Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI) - station clustering and cohort differences

Many veterinary schools, including all those in the UK, interview candidates prior to offer. Interview formats vary and no single method is favoured universally or acknowledged as being without difficulties.
Multiple Mini Interviews (MMIs) are used by a number of health professional degree providers. The R(D)SVS introduced its own MMI format to the selection process in 2014. The format comprised 7 x 10 minute stations, five stations each had one interviewer and the remaining two were unstaffed. 333 candidates were interviewed in total.
As a Scottish vet school we select from and give offers to two distinct cohorts for our government-funded places. Scottish/EU (SEU) and Rest of UK (RUK – England, Wales, Northern Ireland).
Analysis of data captured during the process has identified station clusters. A repeated observation that individual candidates who performed well (or poorly) at one particular station also performed at the same level at another specific station. Clustered stations included the data interpretation and awareness of animal welfare stations for both cohorts, career exploration and moral/ethical dilemma stations for the SEU cohort, and career exploration and work experience stations for the RUK cohort. The practical manual task showed the least similarity in performance to that at all other stations for either cohort.
The overall MMI performance of all candidates in each cohort showed similar patterns but the level of performance at both individual stations and overall for all 7 stations differed between the two cohorts.