MMI thoughts and musings

[Guest happy2bme]

So I attended the MMI on Sunday.........and loved it!

 

It was very well organized and the questions were easy, no tricks or interviewer intimidation. The questions/scenerios were posted on the door and on the table in the room. Much less stress than the one on one interview. I think because you only have 8 minutes in the room there is not a lot of time for followup questions in the more indepth stations so much less chance to have your position flipped on you by the interviewer.

 

I did feel flustered by one of my stations, not be the question, but by the interviewer. All the other interviewers followed pretty much the same format, but one interviewer started by reading my question to me very slowly??(you already had a chance to read it outside the room) and did not let me answer it at all, but started out with his own interpretation of the question. Wierd. Needless to say that was the only station I felt I didn't have time to finish as well as I would have liked.

 

I was not in the first two MMI groups, which apparently according to Dr. LeMay had "bathroom issues" and put the schedule off kilter. People, use the bathroom before you start the MMI!!! He was not amused at the fact the MMI had to wait while a candidate used the facilities. If you do have a real bladder/bowel disorder and do not think you will be able make it through the entire 100 minute schedule, I highly suggest you bring this to the attention of the admissions office, so you can be put in the last MMI group if the need arises.

 

The staff and students, as always, were incredibly friendly. It almost wants me to start rumors that UofC is an awful school so not so many people want to come here!!! LOL I love the non-competitive atmosphere and the facilities outstanding!!!

 

Everyone I talked to after the MMI said they liked and felt they did well. It will be interesting to hear from anyone else on this forum if they found it difficult. However, if everyone did well the interviewers may have a very difficult time rating the applicants against each other.

 

I was in the green group, and CrazyKath was there, or I assume anyways that the girl from Victoria was her. Let me say that her ez board name describes her to a tee. She is absolutely fantastic and made us all feel at ease. Kudos to the Med 1 class!!!

 

Now for the negatives..........not much. The day was long, I was tired by the time I had to finish up my essay(definitly not my best work, did better on the one last year). The exit survey should have also had more space for comments. Also I heard someone mention that one of their interviewers was someone they knew (not very well) from highschool, I would think that this consitutes a bit of conflict of interest. But the interviewer probably didn't reconize the name until they saw the face in the room.

 

 

Dr. LeMay also stated that at the interview stage UofC has the greatest chance of acceptance rate 46%!! now I'm just gunning for the other 54%!!!!

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hey there,

 

Glad to hear that you had a good experience.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest medsmurf]

Hey happy, I have my interview this coming weekend so thanks for sharing your thoughts and I'm glad to hear that you feel you did well

[Guest CrazyKath]

Hey Happy! I had my eye out for people from the board, I guess you were hiding in the crowd somewhere during my inane impromptu speech.

 

So glad to hear that the day went well for you (with a few exceptions)! The feedback on the MMI format and your general impressions definitely helps us tailor the interview day as well as give some positive reinforcement for the things we're doing well!

 

Fingers crossed!

~K~

[Guest happy2bme]

Yeah I didn't introduce myself, sorry about that.

 

I was in Uulu's and Lauren's group.

[Guest wylie348]

Hi Smurf - I am also this weekend - maybe some time for some foosball?

 

Thanks for the update Happy - nice to get a little info before the big day.

 

Take care, and I hope all goes well with you all - although this is after I get accepted! :^)

 

[Guest btrots]

I was pleasantly surprized about the MMI comments/impressions from the interviewees. It's great to hear that, overall, the day seemed to go fairly smoothly, and that the transition to the MMI wasn't too much of a jolt. We students also had a pretty good day...it was great to meet some of you, and of course to see the process from the other side for once.

 

Green group was the dream team, no doubt about it (it was essentially my small group, with the addition of Kath). Great to have Kath in your group, so you can just relax and play backup on any presentation...haha.

 

For those of you that still have your interview coming up, don't worry about LeMay. He's quite stressed these days, just because this whole process is his baby...he just wants it all to work out as expected. Regardless, I'd be quite surprized if he didn't do his best to help out anyone that runs into any kind of trouble throughout the day...so never hesitate to ask.

 

It seems like the MMI questions were quite reasonable overall. There is definitely room to really personalize the questions, and something I'd suggest trying to do if you can manage. I'd imagine that interviewers crave something different when they're hearing the same answer constantly throughout the day.

 

Best of luck to those that will be around on Sat, we'll see you then.

 

b

[Guest happy2bme]

oh I didn't even clue in that "You" were btrots......You were the one gunning for Thailand???

 

ahhh ezboarders.....they're everwhere......

[Guest wylie348]

MMI was great! I thought last year was really good, but I enjoyed the MMI's even more. I wanted to thank the following people for being so awesome:

 

-Julius (and thanks for playing foosball)

-George (a great help and you were not even in my group!)

