General practice training selection changed for the 2026 intake in a way that matters for anyone preparing: the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners replaced its multiple mini interview and the clinical knowledge test with a single online selection assessment, so RACGP applicants no longer have an interview. The Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine kept its six station multiple mini interview. This guide explains what changed, who still interviews, and what to prepare if you do.
What changed for RACGP applicants
Until 2025, RACGP selection used the Candidate Assessment and Applied Knowledge Test alongside a multiple mini interview. From the 2026 intake both were replaced by an online selection assessment, completed remotely, that assesses the attributes and judgement the college wants in trainees. There is no panel, no station and no interviewer. Preparation for it is preparation for a situational and attribute based assessment, not for an interview, and the college publishes guidance on its format.
If you are applying to RACGP only, the interview practice on this site is not what you need. The clinical and situational scenarios may still be useful for thinking through the judgement the assessment tests, but there is no interview to rehearse.
What stayed the same for ACRRM
ACRRM continues to select with a multiple mini interview of six stations, each with one or two assessors, assessing motivation for rural and remote practice, communication, clinical and ethical reasoning, and suitability for the rural generalist scope. Applicants to both colleges through the AGPT program face the ACRRM MMI for the ACRRM side of their application. Rural generalist pathway applicants in most states also sit it or something built on it.
The ACRRM stations
The station themes reported by candidates:
Motivation for rural and remote practice. Why rural, what experience you have of rural communities, what you understand the scope of a rural generalist to be, which advanced skills interest you, and how you and your family would manage living in a small community.
Communication. The patient who is also your neighbour and asks about another patient; explaining a difficult diagnosis to a patient with low health literacy; working with an Aboriginal health worker in a remote community; the patient angry about the wait.
Ethical reasoning. The friend who asks you to be their GP in a town with one doctor; the medical certificate for days the patient was not sick; the patient who is driving despite seizures; the pharmaceutical representative's lunch.
Clinical reasoning in a rural context. The chest pain with ST elevation three hours from a cath lab; the febrile child with a rash in a remote clinic and when to retrieve; the woman at 36 weeks with bleeding and no obstetric unit; the patient with low mood who is thinking of ending their life; the highway accident; the snake bite; the chronic pain patient asking for more opioids.
Suitability. How you will keep skills current, manage isolation and boundaries, and work with retrieval services and telehealth.
How the MMI runs
Six rotating stations of about eight minutes, with a short reading time before each. Assessors may probe. Each station is scored independently against a rubric, and a weak station does not carry into the next. The format rewards structure and pace: get the framework out early, give one specific, and close before the bell.
What the assessors score
Genuine rural motivation with evidence, not a willingness to go anywhere. Communication that adapts to the person. Clinical reasoning that treats what can be treated locally, calls early, uses telehealth and retrieval, and knows the limits. Ethical reasoning that recognises the particular pressures of small communities. And cultural safety described through actions.
Preparing
Confirm which college you are applying to and whether you face an interview at all. For ACRRM, write a two minute answer for each station theme with a specific in it, prepare the rural clinical scenarios with the retrieval conversation, and practise in rotation against a timer with someone who probes. The rural generalist track on this site adds the state pathway questions on top.