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Interview Insight and well wishes


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Hey Forum,

 

Tomorrow marks the first day of interviews for the 2013/2014 application cycle and so I thought it would be appropriate to give you my interview 101s.

 

Here's what I would do:

 

1. Meditate, relax, go for a run - do something that calms you and gets your mind off of tomorrow.

2. Be comfortable with your application and what you said. Know your ABS and your life from all aspects: education, hobbies, jobs, friendships, etc.

3. Know your personality - strengths and weaknesses

4. When you look at ethical dilemmas think critically about your answers and listen to feedback form other's perspectives.

4. Come to the tour and presentation - we need you to know why we have the best school!!

5. Be positive - you have an interview because you're a strong enough candidate to be in med school. Now show them how awesome you are!

6. wGPA is not the deal breaker after the interview, so 3.85 or a 4.0 is not going to give you a great advantage. You're all in the same boat.

7. Expect to see a lot of incredible candidates - remember, they think the same thing about you. Don't be intimidated, you're merely looking at a reflection of yourself.

8. If you still don't think you've prepared enough - have a quick read of some sample panel questions below (Note: they are not from the uOttawa site, the reference is at the end)

9. Call your family or closest friends. Talk to them about your stress and let them calm you down. If they don't, let me reiterate, you've got this!

10. We've all be there before, and all the current med student understand your position. When you come to your interview, we know you'll be nerves, and we want to help settle those for you.

11. Don't change your life schedule. If you workout normally, don't skip, if you got to bed at 12, don't change that. Be yourself, and enjoy yourself.

12. Dress professionally - there are threads on this site dedicated to what constitutes professional wear for men and women.

13. Give yourself some extra time to make sure you're not late

14. BRING YOUR ID!

15. Bring some water (I can't remember if they give you some) and make sure you've eaten some food before your interview - this will help settle your stomach (maybe avoid seafood :P )

 

With this said, I wish you all the best!!

 

GP

 

 

 

 

Extra - some questions to think about

 

Disclaimer - I cannot confirm nor deny that any of these question will or will not be asked of you on your interview day. I also cannot confirm nor deny if any of these questions were asked to me, at any of my interviews

 

Sample interview questions for medical students

 

 

• What have you been doing for the past year?

• Why do you want to be a doctor?

• What aspects of your life do you think you will change when you become a doctor?

• What do you find satisfying/ dissatisfying about where you live?

• Describe your childhood and adolescence.

• How do you think your life would change if you entered medical school?

• Describe an ethical decision that you had to make and how did you deal with it?

• What do you feel will be the most difficult problem facing society in the next few decades?

What are your thoughts on privatization in Health Care in Canada?

• If I asked your friends to describe you as a teenager, what would they say?

• What was the most difficult decision you have ever made?

• Describe a situation in which you had to work as a member of a group and things were not working out.

• What do you feel is the biggest problem in the world today, medically?

• There are 300 applicants who are equally as qualified. Why should we choose you?

• What steps have you taken to acquaint yourself with the role of a physician?

• What do you think are the most pressing issues in medicine today?

• What do you plan to do if you are not accepted into medical school?

• How do you feel about rural medicine?

• What are your positive qualities and what are your negative qualities?

• Describe your relationship with your family.

• How do you think your role as a physician fits in with your role as a member of the community?

• Describe your personality.

• Of what value can you be to our school?

• What are the best and worst things that have ever happened to you?

• Which life experiences do you think make you a good candidate for medical school?

• If your best friends were asked to describe you, what would they say?

• If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

• How do you cope with stress?

• You are living in a small rural community and your neighbour comes to you with a relatively minor medical problem. She is on social assistance and does not have health insurance. The medication you prescribe is not covered by social assistance. Her brother, however, has health insurance and she asks you to fill out the prescription in his name and sign his health insurance form. What do you do? There is no way to subsidize the medication.

• If you plan to have a family, how do you plan to balance work and family?

• Name the three most influential books that you have read.

• What do you do in your spare time?

• What are you specific goals in medicine?

• What stimulated your interest in medicine?

• What schools have you applied to and why?

• What do you intend to gain from your medical education?

• Why do you think so many people want to be physicians?

• How do you plan to finance your medical education?

• Tell me about yourself.

• What are the steps to set up a medical clinic.

• Describe an ethical dilemma you may face as a physician.

