Preparing for MMI

[pillowsnice]

I'm feeling a little lost in how to prepare for my MMI interview. I'm looking over practice questions online but many don't seem to have a sample response that I can compare to so I don't know how well I'm answering the question. How long do people usually need to prepare for the MMI? Does it really make a difference if I prepare or not since the questions will obviously be different?

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[ChrisMack390]

I wish I could have the time I spent trying to prepare for MMIs back. It is totally unnecessary.

Be an intelligent, compassionate person, and you will be fine. If you got an II you likely are an intelligent, compassionate person. If you are not, there is nothing you can do.

 

[Frogger27]

I wish I could have the time I spent trying to prepare for MMIs back. It is totally unnecessary.

Be an intelligent, compassionate person, and you will be fine. If you got an II you likely are an intelligent, compassionate person. If you are not, there is nothing you can do.

maybe that is because you were so prepared that it was easy for you

 

[ChrisMack390]

maybe that is because you were so prepared that it was easy for you

Na, what I prepared for was only tangentially related to what they are really like. Most scenarios you find online are way off base, at least at the 3 schools I've been to.

 

[aldol16]

Be a moral and ethical person.

 

[RogueBanana]

Just be genuine and honest. They invited you to interview because they think you'd make a great addition to the school, just be yourself and confirm their beliefs.
Be confident! @Goro made a great interview prep guide that you may find helpful.
Best of luck friend!

 

[rossatron7]

MMIs generally utilize similar types of questions as a traditional interview, it's just that each question or group or questions is asked by a different interviewer. Personally, I enjoyed my MMI experiences and I get really anxious about interviews. My only advice specific to MMIs is to leave the experience of one room/interviewer in that room. If you feel like you did really poorly with one person, you have X number of other opportunities to do better. But if you let that one bad experience affect the rest of your interviews, they will know.

 

[pillowsnice]

I wish I could have the time I spent trying to prepare for MMIs back. It is totally unnecessary.

Be an intelligent, compassionate person, and you will be fine. If you got an II you likely are an intelligent, compassionate person. If you are not, there is nothing you can do.

But do you feel that it would benefit me to know some ethical terminology? Or are the scenarios mostly based upon common sense and critical reasoning with the info provided?
Also, are the stations a back and forth conversation or are you supposed to talk for 5-6 minutes straight? I'm thinking about giving my argument in about two minutes and wait for the follow up question if there is one

 

[salemstein]

Hearing some of the advice given on MMIs really makes me cringe (I'm also looking at you, CASPer). Practice them, even if the school/org website says "you can't prepare for our MMI" etc. I fell for that once already (messed up something that should have been routine with practice) and I'm never falling for it again.
At least get your basics down packed. You might think something as simple as greeting the patient, saying thank you, etc (not that it necessarily happened to me) is second nature, but nerves combined with the TIME CONSTRAINTS can really throw you off your game, esp. if its your first MMI. Online sources are going say you don't need to do anything to prepare or that it can't be prep'd for, and gunners are gonna sing along. Don't be stupid.

 

[ChrisMack390]

I don't want to mislead anyone, I just do not feel like the sample questions I've seen online are anything like the ones I've really been asked - not even close. I've been to 3 MMIs and have not been asked a single one of these intense ethical scenarios you get from the supposed lists of prep questions. All 3 schools have explicitly stated that no specific prior knowledge is needed for the MMI, which would obviously include detailed philosophy and ethics terminology. In my experience thus far, you are much more likely to be asked something like "what qualities do you think make a good doctor?" than something like "would you rather murder a 40 year old or watch a 6 year old die?"

 

[GrumpyGus]

Hearing some of the advice given on MMIs really makes me cringe (I'm also looking at you, CASPer). Practice them, even if the school/org website says "you can't prepare for our MMI" etc. I fell for that once already (messed up something that should have been routine with practice) and I'm never falling for it again.
At least get your basics down packed. You might think something as simple as greeting the patient, saying thank you, etc (not that it necessarily happened to me) is second nature, but nerves combined with the TIME CONSTRAINTS can really throw you off your game, esp. if its your first MMI. Online sources are going say you don't need to do anything to prepare or that it can't be prep'd for, and gunners are gonna sing along. Don't be stupid.

lol but really I've already had 3 MMIs and outside of reading University of Washington's bioethics (which I HIGHLY recommend), I didn't prepare or practice at all. You really don't need to. I suppose some people need to... If you can't come up with a logical and moral answer in 2 minutes then talk about it for 2-3 minutes and answer questions for the next 2-3 minutes then... yikes.

It's really simple. You'll be given some prompt. You look at it and come up with both sides of the argument, pros and cons for each, then pick one and defend that side. Read University of Washington's Bioethics not necessarily for the actual terminology but more for the thought process that the medical field will have (a lot of answers will be well morally I believe this, but ethically and legally I would act this way).

