How to answer “Describe yourself in three words” in a medical school interview

A strong answer to "describe yourself in three words" picks three qualities that matter in medicine, backs each one with a brief example, and takes under two minutes. The words themselves are the smallest part of the answer. The example behind each word is what the interviewer remembers.

What the interviewer is assessing

• Self-reflection and growth
• Communication

Interviewers ask this to see how well you know yourself and how you present that knowledge under a tight limit. Three words force a choice, and the choice shows what you value. They also listen for whether you can support each word with a specific moment from your record, because a word without evidence is a claim any applicant could make.

A panel asks it early as a warm-up or late as a summary, and the words you choose often shape the follow-up questions. In an MMI, a version of it appears at a personal station, where the rater scores how clearly and honestly you describe yourself rather than which words you pick.

How to structure your answer

1. Name all three words in your first sentence, so the interviewer can hold the whole answer in mind.
2. Take the first word and give one example that shows it, with the situation, what you did and what resulted.
3. Do the same for the second and third words, and keep each example to three or four sentences.
4. Close with one sentence on how those three qualities will serve you as a medical student or physician.

Choose words that describe different sides of you, such as one about how you work, one about how you treat people and one about how you think. Pick words your application supports, because the interviewer has read the record you're drawing on and will notice a word with no evidence behind it. The practice box gives a panel answer three minutes, and a real panel expects 90 seconds to two minutes for this question, so start with the three words and put no preamble before them.

Common mistakes

• Choosing "hardworking", "compassionate" and "dedicated" with no example gives the panel three words they've heard from every applicant that day.
• Picking a word you can't back with a specific moment invites a follow-up you'll struggle to answer.
• Choosing three words that mean nearly the same thing, such as "driven", "determined" and "motivated", wastes two of your three choices.
• Explaining each word at length turns a 90-second answer into a five-minute one, and the interviewer stops listening before the third word.
• Offering a joke word or a self-deprecating one reads as an evasion, and the interviewer will ask for a real one instead.

Follow-up questions to prepare for

• Which of those three words would your closest friend disagree with?
• Which of those qualities will matter most in your first year of medical school?
• Can you give me an example of a time one of those qualities worked against you?
• If you had to replace one of those words with a weakness, which would you choose?
• How would your most recent supervisor describe you in three words?