MMI prep books (Doing Right and MSC MEDICAL) + Advice on personal strategies

[yugerry]

Hi everyone,

 

Please see below for a short survey we did in my MMI prep group. There are more people who have emailed me with their thoughts and answer to the survey but some of them did not confirm their username. Once I find enough time I will add the remaining answers to this thread.

Good luck. and I will see some of you at UBC and/or Calgary!!!!!!!

 

P.S. Please feel free to include your thoughts and/or reviews.

 

 

 

Username: eternalkeener

I) Doing Right (YES or NO). Yes. How helpful has it been? Out of 5. 2/5

II) In Person Practice Sessions. How helpful has it been? Out of 5 5/5

III) Online Skype Sessions (YES or NO). How helpful has it been? Out of 5. 4/5.

IV) MSC MEDICAL MMI Book/DVD (YES or NO). How helpful has been? Out of 5. 3.5/5

V) What has been the most helpful strategy for you? Practising with strangers until my anxiety diminishes and natural confidence takes over. Verbalizing ideas concisely and with a certain structure in front of strangers doesn't come naturally to anyone!

 

Username: proteinaceous

I) Doing right: 5/5 by far the best resource

IV)MSC MEDICAL: 5/5 has changed the way I approach MMI scenarios.

V) I have found the most helpful strategy to be attacking the MMI scenarios from this group under actual MMI conditions and then comparing my responses to those of the group members. (Thank you for organizing this)

 

I have not used the other resources however i would like to get involved with the skype practice sessions ASAP.

 

 

 

 

 

Username: Applepie

I) Doing Right (YES or NO). How helpful has it been? 3/5 (I took a health ethics class prior)

II) In Person Practice Sessions. How helpful has it been? 4/5 - 5/5 (This will depend on the group!)

III) Online Skype Sessions (YES or NO). How helpful has it been? 4/5 (convenient)

IV) MSC MEDICAL MMI Book/DVD (YES or NO). How helpful has been? 3/5

V) What has been the most helpful strategy for you? PRACTICE!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prep 101 username: Ylisztruusi

Materials you have used for your prep:

I) Doing Right (YES ). How helpful has it been? Out of 5

4/5 . Doing Right is excellent to provide a standard framework for answering MMI questions. However, only 2-3 "ethical- Doing Right" type questions were on the MMI I did last year. Real MMI scenarios test a wide variety of topics and it is hard to predict what they will ask. Reading Doing Right is however highly recommended.

II) In Person Practice Sessions. How helpful has it been? Out of 5

5/5. Without a doubt, this is the most effective way to improve interviewing skills.

III) Online Skype Sessions (NO). How helpful has it been? Out of 5

- did not use.

IV) MSC MEDICAL MMI Book/DVD (YES ). How helpful has been? Out of 5

4/5. MSC Medical I thought seemed like a combination of (60/40) "Doing Right" /real MMI- more of "Doing Right", as it seems to discuss more about ethical situations and the responses to these questions. I think the book was worth buying as some of the scenarios had good explanations and strategies for framing your response. The DVD I thought was poorly done, as there were very few MMI scenarios on it- a lot less than I was expecting to see. It was not well edited either, with spelling mistakes and long time lags between scenarios. I learned more from the book than I did from the DVD.

V) What has been the most helpful strategy for you?

- In person full length "mock MMI" practice sessions.

 

 

 

Prep 101 username: RN-MD

Materials you have used for your prep:

I) Doing Right (YES or NO). How helpful has it been? Out of 5

Yes. 5/5- very interesting, easy to read- makes you think.

 

II) In Person Practice Sessions. How helpful has it been? Out of 5

Trying to arrange some in the future, hope they will be helpful.

 

III) Online Skype Sessions (YES or NO). How helpful has it been? Out of 5

No

 

IV) MSC MEDICAL MMI Book/DVD (YES or NO). How helpful has been? Out of 5

No

 

V) What has been the most helpful strategy for you?

 

Reflecting on personal experiences, answering standard interview questions, talking to strangers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prep 101 username: lolas

Materials you have used for your prep:

I) Doing Right (YES or NO). YES, 4

II) In Person Practice Sessions. YES, 5

III) Online Skype Sessions (YES or NO). , NO

IV) MSC MEDICAL MMI Book/DVD (YES or NO). NO

V) What has been the most helpful strategy for you? Practicing in person, for sure.

 

 

 

Prep 101 username: mew2alakazam

Materials used: MSC book+DVD package, CanMEDS Physician Competency Framework package, healthydebate.ca

I) No, did not use Doing Right

II) In Person: YES, but only practiced with some current med students at U of T. 4.5/5 Extremely helpful, but would've liked a more organized, lengthly interview experience. Was not able to meet any current applicants in person because I am in Toronto.

