How to Avoid the Top 3 Mistakes in Medical School Interviews

A medical school interview can be a crucial determinant when it comes to being offered a place at a university. Therefore, it is important to maximise your chances by preparing for them. Whether it be an MMI Interview or any other sort, here are the most common mistakes that students tend to make when preparing for these interviews and some simple strategies you can use to address these issues.

 

Mistake #1: Clichéd answers

“Why do you want to pursue medicine?”, “What aspects of being a doctor appeal to you?”

These are some frequent questions that are often used to start off an interview.

“I am passionate about helping people and enriching their quality of life”

This is a common answer to these questions (or some variant of it). While there is nothing inherently wrong with this answer, it doesn’t have anything that makes it unique or frankly, believable. Remember that interviewers are listening to the answers to the same question from many different applicants. Therefore, providing general answers like the one above means that your interview is likely going to be forgettable.

 

Solution:
To stand out from the crowd, provide a personalized reason as to why you want to pursue medicine. It is important to set yourself apart from the other applicants and one of the easiest ways to achieve this is to tell a personal story. It is fine if you want to mention that you are passionate about helping people. Just make sure to be specific as to what made you truly develop this passion (charity events, volunteering at a hospital etc.). By offering a personal story, interviewers are more likely to understand and believe your passion for medicine, which will definitely help in improving your interview outcomes.

 

Mistake #2: Not staying on topic

Rambling and going off-topic is something that can happen to all of us without even knowing it, and it usually occurs because we rush into answering a question. This could be due to the fact that we are nervous, underprepared or uncomfortable with making the interviewer wait for too long after they ask a question. Well, there’s a very easy fix for this.

 

Solution:
Don’t rush! It’s perfectly fine to spend 30 seconds thinking about how to structure your question before actually beginning to talk. In fact, interviewers will appreciate you trying to apply yourself when answering their questions. So, it’s ok to spend some time just thinking. The basic rule I like to follow is to think about the key points of my answer that I’d like to convey and start by mentioning those to the interviewer. I will then move on to elaborating on each point.  This will make your answers much more cohesive and will definitely further improve your interview outcomes.

 

Mistake #3: Nervousness

OK, so nervousness isn’t really a mistake. In fact, being nervous about a medical interview is perfectly normal! Not many of us can truly say that we wouldn’t be nervous in such a situation and I know other med students have shared their thoughts on how to deal with this sort of stress in a medical interview. However, too much anxiety can negatively impact your performance during an interview, and this is something that should be aimed to be minimized. Here are some tips I found helpful to ease my anxiety and feel better prepared.

 

Solution:
First things first…start practicing! Practice answering mock interview questions to a family member, friend or pet. Remember to work on maintaining good eye contact, posture and speaking clearly and confidently. Also, don’t try to remember these answers word for word as interviewers will likely be able to tell if your speech is completely rehearsed. Instead, focus on remembering the key points for a question and conveying them in a conversational manner. By repeatedly practicing common interview questions (such as my motivation to study medicine, strengths and weaknesses etc.), I began to feel much more relaxed before an interview as I knew I would be able to answer most of their questions clearly and confidently.

For challenging questions that I wasn’t too sure about, I would first pause and take some deep breaths to prevent my mind from racing (believe me, it actually works). I would then spend some time thinking about how to structure my answer before going ahead and “giving it my best shot”. Remember, some questions during the interview are designed to be quite difficult. It is important not to dwell on these types of questions and instead, just be confident in your ability to answer them.

 

And that’s it! I hope these tips help you prepare for your next medical interview, the key to success is really in making sure you prepare for medical interviews and know what to expect. Good luck!