Help with SVI?

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fastmed

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The SVI deadline is approaching, and I was wondering what everyone is recommending on how to prepare for it.

I am a US IMG, and my school doesn't provide resources for this. I also don't have much interview practice in general, because I only interviewed at one med school and it lasted 45 minutes-- I never had to answer any behavior or ethics questions. (Btw this was by choice, I only applied to one med school.)

Do you have a template that you used to answer certain types of questions? Is there a specific resource you used to prepare for the ethics questions? Is there an online prep course that you used? Anything else you would recommend?

Thanks!
 
My big question is, what do I wear for it? I mean, you wear a suit to the actual interview so...
 
Dares Dareson said:
My big question is, what do I wear for it? I mean, you wear a suit to the actual interview so...
Click to expand...

Totally up to you. The one rule is business up top. You can go full suit jacket shirt and tie up top with boxer briefs or your birthday suit on the bottom because most people do the interview seated at a table and the camera has to be pretty close.

I did mine in a full suit because it was partly about mindset for me. Whatever floats your goat, just make sure your upper half is as professional as possible.
 
fastmed said:
The SVI deadline is approaching, and I was wondering what everyone is recommending on how to prepare for it.

I am a US IMG, and my school doesn't provide resources for this. I also don't have much interview practice in general, because I only interviewed at one med school and it lasted 45 minutes-- I never had to answer any behavior or ethics questions. (Btw this was by choice, I only applied to one med school.)

Do you have a template that you used to answer certain types of questions? Is there a specific resource you used to prepare for the ethics questions? Is there an online prep course that you used? Anything else you would recommend?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I completed my SVI today. It was OK. I did it in a full suit. I completed both AAMC practice interviews before doing the real exam, and they helped a lot in bringing me into the right mindset. I also answered the sample SVI questions given on the AAMC website in a practice session with my friend.

The AAMC suggested the "STAR" structure in answering questions in the SVI (Situation, Task, Action, Result) which I followed. Answered every question with a real-world example and when I had no real-world example to draw from, I came up with a hypothetical scenario. Used the front-facing camera of my mobile device for the interview, and I think it was OK. I answered the sample question and played it back to ensure that everything was getting recorded correctly and the audio and video was clear before starting the real interview. The average score for people who did not prepare at all is slightly less than the people who prepared. But people who prepared for 8-10 hours didn't score considerably higher than people who prepared for just 2-4 hours. So I recommend doing the sample questions and completing both sample interviews before doing the real deal. Most people here would advice to not put too much thought into it. These scores are of uncertain significance at the moment. However, I recommend to give it the due seriousness and make sure to complete it in a respectable way to prevent any regrets in the future.
 
Do reapplicants take the SVI again?
 
tarsuc said:
Do reapplicants take the SVI again?
Click to expand...
From the manual: "For applicants who reenter the residency selection process, their Standardized Video Interview total scores will be retained and may be reported to ACGME-accredited programs that choose to use the Standardized Video Interview as part of their residency selection process for a total of three ERAS seasons. Scores reported in the ERAS 2019 season will also be reported in ERAS 2020–2021 seasons for those applicants who choose to reenter the residency selection process."
 
TheIslandGuy said:
From the manual: "For applicants who reenter the residency selection process, their Standardized Video Interview total scores will be retained and may be reported to ACGME-accredited programs that choose to use the Standardized Video Interview as part of their residency selection process for a total of three ERAS seasons. Scores reported in the ERAS 2019 season will also be reported in ERAS 2020–2021 seasons for those applicants who choose to reenter the residency selection process."
Click to expand...

Right, but it also says that if you choose to not retake it that it will be reported differently than the current season.

IMG_1368.jpg


So, while they will have last year’s score no matter what, it appears to be in our best interest to redo it.

https://aamc-orange.global.ssl.fas...viewessentailsforeras2019_20180628.pdf#page19


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Not sure if this is ok to do or not but I wanted to revive this thread and get some more feedback for this upcoming cycle (2019-2020)

Wondering:

1. is this starting to weigh more now in terms of relevance for PD's looking at applicants?

