minute presentation on your achievements, explores your suitability for IMT, then gives you an ethical, professionalism and governance scenario. Station 2 reads you a brief clinical scenario, asks up to ten minutes of questions, and ends with a one-minute handover. Two interviewers mark seven areas from 1 to 5.
Station 1: application, suitability and ethics
A six-minute exploration of your achievements and suitability, opening with a two-minute presentation giving an overview of your achievements most relevant to internal medicine training. No visual aids are allowed, and you are stopped at two minutes.
Then an ethical, professionalism and governance scenario, not given in advance and read out by the interviewers, lasting up to five minutes. Your communication is scored across the whole station.
Practice questions: suitability and achievements
- Tell us about your motivation for internal medicine training.
- Tell us about an experience of applying the professional duty of candour that demonstrates your suitability for internal medicine training.
- Tell us about an experience of resolving multidisciplinary disagreement about discharge that demonstrates your suitability for internal medicine training.
- Tell us about an experience of supporting a psychologically safe learning culture that demonstrates your suitability for internal medicine training.
Practice questions: ethics, professionalism and governance
- How would you manage a patient refusing life-saving treatment?
- How would you manage a family demanding non-beneficial treatment?
- How would you manage a colleague appearing impaired?
- How would you manage a senior asking you to work beyond competence?
- How would you manage a prescribing error causing harm?
- How would you manage a missed diagnosis after discharge?
Station 2: clinical scenario and handover
A brief clinical scenario of a few sentences is read to you, followed by up to ten minutes of questions; many scenarios add more information or data as you go. You then hand the patient over to a colleague in one minute.
It is scored on investigations, diagnosis and management, communication, and handover.
Practice questions: clinical scenarios, each ending with a handover
- You are the foundation doctor on the acute medical unit. A 72-year-old man develops sudden right-sided weakness and slurred speech while having breakfast; his symptoms began fifty minutes ago and he remains hypertensive. Hand over to the on-call stroke registrar.
- You are the foundation doctor on the acute medical unit. A 20-year-old man presents with fever, severe headache and neck stiffness; he is photophobic and a non-blanching rash has appeared on his lower legs. Hand over to the intensive care outreach team.
- You are the foundation doctor on the acute medical unit. A 58-year-old woman with known breast cancer presents with confusion, constipation and thirst; her corrected calcium returns at 3.6 mmol/L. Hand over to the on-call oncology registrar.
- You are the foundation doctor on the acute medical unit. A 64-year-old woman with known lung cancer presents with confusion and nausea; her sodium is 114 mmol/L and she appears clinically euvolaemic. Hand over to the night medical registrar.
- You are the foundation doctor on the acute medical unit. A 55-year-old man develops sudden facial and tongue swelling, stridor and a drop in blood pressure ten minutes after receiving an intravenous antibiotic on the ward. Hand over to the intensive care outreach team.
- You are the foundation doctor on the acute medical unit. A 61-year-old man presents with two episodes of vomiting fresh blood and passing black tarry stools; he is tachycardic at 112 beats per minute with a blood pressure of 96/60. Hand over to the on-call gastroenterology registrar.
The practice questions come from MedMock's own question bank, written for this interview's published format. They are not past interview questions.
Scoring and selection
- Seven areas are marked, each from 1 to 5 by both interviewers: 14 marks and a raw interview score out of 70. A score of 3/5 is considered satisfactory.
- To be appointable, none of your scores can be 1/5, no more than two can be 2/5, and your raw interview score must be 42 or above.
- With weighting, the scores give a total out of 96, which sets your ranking.
- For 2027 recruitment, all IMT interviews are held online between 18 January and 12 February.
- In the 2025 recruitment round there were 8841 applications for 1678 Internal Medicine Training CT1 posts, a competition ratio of 5.27.
Frequently asked questions
Is IMT the same as core medical training?
IMT replaced Core Medical Training from August 2019. Recruitment is coordinated by the Physician Specialty Recruitment Office (PSRO), part of NHS England since July 2023.
How long is the IMT interview?
Two stations of 11 minutes each, about 30 minutes including the time between stations, held online.
What score do you need at IMT interview?
To be appointable, no score of 1/5, no more than two scores of 2/5, and a raw interview score of 42 or above out of 70.
Checked on 13 October 2026 against IMT interview structure and content, IMT interview scoring, Overview of IMT recruitment, IMT website updated for 2027 recruitment and 2025 competition ratios (NHS England). Recruitment changes each year: confirm on the official pages before you apply.
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