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Now that both interview weekends are over, I was interested in hearing what everyone's experience was like. I guess I'll start.

 

I really enjoyed my interview day at Queen's. All of the volunteers were extremely friendly and welcoming. With respect to the interview itself, the MMI prompts were quite interesting and fun. I felt as though my panel was a little stone-faced (especially one of the interviewers) and perhaps a little cold (however saying this feels like a little bit of a stretch). Overall great day. I don't have any other interviews to compare to so I'd like to hear what everyone else thought compared to their other interviews.   

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Any thoughts on the difficulty of the MMI? I thought is was moderate (not too difficult to excel at but definitely not too easy). 

 

Personally I thought it was the most difficult out of places I've interviewed at, but that's probably just because it was my first time being exposed to that sort of MMI style.

 

Agreed, everyone was super friendly! Loved the video as well, it was hands down my favorite of the videos I've seen. One thing I do wish is that they didn't just throw you right into the MMI. I felt like I just registered and within 2 minutes was already at the first station. Thought the MMI scenarios were really interesting, although I definitely missed the point of one of them...

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I'd say the most difficult (and to some extent awkward) one out of my all other interviews. I personally think they did (compared to the other schools I have been to) the poorest job in terms of setting up the interview day for the exact same reason the person above me mentioned. 

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Personally I thought it was the most difficult out of places I've interviewed at, but that's probably just because it was my first time being exposed to that sort of MMI style.

 

Agreed, everyone was super friendly! Loved the video as well, it was hands down my favorite of the videos I've seen. One thing I do wish is that they didn't just throw you right into the MMI. I felt like I just registered and within 2 minutes was already at the first station. Thought the MMI scenarios were really interesting, although I definitely missed the point of one of them...

 

 

I'd say the most difficult (and to some extent awkward) one out of my all other interviews. I personally thing they did (compared to the other schools I have been to) the poorest job in terms of setting up the interview day for the exact same reason the person above me mentioned. 

 

It's quite interesting how some of you found it to be the most difficult. I wish I could comment on this as well but I can't as it was my only interview. As for being thrown into it within 2 minutes of registering, I can't say I felt the same. I arrived quite early (about 40 minutes before) so I didn't feel rushed into it. 

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Queen's was the least organized in terms of its interview day schedule and has a poor interview format (IMO)--I didn't like how they structured their MMI stations (I won't go into specifics, but it has to do with the component of the MMI that related to the change in instructions that they provided us immediately before interviewing), waiting for your panel interview after having just gone through an MMI is also unpleasant, not to mention the winding maze that they have you running around in during the MMI.

 

The system of covering the prompts where you are trying to hold the prompt visible while also holding your pad of paper and trying to jot down a few notes (also the prompts being above eye level--even for someone who is of average height), while also holding onto your cup of water didn't make a lot of sense, especially when the prompts were sufficiently far away from each other and monitors would only need to ensure no one is reading the prompts immediately prior to the first station as well as when escorting interviewees to their starting position--I would recommend not using that system of covering the prompts.

 

Also, giving us a single water bottle to hold onto like every other school would make much more sense, sitting and waiting for our interview there were no refreshments (if I knew there wasn't going to be anything I would have bought something small prior to going in, as I could have used a quick snack as it was a long time since my last meal with the drive down and honestly by the time I was waiting for the panel after the MMI, I was pretty spent.

 

Having to walk all the way to the washrooms just to have a drink at the fountain didn't seem well-designed either, when I have to leave the waiting area and overall I was not impressed with the facilities, nor did I find Kingston endearing. 

 

I didn't find the interview itself to be particularly difficult, but it was odd in its construction and poorly organized. I didn't enjoy my time at Queen's. It was just 'ok' compared to my experiences at other schools.

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Queen's was the least organized in terms of its interview day schedule and has a poor interview format (IMO)--I didn't like how they structured their MMI stations (I won't go into specifics, but it has to do with the component of the MMI that related to the change in instructions that they provided us immediately before interviewing), waiting for your panel interview after having just gone through an MMI is also unpleasant, not to mention the winding maze that they have you running around in during the MMI.

 

The system of covering the prompts where you are trying to hold the prompt visible while also holding your pad of paper and trying to jot down a few notes (also the prompts being above eye level--even for someone who is of average height), while also holding onto your cup of water didn't make a lot of sense, especially when the prompts were sufficiently far away from each other and monitors would only need to ensure no one is reading the prompts immediately prior to the first station as well as when escorting interviewees to their starting position--I would recommend not using that system of covering the prompts.

 

Also, giving us a single water bottle to hold onto like every other school would make much more sense, sitting and waiting for our interview there were no refreshments (if I knew there wasn't going to be anything I would have bought something small prior to going in, as I could have used a quick snack as it was a long time since my last meal with the drive down and honestly by the time I was waiting for the panel after the MMI, I was pretty spent.

 

Having to walk all the way to the washrooms just to have a drink at the fountain didn't seem well-designed either, when I have to leave the waiting area and overall I was not impressed with the facilities, nor did I find Kingston endearing. 

 

I didn't find the interview itself to be particularly difficult, but it was odd in its construction and poorly organized. I didn't enjoy my time at Queen's. It was just 'ok' compared to my experiences at other schools.

Sad to hear you felt this way. I'm guessing Queen's is at the bottom of your list?

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I arrived quite early (about 40 minutes before) so I didn't feel rushed into it. 

In all fairness I arrived 3 mins before the registration time, but that's just my style, so I guess I was just asking for it!

 

 

waiting for your panel interview after having just gone through an MMI is also unpleasant, not to mention the winding maze that they have you running around in during the MMI.

 

Overall I was not impressed with the facilities, nor did I find Kingston endearing. 

