ontariostudent Posted March 2, 2009 Report Share Posted March 2, 2009 A few people have sent me messages asking for more info about the McGill MMI, so I decided to post a bit about it here. The only preparation I did was reading "Doing Right", which is a very readable book about medical ethics. It is written by a U of T professor who works at Sunnybrook hospital in Toronto. Each chapter deals with a different facet of medical ethics, and it uses real cases to illustrate the points, so you know what really happened and what should have happened. I don't think you HAVE to read an ethics book, but I felt more comfortable dealing with the MMI questions after having some background. I didn't really get any stations that had explicit questions about ethics, but most of them had some sort of dilemma that involved moral/ethical issues. I definitely applied what I read to the situations I was in. The MMI does not require any specific knowledge of any topic. I think you just have to be comfortable thinking on your feet and dealing with potentially difficult situations. The actors will play devil's advocate so you have to be prepared to argue your opinions. I will not tell you to "be yourself". The MMI requires you to put yourself in many scenarios that you would never normally be in. I guess you should deal with them how you would normally deal with them, but sometimes you just have to think- what's the RIGHT thing to do and not "what would I normally do?" I can't tell you what made me successful, since I just acted in the way that was natural to me. I think the most important thing is that you have to be ready to jump into whatever scenario you get and fight for whatever your answer is. You have to seem comfortable even if you're not, and stay calm and confident no matter what happens. As for the format of the interview- The OOPs and international students had 10 stations. Each station starts with 2 minutes for you to read the situation/prompt, and then you get 8 minutes once you're inside the room (except at the traditional station, where you get 18 minutes). You will also get one rest station, which will last 10 minutes. You can sit down or go to the washroom. About half the stations had standardized actors, and the others (besides the traditional interview) had tasks. Oh, one more thing- all actor stations have someone watching you from behind a 1-way mirror. The actors do NOT evaluate you. If you can't see someone evaluating you, they are behind a one-way mirror. Good luck!! Let me know if you have any other questions. Just to give you an idea of what you might encounter, I'm going to MAKE UP a sample task and actor station. I did not have either one of these at my interview. Task: You are a project manager planning a fundraising event for a local charity that gives money to children with disabilities. Compose an email to a philanthropist explaining why he should donate money to your cause. Inside there will be a computer. Use it to compose an email, and someone will discuss it with you. No one will read the email. Actor station: You and a friend are planning a trip to Africa. Your friend wants to visit some places that you consider dangerous, and you don't think it is worth risking your life to go to them. Your friend is waiting inside. Talk to him about why you don't want to go. Also- McMaster has published some sample questions and the kind of answers they look for. Note that I don't think McGill uses any prompt questions where they just give you an ethics/current event issue and ask you to discuss. http://www.acupunctureprogram.com/articles/Manual_for_Interviewers_2006.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psychopath Posted March 2, 2009 Report Share Posted March 2, 2009 ^^ That was really helpful. Thanks for taking your time to help us out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbeta Posted March 2, 2009 Report Share Posted March 2, 2009 I am having some problems opening up the acupuncture program link. Can any one please send me the document? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psychopath Posted March 3, 2009 Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 I am having some problems opening up the acupuncture program link. Can any one please send me the document? It is a pdf so you probably need adobe acrobat reader or the likes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THX Posted March 3, 2009 Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 Thanks for the info, that's really helpful. The MMI actually looks like it may be fun. Out of curiosity, how are the actors? Are they young/old and are they over the top? Are they having fun too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ontariostudent Posted March 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 The MMI was definitely a lot of fun. The actors ranged in age, depending on the role they played. Young people played young people, and older people played older people. They were definitely having a lot of fun, and I was actually very jealous of their jobs. I would love to be a standardized actor! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ontariostudent Posted March 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 Hi again, I've been getting a lot of private messages with questions about the MMI, but I would prefer if you post your questions here, as I want to give everyone access to the same information. Also, if you PM me I'm more likely to miss out on answering your questions. I did not actually prepare for the MMI other than reading "Doing Right". I am good at improvising and thinking on my feet, and I think that practicing might actually have been detrimental for me. The answers you practice aren't necessarily going to correspond with the situations you'll have, and if you try to remember how you dealt with a situation in the past you might lose focus on what you're actually dealing with. If you're not good at thinking on your feet I guess it's useful to have people throw random scenarios at you and give you a time limit, so that you get used to coming up with things to say under pressure. Have a parent or older person do it instead of a peer, so you have more pressure. I really think that is the only thing that would help, and it would only be useful if you get flustered when you're under pressure. I had 1 actor station where I felt like I ran out of things to say after about 5 minutes. The actor kept saying the same thing over and over again, and I just kept reiterating my position in different words. I guess there's really no situation where you'd completely run out of things to say before time is up. I always got cut off. If you find that you have run out of things to say, try to come up with more arguments for whatever you are saying, or just reiterate it. Something important that I wish I had known before my interview- you can't bring ANYTHING in with you (except if you have a medical reason or something, I guess). When you come in you will put everything you have (except ID) into a locker. You will not come back to the locker for a few hours. At my interview they put us in a room with food and drinks. We sat at tables and just talked to each other until everyone was there. They gave out decks of cards for us to play with. Once everyone was there they talked to us about the interview day and said a bit about the school. We were split into two groups (based on our name tags they gave us) and half of us had our interviews while the other half sat around and had some information sessions about the school. The second group had their interview about 2 hours later (I think) while my group was having the info session. My group was allowed to leave once the afternoon interviewees were all in the pre-interview room (so we wouldn't meet as we were leaving and they were coming). I got there around 7:15 and left at 12:30. I think the second group