Jump to content
Premed 101 Forums

What Did You Guys Think Was Useful In Helping To Organize Thoughts?


PM333

Recommended Posts

As of right now, I feel like my thoughts are very scattered and I feel like I ramble alot. How did you guys work around this for those of you who had the same problem I did? 

 

Should I find guidelines on the different types of questions I could be asked, and follow a certain framework? 

 

Any advice will be appreciated! 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Take this advice with a grain of salt, as this is my first year applying, and I have just interviewed at one school so far. Having said that, I found that I was having the same issue when I first started practicing for my interviews. What worked for me was forcing myself to take a few seconds to think about the question before I started answering. It feels like a long time for you, but it really isn't (and you can also ask for a moment to think about the scenario, or take a sip of water to buy yourself some time if you feel the need to). During those few seconds, I think about the scenario/question, what they're assessing by asking it, what I'd like to talk about, and how I want to organize my answer.

 

For ethical questions, the "formula" I've been using is to start by reiterating the scenario for clarification, ensuring I have all necessary information/stating that I would consider alternatives and have exhausted all "easier" options, presenting pros and cons to each option, then choosing a side. I try to follow that up by discussing consequences of my decision, and/or stating how I would follow-up (where possible). Sometimes I add a personal example in, but of course, it depends on the question.

 

For personal questions, I found that the STARR technique (situation, task, action, result, reflection) helped me organize my answers. That works well for the "tell me about a time when you..." questions.

 

Of course, I use the term "formula" loosely because I think it's more important to find an approach that works for you. I felt a bit robotic at first when practicing my answers following a formula, but I found that the more I practiced, the more natural it felt, and the less I needed to rely on the formula as a means of organizing my answers. It became more conversational and flowed nicely, if that makes sense.

 

I hope that helps! I really think practice is key. Just talking through those answers in front of someone who will listen and will give you feedback will go a long way, too.

 

Best of luck! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just to expand upon HappyandHopeful's perspective. Again, take this with a grain of salt:

 

I was told by someone with previous experience as an assessor to be very careful with restating or reiterating topics. Remember that your assessor will have a large number of people go through their room with that same topic. They will know it by heart. Taking 30sec-1min to restate things may cause you to lose their attention.

 

If you feel like you have a strong skill in paraphrasing the range of complex topics that'll be thrown your way during MMIs, this is a much better way to dig into a topic while keeping your assessor engaged. This will show that you can distill a complex topic into its important facets/overarching schemes. It also kind of forces them to trace your thoughts about it with you. This way, they focus on how you got to where you are instead of just zoning out as you reiterate a plethora of details about a scenario they know too well.

 

If you do not feel that your paraphrasing skills are strong, I still recommend a little bit of adaptive reiteration. Why?

In brief, from personal experience, if a scenario is very contrived or confusing, an assessor may correct a slight misconception or mix-up that you may have before you start setting up your argument about what you think.

 

Had this not happened, I would have probably spent a long time rationalizing something about a different scenario entirely :P

 

Also, remember to be careful about applying systems of thought while talking to your assessors. You really don't want to sound rehearsed or robotic. Organize your thoughts, but keep your inner voice genuine!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...