How to answer “Tell me about a time you failed” in a medical school interview

To answer "tell me about a time you failed" well, choose a genuine failure, take clear responsibility for your part in it, and show how you've acted differently since. In a medical school interview, what you did after the failure matters more than the failure itself.

What the interviewer is assessing

• Self-reflection and growth
• Professionalism and integrity

Every physician makes mistakes and faces outcomes they didn't want, so schools look for applicants who can face their own failures honestly. The interviewer is listening for accountability, insight and resilience. They want to see that you can describe what went wrong without excuses and without being crushed by it. They're also checking whether the lesson you drew is real, which shows in whether you've applied it since.

How to structure your answer

1. Set the scene in two or three sentences, including what you were responsible for.
2. Describe the failure and its effect on you or on other people.
3. Name your own part in it directly, using "I" rather than "we."
4. Explain what you learned and what you changed.
5. Give a later example where the change made a difference.

The STAR method (situation, task, action, result) works well here, with an added step for reflection. Spend about half your time on the first three steps and half on the last two. When you prepare for "tell me about a time you failed" in a medical school interview, test your story by asking whether a listener would know exactly what you'd do differently next time.

Common mistakes

• Choosing a failure that is secretly a success, such as getting a B+ in a hard course, sounds like you're avoiding the question.
• Blaming teammates, teachers or circumstances shifts responsibility away from you.
• Picking a failure that involves cheating or dishonesty can raise concerns about professionalism that one answer can't settle.
• Describing the failure in detail and the lesson in one sentence leaves the panel unsure you learned from it.
• Sounding defeated or harsh on yourself can worry an interviewer as much as sounding careless.

Follow-up questions to prepare for

• Who else was affected by that failure, and did you talk to them about it afterward?
• Who did you tell about it first, and why them?
• How long did it take you to see your own part in it?
• How do you tell the difference between a failure that was your fault and one that wasn't?
• What would it take for you to fail in the same way again?