HomeSkool's Guide to Multiple Mini Interviews

[HomeSkool]

Many schools these days are switching from traditional to multiple mini interviews (MMIs). We do this, of course, to torture you, and also so we can make more jokes at your expense on Facebook.

No, actually, that's what we use your secondary essays for. The MMI is intended to do several other things:

• Force you to think on your feet
• Limit the utility of pre-prepared, canned answers
• Decrease interview variability by asking all interviewees the same questions
• Mitigate bias by pooling impressions from multiple interviewers
• Allow interviewers to see a broader range of your academic and non-academic qualities

Torturing you is just a bonus!

So without further ado, let's dive into the MMI!

Format of the MMI
Upon arriving at the medical school, interviewers convene in a conference room for briefing and to receive our prompts for the day. We familiarize ourselves with our prompts and the suggested follow-up questions; we can also write follow-up questions of our own as long as they conform to certain guidelines.

When we're ready, medical school office staff direct us to the sim center rooms where we’ll conduct interviews. One interviewer is assigned to each room. In some schools, one of the rooms may have two interviewers as two applicants will be given an exercise to perform together.

At a predetermined time, applicants are brought to the sim center. They're placed outside the rooms, one applicant per interviewer. Office staff give the applicants their instructions and allow a moment for questions, then the interviews begin.

Each door has a folder containing a prompt, and at the sound of a chime the applicants are instructed to read it and prepare. After a couple minutes, another chime sounds and the applicants are instructed to enter the room. Applicants then have several minutes to strut their stuff in front of the interviewer, and we have several minutes to torment them. (It's the same several minutes. You have to multitask.) At the end of the time, a chime rings, and the applicants are instructed to leave the room and rotate. Rinse and repeat.

Interviewers are instructed to score applicants based on several criteria. The criteria are less "Was the answer right?" and more "Did the applicant recognize both sides of this issue? Did they express themselves clearly? Did they show depth of cognition and reasoning?" and so forth. We're trained for our scores to form a bell curve – we give lots of midrange scores, while scores at the extremes are rare. Scores at either extreme require us to provide justifying comments; midrange scores don't require any comment unless we believe something is particularly important for the admissions committee to consider. Each interviewee's final score is the average of the individual scores.

Preparing for the MMI
While the MMI is intended to keep you on your toes, there are some things you can do to prepare.

• Find and review practice questions. You can find many sample MMI questions on the interwebs (LMGTFY). Familiarize yourself with many of them and start to notice the question trends. In general, questions fall into one of four categories: current issues in healthcare and society, critical thinking, communication, and ethics. Chances are good that the questions you receive are variations of the ones you can find online.
• Practice, simulating test conditions. In preparing for my anesthesiology oral board exam, one of the most useful things I did was Skype/FaceTime with friends and administer practice exams to one another. Doing so helped us become familiar with the format and develop confidence in our skills. We began to think more quickly, apply our knowledge more rationally, and express ourselves more clearly. Practicing with a friend will help you do the same.
• Improve your vocabulary. Impressive interviewees express mature, reasonable thoughts eloquently and succinctly.
• Research the school's format. Schools vary in the duration of preparation and interview time, as well as whether they allow the use of note cards. Use the SDN boards to familiarize yourself with the practices of the school at which you'll interview.

Tips for Interview Day
I'll wrap up with some tips and observations.

• Shaking hands with your interviewer is your choice. If you want to, do it. If you don’t, don’t. We're not judging you on that (seriously). At my school, we're instructed to shake hands only if the applicant offers his/her hand first. Men: it's OK to offer your hand to a female interviewer for a handshake. These are well-educated, high-functioning, powerful women. They won't be intimidated.
• Use your words well. Your answers should be succinct while still answering the question clearly.
• There's usually no "right" answer, even for ethical scenarios. Think about it: would a black-and-white scenario be of any use in a medical school admissions interview? And yet, applicants often think these scenarios have just one answer. If it were that easy, there would be no debate and no point in us asking the question. Think deeply about these questions. Try to see the gray areas and the legitimacy of differing viewpoints.
• There most certainly are wrong answers. If I ask you what outdoor activity you most enjoy, you better not say "I don’t like outdoorsy stuff" and sit there staring at me. Think more deeply about it and say, "I don't have much experience with outdoorsy things, but I've always enjoyed watching competitive cow tipping" or something. You've only got a few minutes to impress me. Use them well.
• Don't be judgmental. If you get a prompt about how you’d handle a patient who's non-adherent to their medication regimen, don't lead off with "Man, patients can be so stupid sometimes!" Is stupidity the only reason someone might be non-adherent? If you come off as judgmental, you'll get judged right off our candidate list.
• A little silence is OK. If you need a couple seconds to think after a follow-up question, that's fine. Collect your thoughts, then hit me with your answer. But remember that the clock is still ticking, so think quickly. This is where practice can help you.
• Don't BS me. I'm a smart guy. I can tell when you're feeding me an answer because you think it's what I want to hear.
• Turn off your dang phone! I don't want your Taylor Swift ringtone to distract me right when I'm coming up with a loaded follow-up question.
• Relax. We know it's a stressful day. Just take a deep breath and talk like the normal, intelligent person that you are.