probably left around 1:30. Also, there were refreshments in the post interview room also, so you don't have to worry about starving (unless you have dietary restrictions, in which case they would probably let you bring in your own stuff). Don't be nervous. Just be confident and you should be able to deal with whatever situation arises. I'm not a nervous interviewee and I usually improvise well, and that's probably what helped me the most. I don't think there's any real practice to be done. Anyway- if you have any more questions, let me know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneWorldOneDream Posted March 3, 2009 Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 Thanks for the info OntarioStudent. Your posts are very helpful. P.S. Just wondering, why did you "wish that you had known before the interview that you can't bring ANYTHING in with you" ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ontariostudent Posted March 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 I guess it's because I brought some food with me and rushed to eat it before I went in (not knowing there was food inside) and I left my stuff with some people who lived nearby because I didn't know I'd have somewhere safe to put everything. I guess I just wouldn't have been as stressed beforehand if I had known. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie Posted March 3, 2009 Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 I was wondering if the MMI has any stations that require you to know about current events or things happening around the world? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Shim Posted March 3, 2009 Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 I was wondering if the MMI has any stations that require you to know about current events or things happening around the world? Beside actuality, medical knowledge would help ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ontariostudent Posted March 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 I think it's good to know about current events because you can draw from them to deal with the issues, but I had no stations that required any specific knowledge of anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THX Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 Regarding the 20 minute interview; can you tell us if it was standardized or conversational? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ontariostudent Posted March 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 It was not standardized. The interviewer had my essays in front of him and was asking me questions based on what I wrote and what I said in the interview. It was conversational, but still sort of formal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
val23 Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 Hey... Quick question... i know the prompts are posted outside the doors... but will they also be in the room in case we forget some minor details? THANKS! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QCstudent Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 Ontariostudent, do they ask any questions in any of the stations where you have to give your opinion about a particular situation? Or area all the scenarios with actors or tasks that you have to do with other people. Thanks a lot for your postings, they've been of great help!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ontariostudent Posted March 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 The prompts are also inside the room, so don't worry about forgetting details! There was actually a room where I totally missed something from the prompt until I was inside and rereading it, but clearly it didn't matter too much Also, there were 0 stations asking me questions. I think McMaster might give you some ethical situation and ask you to analyze/comment, but to my knowledge McGill won't do that (except in the formal interview, where ethics questions are fair game!!)- when they introduced the MMI they only mentioned actor stations and task stations. At task stations you will usually interact with the interviewer. At my interview I would have to perform some task and then the interviewer would talk to me about why I did it and how I did it. It wasn't completion of the task that mattered- they wanted to see your reasoning behind how you did it. Anyway- don't worry!! It really was a fun interview!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psychopath Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 At what time does the interview day end? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
champion_forever Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 Beside actuality, medical knowledge would help ? The role playing stations will involve a considerable amount of communication with the actors in which you might have to convince them of certain opinions that you may hold about the particular scenario, and so if you can use your knowledge of current events to boost your arguments, thats always helpful I think. I personally had that chance to use certain facts which I just knew to my advantage and I thought they added to my convincing skills. A really simplistic example: If you have to convince someone that smoking is bad, and you know that smoking causes lung cancer, that kind of knowledge can help. The example above is pretty simplistic but I think you get the idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THX Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 Out of curiosity, is the 20 min interview ALWAYS at the end; or is it simply another station, so it could be your 1st, 3th or what not depending on the order? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
champion_forever Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 Out of curiosity, is the 20 min interview ALWAYS at the end; or is it simply another station, so it could be your 1st, 3th or what not depending on the order? its simply a station, and could be your first or last or any where in between. It basically takes up the time for 2 of the other mmi stations and so you just stay in there for longer than the other ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GewoW Posted March 8, 2009 Report Share Posted March 8, 2009 hey ontariostudent, were the interviewers out to get you...or was it sort of laid back but still formal? i am of couse, talking about the 20 min. also, were there 1, 2, 3 interviewers? thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ontariostudent Posted March 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2009 There is one interviewer and he asked tough questions, but not so tough that it seemed like he was out to get me. I think he was sort of trying to push me to my limits but not in a bad way. The questions were tough, but he was friendly. I didn't leave with a bad feeling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GewoW Posted March 8, 2009 Report Share Posted March 8, 2009 There is one interviewer and he asked tough questions, but not so tough that it seemed like he was out to get me. I think he was sort of trying to push me to my limits but not in a bad way. The questions were tough, but he was friendly. I didn't leave with a bad feeling. appreciate the info. if you don't mind me asking, was it that he put you in tough hypothetical situations and asked for your opinion, or more "give me an example when"...? thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ontariostudent Posted March 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2009 It was more that he was asking what I would do in hypothetical situations, which were somewhat personalized (based on my essays). Also, not everyone has the same interviewer, so I'd imagine not everyone had the same experience I had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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