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Interview Difficulty Thread


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Maybe it's because the stations deviated from what people were practicing? Thinking back, I really did think that UBC tried its best to learn as much as they could about our personality and our thoughts/perspectives of society from us, so that perhaps they could accept students they feel would best fit their program? Just my guess...

That's what I enjoyed about the UBC MMI. While the questions may have been unique for an MMI, they really delved into our personalities and felt like normal questions that anyone could answer.

 

That being said, everyone's experience is different, and there's only so much you can know before going into an MMI. Best advice is to practice feeling comfortable having a conversation about anything in the world, and any school's MMI should feel more natural. (I don't have any panel interviews, so I can't comment on those).

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That's what I enjoyed about the UBC MMI. While the questions may have been unique for an MMI, they really delved into our personalities and felt like normal questions that anyone could answer.

 

That being said, everyone's experience is different, and there's only so much you can know before going into an MMI. Best advice is to practice feeling comfortable having a conversation about anything in the world, and any school's MMI should feel more natural. (I don't have any panel interviews, so I can't comment on those).

Good point. I think because a vast majority of those preparing for the UBC MMI were practicing all the "standard" ethics and health care related questions etc and perhaps that threw them off? Who knows. Everyone's perceptions are different.

 

I for one am glad that the questions UBC provided were just normal conversational questions. It gave you the chance to just have an honest conversation and provide your thoughts on the scenarios.

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One thing I found kind of odd about the UBC questions were that I found some could only be answered naturally. My answers felt really genuine but I really don't know if that's what they are looking for, as I felt it didn't really follow typical MMI answer types

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On 3/7/2015 at 4:54 PM, StayHappy said:

One thing I found kind of odd about the UBC questions were that I found some could only be answered without any sort of "analyse all the perspectives" etc. My answers felt really genuine but I really don't know if that's what they are looking for, as I felt it didn't really follow typical MMI answer types

.

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I agree, and I think that's what threw me off for the first few stations. I had to keep reminding myself to relax, smile, stay calm, be yourself, don't sound robotic, forget about any of the practice you did, etc...oh well, it was a good learning experience and hopefully I'll be more prepared for next year if I don't get in.

This threw me off too. All the analyze different perspective strategies which we went through hardcore in the mmi practice we did at ubc. I am kicking myself for not having used them as well as i would have liked, but for many first time interviewees, i think being fluid meant being honest.

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This threw me off too. All the analyze different perspective strategies which we went through hardcore in the mmi practice we did at ubc. I am kicking myself for not having used them as well as i would have liked, but for many first time interviewees, i think being fluid meant being honest.

That does make sense, and I agree that I was also surprised to not use my "practice strategy" as much as I wanted. However, not only were the stations short (7 min instead of 8 min), but the questions really seemed to be set up so we could answer them more genuinely. If that shook one's confidence or clarity in answers, then yes I do understand how the UBC MMI could be the toughest to most people. Let's just hope our personalities still shone through!

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That does make sense, and I agree that I was also surprised to not use my "practice strategy" as much as I wanted. However, not only were the stations short (7 min instead of 8 min), but the questions really seemed to be set up so we could answer them more genuinely. If that shook one's confidence or clarity in answers, then yes I do understand how the UBC MMI could be the toughest to most people. Let's just hope our personalities still shone through!

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I really didn't use the "practice strategy" at all at UBC. Maybe for... two stations? Once again it didn't shake my confidence, I just really don't know if that is what UBC is looking for. If they are looking for the standard thing MMIs look for (analyzing everyone/everything involved in each scenario, all possible viewpoints etc.) then I probably did pretty poorly. If they are looking for what I truly felt about the situation then I might have done well. Honestly have no idea

That's good it didn't shake your confidence (and I agree, I only used my practice strategy in a couple stations, if even any). Truth is, we don't know for sure what any interviewer is specifically looking for in an MMI station. The only consistent element I hear from schools is they want to get to know applicants and see their personalities shine through. Perhaps the UBC MMI was set up to highlight that element even further. Over 2 months to find out haha...

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I think groupthink dominated the UBC practice mmi sessions a lot on what mmi stations "should be like" or how they "should be answered" etc with respect to various techniques.   

 

I really do think they set up the MMI this time to just get to know people more and not hear all these rehearsed pro's cons lists and techniques interviewers hear session after session.

At the end of the day, we won't know how we performed and it really won't matter. Either we get in or don't, and if not, re-apply haha (Y)

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I think groupthink dominated the UBC practice mmi sessions a lot on what mmi stations "should be like" or how they "should be answered" etc with respect to various techniques.

 

I really do think they set up the MMI this time to just get to know people more and not hear all these rehearsed pro's cons lists and techniques interviewers hear session after session.

 

At the end of the day, we won't know how we performed and it really won't matter. Either we get in or don't, and if not, re-apply haha (Y)

Agreed. Good thing i used MMI practice to mostly develop clarity and learn how others applicants think :P

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Had Toronto a while ago and Queen's recently. It's really hard to compare MPI vs. MMI... I feel like Toronto's MPI is basically an MMI in disguise lol. 

 

Toronto: 3/5, combination of traditional interview things that you'd expect from Toronto and also some newer "out there" questions. 

Queen's: 4/5, sometimes couldn't really judge what they were trying to analyse in each station, but the scenarios were interesting.

McMaster: 2/5, definitely a lot easier and straightforward compared to Queen's. It was usually clear what they were looking for in each station.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I figure I'll add a couple more for the sake of completeness:

 

McMaster: 3/5. I think they've got the system down.

 

Sask: 3/5. Certainly wasn't as difficult as some of the others, but I didn't find the questions to be as stimulating or thought-provoking either. I wasn't used to having a pen and paper with me.

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