I'll update this from time to time if I think of additional tips or tricks. Happy interviewing!

Love,
HomeSkool

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[ByThe+C]

Thank you for sharing your advice and experiences.

 

[Goro]

Many schools these days are switching from traditional to multiple mini interviews (MMIs). We do this, of course, to torture you, and also so we can make more jokes at your expense on Facebook.
Love,
HomeSkool

You did it to me again!!!

 

[Lawpy]

Good work! This fits well with other MMI guides I found. Will add to Essential SDN Wisdom soon.

 

[ShyGuy0082]

@HomeSkool hit it out of the park again. Love your posts man.

 

[tiramisucheese]

Great post. Neurotic question re: handshakes. At both of the MMIs I did this cycle, we had stickers to give our interviewers for each room. How should one maneuver the sticker hand-off and the handshake? I'm blanking on whether I did handshakes or not.

 

[DBC03]

Do interviewers ever appreciate a little humor in responses to the less “serious” questions (such as sports)?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[nymd22]

What's your opinion of knocking on the door? I just had my first MMI and I realized too late that everyone was doing it but me...

 

[SpoiledMilk]

How should one maneuver the sticker hand-off and the handshake?

What's your opinion of knocking on the door?

n=1. Not @HomeSkool but as reference, I got into both schools that did one-on-one MMIs (not panel) this cycle.

Knocked on door*--Entered--Shook hands while introducing myself--Lastly, said confidently/nonchalantly, "Here you go" as I hand them the sticker.--Sat down and started on question.

*Reason one knocks on the door before entering is because when a patient's door to their hospital room is closed, a doctor/nurse/etc should knock first before entering...

 

[ekmf27050]

Pro tips from the other side of the interview table:

-If you are going to shake hands and hand the interviewer your picture sticker in the first 10 seconds, figure out the order and arrangement of your hands before you enter the room. Otherwise, risk shaking with the wrong hand/sliding them your sticker in the handshake like a back-alley exchange/shoving all hands and stickers at the interviewer for them to figure out

-Pray to whatever your deity or universal force is that the sim center is on the cold side instead of the stuffy side, or you might literally dehydrate during these 8-12 adrenaline rushing first impressions

-There are usually bowls of snacks, but there is no time for snacks. @HomeSkool are the nutrigrain bars a test or snack-torture?

 

[djtallahassee]

I would add something about trying to prep by finding out the format i.e 5 stations 10 minutes each with notecard vs 2 stations and normal interview with no notecards allowed. The SDN resources/interview feedback were good for this.

Also, ultra preppers could gain from reading the bioethics from washu U of W School of Medicine Bioethic Topics They have cases that often mirror common scenarios and it does a good job at explaining both sides and how one might approach the problem.

Keep up the guides! They look good.

 

[Welshman]

n=1. Not @HomeSkool but as reference, I got into both schools that did one-on-one MMIs (not panel) this cycle.

Knocked on door*--Entered--Shook hands while introducing myself--Lastly, said confidently/nonchalantly, "Here you go" as I hand them the sticker.--Sat down and started on question.

*Reason one knocks on the door before entering is because when a patient's door to their hospital room is closed, a doctor/nurse/etc should knock first before entering...

At my one MMI I found knocking on the door odd. I planned on doing it for the same reasons but when I tried it, it confused the interviewers more than anything because I was the only one doing it. It forced them to get up and answer the door, eating into the interview time, as they thought the door was locked or I was having trouble lol (also you can’t just knock and then enter, that defeats the point of knocking).

In the MMI scenario I really don’t think it’s appropriate to knock as everyone is expecting you to enter the room at a very specific time and the interviewer is not dressed in a patient gown. I don’t think pretending we in a clinical setting when we’re not tricks the interviewers into admitting us

 

[asrw77]

It forced them to get up and answer the door, eating into the interview time, as they thought the door was locked or I was having trouble lol (also you can’t just knock and then enter, that defeats the point of knocking).

