The Internal Medicine Training (IMT) interview is held online on Qpercom Recruit as two 11-minute stations, about 30 minutes in total, each scored by two interviewers. Seven areas are marked from 1 to 5 by both interviewers, a raw maximum of 70, then weighted to a maximum of 96.
You are appointable if you score no 1, no more than two 2s, and a raw score of 42 or above.
Reviewed and updated 11 September 2026. Every date, score and price below carries the year it belongs to, and the 2027 IMT pages are due from the Physician Specialty Recruitment Office in autumn 2026.
The format and marks below are the 2026 position as published by the IMT recruitment office, which said in July 2026 that the 2027 process will be "largely unchanged". The 2027 pages are due in autumn 2026.
Key takeaways
- Two 11-minute stations, online on Qpercom Recruit, two scoring interviewers per station, about 30 minutes in all.
- Station 1 covers application and achievements (opening with a two-minute presentation), suitability for IMT, and an ethics, professionalism and governance question of up to five minutes.
- Station 2 is a clinical scenario of up to ten minutes plus a one-minute patient handover.
- Seven areas are scored 1 to 5 by each interviewer: 14 marks, raw maximum 70, weighted maximum 96. A 3 is satisfactory.
- Appointable means no score of 1, no more than two scores of 2, and a raw interview score of 42 or above, which is 60% of 70.
- IMT does not use the MSRA, and the self-assessment does not count towards ranking; the weighted interview score alone ranks you.
What is the format of the IMT interview in 2027?
The IMT interview is two stations of 11 minutes each, held online through Qpercom Recruit, with two scoring interviewers on each station. The IMT recruitment office states that "in some cases a third clinician may be present to share questioning".
Qpercom Recruit is the video interview platform used across UK specialty recruitment. Your camera and microphone stay on from the moment you log in, and your identity is checked against photographic ID before the interview starts.
| Station | Content | Time | Marks awarded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Station 1 | Application and achievements, opening with a two-minute presentation; suitability for IMT | Six minutes | Application and achievements; suitability for IMT |
| Station 1 | Ethical, professionalism and governance scenario | Up to five minutes | Ethics, professionalism and governance |
| Station 1 | Communication, marked across the station | Whole station | Communication |
| Station 2 | Clinical scenario: investigations, diagnosis and management | Up to ten minutes | Clinical; communication |
| Station 2 | Patient handover | One minute | Handover |
What happens in Station 1 of the IMT interview?
Station 1 of the IMT interview opens with your two-minute presentation, moves through questions on your application, achievements and suitability for IMT, and closes with an ethics, professionalism and governance scenario of up to five minutes.
The IMT recruitment office states that you may not use "any visual representations, such as PowerPoint" and must not share your screen. Notes for your own reference are allowed during the presentation.
Communication is marked across the whole station rather than as a separate question. The internalmedicineinterview guides to the two-minute presentation and the ethics scenarios take each part in turn.
What happens in Station 2 of the IMT interview?
Station 2 of the IMT interview is a single clinical scenario of up to ten minutes, covering investigations, diagnosis and management, followed by a one-minute handover of the patient. Communication is marked again across the station.
You may take notes during the scenario, but the IMT recruitment office states they "must be destroyed as soon as your interview has been completed".
The clinical station guide sets out a structure that fits ten minutes and a handover that fits one.
How is the IMT interview scored out of 96?
The IMT interview is scored by giving each of seven areas a mark from 1 to 5 from each of two interviewers, then multiplying each area's total by a weighting. The weighted maximum is 96; the raw maximum is 70.
| Area | Station | Raw marks (2 interviewers x 5) | Weighting | Weighted maximum |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Application and achievements | 1 | 10 | x1.6 | 16 |
| Suitability for IMT | 1 | 10 | x1.6 | 16 |
| Ethical, professionalism and governance | 1 | 10 | x1.2 | 12 |
| Communication (Station 1) | 1 | 10 | x1.6 | 16 |
| Clinical: investigations, diagnosis and management | 2 | 10 | x1.2 | 12 |
| Communication (Station 2) | 2 | 10 | x1.6 | 16 |
| Patient handover | 2 | 10 | x0.8 | 8 |
| Total | 70 | 96 |
The two communication marks and the two portfolio areas carry 64 of the 96 weighted marks, or 67%. How you say it is worth more than what you know.
What does the raw score of 70 mean, and what is a satisfactory mark?
The raw score is the sum of the 14 unweighted marks, out of 70, and the IMT recruitment office states that "3/5 is considered a satisfactory score" reflecting the level of performance expected of a competent F2.
The raw interview score, written RIS on the office's page, is what the appointability threshold is measured against. The weighted score out of 96 is what you are ranked on.
A candidate scoring 3 in every area from both interviewers has a raw score of 42 and a weighted score of 57.6 out of 96, or 60%.
What makes you appointable at the IMT interview?
You are appointable at the IMT interview when all three conditions are met: no score of 1 out of 5 from any interviewer, no more than two scores of 2 out of 5, and a raw interview score of 42 or above.
| Rule | Threshold | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| No score of 1 | 0 marks of 1/5 across 14 marks | One interviewer marking one area at 1 makes you not appointable |
| Scores of 2 | No more than two marks of 2/5 | A third 2 from either interviewer makes you not appointable |
| Raw interview score | 42 or above out of 70 | 60% of the raw marks; a 3 in every area exactly reaches it |
Candidates found not appointable receive no ranking. In practice, the rules punish one weak area more than a generally average performance, so the one-minute handover deserves as much rehearsal as the clinical scenario.
How does the IMT interview decide your ranking?
Appointable candidates are ranked in order of their weighted interview score out of 96, and offers are made in that order against programme preferences. The self-assessment plays no part in the ranking.
The IMT recruitment office states that offers are made "in order, highest-scorer first" and that a distribution graph of scores is published after each round. Feedback includes your score in every area and your interviewers' comments.
The offers, ranking and preferences guide covers the 48-hour response rule, holding and upgrades.
What are the rules on AI, notes and identity checks at the IMT interview?
AI is banned. The IMT recruitment office states that "the use of AI technologies, including but not limited to AI generated responses, virtual assistants, real-time transcription tools, and automated scripts, will not be permitted during online interviews", with disqualification and possible referral to regulators for anyone found using them.
- You must be alone in the room and may be asked to show the room before you start.
- No reference materials or textbooks once registration begins.
- One photographic ID, passport preferred; without it you may not be interviewed.
- Notes for your own reference during the presentation; notes taken during the clinical scenario are destroyed afterwards.
- No recording, and no sharing of question content.
When are the 2027 IMT interviews?
The 2027 IMT interviews fall inside the national Round 1 window of Monday 11 January to Friday 2 April 2027, confirmed by NHS England. The IMT-specific dates are published in autumn 2026.
In 2026 the IMT interviews ran from Monday 12 January to Friday 13 February, with invitations by 18 December 2025 and booking on a first-come, first-served basis. Expect a similar early-window pattern.
How should you prepare for the IMT interview?
Prepare for the IMT interview by rehearsing each of the seven scored areas out loud and to time, because a 1 in any one of them ends the application regardless of the other six.
- Write and time the two-minute presentation; it opens the station that carries 60 of the 96 weighted marks.
- Practise clinical scenarios to a ten-minute structure with an explicit escalation step.
- Practise the handover as a separate one-minute skill using SBAR.
- Prepare five ethics frameworks: capacity, confidentiality, the struggling colleague, candour and DNACPR.
- Record yourself. internalmedicineinterview's spoken-practice mode marks a recorded answer by AI against the published areas, across its 361 questions, at £97 to the interview week.