Lol. Well either way I think you could do better. If you don’t appear that way at the interview then it will seem like you’ve overcome it at which point
LizzyM’s question of is it still a weakness applies. Plus you’re basically saying you have trouble communicating without sounding aggressive. Communication is one of the most important skills for physicians. Not something you want to give the impression you have trouble with it.
Just mho.
I see what you're saying. But then that begs the question of what is a legitimate weakness to pose, because you can say that same thing about any weakness. The case of poor communication skills due to tone of voice--->poor ability to communicate with patients and peers can be applied to basically every answer. i.e. bad time management skills--->poor ability to manage obligations to patients and peers; social anxiety--->poor communication with patients and peers; lack of self confidence--->poor communication; disorganized; perfectionism; bad leadership skills, etc. These all can be extended to the point of being a fatal flaw and diminishing one of the most important skills of a physician. And then when one addresses it, as they should be, it becomes a question of "well if you address it is it really a weakness??"
If the most important criteria that LizzyM has mentioned, namely:
First thing is to demonstrate that you can self-reflect and identify areas in need of improvement and the second is to show that you have a desire to change and finally that you have developed strategies to make the change happen and to assess your progress in achieving success.
have been met and any given example of a weakness can reflect a fatal flaw, then I fail to see how any one answer, including my own, is better or worse than another. This is what I am trying to understand. For example, in my case, I have self-reflected and come to the conclusion that my voice is a problem and impedes proper communication. I have acknowledged it and want to change it. I can cite several strategies of me trying to make the change happen and how I have been assessing my progress e.g. consciously making an effort to control my tone, recording my voice to see how I sound, asking close friends how my current voice and subsequent changes in the quality of my voice are perceived, asking close friends how my ability to communicate and lower my tone has progressed, even speech therapy.
It’s not...
When you get consistent feedback a much better response is ‘roger’ and move on than arguing with ADCOMS/Med students/applicants like
@Matthew9Thirtyfive who has enough life experience / advice to go around
Lol, if my interactions up until this point with ADCOMS/Med students/applicants like
@Matthew9Thirtyfive are what you consider argumentative, I don't think I'm the only one who has trouble interacting with others irl. Although in your case it is for different reasons.
I am not sure if you have been following the thread, but there has been a good deal of inconsistency, from ADCOMS/Med students/applicants like
@Matthew9Thirtyfive alike. Hence me following up and scrutinizing to get a comprehensive answer.
You seem to be interpreting things exactly to fit your whims/wants. I think you only want validation and you aren’t going to get that. Go ahead and use it. You obviously have locked yourself into using it and no amount of conversation seems to be able to have you at least consider something else. So do what you want.
I've gotten plenty of validation in this thread, and yet here I am.
Seriously, I get that it is pretty common for people on SDN to come and look for a hivemind. And I get that it is in vogue to immediately try to call somebody out on it, but chill out. You guys are conflating thoroughness and discussion with non-receptiveness and argument.
