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O&G ST1 · Structured interview

O&G ST1 structured interview questions

Choose a small set of owned examples, make your action and result easy to follow, and show how experience changed your later practice.

Last verified: 28 September 2026Parent guide: O&G ST1

The live page confirms structured questions. The familiar commitment, QI, research or teaching and leadership or teamwork themes come from an official scoring page titled for the August 2023 intake, so verify current descriptors.

ContentsHow to approach it

How to approach it

What a strong answer needs to show

Answer the function, not a memorised wording

Identify whether the question needs evidence of motivation, ownership, impact, teamwork or reflection, then select the example that proves it most directly.

  • Open with a clear answer before giving context.
  • Use one main example and keep background short.
  • Make your own decision or contribution distinguishable from the team's work.

Use evidence that survives follow-up

Specific dates, actions, measures and feedback sound credible because they reflect real work, not because more detail is always better.

  • Know the problem, method, your role, outcome and limitation.
  • Say honestly when work was unfinished or the change did not succeed.
  • Avoid claiming authorship, leadership or impact beyond what a verifier could confirm.

Finish with relevant change

Reflection is strongest when it altered a later behaviour, decision or system and when the relevance to O&G is specific.

  • Name what you did differently in a later case or project.
  • Connect specialty motivation to real work, including pressures and less attractive parts.
  • Keep examples flexible enough for follow-up without delivering a scripted monologue.

Original practice questions

Questions worth practising aloud

These are original preparation prompts written around published domains and entry-level expectations. They are not recalled interview questions.

  1. What experiences have given you a realistic understanding of both obstetrics and gynaecology?
  2. Tell us about a quality-improvement project where your personal contribution affected the outcome.
  3. Describe a teaching activity that you changed after feedback.
  4. Tell us about a research or evidence-based practice experience and one limitation you identified.
  5. Describe a time you led or coordinated a team under pressure.
  6. Tell us about a conflict in a multidisciplinary team and what you learnt from it.

Common mistakes

Where otherwise good answers lose clarity

  • Listing achievements instead of answering the question.
  • Using 'we' throughout so personal ownership is invisible.
  • Presenting an unfinished project as a completed success.
  • Claiming that Part 1 MRCOG or passive membership proves commitment.
  • Ending with generic learning that did not change later practice.

Preparation plan

How to practise this deliberately

  • Build an example index covering commitment, QI, teaching, research, leadership and teamwork.
  • Record context, action, outcome, feedback, limitation and later change for each example.
  • Practise 60- to 90-second openings followed by unpredictable questions.
  • Ask reviewers to challenge ownership and detect vague claims.
  • Use the O&G practice route for original structured questions and spoken examples.

Continue into practice

Practise the answer, not just the reading

Spoken O&G ST1 practice is launching soon. At launch, choose a Question bank prompt, work on your answer and use structured feedback to improve it. Explore the practice experience while you prepare with these free questions.

Explore O&G ST1 practice

Official source

Check the live recruitment guidance

Interview formats can change between cycles. This focused guide should be used alongside the official source below and the full O&G ST1 guide.

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