The Macquarie MD MMI: a face-to-face interview on a single Saturday (2027 entry)

Macquarie selects Doctor of Medicine applicants with a Multiple Mini Interview, and for domestic applicants it is one of the few Australian medical interviews still held in person on a single named day. GEMSAS states that "MMIs for domestic applicants will be face-to-face on Saturday 26 September 2026". Macquarie's own admissions page repeats the date and adds that "These interviews will be conducted face-to-face only". International applicants sit a modified MMI by videoconference instead, in three rounds across June, August and October 2026.

What Macquarie does not publish is how many stations you sit or how long each runs: GEMSAS says only "a series of short interview stations". If you have read "four stations, eight minutes each" somewhere, that figure is genuine but belongs to a different interview. And every place here is full-fee. GEMSAS states that "All places in the Macquarie University Doctor of Medicine are full-fee", so no Commonwealth Supported or Bonded places exist, which quietly changes what the rural rules mean at this school.

What Macquarie publishes about the interview

Getting invited and getting an offer are two different sums

Applicants routinely conflate these. The calculation that gets you into the room and the one that gets you a place use different inputs, and GAMSAT disappears entirely from the second.

The 2027-entry timeline

Which pathway you are actually on

Macquarie's routes into the same MD share neither a calendar nor an application system nor an interview. Domestic graduate applicants are the default case above: apply through GEMSAS, sit the face-to-face MMI on 26 September, compete for the 60 indicative full-fee places. All other domestic applicants must also apply via GEMSAS, so the only direct domestic route is the Indigenous one below.

International applicants

GEMSAS is not your route: "International applicants apply directly to Macquarie University". You sit the modified MMI by videoconference in one of three rounds, and MCAT is weighted for interview and offer exactly as GAMSAT is. One caution: GEMSAS says bonus points are not available to international applicants, while Macquarie's own page extends the Bachelor of Clinical Science adjustment to domestic and international applicants alike. Confirm your position with the faculty.

Rural applicants

A rural background earns the 3 per cent weighted-GPA adjustment and nothing else. GEMSAS notes that most medical schools must allocate at least 25 per cent of their Commonwealth Supported Places to rural applicants, but Macquarie's quota row shows none at all, so that rule has nothing to attach to here. Rurality is claimed in the Rural Background section of the GEMSAS application, on the five consecutive or 10 cumulative years in an MM2-MM7 area test.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander applicants

You can apply through the standard domestic pathway, the Indigenous Australian Pathway, or both. On the Indigenous pathway your application is individually assessed by the faculty and staff at Walanga Muru, the University's Indigenous office. GAMSAT is optional, guidance is given through the application and interview process, the 5.0 out of 7.0 weighted GPA minimum still applies, and selection for both interview and offer is case-by-case rather than by the 50/50 rank. That window runs 1 March to 1 October, months longer than the GEMSAS one, though Macquarie publishes those dates without a year. It is not open to international applicants.

Macquarie Bachelor of Clinical Science students

Up to 30 interview places are reserved for graduates and final-year students of that degree, made available, in Macquarie's words, for graduates "who may not have otherwise received an interview offer". Domestic school leavers enter it through UAC and then still apply through GEMSAS for the MD. International students in the package progress automatically without further admissions tests, so their only MMI is the four-station online one at entry.

What Macquarie does not publish

Everything below was absent from every official source at our last check. Anyone quoting you a figure for these has either invented it or borrowed it from the undergraduate interview.

Station count, station length and total duration for the graduate MD MMI are all absent, as is anything about reading time, a prompt posted outside the door, or rest stations. What "modified" means in the international modified MMI is never explained beyond its being by videoconference.

Station design goes undescribed: the assessed domains, interviewers per station, whether actors, role-play or task stations are used, and whether stations are scored independently. There is no scoring detail of any kind, no rubric, no scale, no satisfactory threshold, and no account of how the raw score is standardised before the 50/50 offer ranking.

Interview-day logistics are unpublished, including venue, start and finish times, ID requirements, any reserve date or reschedule process, and what happens for a domestic applicant not residing in Australia, since the rule is written for those who are. The specific international dates within the three rounds are not given, nor is any rule for how applicants are allocated between them, and nothing explains how the 30 reserved Bachelor of Clinical Science interview places sit against the general merit list or what minimum takes one.

No process, contact or deadline is published for requesting disability, medical or religious accommodations for the MMI itself, and nothing is published about what happens afterwards either: no tie-break rule, no waitlist or top-up process, no appeals process, no score release and no feedback for unsuccessful applicants. Casper and UCAT are mentioned in no Macquarie source at all, and only GAMSAT and MCAT are described, so those absences are inferred rather than stated. The Indigenous Pathway interview is case-by-case with support through the process, but its format, date, delivery mode and assessors are unpublished, and so is any Indigenous quota.

So if you need an adjustment on the day, ask the faculty as soon as your invitation arrives rather than waiting for a published process, because there is not one. Our approach to gaps like these is set out in our editorial standards.

Preparing for a format the university has not specified

Everything above is what the official sources publish. This section is MedCoach's advice, shaped by the two facts that make Macquarie unusual: the interview happens in a room, and it is half the offer decision.

Build an answer that can be three minutes or eight

With no published station length, drilling to one duration is a bet. Build answers that land the substance early and can then extend: the issue, the people affected, the competing considerations, what you would do and why. Run the same scenario at different lengths, so a short station cannot cut you off mid-argument and a long one does not leave you repeating yourself.

Rehearse the room, not the webcam

A face-to-face MMI puts back into play everything a video format removes: how you enter, where you put your hands, whether you hold eye contact with a person rather than a lens, and how fast you reset after a station goes badly. If you are sitting online interviews elsewhere this cycle, our guides to the UQ MD MMI and the Monash MMI cover those formats, and the differences are worth knowing before you prepare for both.

Once you are invited, GAMSAT stops mattering

GAMSAT and MCAT carry half the weight of getting an interview and none of the weight of getting an offer, which splits weighted GPA against MMI. Your academic record is fixed by the time you walk in, and GEMSAS states that academic results are not discussed at interview. The MMI is the only variable left.

For how the MMI compares with the other interview formats used across the country, start with the national guide to Australian medical school interviews.