• What have you been doing lately?

• Tell us about a satisfying experience you've had at work or school.

• Tell us about a dissatisfying experience you've had at work or school.

• What sort of person do you get along with the best?

• What sort of person do you find the most difficult to get along with?

• What do you think will be the biggest problem in the world in 10 years, medically?

 

Public Resource: http://www.mun.ca/cdel/career_students/medicine_questions.php

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First of all, a big thank you to all the students and staff for being so welcoming during interview day.

 

With regards to the poster above, there are several coat racks in the reception area on interview day, so you can hang up your coat and change your shoes and leave them to the side on the day of your interview.

 

Good luck to all the other interviewees interviewed and to be interviewed.

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  • 4 weeks later...
If I messed up one of my questions pretty bad will this make or break me? Or should I not worry as everyone probably has a couple questions they fumble over... concerned and cannot stop thinking about this. HELP.

 

Well realistically if you mess up one question it certainly wouldn't be a favorable situation for you. However here is my advice:

1) worrying about it will not make a difference so try and forget

2) you can't know how they perceive your answers. Maybe you thought it was bad but they may have liked it

3) if all of your other answers were strong then maybe they will have neglected the poor one

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If I messed up one of my questions pretty bad will this make or break me? Or should I not worry as everyone probably has a couple questions they fumble over... concerned and cannot stop thinking about this. HELP.

 

It really depends how badly. A friend of mine last year told me that she had an incredible interview except, in one ethical scenario, she essentially let her patient die. Long story short, she was bad wait-listed and is still in undergrad.

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^yeah i felt the same way about one. I just got a head of myself and thought of a poor example, could have easily came up with a better one but it was more or less a brain fart. Felt like an idiot but they just kinda nodded and moved on so I don't know if my example was as off the target as I thought it was or if I am exaggerating.

 

Everyone says they are more or less trying to gauge how you think and what your personality is like, I can't see them using a minor slip-up with respect to personal experience as a defining moment in your interview (or at least I am hoping so)

 

But who really knows, it is a crazy competitive environment so I guess we can never really tell what we can get away with.

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YES! This is the exact same for me. Thinking back there are so many more better examples I could have used and they did the same for me, just nodded and moved on. However, from people I have spoken too most people tend to slip on a question or two. Thinking on the spot can be very difficult especially when reflecting on your own life.

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They aren't expecting you to be perfect, they are expecting you to be natural and they want to get a feel of who you are. People tend to focus on the minor details that did not go as well instead of focusing on the general feel of the interview.

 

This isn't an exam, you don't have to ace every question, you just have to be able to convey who you are as a person. Someone could have memorized answers for every answer and essentially answer every question "perfectly" but the interviewer did not feel like they connected with the person and therefore the person does not get in.

 

Best advice is forget about it and everyone will know how they did in May.

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YES! This is the exact same for me. Thinking back there are so many more better examples I could have used and they did the same for me, just nodded and moved on. However, from people I have spoken too most people tend to slip on a question or two. Thinking on the spot can be very difficult especially when reflecting on your own life.

 

Exact same for me. I didn't answer 1-2 questions very well, and some other people that I talked to also didn't answer 1-2 questions well. The majority of us don't really know how we came across and so we should try our best to preoccupy ourselves with other things until D-day comes around.

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haha "not very well" in a way that its not exactly what I should have said. And I agree me too i didn't answer 2 questions really good, but for me its the ethical questions, so I was just wondering if ethical questions are more important than other questions, that was basically my question

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It's hard to say definitively because an interviewees perception of how they answered a question vs. the interviewers' perception are totally subjective. Maybe you have super high expectations for yourself so you think you bombed a Q when they really thought you answered it okay, you know what I mean? I will say that (I think) if you leave feeling like you absolutely bombed the interview, then you probably did. Even at the interview stage, it's so competitive so you 99% aren't going to get in if you give horrible answers, although I'm sure someone has slipped through the cracks at some point. If you feel elated, things are probably looking good for you although it is still no guarantee that you are going to get in. But look on the bright side- you don't feel like it went horribly. What I'm interested about is how much weight Ottawa places on "connecting" with you. I found all the med students on interview day to be super friendly and relatable (moreso than at my other med interviews) so it seems like it's something they select for. Ahhh.....hypothesizing. What fun! May 13th will answer all of our questions!

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