Quizzed on pre-req stuff during interview?

[custard]

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I remember looking through the interview feedback once and seeing that someone was once asked to explain mitosis and meiosis to the interviewer with diagrams. Is this type of thing common at all? What about for non-science majors? My major is Psych and while I did well on my MCAT and in my pre-reqs, that was all a while back so I'm feeling nervous about being quizzed on detailed bio questions. 😱

 

[MDRus]

chances of that happening are miniscule. most interviewers want you to relax so they can get to know you.

 

[anxioushiker]

I remember looking through the interview feedback once and seeing that someone was once asked to explain mitosis and meiosis to the interviewer with diagrams. Is this type of thing common at all? What about for non-science majors? My major is Psych and while I did well on my MCAT and in my pre-reqs, that was all a while back so I'm feeling nervous about being quizzed on detailed bio questions. 😱

I wouldn't be surprised if the interviewer asked this of the interviewee to see how well the interviewee could teach something that s/he should know. I had a couple of interviewers ask me if I could teach them what my research was about. In both instances I was told to consider them (interviewers) as teenagers and that I was to teach them the essentials of my topic. This is just my guess, but I would imagine that the interviewer in your case was just wanting to see if the interviewee was capable of communicating well the subject, not necessarily testing knowledge on meiosis/mitosis. Just my guess though.

 

[ADeadLois]

I wouldn't be surprised if the interviewer asked this of the interviewee to see how well the interviewee could teach something that s/he should know. I had a couple of interviewers ask me if I could teach them what my research was about. In both instances I was told to consider them (interviewers) as teenagers and that I was to teach them the essentials of my topic. This is just my guess, but I would imagine that the interviewer in your case was just wanting to see if the interviewee was capable of communicating well the subject, not necessarily testing knowledge on meiosis/mitosis. Just my guess though.

Very often if an applicant has some research background they will be asked to explain it. "Quizzing" applicants on pre-med knowledge never happens.

 

[Dendrite]

Very often if an applicant has some research background they will be asked to explain it. "Quizzing" applicants on pre-med knowledge never happens.

I was asked to explain my research at all of my interviews, for probably two reasons:
To see that I can communicate well, and to see if I actually did the work.