STAR is the structure every panel expects for a behavioural question: tell me about a time you led, a time you had conflict, a time you made a mistake. It is also the structure Australian merit selection panels expect when you address a selection criterion out loud. Used well it makes an example easy to follow and easy to score; used badly it becomes a formula with no person in it.
What the letters stand for
Situation: the context, in one or two sentences. Enough for the panel to follow and no more.
Task: what you had to do, or what the problem was. Your responsibility in it.
Action: what you did. In the first person, specific, in order. This is most of the answer and it is what the panel scores.
Result: what happened. The outcome for the patient, the team, the service, with a number where there is one.
Many panels now add reflection, making it STARR: what you learned and what you would do differently. UK training interviews score it explicitly, and it is the part most candidates leave out.
How to use it
Choose an example where your own actions are clear and the outcome is real. Spend ten percent on the situation, ten on the task, sixty on the action, and the rest on the result and the reflection. Say "I" rather than "we" for the action. Keep the whole answer to about two minutes.
For selection criteria
When a panel asks a criterion mapped question, such as describe a time you worked effectively in a multidisciplinary team, STAR is the answer and the criterion is the lens: make sure the action shows the thing the criterion names. Name the other professions, say what the team needed from you, and give the outcome. One example per criterion, prepared in advance.
Choosing examples
Real, recent, with consequences. A conflict where you were plainly right teaches the panel nothing; one where you had to listen and change does. A mistake with no consequences reads as evasion. The example where you were a bystander does not count as your action.
Common mistakes
A long situation and a short action. "We" throughout, so the panel cannot find you in it. No result, or a result asserted rather than shown. No reflection. The same example used for three different questions. And a formula so rigid the panel hears the letters.
At different levels
Medical school applicants draw from school, work and volunteering; the structure is the same. Juniors draw from placements and first jobs. Trainees from the wards and the projects they led. Consultants from service changes, incidents and the team they ran, with the result measured and the reflection mature.
Practising
Write one STAR example for each of the common themes: teamwork, leadership, conflict, a mistake, feedback, pressure, communication. Say each aloud in two minutes. Then have someone probe: what did you do next, what would you do differently, what was your part.