How many probing questions did you get through?

[WaitingTooLong]

I’m just wondering if people could share how many follow up or probing questions you got through during the interview? For me I only got through 1-2 per station. 

[Pterygoid]

Good question! I'll share my experience from last year. In-person UBC interview with 2 minutes to read prompt and 7 minutes to answer.

This will depend on how long your initial monologue was, and how long you spend on each followup question. I spent anywhere between 3-5 minutes as an initial response. I had 1-3 follow-ups. My answers to followups were usually 1-2 minutes in length. (or was cut-off due to time).

**For the UBC MMI: my understanding is that the point of the followups are to elicit a more well-rounded (and stronger) overall response to the initial prompt. Someone who spends 5-6 minutes on their initial monologue, may have addressed the question well (from multiple perspectives etc), and thus not need as many followups.  Compare that to an applicant who spends 3-4 minutes (like myself), they may receive more followups to elicit a stronger response from them.

The risk of opening with a 6 minute answer is that you tunnel vision, or don't touch on other key issues of a question. This may put you at a disadvantage, because you'd only have 1-2 minutes to answer a helpful follow-up.

Please note: that this was just my natural style of answering questions. I have classmates who spent longer on their initial prompt, and had fewer follow-ups.

[Ss123toy]

I also spent 3-4 mins answering and had time for 2-3 f/ups

[Matty66]

Hey so I was also worried about this when I interviewed 2 years ago (I got through 0-2, usually 1 F/U question per station) but it really didn't matter in the end. I think it's more about your overall answer and not how many questions you can answer that matters. Hope this helps!