IMT Interview Preparation: Do’s and Don’ts for ‘The 2 minute presentation’

Preparing for the 2-minute presentation in the IMT interview can be daunting, but with the right approach, it can also be your chance to stand out. This blog post is based on my own experience with the IMT interview process from last year and valuable feedback I’ve received while I practised with fellow seniors, and after my experience of conducting mock interviews for fellow doctors who reached out to me.

The 2-minute presentation is not about listing achievements but about demonstrating your skills, the impact of your work, and how they align with Internal Medicine Training. In this guide, I’ll share practical tips to help you:

By following these tips, hopefully you’ll be better prepared to deliver a confident, polished, and impactful presentation that leaves a lasting impression. Let’s dive in!

• If your English isn’t good, write the answer down- word by word. However, if you are confident, you can avoid writing it down word-by-word and make bullet points instead.
• Don’t let them understand that you have memorized the answer. Make it feel natural. Use intentional pauses.
• Finish the answer in 2 minutes please. This is a question that they will ask everyone. If you are not well prepared for this, it just shows that you don’t care.
• Mentioning your name, greeting the interviewers, mentioning where are you from, thanking them for inviting to the interview doesn’t add anything- focus on things that matter.
• You might have a lot of things to cover, but choose the things that matter most. Choose the things that you’ll able to explain if asked for details.
• Following a structure ie: CAMP is a good idea, but be flexible.
• Don’t focus on what you did back home
• Don’t focus on something you haven’t done yet. Eg: I want to sit for MRCP1 in the next diet.
• Don’t say if you went to medical school for free. It doesn’t show anything towards IMT.
• Don’t say you have been the top of your class throughout Medical school
• Describe impact of things you’ve done rather than just mentioning
  • Don’t say- I did a quality improvement project
  • Don’t say- I did an audit
  • Don’t say- I did an audit/QIP on ——
  • Instead say what you did and what was the impact of it.
• Don’t say:
  • Don’t say : I have a first authored publication
  • Don’t say: I have a publication that was published in pubmed. ( If you say it, it just means that you have no jdea about publishing papers. Papers are not published in pubmed. Pubmed is like a library of papers. Eg: books are published from a Publisher and stored in a library- Similarly, Papers are published in a Journal and Pubmed is like a library where uou can search for papers)
  • Dont say: I have a publication on ischemic card disease.
  • Specify what your paper shows/what are the contents etc.
• Don’t just say – I was the president of Sandhani. They don’t know what sandhani is.
  • Don’t just say- I was the president of Sandhani which is a ——-. Say what you’ve done or achieved as president of Sandhani. Add the impact
• Don’t be informal. Eg: don’t say ‘You know’, ‘I was like’ while you are talking.
• Do you have anything in your profile that very few people would have? Have your ever got an award that is related to medicine? Say it.
• Add a finishing line: I look forward to starting IMT and …..

Faisal Abdullah

London 14/01/2025