Do I need to pre-prepare stories about personal experiences for interviews?

It is helpful to have an idea of a few anecdotes for when you have demonstrated or developed specific attributes desirable in medicine. Situations I was often asked were ones where you have shown teamwork, leadership, effective communication as well as coping with success and failure. They don’t have to be particularly dramatic, the interviewers aren’t focused on what the situation was but how you dealt with it.I found a particularly useful structure to be as follows: a rough outline of what the situation wasyour initial thoughtswhat influenced how you acted (for example when showing communication skills to comfort a friend who was upset you may use specific aspects of body language to determine how you respond)action takenexternal response (could be how the problem resolved or how your peers reacted to your action)internal response (how you felt)evaluation (how effective was your action and how will it affect your future)Don’t worry about learning every possible scenario specifically with this criteria, but I found having a basic outline and ideas of experiences very useful. Especially when you can then apply them to a range of questions, for example a question about success could also be linked to an experience of really high level communication e.g taking part in a presentation at school. And even if an aspect of your answer doesn’t sound perfect that’s ok, the interviewers are looking for honesty and openness in reflection as it is an essential professional skill. Having that willingness to share what’s not perfect will set you apart from the other candidates.