Medical school interviews in Australia 2027: formats, dates and weightings

Twenty-three Australian universities offer a primary medical degree, and there is no such thing as "the Australian medical interview". For 2027 entry the published formats include live multiple mini interviews of three to eight stations, recorded interviews with no interviewer present at all, structured interviews with two people in the room, half-day multi-station assessments that are not called an MMI, and two programs that do not interview domestic applicants. Preparing for the wrong one is the most expensive mistake an applicant can make in September.

This page is the comparison, program by program, taken from each university's own admissions material and from the GEMSAS Medical Schools Admissions Guide. Where a school publishes nothing, it says so rather than filling the gap. If you are looking for when offers and invitations land rather than what the interview is, the interview offer and date guide covers the calendar.

Graduate-entry programs: what each interview actually is

Ten of these schools admit through GEMSAS, which runs one application and gives you one interview offer only. Flinders and Monash run their own graduate admissions outside GEMSAS. Sydney's standard metropolitan graduate pathway has no interview at all.

School-leaver and direct-entry programs

These programs admit from Year 12, usually through a state admissions centre and usually on UCAT ANZ, with two conspicuous exceptions that use no admissions test at all. Their interviews mostly run from late November 2026 into January 2027, after ATAR results.

Five things applicants routinely get wrong

These are the assumptions we see most often, and what the official material actually says.

The first is that every school runs an MMI. UNSW runs a structured interview with two interviewers and uses no station language at all. Flinders, James Cook, Charles Darwin and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pathways at several schools use panel interviews, the Joint Medical Program runs a Multiple Skills Assessment, and Griffith runs the GUMSAA.

The second is that an MMI means eight stations. Counts differ by more than a factor of two. Melbourne, UQ, UOW and UWA publish eight, Adelaide publishes a minimum of six at ten minutes each, Monash publishes six, and Deakin publishes up to six at five minutes, with Melbourne's rural applicants sitting three extra live stations on top. Notre Dame, Macquarie, Curtin, Western Sydney and Charles Sturt publish no station count at all.

The third is that there will be someone to talk to. Melbourne's ROMMI and Notre Dame's MMI are recorded and asynchronous, and Griffith's GUMSAA is recorded through SAMMI, so in those three you speak to a screen and a marker watches the recording later.

The fourth is that interviews are all online now. Macquarie interviews face to face on a single Saturday, UNSW interviews face to face at Kensington, Curtin is primarily face to face, the Joint Medical Program is in person, and Charles Darwin is in person at Casuarina unless you live outside Greater Darwin.

The last is that everyone interviews. Tasmania does not, for its mainstream domestic pathways, and neither does Sydney for its standard metropolitan graduate MD, which ranks on admissions test results and reserves an interview or SJT only to separate applicants who tie.

When the 2027 interviews happen

The cycle splits cleanly in two. Graduate-entry interviews cluster in September and early October 2026, straight after GEMSAS releases interview offers. School-leaver interviews mostly wait for ATAR results and run from late November 2026 into January 2027.

How much the interview is worth

The weighting varies more than the format does, and it changes what preparation is rational. At one end an interview is a pass/fail hurdle. At the other it is the entire ranking.

Where the official record simply stops

Every page you read about Australian medical interviews claims to know these things. The universities themselves do not publish them, and we would rather tell you that than repeat a number someone invented.

Station counts are unpublished at Notre Dame on both campuses, at Macquarie, Curtin, Western Sydney, Charles Sturt and Griffith, and for Monash's graduate-entry MMI, while ANU publishes no format at all. Station length and reading time are unpublished almost everywhere except Melbourne, UQ, UWA, Adelaide, Monash direct entry and Deakin.

No Australian medical school publishes an interview cut-off score, and several state explicitly that they will not release one. Scoring rubrics and assessor numbers are almost never published either, and where a school does name the domains it assesses, they are broad: communication, ethics, teamwork, decision-making.

Adjustments for disability are described in detail by very few schools. Notre Dame and UQ name a contact, and most publish neither a deadline nor a process. Feedback is mostly refused: Melbourne offers qualitative feedback to unsuccessful applicants, generally in February, UQ gives cohort-relative feedback only, and Flinders, Notre Dame and Deakin's international route each publish that no feedback is given.

What this means for your preparation

Everything above is published information. This section is MedCoach's advice, and it follows from the comparison rather than from generic interview technique.

Prepare for the instrument, not for "the MMI"

A seven-minute UQ station and a five-minute Deakin station are different performances. So are a recorded Notre Dame prompt with no interviewer and a face-to-face Macquarie station with a person watching you. Find your school's row above, then rehearse to that clock and that audience. If you have preferenced several schools, rehearse the shortest and the longest station you might face rather than an average of them.

If your school records the interview, practise to a camera and a countdown

Melbourne, Notre Dame and Griffith give you no interviewer to read. There is no nod, no follow-up question, no chance to recover from a blank look. The skills that matter are starting cleanly without a warm-up exchange, keeping energy up while speaking to a lens, and filling the time without padding. Most applicants have never once practised this, and it is obvious in the recording.

If your school interviews in person, rehearse the transitions

Macquarie, UNSW, Curtin, the Joint Medical Program and Charles Darwin put you in a room. Walking between stations, resetting after a station that went badly, and reading a written prompt on a door under time pressure are all part of the assessment in a way they are not on Zoom.

For the school-by-school detail behind these rows, read the individual guides: Melbourne, Monash, UQ, UNSW, Sydney, ANU, Deakin, Wollongong, Macquarie, UWA, Griffith and Notre Dame. The offer and interview date guide tracks the calendar, and our editorial standards explain how these facts are checked and how to send a correction.