ladybird

Hello premeds! My name is Emily and I run the Instagram page @egmedprep. On Tuesday August 29th at 6:30PM EST I will be running a totally free workshop about how to write medical and dental school application essays. We will cover everything from how to make your essays stand out to proper essay format to tackling this year's BPEs. The workshop will also include examples of successful vs. unsuccessful essays. To sign up, send me a DM (or reach out on Instagram) and I will send you the Zoom link. Hope to see you there! -Emily Some more info about me: Emily Izsak Gershon has been honing her interview coaching skills through one-on-one prep sessions with prospective medical, dental, and other professional students over the last 9 years. She has also served as a community member interview panelist at medical schools in the past. Last cycle, she helped 51 students prepare for medical school interviews. 42 of those students were able to secure seats at highly competitive Canadian schools. Emily holds an MA in English and Creative Writing from the University of Toronto. She has been able to use her composition and communication skills and proximity to the medical field (her husband, Dr. Ariel Gershon, is currently a resident in Medical Genetics at the University of Toronto) to help students craft expert admission essays and interview responses.

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Hi everyone, My name is Emily. I run this Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/egmedprep/ On Sunday July 17th at 4PM EST, my husband, Dr. Ariel Gershon (PGY3 resident at U of T) and I are running an application writing workshop via Zoom. The event is totally free and anyone is welcome to join. We will discuss how to format the essays for Canadian schools, common mistakes I see students make when approaching these essays, and how to make your essays stand out. I also encourage you to participate in a short activity during the event that involves putting on your editing hats and examining a not-so-good example of an admissions essay vs. a good one. There will be time for a Q&A at the end. You can sign up here: https://forms.gle/YszZCc7STwRyQGjy7 If you have any questions about writing essays in the meantime, you can always reach out to me here or via Instagram. I wish you all the very best of luck this upcoming cycle! Hope to see you on Sunday! P.S. if you can't make it to the event, message me privately and I will arrange to meet with you at another time (for free) to go over a lot of what was covered in the workshop and to discuss your essays in particular.

Hello all, My husband, Dr. Ariel Gershon and I are doing a totally free interview workshop event with the U of T Premedical Association this Thursday at 6PM EST. You are welcome to check out their instagram post and sign up here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CYhcswKPL4f/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link or you can message me and I will send you the link. The workshop will consist of an initial information session about interview strategies and ways to optimize your prep time followed by some time to tackle practice questions and receive feedback from us. As always, if you have an upcoming interview and you would like to meet for a free 30-minute Zoom prep session with me, we can definitely set up a time to do so. If you can make it to the workshop, that means I don't have to spend time in our 30 minute meeting discussing overall strategy and we can get right to the mock questions/feedback/helping you develop some answers. You can find more info about me (and more interview tips and tricks) on my Instagram page here: https://www.instagram.com/egmedprep/ Looking forward to seeing some of you on Thursday! Congrats to everyone who has already received an interview this cycle and best of luck to you all! -Emily

There's tons of great advice on this thread already. I have a lot of experience preparing students for both MMI and panel interviews (all of the UBC and U Alberta applicants I worked with last cycle ended up securing spots at the schools). If you would like to meet with me over Zoom (totally for free) I can share with you some approaches to ethics/policy questions that can help you frame your answers in a way that is coherent, logical, and thorough. This offer also extends to anyone else who comes across this post. Send me a DM and we can set up a time to meet. In the meantime, I have lots of advice on my instagram page here: https://www.instagram.com/egmedprep/ If there's anything specific you want me to address on that page that I haven't covered yet, let me know!

Thanks so much for the info

Hey everyone, congrats on your admissions!! I have a quick question that I was hoping someone could answer for me re: UBC deadlines. On the portal it says that the deadline for UBC was Oct. 8th 2021, but I see that half of the interviews happened before Oct. 8th. If you applied after Oct. 2nd, would you just be considered for the November interview dates? Is there a benefit to applying early? Is the Oct. 8th deadline correct? Thanks in advance!

* Zoom chat is free by the way (for OP or for anyone else who sees this).

Hey there, Getting feedback like that can be really tough, especially after you put so much work in. I have a video on interview strategies, dos, and do-nots here: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CJehDrxBrFl/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link . Something I picked up on in your post though is that you mentioned that you prepared for topics. While it can't hurt to do a refresher on certain topical issues, answering med school ethics/policy style interview questions is less about showing your knowledge and more about showing your thinking. If you would like to meet over Zoom sometime and discuss interview strategies, I would totally be down to do that with you. Send me a DM and we can set up a time.