Wait, you knocked and then waited for them to open the door? That’s weird, don’t do that. Just knock and enter. It’s not that hard, just polite.

 

[Welshman]

Wait, you knocked and then waited for them to open the door? That’s weird, don’t do that. Just knock and enter. It’s not that hard, just polite.

No, I knocked and saw them get up to answer the door and then thought crap I should just go in and went in. But I’ve always felt like knocking and then immediately entering defeats the point of knocking at all.

 

[SpoiledMilk]

Wait, you knocked and then waited for them to open the door? That’s weird, don’t do that. Just knock and enter. It’s not that hard, just polite.

Exactly. The point of knocking on the door first is not to wait for them to come to the door to open it for you. The point is to alert the person in the room that you are about to enter so if they are picking their nose or doing something that might be embarrassing, that they stop.

At the hospital that I have volunteered at for over 11 years, I was specifically instructed by my supervisors, the doctors, and nurses that before you ever enter a patient's room, knock on the closed door first to alert the patient that you will be entering.

Just how I did my MMIs and it worked out. To each their own.

 

[Welshman]

Exactly. The point of knocking on the door first is not to wait for them to come to the door to open it for you. The point is to alert the person in the room that you are about to enter so if they are picking their nose or doing something that might be embarrassing, that they stop.

At the hospital that I have volunteered at for over 11 years, I was specifically instructed by my supervisors, the doctors, and nurses that before you ever enter a patient's room, knock on the closed door first to alert the patient that you will be entering.

Just how I did my MMIs and it worked out. To each their own.

Yeah, at my MMI the chime that everyone hears served as that alert and considering it’s an MMI and not a patients room my knocking seemed to confuse them, just my experience though

 

[Goro]

The neuroticism is strong in this thread, despite all the helpful advice offered by the wise Homeskool.

 

[onyxbell]

Something something something we need.
Something something something we deserve.
Something something something hero.
Something something something batman?

 

[seren1051]

I really wanted to make a grand entrance in one of these. Like *chimes*, I take a deep breath, and kick the door open. The entire door, door frame, walls shatters into million pieces and fly away like in those Bollywood movies. Interviewer looks at me wild-eyed, and I confidently walks into the mess, sit down, and start making my response. It was on my bucket list. I never had a gut to do one ofc..maybe I'll get to do it in my next life

 

[HomeSkool]

How should one maneuver the sticker hand-off and the handshake?

Calmly. The smoothest applicants are the ones who've already put a sticker on the edge of their left hand. They shake with their right, then grab the sticker and hand it to me, so they're not futzing around trying to get the sticker off the page. In any event, I chalk a little awkwardness up to the stress of the day.

Do interviewers ever appreciate a little humor in responses to the less “serious” questions (such as sports)?

If it's a) funny and b) appropriate, it might work. But you're running the risk that the joke falls flat. I recommend being cheerful and friendly but not funny.

What's your opinion of knocking on the door?

If I really put my mind to it, I suppose it'd be possible for me to care less. As far as I'm concerned, the chime and disembodied voice telling you to enter the room are enough of a warning for me to stop picking my nose.

*Reason one knocks on the door before entering is because when a patient's door to their hospital room is closed, a doctor/nurse/etc should knock first before entering...

You're not wrong to knock, but it's not expected. We'll teach you doctoring etiquette when you're in school (with public beatings to reinforce the material, if necessary).

@HomeSkool are the nutrigrain bars a test or snack-torture?

Some of the schools offer snacks?! Man, I must be at the nastiest school around! The cake is a lie.

I would add something about trying to prep by finding out the format i.e 5 stations 10 minutes each with notecard vs 2 stations and normal interview with no notecards allowed. The SDN resources/interview feedback were good for this.

Done!

No, I knocked and saw them get up to answer the door and then thought crap I should just go in and went in. But I’ve always felt like knocking and then immediately entering defeats the point of knocking at all.

Knocking at a patient's door isn't an invitation for the patient to get up and open it. It's more of a warning: "Incoming! Three seconds to put your gown back on!" If you decide to knock at your MMI (which will neither help nor harm you), just knock and enter.

The neuroticism is strong in this thread, despite all the helpful advice offered by the wise Homeskool.

Indeed, Master Jedi. I may need to break out the "Chill Pill" meme again.