2. any feedback from those who have already done the SVI; how were the questions (in general did it line up with what the guide suggests), and was it ever brought up on interviews?

thanks!
 
Stephanopolous said:
Not sure if this is ok to do or not but I wanted to revive this thread and get some more feedback for this upcoming cycle (2019-2020)

Wondering:

1. is this starting to weigh more now in terms of relevance for PD's looking at applicants?

2. any feedback from those who have already done the SVI; how were the questions (in general did it line up with what the guide suggests), and was it ever brought up on interviews?

thanks!
Click to expand...

No one said one single word about my SVI the entire interview season and honestly I've forgotten about it until now.

The questions sorta line up, but really there is no way to prep for this except to practice a few times to make sure your voice is projecting, the screen isn't too dark, and to see how awkward you look on video
 
OP here. Looking back, I stressed out about this way more then I needed to. If you're really worried about it, I recommend that you do the AAMC practice questions in front of a friend so that they can critique you.

Here is how you can prepare:
1. I would make sure to know how to answer behavioral questions-- that is, address the question from all angles (from the perspective of the doctor, patient, yourself, etc). Use the STAR structure. Remember that the person grading you has a checklist.
2. In advance, think about different examples that happened to you that you can use to answer these type of questions. They have different people grading each question, so you can reuse the same story more than once. The only question I struggled with was when they asked me "tell me a time when you..." and I couldn't think of a time when that happened to me. I just had to bs my way through it.
3. Do the AAMC practice questions.

I ended up getting a 19, which was the median score. No one mentioned the SVI on any of my interviews.
 
I have a somewhat unique experience with the SVI. I applied in both the 2018 and 2019 cycles (matched a different specialty and then reapplied as a PGY1), and have taken the SVI twice. Both times I did absolutely nothing to prepare for it - just sat down and took it. I hilariously scored a 15 (10th percentile) in the 2018 cycle, and a 24 (96th percentile) in the 2019 cycle. I cannot emphasize enough that I did NOTHING different. My performance itself was nearly identical. The only way I can think of to explain this scoring discrepancy is the subjective interpretation of my performance from the viewers scoring me. And herein lies the achilles heel of the SVI - its a worthless data point because it is not and cannot be standardized. An interview is intrinsically subjective, and regardless of how you try to average scores from multiple interviewers you will never have standardized data. And while subjective data isn't necessarily worthless in and of itself, its only worth anything if you trust its source - but nobody is going to trust the SVI...
 
fastmed said:
OP here. Looking back, I stressed out about this way more then I needed to. If you're really worried about it, I recommend that you do the AAMC practice questions in front of a friend so that they can critique you.

Here is how you can prepare:
1. I would make sure to know how to answer behavioral questions-- that is, address the question from all angles (from the perspective of the doctor, patient, yourself, etc). Use the STAR structure. Remember that the person grading you has a checklist.
2. In advance, think about different examples that happened to you that you can use to answer these type of questions. They have different people grading each question, so you can reuse the same story more than once. The only question I struggled with was when they asked me "tell me a time when you..." and I couldn't think of a time when that happened to me. I just had to bs my way through it.
3. Do the AAMC practice questions.

I ended up getting a 19, which was the median score. No one mentioned the SVI on any of my interviews.
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for coming back to let us know how it played out. Definitely going to check out the STAR structure.
 
Stephanopolous said:
Thanks so much for coming back to let us know how it played out. Definitely going to check out the STAR structure.
Click to expand...

Or do absolutely nothing, wear half a suit, and login and take the thing without any prep. Got a 20 this way. Completely useless thing with an even more random grade from a third party that knows nothing about medicine. I know people who spent hours prepping landing a 14-15.
 
Rekt said:
Or do absolutely nothing, wear half a suit, and login and take the thing without any prep. Got a 20 this way. Completely useless thing with an even more random grade from a third party that knows nothing about medicine. I know people who spent hours prepping landing a 14-15.
Click to expand...

x2. I spent 10-20 mins figuring out what it was, how to do it, did 1 or 2 practice questions with the camera and then got the average. I did it at the same time as my good friend who is much more charismatic and he scored 2 points lower doing the exact same thing I did.
 
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