 

[geseki]

My friends got together in a library study room and started practicing with practice questions by putting one person on the spot while the othere evaluated - seemed very helpful to them (I'm gap yearing so I just got to observe it all lol)

 

[ChrisMack390]

I had my 4th MMI yesterday. I still think the idea of preparing for these is absurd, mostly because I still have yet to be asked a question anything like the ones you get on the internet.

 

[doctorbob23]

I had my 4th MMI yesterday. I still think the idea of preparing for these is absurd, mostly because I still have yet to be asked a question anything like the ones you get on the internet.

I agree. I had 2 already and even if I prepared, it wouldn't have improved my performance. From my experiences they have been a mix of traditional questions i.e why medicine..mixed with an ethical dilemma..mixed with a standardized patient wild card somewhere.

They also give u instructions at the beginning on the logistics as well. I don't see what else u can do to prepare apart from preparing for a traditional interview. But thats just me

 

[Summerlax2016]

For me the MMI is like other interviews just be cool... act like yourself and don't try to be someone you're not. I feel like they can tell if you are being genuine or not

 

[happyducky]

But I think the main point of 'preparing' for MMIs is to get people, who are bad at interviewing or speaking, to be able to speak their mind on the spot with clarity, coherence and a bit of eloquence.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

But I think the main point of 'preparing' for MMIs is to get people, who are bad at interviewing or speaking, to be able to speak their mind on the spot with clarity, coherence and a bit of eloquence.

There's preparing in the sense of going over practice questions so that you can get comfortable giving answers to common questions, and there's preparing in the sense of getting comfortable speaking to someone in a somewhat stressful situation while answering questions in a way that doesn't make you seem like a psychopath.

For MMI, I would say the latter is important if you don't already possess the comfort needed in interviews, but the former is probably not necessary.

 

[happyducky]

There's preparing in the sense of going over practice questions so that you can get comfortable giving answers to common questions, and there's preparing in the sense of getting comfortable speaking to someone in a somewhat stressful situation while answering questions in a way that doesn't make you seem like a psychopath.

For MMI, I would say the latter is important if you don't already possess the comfort needed in interviews, but the former is probably not necessary.

Completely agree. I was thinking more about the latter - being able to compose an answer to an unknown question with ease.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Completely agree. I was thinking more about the latter - being able to compose an answer to an unknown question with ease.

Some of that is probably just nerves. You can overcome that with practice. Also, taking a deep breath for four seconds, holding for four, and exhaling for four before you go in the room will lower your heart rate and give you a chance to mellow.

 

[happyducky]

I will try that! Just thinking about interviews gives me anxiety.
Usually my physiological response is to scurry away and bury myself in a hole..

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I will try that! Just thinking about interviews gives me anxiety.
Usually my physiological response is to scurry away and bury myself in a hole..

Practice practice practice. You don't even have to do mock interviews (not sure if they even help--never done one). Going out and talking to random strangers is a good start (in an appropriate setting, obviously--don't follow some poor sap home like a psycho).

I'm lucky. The Navy requires an oral board for every qualification I've gotten. My warfare pin required two: a murder board that took 6 hours, and a Chief board that took 4. I've gotten really good at that kind of thing.

 

[Blessthefall]

I'll agree with the general consensus: its next to impossible to prepare yourself adequately before the MMI experience. Just think quickly and critically, utilize your moral compass, extend manners to everyone and RELAX.


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[salemstein]

Man, you guys must've had some chill MMIs or something because the one I went to had ambiguity, multiple parts per prompt (which made it hard to remember/account for all parts while under timed conditions), and curveballs all on the same plate. If you were able to pick an answer, some of my interviewers grilled me on the alternatives. It really threw me off guard those first few stations, but I was able to learn to adapt to the fast-paced nature of the assignments. Thats why I believe you can practice for such a thing.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Man, you guys must've had some chill MMIs or something because the one I went to had ambiguity, multiple parts per prompt (which made it hard to remember/account for all parts while under timed conditions), and curveballs all on the same plate. If you were able to pick an answer, some of my interviewers grilled me on the alternatives. It really threw me off guard those first few stations, but I was able to learn to adapt to the fast-paced nature of the assignments. Thats why I believe you can practice for such a thing.

Like I said, I think you can prep for it in the sense that you can prep for being calm and logical under pressure. I just think prepping for specific scenarios is pointless.

 

[Blessthefall]

There's no formula for success with these events. We're so accustomed to there always being a specific and correct answer to everything; however, the honest truth is that the entire process is ambiguous. It's one giant roller coaster ride, just sit back and endure the ups, downs and loops. Once you do that, it all becomes much less daunting.


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