-Zach (thanks for being my foosball partner - it was a blast)

 

and special thanks to Chi - you were a great friend throughout the day, and it was great to hear what your plans are - good luck with this summer - I hope it all works out for you!

 

[Guest happy2bme]

Glad to see you enjoyed yourself Wylie!

 

Now for the wait, till...May15th or so?? I haven't looked on the web for a while so I forget what day decisions are called out!

 

Well we are all done now for Calgary, again thanks to the Med 1's for showing us around!

[Guest loud noises]

I don't mean to be negative, but I didn't like the MMI format at all...I think it was rather stressful, and it soon became obvious that most people were giving similar answers because I mean, there aren't that many different combinations of answering those things. I wish there were more opportunities to be able to tell the assessors about your past experiences...The announcement of 1 minute remaining kind of interfered with people's trains of thought a couple of times, is what I heard and I agree with.

I also had a very negative experience at one of the stations, in which I was asked whether this was my first time applying...I answered that it was, and then I got the reply that this was obvious along with a rolling of the eyes. That totally threw me off guard for the remaining stations.

On a positive note, the group leaders were awesome! They were super helpful, friendly and did a good job of showing us the school and explaining the curriculum and details of student life.

Now I just hope that one assessor cannot make or break my chances...:rolleyes

[Guest knpy]

loud noises: i completely agree with you! Some people really like the MMI, and think that is is more objective and fair than a traditional panel interview. However,

I found it very stressful. The scenarios were long, and I didn't like reading them/scanning them - i like traditional interviews where things are being communicated to me verbally. also, just travelling station to station, going in and out of rooms was stressful. and you're right, the one minute left thing interrupted my train of thought many times. Anyways, this sounds like an expensive idea, but i think they should have these timers/stopwatch things they can can put in each room (and centrally control) so that WE can guage how much time we have left and plan our answers accordingly.

[Guest try2dstress]

I have to say I was pretty apprehensive about the MMI before going into it, but I ended up having a great time. I think what helped was that we were constantly occupied with the med students or Dr. Lemay so there wasn't time to get nervous/anxious before the interviews. At least that's how it worked for me...I was a nervous wreck the night before but on the day of I was calm and relaxed, and I found most of the interviewers really nice and encouraging which helped me relax even more. The one minute call was a bit distracting, but sometimes it couldn't come too soon . I can think of at least one station where I wished that call came 8 minutes earlier...when I think about what I said in that room I want to run and hide. At least there were 9 other stations where I hopefully redeemed myself.

The announcer ended up getting pretty comical at the end which I appreciated because it started to lighten things up at the end.

 

For those who thought the situation was really nerve-wracking I'm sure the interviewers know to account for nerves and I'm willing to bet your true self was still able to shine through. Good luck to all!

[Guest arjuna83]

During one of my stations the interviewer continued asking a question even after the announcer called time! I wasn't quite sure what to do....start getting up or attempt to answer it. When the next interviewee opened the door I took it as my sign to say bye

[Guest medsmurf]

Okay so here is my 2 cents. I thought the MMI interviews were terrible and I feel I did very poorly. I did not feel as though the interviewers got to know who I am as a person at all. The MMI's were stressful, way too long and should not have started at 7:00 in the morning! I was getting so bored (and tired from being up so early) with all of the silly scenarios by the end that I couldn't even concentrate and my eyes would start to glaze over as I was reading them. Also, my interviewer for the last station had no clue what was going on or what question I was suppose to be answering so as I was talking he was not even looking at me and was shuffling papers around. When he finally did get up to speed I think he realized that he had to read some prompts for me to answer and so he rushed me through the questions. Also, at some of the stations the question and answering did not fill up the entire 8 minutes (I am a very concise person...haha) and I would have a minute or two left. Some interviewers were friendly and we would just have a conversation in those last moments but others were rude and basically just said they were done and left me twiddling my fingers and feeling completely uncomfortable for the last minute. And finally, I was acquainted with one of my interviewers (one of the med students) and I mentioned that it was a conflict of interest but this person just said it didn't matter and we continued on with the question (probably because nothing could be done about it without everything and everyone else being thrown competely out of sink). I was completely flustered and felt very awkward having this person interview me.

 

I don't think the traditional interview format is perfect but I don't think MMI is the answer at least not the way it was done at Calgary. I do like the idea of having multiple interviewers evaluating each person but I would have liked to have seen fewer stations with more questions per station and more traditional interview type questions as opposed to all scenarios so the interviewers get to know you, your background and your motivation for medicine better.

 

P.S. At the interview Dr. Lemay mentioned that he skims this forum to see what we're all talking about :eek

[Guest happy2bme]

I'm sorry that you had a bad experience. You are definitly not the only one who feels that way. I had someone PM me who stated some similar feelings.

