Talking about your CV during (Med-P) MMI?

[NervousStudent]

Hi everyone!

Sorry if this has been asked before (and sorry again for asking such a niche question as a Cegep student who hasn't even applied to Med-P yet!), but does anyone know if we can be asked questions about our CV during the (Med-P, if it makes a difference) MMI?

I would assume we're allowed to talk about our CV/life to answer the prompts (at least for me, it would be very difficult not to), but can any of the interviewers either ask a "tell me about x activity you've done and what you learned for it", or do I not need to know exactly how to make every single EC/volunteer experience I've done sound good? I'm prepared to talk about my life/CV in general or specific activities that are really important for me, but can they single out a random one and grill me on it?

Thanks!

NervousStudent

[Bambi]

Unlikely, but you should be aware of how your activities impacted the development of your CanMEDS competencies such as leadership, communication skills, collaboration, empathy, etc.

I recall several years ago an interviewer grilled an interviewee about a topic that was not in the script - to a point where it appeared this was a case of discrimination! He was not accepted (although accepted at another QC med school) and wrote to the Dean complaining, The Dean replied that he had received the top mark possible at this Station! So, bottom line, absolutely anything is possible, be prepared for the unexpected, be flexible, nothing canned. 

[NervousStudent]

3 hours ago, Bambi said:

Unlikely, but you should be aware of how your activities impacted the development of your CanMEDS competencies such as leadership, communication skills, collaboration, empathy, etc.

I recall several years ago an interviewer grilled an interviewee about a topic that was not in the script - to a point where it appeared this was a case of discrimination! He was not accepted (although accepted at another QC med school) and wrote to the Dean complaining, The Dean replied that he had received the top mark possible at this Station! So, bottom line, absolutely anything is possible, be prepared for the unexpected, be flexible, nothing canned. 

Does this mean I shouldn't put more menial activities/jobs like tutoring on my CV?

Other than cooperation and organizational skills, it's really something I did for pocket money throughout HS/Cegep and not something I can talk about at length as something that made me want to do medicine or something that gave me the qualities to be a good doctor...

[Bambi]

Let's put aside your actual motivation as to why you undertook an activity. It is not really relevant to anything, rather what is important is how you grew from the activity, what competencies you developed. Tutoring is far from menial! To tutor effectively, you need to establish in your own mind, the level of the student, if there are any learning disabilities and/or difficulties encountered in understanding concepts, how motivated the student is, how to motivate and encourage the student. Communication skills, problem solving, critical thinking, teaching, compassion and more are involved. These competencies are required of physicians even though tutoring per se has nothing to do with medicine.

I would think any activity that helped develop such competencies is a candidate for inclusion in your CV. Being a cashier, a server can help you develop meaningful competencies. How you write your CV is important to convey not just what you did, but how you developed.   

As a Cegepien, my grades were too low for me to apply at that time. I also did not have the requisite maturity. I remember another brilliant student in Cegep who had a stellar CV and he was not accepted. Both of us went to university and matured. Both of us got into med school on our first try from undergrad. This is a looong marathon. You don't have a clue when and where lightning will strike and there may be detours along the way. I failed an exam in med school and had to rewrite. This was a temporary hit to my self-confidence. 

You need to make important strategic decisions along the journey. For example, if you choose a needy s.o. who is a drain on your time and emotions, your ambitions can be derailed! You want someone who is supportive of your ambitions to comfort and stand by you in times of defeat, who understands your time is limited as your focus must be on studies. At undergrad, you need to choose the appropriate university and program for you, prestige is utterly meaningless and irrelevant. At your age, I was a shy kid, today I am a leader with a surgical practice. I could have done a fellowship to develop expertise in a subspecialty but decided against this as I did not want to do assembly line surgery, the same thing over and over and over, for my entire career. I do a variety of surgeries in my specialty practice which keeps my interest.  

It all starts with the first step - which is before the application. In my case, I was highly motivated and understood that I had to be a straight A student in university, which required selecting the right program, the right electives, studying smart for me and self-sacrifice whereby I was totally exhausted at the end of each semester. I worked hard in undergrad, harder in med school, much much harder in residency. In a sense, it never ends. I survived on student loans only since Cegep, I walked to university to save on transportation, I brought my lunches and a thermos to save expenses. Each of these decisions were important at the time. I lost every friend I had while attending undergrad as when they partied, I was constantly studying, not being the brightest light bulb in the class. Was it worth it looking back? Absolutely. 

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