Guest melissa Posted March 26, 2001 Report Share Posted March 26, 2001 hi everyone, i just had my interview at mac(very weird process) and was wondering if anyone knew when acceptances are usually sent out. this is a long and cruel process! thx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted March 27, 2001 Report Share Posted March 27, 2001 Heya, Once interviews are done, would you like to share with us a bit more about the interview process? I for one would like to know a little more about how Mac has done its selections this year. Ian UBC, MS2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ECruise Posted March 28, 2001 Report Share Posted March 28, 2001 yes, definitely an odd process. nothing like i'd ever been to. how did you think everything went? i think they said that they would sent out good and bad notices by the first week in june. E Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest melissa Posted March 28, 2001 Report Share Posted March 28, 2001 i just thought i's share a bit about my interview experience. it started with a video and we were required to write about the characters' feelings, our feelings, give evidence, and evaluate our performances. then we were split into groups of 6 and seated in a room for a simulated tutorial. they gave us a topic and we had to discuss it as a group, evaluate our performance as a group and then evaluate our individual performances. we were observed by a panel who could see us without us seeing them. then there was a personal interview which lasted about 30 min and was pretty standard focusing on my autobio for the most part. i was the only out of province student being interviewed at that time which made me wonder how many oop students they actually take. if anyone knows the stats please write. thx. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Andy Posted March 28, 2001 Report Share Posted March 28, 2001 I believe they accept roughly 6-8 out of province students. I found my interview to be extremely non-challenging and quite welcoming. I enjoyed meeting all the students, and particularly some of the potential candidates. I'm hoping to see them in september. Does anyone find it odd why there is such differences in the personal interviews level of difficulty??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted March 30, 2001 Report Share Posted March 30, 2001 Hi Andy, Can you expand a little on what you mean by different levels of difficulty in the interviews? Was it the difficulty in the level of questions asked, the attitudes of the interviewers, or some other characteristic? As a followup question for both of you, how did you find working with your group? Were there any unusual/disctinctive personalities, or do you think everyone played it low-key? The reason I ask this, is that by my very nature, I'm a solitary studier. I find I learn and understand material very well on my own, and my major problem is retaining the details. Unfortunately, I've found that group work is most beneficial when trying to understand a difficult concept; at these times, different explanations by individual group members really helps, but that's not usually my problem. As a result, I wasn't very experienced with group work when I started UBC Med, so PBL was quite a different feeling for me. I think had I been judged on my group performance at the beginning of first year, much like how you were judged at your interview, I wouldn't have done very well. As a result, I'm wondering how you found it, and how the other people in your group seemed to do. Ian UBC, MS2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Carolyn Posted March 30, 2001 Report Share Posted March 30, 2001 I think your point is extremely good. It is extremely important for people to come into Mac with previously well-developed group skills. This may be why you see an older matriculation age (more opportunities to be in environments where these skills are developed, given most undergrad degrees are very lecture based). Sure some people need to refine their skills a little, but you only have 1 1/2 years before you get into clerkship so you need to know that you can learn well in a small group environment right from the start or your medical education will really suffer. I am the opposite kind of learner to Ian. Having done two degrees: a business degree which was case-based and almost entirely small-group learning and then a second in science in large lecture halls at UofT, I knew that I learned most effectively in a small group setting. Fortunately I got into the one school that offers the most appropriate learning for me. Fortunately Ian got into one of the many schools that provides the most appropriate learning for him. Regarding the diversity of interviews: I don't think anyone can argue that there isn't a difference across interviewers and therefore interviews at Mac. I would argue that you can get a bumb interview anywhere... Some of my peers here had very challenging interviews and thought they'd "never get in" and others found them really straightforward. Of course it is all very subjective. Having had a lot of interview experience I found the interview quite straightforward. Afterwards, I had lunch with another applicant who was distraught over her interview. When I asked her what kind of questions they asked, many of them were exactly the same as mine! I do however, agree that different personalities can make an interview harder or easier and that there is enough latitude given to the interviewers that some questions can be more challenging. It is important to realize in those situations that these interviewers are really testing you... They probably think that you can handle it and you should take it as a compliment and go with it. Many people find the simulated tutorial really fake. They definitely can be, but it is important to realize that a lot of duds get weeded out in this part... Just try to make it as real as possible. Listen and RESPOND try to bring in the quieter people, try to "manage" the duds in your group, and definitely be aware of what your group could do to improve the process... The number of my peers that have said things like: "The simulated tutorial seemed so fake, everyone just tried to get their own 2 mins in and then in the assessment just gushed over what a great group we were. I was the only one who suggested that perhaps we could have....", illustrates to me that the assessment part is very important. You need to be very aware of group process in this programme and you need to have the guts to say when you things aren't going well. And the simulated tutorial is the opportunity to prove it. It gets a bad wrap at times because they can be so variable - but applicants should realize that it is definitely considered a very important part of the process. I hope this helps uncover some of the mystery surrounding the MAC interview. I was mystified by it myself before I got here... Now that I'm in the programme, I'm really glad they put me and my peers through it. It would not only be destructive and unfair to the applicant to have someone who does not have stong group skills, but it would be very unfair to the people in that person's group. Best of luck to everyone interviewing everywhere. Carolyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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