Terrified for the MMI interviews

[everydayisahussle]

Anyone with experience, advice to help with MMIs? I only applied to UBC last year as IP, i was interviewed but got "below average" on my file and was rejected. Im pree terrified for this year's interviews, any sources/tips/recommendations/groups of people willing to help with practice?

[3last]

Some advice for U of C specifically and some general:

-Read all the old admissions blog posts - search for "mmi" and "interview" to find all the most relevant posts. Those are full of gems and that's mainly where I got my info (current U of C med student).  

-Find all the available sample questions from canadian schools who do MMIs and practice with them. They're posted around online, should be easy enough to find. Practice those sample stations with as close as possible to real life conditions. Record yourself and watch them back to find your verbal habits & speech patterns, see your body language, etc. Pay attention to your pacing, engagement (practice engaging with the webcam or a friend who's mock interviewing you), relative levels of calmness/nervousness. Then do another round trying to implement improvements. Don't overdo this step or start it too far in advance. Being over-practiced or over-prepared is a red flag for interviewers (this tip comes directly from the U of C admissions blog). 

-Re-read your own application and CV shortly before you interview. You're not expected to speak much about your work or school history in the U of C interview (in fact it's frowned upon to use the stations as opportunities to self-promote, again from the admissions blog), but it's good to be grounded in who you are and how your past experiences inform your perspectives and decision making. There might be one or two opportunities to give examples from your own life in common interview type questions (e.g. tell me about a time when...) so having your own academic and professional experiences front of mind is helpful. 

-For general practice, either think of or ask people in your life to give you "challenging" topics. Practice thinking out loud about all different sides of the issue, and forming a clear but nuanced opinion about it. After a while you'll start to develop a personal "approach" to thinking about complex topics that will be helpful in MMIs (and Casper too if you need that for any apps, since they both use situational judgment). You have to verbalize your thoughts as they occur to you for this to be helpful... just doing it in your head or writing it out won't really help. Better yet is having someone listen but not respond. Remember you're not trying to give a presentation, you're letting someone see/hear your thought process verbally.

-Leading up to interviews, try to keep things in your life as stable as possible. Do things that you feel comfortable & confident with. Don't take on anything new or do things that might hurt your ego so to speak lol.

-On the day of, don't think about it too much. Do some power poses. Make sure everything is set up perfectly in your interview space (if virtual), that you feel really good in your formal clothes, your internet connection is good, you'll have no interruptions, anything you might need (e.g. water, lip chap, comb or hairbrush) is close at hand, etc, so that there is nothing for your brain to focus on and get anxious about.

Hope some of this is helpful. Good luck!!

[MDInterviewPrep]

@everydayisahussle Applying to medical school and doing the MMI is definitely a scary and intimidating process, I remember feeling this way when I was preparing for my MMI as an undergraduate student.

The first thing you need to do is recognize that you are just as deserving and qualified as any other person who was also invited to the interview, and you should be proud of yourself for getting an invite! With enocu preparation and practice, there is no reason you can't be accepted this year!

The best way to improve your MMI score is to do realistic practice. I recommend finding a group of peers and practicing at least 3 times per week, make your own MMI questions based on current events, provide detailed feedback and score each other using an MMI rating form. To build endurance, do 1-2 full length Mock MMIs and practice doing questions back to back. 

I will DM you some resources including some questions I have created from my experience as an interviewer. Feel free to DM me if you have more questions.

Best of luck with your interview!

[alo]

@MDInterviewPrep, I am in a similar circumstance and had previously failed to do well on my interview for UofC. Would it be possible to get your help as well with the resources, you suggested?

[MDInterviewPrep]

@alo I will send you a DM but we recently made this post with some Mock Questions: