Every pre-med or med students desire to be invited by their dream medical school. When the dream becomes a reality, then pat yourself on the back. In short, you’ve already crossed the first hurdle. But students get nervous, despite the good scores and high intellectual levels. Cracking the interview is a challenging part but not impossible with professional medical school consulting help.
To build confidence, one needs to be smartly prepared. A little mistake while the interview is the biggest threat as the interviewer/s easily traps the candidate with the questions. It’s essential to be focused while the interview is going on. The golden rule of the interview is to render an impression. Now wondering, how to work on impression? Adequate preparation is the path to clear the interview.
Moreover, the interview is an opportunity to express your exceptional traits, like communication skills, leadership skills, empathy, honesty, personality, analytical skills, and problem-solving ability. While practicing for an interview, one needs to analyze strengths and weaknesses. Moreover, research work is important before starting the interview preparation. There are two interview formats – Panel and Multiple-Mini Interviews; let’s know about them.
Panel Interviews
Many candidates find the panel interview the most daunting as 4 to 5 interviewers will be throwing questions. Generally, the panel consists of faculty members and sometimes also include medical students or alumni. The panel asks question-related to a personal statement and sometimes out of context to know how much the candidate is suitable for entering medical school.
High preparation is significant to answer the questions effectively. Always take a pause and think logically to answer the question, as a fast response can create a lot of hassle. Professionals always guide to take a deep breath before jumping to an interview to reduce the nervous level. Difficult questions are not always to see the accuracy but to test the medical candidate’s capability & smartness.
There are some well-known difficult questions one may encounter at a panel interview:
- Why chose to be a doctor?
- Why are you interested in getting admissions to our university?
- What are your hobbies, strengths & weaknesses?
- How can you cope with criticism?
- How often you read medical publications?
- Apart from treating patients, what is the role of the doctor?
All these questions have equal importance. The panel looks for unique & honest answers that seek their attention. Even the candidate can ask questions to make the interview quite interesting. Any “no” to the question can make the interview disastrous. The consultants help medical students and ensure to improve their communication & intellectual skills.
Multiple-Mini Interviews (MMIs)
Several stations are set up in the multiple-mini interview, where 5-10 minutes mini-interviews are conducted. The length of the interview varies as it depends from school to school. Some schools structure activities for this type of interview like role-playing, solving puzzles.
The plus point of a multiple-mini interview is that it gives every candidate a chance to impress, even if he/she messed up at one station as a bad score will not forward to the next one. The consequence is that one has a brief window of opportunity to throw a lasting impression on the interviewer.
In some scenarios, you will be given 2- 3 minutes to read and evaluate the dummy situation before the interview. The time is to brainstorm and organize the thoughts before you walk into the interview room.
Medical school consulting services work with candidates closely and find out the deviations, which are a hurdle to clear the interview. The experts’ guide in writing, technical, and various aspects to increase the chance of getting hired.
