How'd they go?

[J_Term]

I think today was the first day for the Queen's interviews. How did they go?

[nutritional_lee]

I think today was the first day for the Queen's interviews. How did they go?

 

Great! The presentation (especially the video) by the first year students was a hoot, the tour around Kingston was interesting, the med students hanging around to answer questions all obviously loved the program and the school, and most importantly of all, the interview was laid back and went by in a flash. Overall a very positive experience!

[DD87]

I was very impressed by the interviews, as well as the Queen's 1st yr students who made it their job to be as helpful as possible to every applicant. They really sold me on the school, and you could see that they all got along great and are really enjoying themselves.

[daryn]

Ditto to all of the above.

 

I have talked to a few people and everybody seemed to feel great after the interview. I try not to get my hopes up and also not to dwell on what I'd said on the interview. Ah it's going to be a long wait. At least school is keeping me busy until then.

[jayC]

so most interviews went for 50 minutes... mine lasted 35 minutes... is that a cause for worry??

[babygoose]

no, timing does not really matter... it depends on the interviewers, and your answers, and if they get a feel for you in less than 50 (or 60) mins, then that's perfectly fine.

 

yeah ditto to all the above... interviews were really relaxed, conversational atmosphere. it flew by (mine was 45-50min)

 

the atmosphere at the school was great, and the movie was hilarious

 

good luck to all

[Guest begaster]

Yeah, mine finished in about 30 minutes also. I have no idea if that's a good thing, a bad thing, or a completely neutral thing.

 

Had a lot of fun. The school is simply incredible, the first year students were fantastic, and I'm really hoping I get in.

[daryn]

There is something that happened during my interview that really bothers me.

 

My parents gave me a ride there. That's fine.

 

The interview went smoothly. That's fine too.

 

And after I said my thank yous and good byes, and was about to leave, the community member casually said, "So you are taking a train back home, right?"

 

THEN FOR SOME STRANGE REASON, I said yes!

 

I guess I was too happy to be done and I wasn't hearing things properly.

 

This would also be a good time to say "oops I actually meant.."

 

But again, for some strange reason, I didn't!

 

Then she said, "Is it at 5pm? Or 5.30? Something like that?"

 

Since I didn't take the train and hadn't the faintest idea, I said, Yeah, maybe, I don't know. I need to check.

 

(WHAT??)

 

I must have sounded like the biggest moron ever.

 

I'm hoping that they are just shrugging it off...I don't know why I didn't correct myself..So kicking myself for this..No idea what I was thinking..

[jayC]

i wouldn't worry about that... they know you're nervous. besides, there's no reason to lie about something like that.

[The Law]

There is something that happened during my interview that really bothers me.

 

My parents gave me a ride there. That's fine.

 

The interview went smoothly. That's fine too.

 

And after I said my thank yous and good byes, and was about to leave, the community member casually said, "So you are taking a train back home, right?"

 

THEN FOR SOME STRANGE REASON, I said yes!

 

I guess I was too happy to be done and I wasn't hearing things properly.

 

This would also be a good time to say "oops I actually meant.."

 

But again, for some strange reason, I didn't!

 

Then she said, "Is it at 5pm? Or 5.30? Something like that?"

 

Since I didn't take the train and hadn't the faintest idea, I said, Yeah, maybe, I don't know. I need to check.

 

(WHAT??)

 

I must have sounded like the biggest moron ever.

 

I'm hoping that they are just shrugging it off...I don't know why I didn't correct myself..So kicking myself for this..No idea what I was thinking..

 

 

LOL, daryn! DO NOT worry about that! Honestly, nerves get the best of us, and they know this.

[StraightFlush]

OK everyone was telling me how it was like a conversation, "to be yourself" and they'd go out of their way to put u at ease, so having psyched up myself for that, my interview was WTH?!

 

I walk in and i see three stone cold poker faces staring at me, and then the community member asks me a random question that had nothing to do with medicine and did not involve "why do you want to be a doc" or "tell me about yourself". It was like stepping into the shower and turning it on, and having cold acid sprayed on you!

 

Of course I could feel my face getting hot and red, altho Im not sure how noticeable it was. THe next five minutes didn't get better, the poker faces were still on, and it seemed the med student just gave perfunctory nods.

 

I think I managed to salvage it at the end, since there were actually smiles, laughter, and more interested questions about my studies, itnerests, and autobio sketch, but who knows, interviewers are trained to act, so any "good" signals u get could be fake lol.

 

Queens pretty much sold itself to me over this weekend, too, so, hopefully they perceived it differently. Oh well, nothing I can do now, 10 weeks to go.

[grinchsantlerdog]

I thought the exact same thing. How is a battery of unrelated question (unrelated to each other and some only vaguely related to medicine) make a conversation?? Either different interviewers took different approaches or some of your people have so seriously tense conversations...

[Chowchilla]

i believe they adopted a new format this year for the interviews, so it was different from the experience the first years were describing. first of all, they've standardized the format so everyone gets asked the exact same questions (hence the forms). my interviewers were stone-faced so i had no idea whether they liked my answers, agreed with me, or disagreed with me. the thing that really threw me off was that my panel didn't write a thing while i was talking.

 

oh well, only 2.5 months to go.

[lostintime]

Oh so they do have our info, i.e. autobiographical sketch and essays? Hmm...

 

Well I guess same questions = more fair, but it does make it kind of impersonal. Oh well.

