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I feel like I'm focusing on the most relevant points of each question, but wanted to know if I should try to pare down further. Thank you in advance!
"Science" says, 90 seconds.I feel like I'm focusing on the most relevant points of each question, but wanted to know if I should try to pare down further. Thank you in advance!
We had an interviewee who gave a 15 minute long speech in response to "why medicine?" Their response was poorly received by the interviewer who had also jotted down the start and stop times of this applicant's response.If Madison Avenue can sell you on almost anything in 60 seconds or less, you should be able to do the same. Don't make it a 30 minute infomercial. 😉
Assuming this is not in MMI format.@Moko @Goro @LizzyM @GoSpursGo @Mr.Smile12
For any interview questions in general, is there a general guideline on how long responses should be? Should they always be not longer than 2 minutes, depending on the question?
For example, if someone were to ask me 3 competencies that would make me a good physician, I feel like I should name each and give personal examples of each from my own life, and then connect that to becoming a physician. I just recorded myself, and it takes me about 5 minutes to do this.
Again if you look at the link above, 90 seconds is about as long as you’re going to hold someone’s attention in a conversation.@Moko @Goro @LizzyM @GoSpursGo @Mr.Smile12
For any interview questions in general, is there a general guideline on how long responses should be? Should they always be not longer than 2 minutes, depending on the question?
For example, if someone were to ask me 3 competencies that would make me a good physician, I feel like I should name each and give personal examples of each from my own life, and then connect that to becoming a physician. I just recorded myself, and it takes me about 5 minutes to do this.
Assuming this is not in MMI format.
You can message me or set up an appointment (see my signature) for specific pointers, but my first question to the question is "that's a great question. How much time do I have?" That should help.
Again if you look at the link above, 90 seconds is about as long as you’re going to hold someone’s attention in a conversation.
This isn’t an essay or a lecture where you need to exhaustively answer every potential aspect of a question, it’s intended to be a conversation where you have a back and forth. You need to let the other person talk. So in your hypothetical scenario, I would give the three competencies and then pass back and allow them to determine how much detail to go into.
I'll also add that a couple of schools ask this in a secondary essay prompt.Again if you look at the link above, 90 seconds is about as long as you’re going to hold someone’s attention in a conversation.
This isn’t an essay or a lecture where you need to exhaustively answer every potential aspect of a question, it’s intended to be a conversation where you have a back and forth. You need to let the other person talk. So in your hypothetical scenario, I would give the three competencies and then pass back and allow them to determine how much detail to go into.
When I get a blowhard interviewee that goes past my stop line, I will cut them off.We had an interviewee who gave a 15 minute long speech in response to "why medicine?" Their response was poorly received by the interviewer who had also jotted down the start and stop times of this applicant's response.
I imagine that they were giving the candidate enough rope to hang themselves.Did anyone try to stop the interviewee? 15 minutes is way too long.
I imagine that they were giving the candidate enough rope to hang themselves
Fifteen minutes is a TED talk. Or an influencer video. But even when I was "interviewing" for a test prep job as a teacher, I had five minutes... when I had to assess others doing it, that sometimes felt really long.
Yes, I have! Although I haven't timed my responses when practicing with other people. I'm currently working on cutting down my response times to about 1.5-2 minutes, give or take. Thank you very much everyone for the feedback so far, I appreciate it!@juleppedMint have you practiced w/ people you trust? Sometimes we time it by ourselves & it’s never as natural-flowing or timed well as when we practice with another person in the room… or multiple people at the same time.
Sure... but five minutes is enough rope. This isn't American Pie by Don McLean. 🙂I imagine that they were giving the candidate enough rope to hang themselves
You sir, have watched Dr. Gray, hahaI've been meaning to talk about this as well. I like to think of myself as an affable person, and approach interviews in a "casual yet serious" way. I like for things to feel like a natural conversation. I have a lot of experience in writing and telling stories, so for some of these questions I would be highly inclined to "show don't tell" and give a brief narrative (2-3m) basically rather than just summarizing things as if rattling off bullet points.
But it's difficult to plan what stories should be put in the essays, and then if you should just give a 60s summary your essays while adding a bit more, or if some stories should just be saved entirely for the interview. (especially since some interviewers may not have seen your essay/ps etc).
I'd like to think of "why medicine" question is the seed and then the rest of the interview is watering that seed, and figuring out how to do that via the essays and interview is the tricky bit.
Only heard about him last week actually! I did steal the seed phrasing. These ideas are my own though, so I'm still trying to figure out the essay / interview overlap problem.You sir, have watched Dr. Gray, haha
It's great to have a lot of plans on how you will do your interview... until the interviewer decides you need to show something else.
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It will take me 10 seconds to start triaging you for a rating, as it will happen with every interviewer. In other words, you really don't have the time.