Personal Insight Questions

Personal insight questions come up again and again in interviews - often multiple times within the same one. This is because, to be a good medical student (and eventually an effective doctor), you need to develop a wide range of skills.

It’s important to remember that the university’s job is to train you to become a doctor. What interviewers are really looking for is whether you already have the instinctive traits of a good medical student - commitment, self-awareness, resilience, teamwork, and motivation - that they can then build on.

At interview, there are hundreds of possible questions you could be asked. In our tutoring sessions, we focus on categorising these questions and developing a simple formula to fall back on if you find yourself stuck. If you already have a system that works for you, brilliant - stick with it. But if not, here’s a reliable structure you can use.

What Are Personal Insight Questions?

Personal insight questions are designed to make you reflect on yourself - your strengths, weaknesses, achievements, failures, and teamwork abilities, among others.

When answering these, it’s not enough to just say you have a certain quality. You need to demonstrate it through a specific example. Interviewers want to see how you’ve shown these traits in real life and what you learned from the experience.

Example Question: “What Would You Say Is Your Biggest Weakness?”

1. Set the Scene

Give a brief bit of background or context.

“I’d say my biggest weakness is public speaking. Earlier this year, I was asked to give a speech at my school’s carol service. I felt extremely nervous and really didn’t want to do it.”

2. Be Specific

Describe what happened and why it challenged you.

“As my time to speak approached, I got incredibly nervous and even started to feel nauseous. I ended up asking for an emergency replacement to take my place. I haven’t always had this problem, but I think sometimes I become self-conscious about what people might think of me.”

3. Reflect and Relate It to Medicine

Show awareness of why this matters for a doctor.

“I still think back to that moment as something I wish I’d pushed through. I recognise that public speaking is an important skill for doctors — during my work experience, I saw how often doctors had to present cases on ward rounds or explain complex information to families. If I’m honest, that still makes me nervous, despite how much I want to pursue medicine.”

4. Show Progress and a Plan

End on how you’re working to improve.

“Although I can’t change what happened, I want to use medical school as an opportunity to develop this skill. I’d like to join the debate society to build confidence and take on a leadership role in the football team to become more comfortable speaking in front of groups.”

Why This Works

This answer strikes the perfect balance between honesty and professionalism. It’s an appropriate weakness (not trivial or alarming) and shows genuine self-awareness. It also links directly to qualities needed in medicine and - crucially - includes a plan for improvement.

Interviewers love to see this level of reflection because medical school involves a lot of independent learning and self-assessment. The ability to recognise your own limitations and take steps to improve is one of the clearest signs of a strong future medical student. You can use the same structure for other qualities “What’s your biggest achievement”, “What’s your biggest failure”, “Are you someone who is able to ask for help?”