I interviewed at one school with an MMI, got in, and as it is my top choice I am not doing any other interviews. I don't have a wide breadth of experience to share, but did prepare significantly for the interview and I definitely was more comfortable because of it. I have done mock interviews as interviewee, and been a mock interviewer as well.
What Is The MMI?
What does an MMI offer the admissions committee?
- It gives them standardized scores
- More data points from more perspectives to decrease bias/halo effect
- Usually closed file to decrease bias/halo effect
- It ensures specific questions are asked and answered, rather than allowing interviewer autonomy thus creating differences and non-standard comparisons
What are they thinking when creating an MMI question/scenario?
- They're hoping to get at one or two specific aspects of who you are
- For example:
- Your ability to handle pressure, Reasoning skills, Empathy, the ability to take on the perspective of another, Teamwork, Ability to recognize your mistakes and learn from them, professionalism, etc.
- Look at their "desired/essential qualities" of a medical student on their admissions page. Those are the things they're looking to see in these questions, and most questions are created with one or two of these in mind.
What type of questions or scenarios are there?
- Acting
- Either the interviewer is acting, or you interact with an actor while there is an observer
- Ethical scenario
- Standard interview question (why our school, weakness, what's a challenge you've overcome, etc.)
- Teamwork/collaboration
- Solve a puzzle, draw something, or build something with another applicant giving instructions or vis versa
- Debate
How I Approach an MMI Question/Scenario:
The General Philosophy:
- What does the question ask/what is the scenario?
- What does the ADCOM hope to see, what core value/essential characteristic are they looking for me to demonstrate here?
- Do I have this core value? How can I show this through my answer?
- Form my answer.
What if I don't know what core value/characteristic they're looking for in this scenario? Then I pick one of their essential characteristics that fit and work my answer with that in mind. No matter what I choose one or more characteristics to exemplify through my answer.
The Procedure:
Just like with an essay for a college writing class, I spend the 2 minutes prior to each station to create an outline of what I want to discuss. This outline always has 2 or 3 "paragraphs" or big points to be made. Each paragraph then has at least 1 (ideally 2) supporting points, such as an example from my personal life, a piece of evidence or sub point to the main idea, etc.
I make a point to always wedge in at least one point from my personal life during the answer of the question to both inform the interviewer of my experiences, and offer them avenues for further questioning if desired.
Example
Let's take, for example, an ethical scenario. I think showing how I think through something may help.
78 y/o indian, non-english speaking female arrives in ED with family for severe abdominal pain. CT reveals significant mass concerning for colorectal primary neoplasm. Family refuses translator preferring to translate themselves. When discussing results with family, they refuse to inform the patient of these findings as they worry she'll not handle it well. How do you address this situation?
What are ADCOMs trying to learn about me? Could be professionalism, empathy, communication skills, cultural sensitivity, respect for patient, among others.
Do I have these core values? Sure, I can draw from some personal experiences to show all of these things in some way. I'll not list those out but my answer can hit all those things I think.
What are my big bucket paragraphs, what is my outline?
- Family concerns
- Talk with family to know why they think what they think, rather than just push my own perspective. Emphasize seeking first to understand.
- Cultural concerns? How can i be sensitive to these?
- Medical/psych concern I don't know about?
- Personal anecdote from scribe experience (i've seen how tough this conversation can be)
- After learning their perspective I can better share my own, discuss consequences of telling versus not telling. Are family making informed decision as well?
- Patient autonomy
- Pt right to know. Is there a hospital or legal policy on this? I don't know I'm just a premed but if so I'd have to strongly consider that in my decision making
- Ask patient does she want to know? Let her decide to know findings or not based on discussion with family. Don't force her to know if family is competent caregivers and she doesn't want to know.
- If she wants to know, get an interpreter
- (insert scribe or hospice experience on how hard it is for family to interpret difficult conversations, not to mention complicated medical terms)
How Did I Prepare for the MMI?
I learned the information I just gave you above. I looked up the school and their essential characteristics, in addition to the types of scenarios I could see.
I took my AMCAS resume and went through all my experiences, writing down all the characteristics each could show. This allowed me to quickly plug and play my experiences into my outline above without much thought, as I had just reviewed where each "puzzle piece" could fit. Practice talking for 1-2 minutes about each experience and how they show the characteristics I linked to them.
Come up with standard stories to use for common interview questions.
I hope you find this information useful, it's helped myself and some I've worked with to have success on their recent MMIs. Use it in combination with Puggs idea of how to approach ethical situations, as I think I do that without really thinking through it as a procedure.