III) Online Skype sessions: YES, but didn't get to do many. 3.5/5. Hard to organize time to be online at same time to practice.

IV) MSC book/dvd: YES 4/5. Strategies were clear and well laid out. I was able to create my own structure from their book.

V) Combination of IV (MSC) and II (in person interview). Instead of working this out myself, I had another person listen and comment on the scenarios from the book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Username: davinmn

Doing Right - 3/5 I found this book very interesting but slightly more detailed than necessary.

IN Person practice Sessions - 5/5 very helpful

Online skype sessions - 4/5 Although I have been stood up a couple of times, generally this is a great way to practice

MSC Medical MMI BOok/DVD - 5/5 - Great breakdown of strategy and major ethical concepts for the interview. It was nice to see a comparison of unsatisfactory vs. excellent answers as demonstrated on the DVD

 

Overall, I would definitely recommend the MSC MEdical MMI book and in person practicing. Skype practicing is great for booking around a busy schedule!

 

 

BreakItDown

Materials used for prep:

I) Doing Right - YES, 5/5

II) In Person Practice Sessions - Yes, 5/5

III) Online Skype Sessions - YES, 3/5

IV) MSC Medical MMI Book/DVD - NO

V) Most helpful strategy - combo of Doing Right and in person sessions

 

 

Prep 101 username: rebeccablack

Materials you have used for your prep:

I) Doing Right (YES or NO). YES: 4

II) In Person Practice Sessions. YES: 5

III) Online Skype Sessions (YES or NO). NO

IV) MSC MEDICAL MMI Book/DVD (YES or NO). NO

V) What has been the most helpful strategy for you? Practicing in person and brainstorming about each question.

 

 

 

Prep 101 username: razr

Materials you have used for your prep:

I) Doing Right (YES or NO). Yes, 5.

II) In Person Practice Sessions. Yes, 3

III) Online Skype Sessions (YES or NO). Yes, 2

IV) MSC MEDICAL MMI Book/DVD (YES or NO). Yes, 4

V) What has been the most helpful strategy for you?

Practicing the scenarios from multiple resources in a 2min/8min format for the last month or so, after doing my initial research on ethics. It helped to get me in that MMI frame of mind.

 

Name:

greenneurogirl

I) Doing Right (YES or NO). How helpful has it been? Out of 5

3

 

II) In Person Practice Sessions. How helpful has it been? Out of 5

4

 

III) Online Skype Sessions (YES or NO). How helpful has it been? Out of 5

0 (n/a, haven't used it!)

 

IV) MSC MEDICAL MMI Book/DVD (YES or NO). How helpful has it been? Out of 5. 3/5

 

V) What has been the most helpful strategy for you?

Talking through scenarios.

 

 

 

Prep 101 username: Solar88

Materials you have used for your prep:

I) Doing Right (YES or NO). Yes 5/5

II) In Person Practice Sessions. 5/5

III) Online Skype Sessions (YES or NO). No

IV) MSC MEDICAL MMI Book/DVD (YES or NO). No

V) What has been the most helpful strategy for you? Reading Doing Right and then practicing as a group

[yugerry]

I just realized UBC interviews are super super close!!!!!

Time sure flies......

[Chicken]

Thanks for all these resources What is this mega MMI group?

[yugerry]

No problem . It's an online prep group that we have organized. Every couple of weeks we respond to 5-10 MMI cases (contributed my our members) under MMI conditions. And then we share our responses with each other. In our last round for example, there were more than 100 pages of responses. Additionally, we meet on skype and practice some face to face MMI's. Shoot me an email if you wanna join.

 

P.S Please rate this thread.

[yugerry]

Where are you interviewing Chicken?

[Chicken]

McMaster, Ottawa (but its panel) and hopefully Western (meet all the cutoffs).

[yugerry]

I got your email and sent you bunch of MMI goodies, enjoy and welcome to the group.

[yugerry]

Hi Everyone,

 

I have been getting lots of requests from people who want to join and contribute to the group. The good news is that we still have room because some of our past members have finished their interviews and are no longer active. So just email (email address at the bottom) and I will add you (first come/first serve).

 

Also, I think it's worth while for the forum to sticky the reviews I have posted, so people can access them easily without having to search for it. Please rate 5 star if you think this is sticky worthy.

 

Cheers

[yugerry]

Hi everyone,

 

I will respond to your emails by Monday, I promise!!!! I have just been super busy with everything.

[yugerry]

Now that the forum is back up and running let's resume our MMI practice.

[taiga gal]

i just printed this off...it is so concise and to the point. when i have been practicing i usually start off with reference to popular culture, because honestly it is the first thing that comes to mind.

 

this page is the only thing i am going to look at on the plane to interview, and the morning of. thanks so much!!!