 

They should have however given a list of names to the interviewers to make sure no conflict of interest. Now if i†'s your best friend, that is definitly a conflict, but if its' just someone who sat across from you in a lab three years ago and you wouldn't have reconized the name, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't consider it a conflict of interest.

 

I actually reconized the name of one of the interviewers(from some research I had done two weeks before about the UofC) and asked if they were indeed the person I thought they were.....they were and I had a good station with them.

 

I am trying out the trial MMI with Manitoba next weekend, in addition to a reg interview, I'll let you know the differences in the two structures!!

 

 

Oh yeah,,,,, HI DR. LEMAY!!!!!!!!

[Guest riffraff]

Hey,

 

About the conflict of interest portion, if you knew an interviewer I don't think that particular part of the interview should've carried through. I let an individual I know beforehand that I'd be interviewing and he/she made sure I wasn't on their list.

[Guest Lurkergonepublic]

Personally, I had a good experience. I would agree that a lot of the scenarios seemed to overlap, and I found myself answering the same questions in the same way and using the same examples over and over again. I would have liked to see a bit more variety in the type of questions. Most of the interviewers I had were quite nice. Some of my answers went right to the buzzer, and a few times we just chatted in the extra 2 minutes left as well.

 

As for conflict of interest, I asked ahead of time, and was told that there were 'alternate interviewers' ready to jump in a room in that case, although no mention was made as an announcement on the day of... if that was followed through on, they probably should have mentioned something to everyone.

 

Overall though, I liked it. I liked the fresh start from room to room especially. My biggest problem is the walking, talking and guzzling water for 90 minutes, but fortunately I had planned my bathroom breaks well. Any longer and it might have become a serious issue. :lol

 

As for the long day, and the early start - if that was too much, then you might want to think twice about medicine. Sure I don't jump out of bed at the crack of dawn when I don't have to, but unless I'm mistaken, 26 hour shifts, and emergency decisions at 3AM during a residency are not uncommon further down the road... Maybe they should have started at 5 in the morning and gone all dayif they really wanted to test our kutzpah.

[Guest HP]

I had one station too which I wish I could have taken a mulligan on, but all in all I thought it was pretty well done. It's true that by about the 6th station you want the bad people to just stop, but when I was actually in the rooms talking I thought the time went pretty quickly and most of the assessors were nice and at least respectful, if they weren't openly cordial and conversational. Having 10 (well, technically 9) first impressions is the biggest strength and the biggest weakness of the format...you're almost guaranteed to rub someone the wrong way (hence the advice to shrug it off), but you get 10 chances and if you really have the stuff, it feels like it'll average out and show through.

 

PS: If the dude who was working the PA system reads this: you're my hero, thanks for adding a little humour to it!

[Guest Lurkergonepublic]

Hey HP - I didn't get a chance to say hi on Saturday - I thought I saw you once, but I could never find you again when it was mingling time. I was surprised how structured the whole process was this time - there wasn't a lot of chance to meet people outside your basic group. Glad to hear it went well though. When the PA guy said, "check if your fly's down and enter the room," I almost did it! Funny how your mind works in that situation.

 

And Hi to Mona - I did meet you. Hope it went good for you too.

[Guest HP]

Yeah, for sure! It was nice to walk into the room and have the assessor laughing with you already. :lol

[Guest medsmurf]

Hey Lurkergonepublic, I definitely know all about the early mornings and long shifts of being a doc as I've watched first hand as my husband has gone through med school and residency...sometimes 36 hour long shifts (he can barely even think or talk straight by the time he gets home...kind of scary actually).! I just wish I got one of the later interview times since me and most of the people in my group were yawning the whole time. I'm sure the stress and the long drive the night before didn't help either

[Guest Lurkergonepublic]

Medsmurf- True 'nuff. It's kind of funny that the medical community persists with such nasty shift work ("I had to do it when I was resident, so why should my residents have it any easier!") and then seems so worried about how to lower the incidence of medical mistakes. And these are supposed to be some of the smartest people we have? Personally, I wouldn't trust myself to paint a straight line on a wall after being up for 30 hours...

[Guest medsmurf]

And even though there are rules in place now in residents contracts about how many hours in a row they can work nobody actually abides by them.

[Guest wylie348]

Well, here is some more from me in light of the above comments...

 

I actually enjoyed the 'commentator' as he added alot of humour which I think helps some of the more nervous candidates, and made me smile from time to time :^)

 

I think it was a great test of thinking on your feet, and probably relates to how well you might work under pressure - a valuable area to assess for a med student or physician.

 

I hope the MMI continues, and as I said before, I thought it was really smooth, well organized, and minimal stress.

 

Good luck Happy in Manitoba, and wouldn't it be nice for us to get together with the smurf at U of C this fall!

 

:rollin