Hi everyone, I posted on here a couple of months ago about an interview workshop that my husband and I were running. I had a lot of requests from people who missed that workshop to keep them (and you all) informed about future workshops. So... here is the information regarding a free workshop being held tomorrow at 6PM. All are welcome to attend. DM me for the Zoom link. Here is the info about the event: Preparing for Professional School Interviews with Dr. Ariel Gershon and Emily Izsak Gershon Attention New College Students and recent Alumni applying for professional schools! Do you have a medical school or dental school interview coming up? Join Dr. Ariel Gershon and his partner, Emily Izsak Gershon for a virtual workshop on how to best prepare for your professional school interviews. Ariel is a resident physician at the University of Toronto. He has been a formal and informal coach to students at all stages of the medical school application process for over 8 years. Emily has served as the community representative on medical school interview panels. She has been working as a professional editor and interview coach for the past 8 years. In this workshop, they will go over the major interview formats (panel, MMI, MPI and more), how to approach any question, and recent changes related to COVID-19. There will be a chance for practice! This will be of most interest to those applying to medical or dental school this year or next year, but there will be something for everybody at all stages! Date: Thursday, February 11th Time: 6PM-7PM ET Live via Zoom

Hi there, I don't have any scheduled at the moment but we are looking to organize one with New College at U of T in the future (don't have an exact date yet). For now you can see the recorded session (minus the practice question & answer part for participant privacy reasons) on my IGTV here: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CJehDrxBrFl/ . If you would like to meet privately over Zoom or Skype to discuss your specific interview goals and do some practice interview questions, I always offer one free 30 minute session per student. Message me privately if this is of interest to you and there's a time you'd like to meet.

Update: We've scheduled the meeting for noon (Eastern time) on Sunday Dec. 27th. DM me for the Zoom link

Hi all, My husband (pgy2 physician) and I run a med application Instagram page (@egmedprep) and we've done workshops at U of T in the past (you can find our New College application writing workshop on my IGTV). We are thinking of putting together a Zoom MMI/interview workshop (totally for free) if there's enough interest. Hopefully it can also serve as a way for interested parties to meet each other and form your own prep practice groups. The idea is for me to give you some principles and tips for practicing interview skills so that you can use your prep time wisely. We were thinking of holding this event either on Sunday December 27th or Monday December 28th. If this is of interest to you, either comment below or send me a DM letting me know your preferred date. I'll DM the Zoom link to everyone who responded. I will also be posting a recording of the workshop on my Instagram afterwards for everybody who can't attend.

Hey there, here are my top tips for acting questions and how to prepare for them: 1) Acting questions will usually ask you to A) break bad news to somebody/ a patient, or B ) talk to somebody who is struggling emotionally or struggling to make a decision. These types of questions serve to test your communication skills, how you react under pressure, and how you can be empathetic and kind while still being helpful/ relaying important information. 2) Don't make any assumptions. Ask lots of questions. Don't be accusatory in tone. 3) Relate to the character the actor is playing, but be mindful of the scenario. How you relate to a family member is going to be different from how you relate to a patient. Make sure to maintain professionalism if you are talking to a patient character. Saying things like, "I used to be really scared of flying too. These are the techniques that helped me. I can help you learn those techniques if that's something you're interested in" can help the character in the scenario feel less alone. 4) Ask the character how you can help them best. This doesn't work for every scenario, but it's a good thing to have in your back pocket. It shows that you understand that different people prefer to be comforted in different ways. Some people want very practical advice while others just want somebody to vent to. Make sure you spell this out to the character though so that the interviewer understands what you're doing. Say something like, "I understand that you are feeling upset right now. I would really like to support you and be there for you in the way that is going to help you the most. Would you prefer to talk through the situation together? Are you looking for advice? Or would you rather I just sit here with you for a while?" Obviously there is more to "do" if the actor picks the former option, so they often will, but if they don't, ask them if they want to be distracted from the situation with a game or another topic of conversation. 5) Often these questions ask you to be comforting, approachable, empathetic, etc. while also getting something done (breaking some kind of news or convincing somebody to do something that is in their best interest). Don't ignore the second part of those scenarios. You should actually push to have the character do things that are in their best interest even if it's not easy. The actors will push you on this. Don't give in. Find creative ways to still be kind while insisting that the character acts in the best possible way for them. 6) Know what resources are available and connect characters with those resources if needed (ie. therapists, psychiatric professionals, wellness centres, addiction specialists, doctors, nurses, sexual health clinics, women's shelters, social workers, etc.) Don't do anything that is beyond your scope (or your character's scope) such as trying to treat mental illnesses on your own. You can offer to go with characters to these places. 7) This tip is kind of out there, but listen to podcasts and pay attention to the way interviewers phrase questions. What types of questions get good, thoughtful responses and which don't? (Esther Perel's podcast Where Should We Begin is really great, and it also allows you to listen to a person in a therapeutic and mediator role. I highly recommend that one.) 8) Practice. I know that kind of goes without saying, but actually speaking these scenarios out loud will help you get your tone and delivery right on interview day. I hope these tips were helpful. I have lots of other info like this on my Instagram page (regarding how to answer other types of interview questions). You can find that here (shameless plug) https://www.instagram.com/egmedprep/ .

Hi there med and dentistry hopefuls, I am a professional editor and interview coach. You can find more information about me and my pricing options on my website here https://emilyizsak.com/editing-services-interview-prep/. I also post free interview and application tips on my Instagram page here: https://emilyizsak.com/editing-services-interview-prep/ . Making sure that students have access to affordable and equitable prep services is really important to me, so I often offer opportunities to get free feedback or information on my Instagram page. There is an application writing information session that my husband and I did with New College at U of T on my IGTV that is free for everyone to watch, and we will probably do another information session for med and dental school interviews in the near future. I also always offer a free 30 minute Zoom or Skype session before you decide to sign up for any of my packages. Please don't hesitate to reach out (either here or by email or through my Insta DMs) if you are looking for help preparing for med or dental school interviews (or residency interviews). Good luck with your applications everyone! -Emily