With just under 1 week to go to the ST3 Orthopaedic Interviews 2014 today’s blog looks at what you should be focussing on in the final few days.


Organise Your Required Documents
One of the most time-consuming elements of interview preparation is ensuring that you have the required documents located, organised and safely stored prior to the interviews.

The ST3 Orthopaedic Interviews request that you bring with you original copies and photocopies of a number of important documents which will be checked on the day by a document checker. Below is a list of the required documents you must bring:

• Your Portfolio containing evidence to substantiate your Self Assessment form responses. You must use the contents page which can be downloaded on the right of this page to ensure your Self Assessment evidence can be easily identified.
• Completed Personal Skills Assessment form(s) in a sealed envelope. Please see the Applicant Handbook for more information about the Personal Skills Assessment.
• 3 original reference forms in sealed envelopes. Please see the Applicant Handbook for more information about references.
• 2 forms of photo identification (eg. passport, driving licence) and 1 proof of address (eg, bank statement or utility bill) or, 1 form of photo identification and 2 proof of address. AND 1 COPY OF EACH
• Evidence of your current immigration status AND 1 COPY
• Evidence of your GMC registration and Licence to Practise AND 1 COPY
• Evidence of your English Language competency as detailed in your application form AND 1 COPY
• Your primary medical degree certificate AND 1 COPY
• Your postgraduate degree certificate (if applicable) AND 1 COPY
• Evidence of your Core Competences as detailed in your application form AND 1 COPY
• Evidence that you have been awarded or successfully completed all parts for MRCS AND 1 COPY
• Evidence that you have successfully completed ATLS and that your ATLS provider status is in date at the time of the interview AND 1 COPY

Finalise Your Portfolio
Hopefully you have followed our advice and your portfolio is now in a nice, well-presented binder with dividers and sub-contents pages to facilitate marking.
You may have been waiting until the last minute for publications to be accepted and you should now finalise your contents and ensure that you know your portfolio inside-out and can easily locate documents.
Print out at least two copies of your CV (one for each interviewer) and re-read from the beginning to ensure you haven’t missed any spelling errors.

Practise Your Presentation
You should have your OHP slide written out and have practised your presentation so that it is down to 3-minutes. Remember it may be worth taking a spare OHP slide in case the primary slide is damaged/smudged in transit.
Try and do some final practise sessions to housemates, family, friends or colleagues timing yourself and ensuring that you are concise and have read around the topic sufficiently to be able to answer questions.

Re-Read Your Notes and Question Bank
It is important that you do not try to cram in too much information immediately prior to the interviews, however, it is important that you re-read key topics prior to the interviews.
Take a final look through the Question Bank to ensure that you can confidently answer the majority of questions.

Book Your Transport and Accommodation
Decide where you are going to stay in Leeds or if you will be travelling up on the day. There are a number of hotels located close to Elland Road Football Stadium and a taxi from the station takes around 20-30mins in rush hour.

Pick Out an Outfit
Make sure that your best suit and shirt are clean and ironed prior to the interviews. Remember that the Technical Skills station requires you to be bare-below the elbows and any outfit should facilitate this. Ties can be tucked in and suit jackets removed. Make sure that cuff links can be easily removed to prevent any embarrassment on the day!

Relax and Be Confident
You should have been preparing for these interviews both at work and in your spare time. If you have completed the Question Bank questions and been practising you should be confident that you are well-prepared for the interviews.
While the interviews now resemble an OSCE your ability to confidently answer questions in a succinct manner will go a long way and it is important not to become too fact-based in your answers.
Ensure that you relax, go to the gym and get some sleep in the run up to your interview date.
On the day make sure you get up in good time, have breakfast and get to the venue in a timely manner.

Make sure that you also look through our previous post on Interview Technique before your interview for more top tips.