Yet another agonising wait… The interview debrief

For many of you, this year couldn’t be any longer, drawn out, or anxiety-provoking. We’ve gone through the months upon months of study and preparation prior to the GAMSAT® Exam,  waited anxiously for these results, furiously started medical school applications, and then waited yet again for interview offers. Now, for a majority of you who have progressed to this stage, interviews have been conducted and you are faced with yet another agonising wait. This wait, however, could arguably be one of the most difficult to live through – the outcome of this particular delay will determine whether you’re packing your bags to medical school in 2016, or looking to enhance your candidature for the next round.

With offers of places through the GEMSAS system to be released in early November, now is the time for quiet and sensible reflection on the very stressful year that was, and considering your future. You all must be absolutely applauded for having to go through this extremely difficult process, regardless of the stage that you reached. Many say that the process of navigating medical school applications to get into medical school is harder than studying medicine itself – and whether this is true or not (I’d say it partly is), this entire year of working extremely hard to reach this goal will prepare you not only for handling the stress of medical school, but would have taught you many valuable life skills.

Unlike the GAMSAT® Exam, where you are just a number in a crowd numbering thousands, the interview is a much more personal affair. To most candidates, the interview performance is a direct ‘review’ on themselves as people, and as future doctors. As such, an unsuccessful interview attempt may be taken as a personal attack on an individual’s values, personality, or substance as a person. I want to stress to you all, that this is certainly not the case. There are such a wide range of variables and factors that are in play during the interview process that determine the outcome, the least of which your value as a person. Medical schools are looking for varying qualities when it comes to candidates, and many of these do not reflect what a ‘good person’ may necessarily have at their disposal.

I mention this because it is easy for our hard-working interview candidates to despair if they unfortunately miss out at the interview stage, as it feels like such a personal assessment. However, you must look at your interview performance through a similar lens as to what an actor would do for a performance on-stage. Just like an act on stage, your interview performance is but a snap-shot of yourself as a person (with interviewers sometimes only seeing you for 2-5 minutes!), can require some dramatisation (interacting with actors in comforting/stressful scenarios), and is extremely affected by how you feel on the day. Please, before receiving your interview result, reflect on the aspects of the interview process that is in your control and that can be addressed and improved for next year – rather than believing it is purely an assessment of yourself as a person. Consider:

• The amount of preparation time you put in – like anything, you need to prepare for the interview very thoroughly.
• How you felt on the day – did you employ relaxation techniques, ensure you got to the venue with plenty of time to spare, were confident, wore the correct attire etc.
• Did you tailor your interview performance to the medical school? Like an actor, a candidate must know their audience very well, and mould their performance to suit the reactions and intricacies of this audience.

Even though there are less candidates getting to the interview stage, there are still approximately 50% of all candidates at the interview who will not get a medical school place. So when offers initially come out in November, reflect on the above and ensure you realise how extremely competitive this process still was. Medical school offers will still be coming out in second or third rounds right up to early January, so don’t lose hope if you don’t get good news in early November! I know many current medical students who got offers as close to a few days before the first day of medical school. However, if it doesn’t work out for you this time, the interview is not a personal assessment, and there are many, many things you can do to improve your performance for subsequent years. Again, congratulate yourself on this absolutely breathtaking achievement to get to this stage, and we will all be hoping for great news!

Check out our other blog article 5 Tips to Help You Ace the MMI Interviews to learn more about the best way to prepare for your medical school interview.