I really wanted to make a grand entrance in one of these. Like *chimes*, I take a deep breath, and kick the door open. The entire door, door frame, walls shatters into million pieces and fly away like in those Bollywood movies. Interviewer looks at me wild-eyed approvingly, and I confidently walks into the mess, sit down, and start making my response.

Automatic accept. (Also, fixed it for you.)

 

[calivianya]

The problem I have with MMIs is it seems like they select for certain personality types. I've gone to two MMIs and two traditionals, and my experience has been that the initial nerves have time to wear off in a traditional interview, which doesn't significantly impact your time. So you're nervous for four minutes out of thirty? That's twenty-six minutes of relaxed interview time per interviewer; you're fine.

Now, if you are the type of person to get nervous all over again every time you have to talk to a new person, and it takes a few minutes to settle down, literally up to 1/2 of the face to face time with each interviewer is going to be spent getting over initial nerves in a MMI, and that just sucks.

It would be more beneficial to people like me if each MMI station was longer (maybe two minutes to read the prompt, ten minutes to actually talk with the interviewer), but I realize there are so many candidates that the school's going to fill their class regardless of what interview method is used, so this is immaterial to the school itself.

 

[3toedsloth]

I honestly don't understand how Schools think MMI is better than traditional interview format, and why more schools are moving in that direction.

Personally, I am not a fan of MMI. I feel like they don't help the admissions committee get to know me, and the questions don't really open up conversation. There's never enough time to even discuss the topic fully. Bleh.

 

[Saifa]

Did one MMI. After being explicitly instructed to enter the room I didn't really think knocking was a necessity.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I honestly don't understand how Schools think MMI is better than traditional interview format, and why more schools are moving in that direction.

Personally, I am not a fan of MMI. I feel like they don't help the admissions committee get to know me, and the questions don't really open up conversation. There's never enough time to even discuss the topic fully. Bleh.

Because there is evidence that it does a better job at selecting successful med students. That’s why.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

The problem I have with MMIs is it seems like they select for certain personality types. I've gone to two MMIs and two traditionals, and my experience has been that the initial nerves have time to wear off in a traditional interview, which doesn't significantly impact your time. So you're nervous for four minutes out of thirty? That's twenty-six minutes of relaxed interview time per interviewer; you're fine.

Now, if you are the type of person to get nervous all over again every time you have to talk to a new person, and it takes a few minutes to settle down, literally up to 1/2 of the face to face time with each interviewer is going to be spent getting over initial nerves in a MMI, and that just sucks.

It would be more beneficial to people like me if each MMI station was longer (maybe two minutes to read the prompt, ten minutes to actually talk with the interviewer), but I realize there are so many candidates that the school's going to fill their class regardless of what interview method is used, so this is immaterial to the school itself.

This is what it’s like seeing patients. You have ~15 mins with them, sometimes less, sometimes more. But when you’ve never met them, you need to make a good first impression each time. You need to get over your nerves about talking to new people. That comes with practice, which is something you can do before an MMI too. Most people will be nervous, and they understand that.

 

[Lawpy]

I'm hoping we get more @HomeSkool guides. They serve as nice complements to @Goro guides.

 

[Spectar]

This is what it’s like seeing patients. You have ~15 mins with them, sometimes less, sometimes more. But when you’ve never met them, you need to make a good first impression each time. You need to get over your nerves about talking to new people. That comes with practice, which is something you can do before an MMI too. Most people will be nervous, and they understand that.

Not at locations where physicians are salaried and not paid based on a hybrid including productivity

 

[HomeSkool]

I'm hoping we get more @HomeSkool guides. They serve as nice complements to @Goro guides.

Coming soon: HomeSkool's Guide to Obscure Pop Culture References of the 90s!

Sent from my Pixel 2 using SDN mobile

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Not at locations where physicians are salaried and not paid based on a hybrid including productivity

I've done primary care in a setting like that. You still have to make a good first impression, as appearing nervous or unsure will severely harm your chances at gaining their trust and compliance.

 

[Microbug]

I honestly don't understand how Schools think MMI is better than traditional interview format, and why more schools are moving in that direction.

Personally, I am not a fan of MMI. I feel like they don't help the admissions committee get to know me, and the questions don't really open up conversation. There's never enough time to even discuss the topic fully. Bleh.

I think it is better. There tend to be less number of traditional interviews so your evaluation is heavily biased while MMI has more stations and therefore, less bias. Also, it test your ability to think on the spot and form logical arguments. I think it’s a more fair assessment of applicants.

 

[calivianya]

This is what it’s like seeing patients. You have ~15 mins with them, sometimes less, sometimes more. But when you’ve never met them, you need to make a good first impression each time. You need to get over your nerves about talking to new people. That comes with practice, which is something you can do before an MMI too. Most people will be nervous, and they understand that.

