The Internal Medicine Training (IMT) two-minute presentation opens Station 1 of the interview, delivered without slides, and is followed by questions on your application, achievements and suitability for IMT. Those two scored areas, application and achievements and suitability for IMT, are each weighted 1.6, so together they carry 32 of the 96 weighted marks, exactly a third of the interview.
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 timings and weightings below are the 2026 position as published by the IMT recruitment office, which expects the 2027 process to be "largely unchanged" and will publish the 2027 detail in autumn 2026.
Key takeaways
- The presentation is two minutes, spoken, with no PowerPoint and no screen sharing; notes for your own reference are allowed.
- The IMT recruitment office asks for a presentation on relevant achievements in internal medicine, not a life story.
- Application and achievements and suitability for IMT are each scored 1 to 5 by two interviewers and weighted 1.6: 16 marks each, 32 of 96.
- Communication is marked across the whole of Station 1 at a further 1.6 weighting, so delivery counts three times.
- A 1 in either area makes you not appointable, whatever you score elsewhere.
- Six minutes cover the presentation and the questioning together, so a presentation that overruns eats its own follow-up.
What is the IMT two-minute presentation?
The IMT two-minute presentation is a spoken opening to Station 1 in which you present your relevant achievements in internal medicine to two interviewers, without slides. The IMT recruitment office's preparation page tells candidates to prepare a two-minute verbal presentation on their relevant achievements in internal medicine.
Station 1 is the 11-minute IMT interview station that covers application and achievements, suitability for IMT, and ethics, professionalism and governance, with communication marked throughout.
Six minutes are given to the presentation and the application and suitability questions together. The ethics scenario takes up to five minutes after that.
What are the rules for the IMT presentation?
The rules for the IMT presentation are no visual aids, no screen sharing, notes for your own reference only, and two minutes. The IMT recruitment office states: "You are not allowed to use any visual representations, such as PowerPoint, when giving your presentation and you must not share your screen."
- You may glance at notes, but a read script is heard as one and marks down on communication.
- AI-generated responses, transcription tools and scripts are banned, with disqualification for use.
- Camera and microphone stay on; you are alone in the room.
- Honesty about experience and roles is a GMC matter; over-claiming can lead to GMC reporting.
How is the application and achievements domain scored?
Application and achievements is scored from 1 to 5 by each of the two interviewers and weighted 1.6, giving a maximum of 16 of the 96 marks. A 3 from both is the satisfactory, competent-F2 level.
| Station 1 area | Raw marks | Weighting | Weighted maximum | Share of 96 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Application and achievements | 10 | x1.6 | 16 | 17% |
| Suitability for IMT | 10 | x1.6 | 16 | 17% |
| Communication (Station 1) | 10 | x1.6 | 16 | 17% |
| Ethics, professionalism and governance | 10 | x1.2 | 12 | 13% |
| Station 1 total | 40 | 60 | 63% |
Station 1 carries 60 of the 96 marks, or 63%. In practice, the interviewers are asking whether what you did shows the qualities of a physician, not how long your list is.
What does "suitability for IMT" mean to the interviewers?
Suitability for IMT means evidence that you understand what an internal medicine registrar does, that you have chosen it deliberately, and that your record shows the behaviours the specialty needs: managing acute uncertainty, working across teams, and continuing to learn.
The IMT recruitment office publishes no marking descriptors beyond the 1 to 5 scale and the "competent F2" anchor for a 3. The person specification's selection criteria are the closest published guide.
That said, the question behind every suitability question is the same: why this specialty, and what have you done about it?
How do you structure a two-minute IMT presentation?
Structure the presentation as three achievements, each told as what you did, what changed, and what it shows about you as a future physician, inside a 20-second opening and a 15-second close.
| Segment | Seconds | Content |
|---|---|---|
| Opening | 0 to 20 | Who you are, your current post, and the one-line reason you want IMT |
| Achievement 1 | 20 to 55 | Your strongest clinical or academic achievement in medicine: action, result, lesson |
| Achievement 2 | 55 to 90 | Quality improvement or teaching: what changed for patients or learners |
| Achievement 3 | 90 to 105 | Leadership or team contribution, told in one sentence with a measurable outcome |
| Close | 105 to 120 | Why these show you are ready for IMT, and an invitation to ask about any of them |
Two minutes at a natural pace is about 260 to 300 words. Write it, time it aloud, and cut until it lands at 1 minute 50.
What questions follow the IMT presentation?
The questions after the presentation probe the achievements you named and the application you submitted: why IMT, what you learned from a specific audit, how you handled a difficult patient, and what you will bring to a medical registrar rota.
- Why internal medicine, and why now?
- Tell us more about the audit you mentioned. What was the standard, and what changed?
- What has been your most difficult clinical experience, and what did you take from it?
- What do you understand about the IMT curriculum and the registrar role at IMT3?
- Which of your achievements best shows you are ready for IMT?
The internalmedicineinterview bank keeps 6 portfolio scenarios and 24 questions of this kind within its 361, each with a model answer, and its AI-marked spoken practice times you against the two-minute limit.
How do you answer "why internal medicine" at the IMT interview?
Answer "why internal medicine" with a specific clinical moment, the feature of the specialty it revealed to you, and the step you took afterwards to test that interest.
A generic answer scores a 3 at best. "I like variety" describes half of medicine. "I managed a hyponatraemic patient on nights, spent the next week reading the differential, and then asked to join the acute medicine audit" describes a physician.
Then connect it forward: the IMT curriculum, the medical registrar role, and the general medicine commitment that runs through it.
What loses marks in Station 1 of the IMT interview?
The marks lost in Station 1 come from overrunning the two minutes, reading a script, listing achievements without outcomes, and answering suitability questions with generalities.
- Overrunning: the six minutes are shared, so a three-minute presentation costs you follow-up questions where the marks are.
- Reading: communication is weighted 1.6 across the whole station, and a read script is marked as one.
- Reciting the CV: the interviewers have your form; they are marking what your achievements show.
- Claiming what you cannot evidence: honesty is a GMC matter and the office says so.
- Any single 1 from either interviewer: not appointable.
How should you practise the IMT presentation and suitability questions?
Practise the presentation out loud to a timer at least twenty times, then in front of someone who interrupts, because the station is a conversation rather than a monologue.
- Write the presentation as speech, not prose, and record it on your phone.
- Time it; a natural pace lands at 1 minute 50 with room to breathe.
- List the follow-up questions each achievement invites and prepare a 45-second answer to each.
- Rehearse with a colleague who cuts in after the first achievement.
- Use a marked practice tool. internalmedicineinterview's spoken-practice mode, at £97 to the interview week, scores a recorded answer by AI against the published areas.
The rest of Station 1 is the ethics scenario, covered in our ethics, professionalism and governance guide, and the full mark scheme is in the IMT interview 2027 guide.