Post mmi feelings

[med1day]

The first time I interviewed (I was rejected) I felt great after the interview. Now knowing a lot more about the process and the good points I missed, I feel terrible. I still feel like I did better overall, but I feel so much worse after? 

[Chels1267]

In my experience, the more you think about it the more you'll realize you could have said haha.

[yeeewww]

If you do not have a pang of anxiety over something you said, did you even interview?! 

[med1day]

@yeeewww Literally I keep going over little things, but I can't even remember the darn thing properly either so it's messing with me. 

[med1day]

@Chels1267 How do you stop thinking about it though lol.

[Chels1267]

10 hours ago, med1day said:

@Chels1267 How do you stop thinking about it though lol.

Good question lol.

[Anaik]

The truth is no matter if you think you nailed it on some stations or did very poorly on some stations it doesn’t matter. The way we judge ourselves versus how others judge ourselves is totally different. Interviewers are all different people who will inevitably judge you different than you will judge yourself. While I think some self reflection is good, thinking about things further won’t change what they put on the sheet. Make a list of what you need to improve on if things don’t workout, and worry about tackling it if the time comes again! Fold that list up, put it at the bottom of your closet and don’t check it until results come out. Doing the whole “could of, should of, would of” in your head will in no way help, and will only stress you out further. Plus who the f*%k walks out of an MMI and thinks “haha, nailed it”??
 

I’ll be honest here, I think the majority of people applying to medicine are much harder on themselves than your average human. Feeling like you’re in a race with everyone else applying, how can you not? It’s so easy to compare yourself to others and feel like you should be doing better. Keep that in mind if you’re feeling upset about your answers, what might’ve been poor in your self-critical eyes may have been excellent in the eyes of your interviewer. The amount of friends I’ve had that walk out of there and begin convincing themselves they bombed it only to get accepted is absurd. Now whether it’s a normal part of the process or I’m naturally drawn to neurotic people is a different questions haha! 
 

Now for things you should do:

-be proud of yourself! Getting an interview and getting through it is no easy feat. It means you are worthy of being there, and even if you didn’t get an acceptance just going through the process once is huge.

-Relax! You don’t have to study for an mcat, prep for Casper or an interview. You literally have time to pursue hobbies, be social or binge watch the office. Whatever works for you. 

-Focus on other aspects of your application you can control! If you’re still in school, focus on keeping a good GPA. Or look into other activities you’re interested in pursuing. 

-Reward yourself! Again, you made it to and through and MMI. Go celebrate with friends, go on that trip you’ve been wanting to, get that new guitar, buy a box of lindor chocolates and watch Christmas movies, etc. Whatever is feasible for you! 

 

Go easy on yourself, it’ll all workout in the end  

[Anaik]

24 minutes ago, IsabellaSmith_ said:

How do you guys prepare for your mmi ?

Everyone’s different! For me it was to understand more about medical ethics, the pillars of medicine and social determinants of health. I then looked into current topics in medicine and discussed them with friends. Finally I did practice by myself and with friends and tried to be consistent with the whole 2 minutes to read, 8 minutes to talk ordeal.

If you’re not familiar with MMIs, I’d say look into the format of it first before delving into what I said above! 

[capoo]

20 minutes ago, IsabellaSmith_ said:

thank you so much for the advice! I looked further into the format and have been reading about current topics and news. 

what was one question from your MMI that threw you off guard, or was just weird in general?  

MMI's are confidential for a reason, y'know  

[Anaik]

12 hours ago, IsabellaSmith_ said:

thank you so much for the advice! I looked further into the format and have been reading about current topics and news. 

what was one question from your MMI that threw you off guard, or was just weird in general?  

As @keipop said we sign a confidentiality form to say we won’t discuss the questions, all I will say though is that anything that might’ve felt like it caught me off guard was a scenario I never even considered. Reading it at first had me scratching my head, but once I thought of the right principles I felt fine!
 

Another one that might catch someone off guard is any station where you have to interact with someone else rather than answer a question. There’s plenty of resources online to findout what types of questions can be asked, so I think a good first step is looking into them all! Doing will reduce the chance of you feeling surprised during an MMI.