Question/Answer length in interviews

[co_b]

Hey...

For those who've had interviews... what would be the appropriate amount of time to take to answer the question? Like is 5 minutes too long to answer their question? how in depth do they want us to go?

 

Oh.. and last but not least... how many questions were you guys asked during the interviews on average?

 

THANKS A LOT!! soo nervous =)

[omegaxx13]

OOP applicant here. Each interview was about 20-30 minutes, during which we were asked very personalized questions pertaining to our CV and personal statement.

 

My 2-cents: treat it like a conversation. Imagine the process. They have read over your file and are presumably quite interested in it, hence they invite you for an interview in which they could know you better. That's really all that the interview is. The length of the answers really depend on the interviewer and the question. Obviously, "why medicine" will take longer to answer than "how long did you work at ___ Hospital". Personally, I think it's best to make sure your answer:

1) covers whatever you want to say;

2) is not so awfully long (5 minutes is a bit much) that it bores the hapless interviewer to tears. You can usually pick up non-verbal cues if the interviewer is very interested in what you are saying or clearly has heard it too many times.

My interviewers all asked follow-up questions to my answers and asked me at the end of each interview whether I had anything to add, so it's not like you only have one shot.

 

For prep, just make sure you know what you did really, really well and relax!

[miss_sunshine]

I totally agree. It's like a conversation, you really don't need to think about length of time of answers unless you start rambling on and on and boring your interviewer to death... Take brief pauses during some of your answers to give your interviewer a chance to jump in with anohter question pertaining to what you are saying... again RELAX.

[LABMONKEY]

Yeah thats the nice thing about the mcgill interviews is that they are set up to be a conversation (about yourself). You are not expected, nor do you need to, give a long winded answer to everything the interviewers ask. Just try to give them what you consider to be a complete answer and don't be afraid to pause for air and think about what you are saying before you blurt out a response to a question. However one of the most important things is to be as calm and relaxed as you can be, these interviews are not meant to be uncomfortable or stressful. Good Luck!

[co_b]

Thanks so much for the advice!! Do you remember how many questions you were asked?

[LABMONKEY]

I am not really sure, I don't think there is a real preset number of questions. Also its worth pointing out that the length of your interviews does not indicate how well, or how poorly, you did. Instead it reflects the different interviewers styles.