Occupational Therapy University Interview Questions (MMI)

Occupational therapy degree interviews are values-based, and many universities run them as a multiple mini interview (MMI) — a circuit of short stations rather than one long conversation. This guide covers what is asked, how MMIs work, and the honest answer to the worry every applicant has: that you have no clinical experience.

999ready is an independent practice resource and is not affiliated with any university, the NHS or RCOT. Every university runs its own process — always follow the guidance sent with your invitation.

Nobody expects you to have clinical experience

Start here, because it changes how you prepare. You are applying to be trained. What admissions tutors are assessing is whether you understand the profession, why you want it, and whether you can reflect on what you have already seen.

Your examples come from ordinary life: a part-time job, voluntary work, a care home placement, supporting a relative, a school project. A well-reflected example from a supermarket job beats a thin one from a hospital.

The question they really care about

"What is occupational therapy?" — and it is the one most applicants answer badly.

The weak answer describes helping people recover. The strong answer is about occupation in the technical sense: the everyday activities that give life meaning and independence — washing, dressing, cooking, working, getting to the shops, playing with grandchildren. An OT's job is to help someone do the things they need and want to do, by changing the activity, the environment or the person's ability to do it.

Being able to say that clearly, in your own words, separates applicants who have researched the profession from those who have confused it with physiotherapy or nursing. If you can add what makes it different from physiotherapy, better still.

Questions that come up

• What is occupational therapy, and how does it differ from physiotherapy?
• Why do you want to be an occupational therapist?
• What have you done to find out what the job is really like?
• Tell us about a time you helped someone who was struggling.
• Describe a time you worked in a team. What was your part in it?
• How would you support someone who did not want your help?
• What do you think is the hardest part of this job?
• Tell us about a time you had to communicate something difficult.
• What does person-centred care mean to you?
• How do you cope with pressure or setbacks?

How an MMI differs

An MMI is a set of short timed stations — often five to ten minutes each — with a different assessor and task at every one. Some are questions, some are role-play or a scenario to discuss.

Three things follow from the format:

• A bad station is survivable. Each is scored independently by a different assessor, so one poor answer does not follow you around. Reset at the door.
• Brevity matters. With five minutes you cannot ramble to a point. Answer, give your example, stop.
• Prepared speeches fall apart. Stations are varied by design. Understanding the profession travels between them; a memorised paragraph does not.

Use STAR, but lightly

For any "tell me about a time" question, the STAR structure — Situation, Task, Action, Result — keeps you concrete and stops you drifting into what you would hypothetically do. Spend most of your time on Action: what you did, not what the group did.

Universities delivering NHS-funded courses recruit against the same values the NHS uses, so reading the six NHS values is genuinely useful preparation for a degree interview, not just a job one.

Practise out loud

Reading answers is not practising them. The gap between knowing what you think and saying it clearly under time pressure is the whole difficulty of an interview.

Our Values-Based Interview Coach has a university applicant level that marks your answers on the understanding expected of someone not yet in practice, rather than the clinical depth expected of a Band 5. Speak or type an answer and you get specific feedback in seconds — the first one is free. You can also work through the occupational therapy university interview questions directly.