[Sheena815]

Hi guys, I've been lurking for a while, but thought I'd offer my perspective on the queen's interview:

 

I thought everyone was really friendly, but I also found some of the interview questions quite tough. I described the questions to my dad after and he said the style they were using was a behavioral targeted selection method. (He has interviewed people using this method before). This is basically based on the philosophy that past behavior predicts future behavior. So they are the types of "get to know you" questions where you are asked about "describe a time when.... " and "what did you learn from it". Its about how you handle situations. Most questions were not about medicine at all but about my experiences, and I found some of them challenging because they were fairly specific. I had to think for a minute for a couple of them.

 

Not all the questions are the same for everyone, I think. They told me they have a set of standard ones they ask first, and the rest vary. My dad also told me that this interview style keeps the interviewers in control and limits how much you can hijack the questions to impress the panel. They have standard scoring criteria which are different for each question, (it does make it a bit impersonal) and I found it (and my dad finds it) very hard to gauge how well you did afterwards.

 

I found my interviewers friendly and professional, but I also was a bit surprised that they barely wrote anything down while I was talking! They just listened, wrote nothing, and usually said nothing after I was finished. So I wouldn't describe it as "conversational", really.

 

And yes, they have your sketch AND questions with them.

[EllieGee]

I didn't notice whether or not they had my sketch/questions with them. Nothing really specifically came up from them, but maybe that's because I brought it up myself?

 

I also am really worried about it. I didn't feel great about it, but it's so hard to tell. My physician member sometimes looked like my answers were torturing her, but then my community member was so nice and smiley. My student was right in between. It's so hard to tell though! May 15 waiting is going to be tough.

[Cobey]

OK everyone was telling me how it was like a conversation, "to be yourself" and they'd go out of their way to put u at ease, so having psyched up myself for that, my interview was WTH?!

 

I walk in and i see three stone cold poker faces staring at me, and then the community member asks me a random question that had nothing to do with medicine and did not involve "why do you want to be a doc" or "tell me about yourself". It was like stepping into the shower and turning it on, and having cold acid sprayed on you!

 

Of course I could feel my face getting hot and red, altho Im not sure how noticeable it was. THe next five minutes didn't get better, the poker faces were still on, and it seemed the med student just gave perfunctory nods.

 

I think I managed to salvage it at the end, since there were actually smiles, laughter, and more interested questions about my studies, itnerests, and autobio sketch, but who knows, interviewers are trained to act, so any "good" signals u get could be fake lol.

 

Queens pretty much sold itself to me over this weekend, too, so, hopefully they perceived it differently. Oh well, nothing I can do now, 10 weeks to go.

 

 

I'm sure it went better than you thought...It is really hard to gauge these types of things when you are nervous. Do you mind me asking what time your interview was at? Maybe if it was later in the day they interviewers were tired?

[aclementine]

... I found some of them challenging because they were fairly specific. I had to think for a minute for a couple of them...

 

what's the proper etiquette in this type of situation, can you just say "let me think about it for a few minutes?" and just ponder for awhile??

 

for some reason, it would seem very awkward, no?

[Sheena815]

what's the proper etiquette in this type of situation, can you just say "let me think about it for a few minutes?" and just ponder for awhile??

 

for some reason, it would seem very awkward, no?

 

I did say that, actually. After they finished their question, I would usually just nod and then (only twice, I think, the rest I could think of something right away) said let me think for a second. It was usually only about 20 seconds, I think (while I mentally panicked like crazy to think of something!) It did feel a bit awkward, knowing they were staring at me while I was thinking, but when you don't immediately have an answer (some of the questions were about describing a pretty specific situation you've been through, and I didn't have a time when that had happened to me right off the top of my head for a couple of them.) I'd prefer to tell them I just needed a second to think instead of sitting there without saying anything. They might wonder what I was doing otherwise.

[nutritional_lee]

what's the proper etiquette in this type of situation, can you just say "let me think about it for a few minutes?" and just ponder for awhile??

 

for some reason, it would seem very awkward, no?

 

I had to ask for time to think on a few occasions, too - I'm pretty sure I remember reading on one of the schools' websites (or student-run websites?) that taking a a moment to think out your answer was a good idea if you needed to organize your thoughts. Both times I did so it seemed they used the time to catch up on the note-taking they weren't doing while I was speaking.

[PhoenixFlare500]

My interview went alright (which is amazing 'cause I was going off about 3 hours of sleep, Toronto airport on Friday = big mess). Everyone at Queens, including my interviewers, were extremely friendly, and the interview was quite relaxed. I definitely didn't come up with the best answers that I could have come up with, but that's life.

[nutritional_lee]

(Toronto airport on Friday = big mess).

 

The roads were terrible, too... took us 7 hours from the K/W area, where it usually takes just over three

[KMG007]

The roads were terrible, too... took us 7 hours from the K/W area, where it usually takes just over three

 

I hear you and I do not have a lot of experience on the 401 in the winter so my bf insisted he drive despite having a fever...it was a long trip but thanks to him I got a few hours of sleep in the car! My interview was 9am and we got into Kingston around 2:30am...went to bed at about 3 was up at 7.

[daryn]

For me, they did have a set of questions ("formal questions", as they called them). They did write as I talked (all three of them). My community member was next to me and I think (at least for one question) she wrote what I said in point form. They were smiling and nice, but you never know...

 

The second year asked me one extra question that I believe was not on the list.

[EllieGee]

My bus ride from Toronto to Kingston took 6 hours!!! It's like MAX a 3 hour drive...craziness. Glad I came in the night before!