Guest Jas Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 After interviewing at alot of unversities across Canada (including 3 times at UBC), I have never experienced an interview that was, on the most part, completely identical to most other peoples. I guess I realized this coming home on the plane monday morning when a few other interviewees were on the same flight. Not only did we have the same questions, but i'm guessing all of you did too, after reading the "interview experiences" post. There's a reason why panels have different sets of questions because interviewee's can prepare or find out what questions are being asked. Just wanted to hear everybody else's opinions. Consider this, I just found out about this site this week and people had posted interview questions as early as friday of the interview weekend. Technically they would have an advantage. Could this be grounds for a complaint against the interview process? My two cents. Jas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SouthMigration Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 I totally agree; I found this site after my interview as well. On the other hand, I thought about doing a web-search before my interview, but didn't bother. So, now I know better for next time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Makunouchi Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 Next time? C'mon... gotta be more optimistic I was thinking about this today too... it doesn't really make sense to have a structured interview like this every year... I'm sure people could rehearse answers, although it may not seem genuine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest miou66 Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 Will the complaint change how the admission comittee select next year's class? NO!! I don't think they care whether the questions were leaked out or not. (They know it will happen!) It's the same as interview for residency spots....same questions are asked for all interviewees. I guess we can let the admission people know that we do not like this format but it won't change this year's selection process. >: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dunes Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 I can understand why your frustration, but I also think that no matter if you knew the questions beforehand or not, you won't change how you will respond and you won't change who you are and how you present yourself to the interview panel. I bet that everyone has prepared an answer for (tell me about yourself, what are the charachters of a doctor, why do you want to be a doctor..etc) before reading this forum, so these questions are not too surprising and I don't think that knowing that before hand will even change anything in your interview. If they were really hard questions, then maybe. DO you think it is more fair if each one of us got different questions and depending on your panel, you get a real hard Q.? Or if we all get the same questions, but they evaluate the way we respond to the same questions? I think that UBC admissions are trying to be as fair as possible, and I think that it might work better in the future. They did get a lot of complaints before that they're not fair b/c of having different question, and now people are complaining b/c we do have standard questions. Do you guys have a better suggestion?? these are just my 2 cents Dunes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jazz Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 You know what, interviews are never going to be completely "fair" per se. It's always going to be pretty subjective. The best way to make the process more "fair" is not to make interviews the sole determinant of the admission process. People who interviewed later mau have had an advantage this year with the integrity plethora questions but not much else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jas Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 How we replied to the questions can't be compared, because for the hard questions (ie. integrity, which is a question i bet nobody prepared for, unless you knew before hand) some people probably already knew the questions, therefore their relative performance may be better. There's a reason almost all other schools (every single one i've interviewed at, which is 9 other schools) have different questions, it is to prevent this sort of thing. I really don't think at this stage their looking for how we think under pressure (although it is important, but I think our grades give them this impression). But, they should really get to know the applicant for who they are. They told me flat out, right at the beginning, that we won't be talking about certain things like hockey, which I played for 12 years and even a year of junior. It was way to structured and I don't think they got a good sense of who the candidate was by doing it this way. This being the 13th time i've interviewed somewhere, this was probably the worst interview i've ever had (in terms of what the panel learned about me, not performance) Anyways, i'd love to hear what you guys think? jas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest threeputt Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 My interview was monday, so i had a chance to check this site out first. My impression was that very few specific questions were leaked, but that people gave an overall feel of the atmosphere of the interviews, and its format. Nowhere on this board did I see anything mentioned about the integrity question until after all interviews were finished - and that was for catharsis and discussion. The only specifics I read about were - tell me about urself, good doc qualities, talk about a social issue - hardly things that a premed would be unprepared for! There was some discussion about what was not in the interview (ethics, current events), but that's hardly helpful. And it would be foolish for any following interviewee to ASSUME that these would not be discussed. I don't think the members of this board are stupid and/or altruistic enough to give away their own spots in medicine for someone else by giving away the harder questions of the interview! And I don't think anyone would have expected them to do so, either. The only thing I took from this board into my interview was that it would be a (relatively) relaxed and structured process. If you want to call that an advantage, then feel free - I, personally, don't think so. This is the first year for this format, so there are bound to be some hiccups. I think, overall, they did a fine job with it, and reading these boards did NOTHING to change how I prepared for my interview. btw, my interview was not perfect, and I have my doubts that I will be accepted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ClimbOn Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 I have to agree with Jas that the interview was too structured for interviewers to really get to know the candidate. They never asked me about the kinds of sports I am involved in. Climbing is particularly important to me, and looking back, I might have wanted to add at the end of the interview that I'm really "devoted" to climbing. That could have given them a better idea of who I am...but then, they might not have cared at all. As for fairness.....I think most people didn't expect or know interviewers asked nearly identical questions from one day to another, and so many people wouldn't have actively searched what questions were asked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kirsteen Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 Hi there, I disagree that UBC's type of "structured" interview did not afford a decent opportunity for the interview panel to get to know the interviewee. Almost every interview question that anyone fields (in any arena) is an opportunity to reveal more of yourself. You can do this by the anecdotes and experiences that you offer to support your responses. Additionally, for those who can, it is also an opportunity to show your communication characteristics: can you build rapport, do you have a sense of humour, are you honest, etc. I assume that those preparing for the McMaster interview (appreciably, the most structured interview of them all this year) shall be incorporating this approach to a certain degree when they have eight full minutes to answer each of the standardized questions. Overall, it is not the questions that make the interview highly customized and your own, it is how you answer them. Cheers, Kirsteen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Makunouchi Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 Hi Kirsteen, I agree that offering anecdotes and experiences is an ideal way to answer questions. However, I think it depends on the panel on how well that goes. For me, one member did not like "extra" answers... but fortunately there was another one that was interested in some of the examples and interrupted to ask further questions. But if that's the way it goes, then the structured questions would not be the same and not be as uniform as they wanted it to be. Although it is true that they tried to make the structured questions specific to your profile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest soapyslicer Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 Hi everyone, I think people have to try and look on the positive side of the panel and structured interview process. The past process was extremely unfair to some students. Some students were given a mark of 6%ile by one interviewer and 85%ile by another. How could that be an accurate score? At least with 3 people in the room you had less chance of someone with a personality issue with you taking control. At the end of the day those of you who may have had a harder panel will have those marks adjusted. All the panels average has to be the same. So those who had hard markers overall will go up and those who had soft markers will go down. I think in general this system is much more fair to the student body. Two years ago I had one interview that I came out of feeling really positive - got a decent mark. One of my interviews was hostile, 2 hours late for the interview, eating his lunch and yawning throughout the process and in the end took 1.5 hours to grill me - got a good mark from him too. Ended up in the 80%ile overall. My point is you can never really tell how you did. But at least the school is trying to level the playing field. I too am having many second thoughts about my interview. It seemed to be positive but now I wonder if they were just trying to make me comfortable. They cut it off at 25mins, put down their pens and said as we were finished and could we just chat for a while. The ensuing conversation continued to be positive but now I wonder if it got too casual and my answers were somewhat flip at the end. Who knows, I guess we will find out in a month. Try to keep positive, soapy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Makunouchi Posted March 21, 2004 Report Share Posted March 21, 2004 Hiya, There is not doubt that have a panel of three is better than having 1-on-1. Totally agree with you there, from the stories I've heard. But panels can be structured or unstructured. Anyhow, good luck with any more interviews... and here's to a phone call or two... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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