 

I didn't find the interview itself to be particularly difficult, but it was odd in its construction and poorly organized. I didn't enjoy my time at Queen's. It was just 'ok' compared to my experiences at other schools.

 

I guess a lot of this comes down to personal preferences, but it's always interesting to hear differing opinions.

I had a 30 min wait before my panel, but I found it to be really nice. It gave me a chance to wind down from the MMI, and it was a good opportunity to chat with the med students.

 

I thought the facilities were great! Fell in love with the entire campus, especially the NMB right away. I agree that outside of the university area, Kingston is pretty unimpressive though.

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Weirdly I'm almost glad to hear others weren't very enamored with Queen's, because I loved it. The combination of MMI and a panel interview makes intuitive sense to me, so perhaps because of my preconceived notions I had a really positive experience with all of it. I love old buildings so I actually quite fancy the idea of living in Kingston. Hoping all of y'all decline and go to U of T, McGill, or Harvard so I can move on up the wait-list if it comes to that!

 

On the topic of the post interview talks, I thought the Dean's message was interesting. Certainly gave me a flavour for the school philosophy/community, which was quite positive. The student's video was pretty good, but Western was definitely my favourite.That thing was a legitimate work of art so no disrespect to any of the other schools.

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The MMIs were a bit weird in that some of them specified an odd instruction (not sure if I can go into detail on this) which wasn't necessary, and which threw me off.

 

I think I butchered a couple of stations as a result. The rest went okay. But the panel people were really nice and really allowed me to get my story across.

 

Did everyone else have only two panel interviewers?

 

Besides the tricky nature of the MMIs, I really liked both the campus and Kingston. Being from Toronto, I always look for an opportunity to enjoy the small community feeling, and the close-knit nature of a university town/small class.

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Now that both interview weekends are over, I was interested in hearing what everyone's experience was like. I guess I'll start.

 

I really enjoyed my interview day at Queen's. All of the volunteers were extremely friendly and welcoming. With respect to the interview itself, the MMI prompts were quite interesting and fun. I felt as though my panel was a little stone-faced (especially one of the interviewers) and perhaps a little cold (however saying this feels like a little bit of a stretch). Overall great day. I don't have any other interviews to compare to so I'd like to hear what everyone else thought compared to their other interviews.   

 

Had pretty much this experience exactly... One of my interviewers was beyond stony-faced though, definitely cold. But I got a chance to show who I am, so can't ask for much more than that. The MMI was pretty good, feel like my performance on 1 was sub-par (Unfortunately I missed the point of the prompt) and another was questionable. The QMed 2019s were incredible, and I could definitely see myself in a class with a group of people like that! They really made the whole weekend fun. Kingston and Queen's are beautiful. Overall, a positive experience.

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I think the MMI went well overall, think i missed the point on one for sure now that I've had time to think about it, but overall I kind of liked the 'odd' format, for an MMI at least. 

 

I feel like the panel was just ok though...nothing bad, but I feel like some of the things they choose to ask about my application were almost arbitrary, in that any answer wouldn't really have said much at all about the type of person I am/my experiences. I don't know how else to describe it. Not that it went poorly, but I didn't get asked about anything that was really significant to me I guess.

 

Overall, loved the school/atmosphere, but I'm unsure how I feel about Kingston. It seems like you might need to do a lot of away rotations in clerkship to see some specialties. Not to mention the tuition is quite steep compared to everywhere else I'm considering. I think I'd be happy there, but it's hard to justify that (theoretical!) price tag

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I felt good coming out of the interview but the more I think about my answers the more I fear I'm going to get rejected :(

 

it's normal to feel that way.  just look at it on the bright side.  at least you still have a shot and are being considered for a spot in the program.

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Now that all of the Queen's interviews are over, is anyone willing to share the drastic changes that supposedly happened for the Queen's Interview this year? thanks

We all signed confidentiality agreements, so I don't think that would be possible

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We all signed confidentiality agreements, so I don't think that would be possible

I'm not asking for the questions.  Just heard that Queen's had some drastic changes this year in their MMI format.

 

Does anyone have a copy of the confidentiality agreement?  I'm sure it prohibits talking about the contents of the stations but what about the process? (ie. we didn't have any collaboration stations etc..)

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I'm not asking for the questions.  Just heard that Queen's had some drastic changes this year in their MMI format.

 

Does anyone have a copy of the confidentiality agreement?  I'm sure it prohibits talking about the contents of the stations but what about the process? (ie. we didn't have any collaboration stations etc..)

 

I read the confidentiality agreement and it was quite thorough. It prohibits pretty much anything from being mentioned. By the way, adcoms are aware of PM101 and do browse it from time to time, so what I'm saying is don't hold your breath while you wait for an answer...

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Now that all of the Queen's interviews are over, is anyone willing to share the drastic changes that supposedly happened for the Queen's Interview this year? thanks

 

 

You can take a look at the admissions process on the Queen's admission site. As Freewheeler has stated, I don't think anyone is going to give you information as we all signed a non-disclosure agreement. Aside from the Adcoms monitoring the site, it would be unethical to breach the non-disclosure agreement. To be honest the process of the MMI doesn't really matter. Whether you know how many stations there are or not won't really help you. The process will be disclosed to you by the school itself when you require it. 

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Thank you for providing feedback about your experiences. Some of these can't really be changed (such as the location of the drinking fountains), but there are always improvements that can be made in other areas.

Thank you! I would second the comment about the height of the prompts with the flaps. Being quite short, it was a bit of a struggle to reach up on my toes to lift the flap while still managing to read it

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Thank you! I would second the comment about the height of the prompts with the flaps. Being quite short, it was a bit of a struggle to reach up on my toes to lift the flap while still managing to read it

 

I'm fairly tall so I never thought about this, but now that you mention it I can understand why this could have been an issue

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