I have zero problems talking to patients. I have around 5 years of full time employment in healthcare doing direct patient care. Based on what the patients/families tell me, I make good first impressions - in real world, normal situations.

Generally speaking, going into a room to talk to a patient doesn't impact the entire course of my future.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I have zero problems talking to patients. I have around 5 years of full time employment in healthcare doing direct patient care. Based on what the patients/families tell me, I make good first impressions - in real world, normal situations.

Then your nervousness is just interview nervousness, which most people have. It probably isn’t impacting you like you think.

Generally speaking, going into a room to talk to a patient doesn't impact the entire course of my future.

Let’s not add hyperbole to my post please. I never said that it would “impact the entire course of your future.” I said it’s important for patient relationships.

 

[calivianya]

Then your nervousness is just interview nervousness, which most people have. It probably isn’t impacting you like you think.

Let’s not add hyperbole to my post please. I never said that it would “impact the entire course of your future.” I said it’s important for patient relationships.

I wasn't meaning to add hyperbole to yours; sorry for that getting lost in translation. I was just pointing out how I see interviews and patient interaction as totally different things, as an interview does indeed impact the entire course of my future and talking to the average patient does not.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I wasn't meaning to add hyperbole to yours; sorry for that getting lost in translation. I was just pointing out how I see interviews and patient interaction as totally different things, as an interview does indeed impact the entire course of my future and talking to the average patient does not.

Yes. But if you don’t get nervous talking to new patients or new people, then you’re just nervous for your interview. I read your post as meaning you get nervous at first when talking to any new people, which maybe was a misreading. Most people get nervous for interviews. That’s part of the process—to see how you handle the stress and nerves.

 

[willow84]

All of the discussion of stickers in here just reminded me of what I did in one MMI station... I handed the interviewer my entire sheet and he said, "Oh, I have to peel my own sticker?" My response: "Sure! Isn't that the fun part?" I obviously had a sticker removed and on my finger for subsequent rooms. Ultimately accepted so perhaps they threw that room out, haha.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

All of the discussion of stickers in here just reminded me of what I did in one MMI station... I handed the interviewer my entire sheet and he said, "Oh, I have to peel my own sticker?" My response: "Sure! Isn't that the fun part?" I obviously had a sticker removed and on my finger for subsequent rooms. Ultimately accepted so perhaps they threw that room out, haha.

Honestly, I think people just over analyze things that most interviewers don’t get hung up on. I doubt they were furiously writing nasty things about how you didn’t peel off your own sticker lol.

 

[willow84]

Honestly, I think people just over analyze things that most interviewers don’t get hung up on. I doubt they were furiously writing nasty things about how you didn’t peel off your own sticker lol.

Well yeah, most of us premeds are a bit neurotic.

 

[RaspberrySlushy]

I just had my second MMI.

Both had snacks and time to eat them before MMI started (a bit of down time plus get to know your fellow applicants between MMI overview instructions and when they took us to the MMI area) and also water, b/c it’s a lot of talking.

It wasn’t as bad as I thought at either school. Some stations were actually fun b/c they were more game-like (and yet you could still tell tell how it would be used to evaluate how you think). I like the acting stations the least but so does everyone (including, apparently, the actors, as one told me after breaking character at the end of the station) so I try not to sweat it too much.

At my first MMI there was one tough question with no real good answers. It wasn’t your typical ethical dilemma where you could come down in the middle but something with a lot of defined possibilities to choose from that were all in some way awful and at first I went against my natural instinct b/c I thought they wouldn’t like it and then during the discussion switched back to it. May have been a mistake but it was my real answer so there’s that.

At another station, I thought it was acting b/c the prompt just said the scenario so I went in and said oh hi so-and-so (patient name from prompt) and he was like no I’m Dr. (his real name). It was confusing for a second but at the end we laughed about the mixup so it’s prob not a huge deal.

I will say MMI is not great for sleep quality b/c there’s just so much to replay in your head while trying to fall asleep. You’re almost in dreamland and then all these things that probably don’t matter, all the real and imagined and super neurotic replays come through.

 

[ekmf27050]

Coming soon: HomeSkool's Guide to Obscure Pop Culture References of the 90s!

Sent from my Pixel 2 using SDN mobile

If you have a lot of free time laugh maybe come up with some solid categories and have yourself, Mrs. HomeSkool, and some friends compile separately then compare? Have to have objectivity.