[future_doc]

Also

 

DISCUSS THE ALTERNATIVES AND WHY NOT APPLIED

 

DISCUSS WHY YOUR APPROACH WAS APPROPRIATE

[yugerry]

I think your last point is super important. Discussing why you are choosing a certain solution or making a certain decision is super important. I usually forget/fail to do that!!!

[ParkourParkour]

Is there a .pdf or (cough cough) torrent for "Doing Right" by Hebert floating around?

 

Of course, if you don't feel comfortable posting it, please PM me.

[yugerry]

^^Given that you are going to be a doctor in the near future you should know better than asking for or supporting 'book pirating'!!!! It only costs $50 or you can probably get it used for $20.

Please don't get offended but given that Dr. Hebert has completed this book in spite of severe illness, I find it very unprofessional to simply 'steal' his work.

[Dr.Henderson]

Asking for a pirated copy of an ethics text... irony anyone?

[ParkourParkour]

I'm on Ontario Works (ie. welfare), don't have access to university materials (I'm nowhere close to a post-secondary institution) and cannot afford an expenditure of ~$60 (the going price on Amazon).

 

So, to remain on an equal footing with other medical school interviewees , I've had to use the CMAJ archives and a plethora of other resources but this book seems to be the one work that is perpetually repeated in any thread with recommendations for panel/MMI prep.

 

So while I do understand the ramifications of asking for a pirated copy of a published intellectual work, I have no qualms with taking a more pragmatic approach to this problem.

 

Perhaps be a bit more sympathetic of individuals who are disadvantaged by geographical, economic and/or social circumstances. The patronizing tone of the two above posts are borderline insulting.

 

Edit: I don't know why it's irking me so much, but the preface of $50 with "only" infuriates me a little bit. Sorry for the attack, yugerry.

[Dr.Henderson]

Regardless of circumstance, you asked for something illegal, and directly akin to walking into a book store and taking it from the shelf. For some reason there is less qualms about stealing an electronic version even though its the same crime.

 

While I can appreciate your circumstance, don't be so quick to assume that everyone else is in a better situation. There are lots here (myself included) that are in tight financial situations and even have dependents (myself included again). I managed to budget for the book, but the CMAJ articles cover the same kind of scenarios and most of the principles of the book are covered here.

 

Hope it works out for you. My post above was clearly in jest, and I'm sorry if it offended you. However, I don't think its reasonable to expect someone to assume that every request for pirated material is a result of a disadvantaged economic situation (not that that's an excuse for stealing anyways).

[ParkourParkour]

Points taken and respected, Dr.Henderson. However, I still don't appreciate the subtext within yugerry's remarks that pirating (even in light of drastically difficult personal economic circumstances) would put into question the professionalism and character of a potential physician.

 

Regardless of circumstance, you asked for something illegal, and directly akin to walking into a book store and taking it from the shelf. For some reason there is less qualms about stealing an electronic version even though its the same crime.

 

While I can appreciate your circumstance, don't be so quick to assume that everyone else is in a better situation. There are lots here (myself included) that are in tight financial situations and even have dependents (myself included again). I managed to budget for the book, but the CMAJ articles cover the same kind of scenarios and most of the principles of the book are covered here.

 

Hope it works out for you. My post above was clearly in jest, and I'm sorry if it offended you. However, I don't think its reasonable to expect someone to assume that every request for pirated material is a result of a disadvantaged economic situation (not that that's an excuse for stealing anyways).

[Dr.Henderson]

Points taken and respected, Dr.Henderson. However, I still don't appreciate the subtext within yugerry's remarks that pirating (even in light of drastically difficult personal economic circumstances) would put into question the professionalism and character of a potential physician.

 

I would tend to agree with you in that respect. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who hasn't downloaded a song or something at least and that most certainly wouldn't factor into the kind of physician they'd make. If that were the case we'd have next to no physicians.

[taiga gal]

i debated whether or not to buy "doing it right", in the end i spent the same amount of money on a book about the medical school i am applying to. being a new parent i am always asking myself if i should have more books on parenting, but in the end, it is best to rely on my intuition and experience and this is what i hope will be my base for the MMI

[Tee88]

hey parkour, try the public library, it's something I did before deciding on purchasing the book (and I have now donated my copy back to the library in my town so more are available).

 

cheers

[ParkourParkour]

I have an interlibrary loan request from my town's public library for the book, but after showing the librarian the amount of reservations/call-back requests the book has from larger libraries (London, Toronto), she said it may be difficult to get a copy in time for interviews.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, though.

 

hey parkour, try the public library, it's something I did before deciding on purchasing the book (and I have now donated my copy back to the library in my town so more are available).

 

cheers

[yugerry]

I apologize . I did not mean to sound rude. Good luck.