Quizzes during interviews?

[geddy]

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During my ED rotation this past summer, a family practice resident told me that he had been given an exam during his residency interview at Wash U. Up to this point, I have felt pretty good about my interviews, but this threw me somewhat for a loop. Has anyone ever heard of an exam being given during pathology interviews, especially at the highly competitive programs?

 

[yaah]

An exam? Never heard of that. As many of us have said before, path interviews are not really tests to see if you would make a good resident. They are more to convince you that their program is the one you should rank, and to meet you to put a face on the rest of your application. To be sure, interviews can help your standing improve in their eyes.

No tests though.

I interviewed at many top places and never got any tests. I didn't visit Wash U though...

 

[Doctor B.]

No tests, even at Wash U. Don't worry.

 

[b&ierstiefel]

Quizzes/exams at the interview visit...can't imagine it.

However, there is another way they can getcha! Have any of the programs that invited you mentioned that you can sit in on a sign-out session during the interview? BIDMC comes to mind.

Not only could they potentially pimp you during the interviews themselves but they could totally pimp the hell outta ya during these sign-outs 😀

...or maybe i'm too paranoid and reading way too much into this.

 

[deschutes]

you can sit in on a sign-out session during the interview? BIDMC comes to mind.

I had heard of that happening during fellowship interviews, but not residency.

Good luck. Half the time I can't recognize tissue sources to save my life.

 

[Weil-Felix]

I did get put on the spot during one interview in which the interviewer said..."okay, time for a test." Then she whipped out a slide, put it on the microscope, and asked me if I knew what it was.

At the same program, another one of my interviewers asked me to tell him "everything I know" about a particular rare disease process.

Just trying to keep me on my toes, I guess.

 

[b&ierstiefel]

I did get put on the spot during one interview in which the interviewer said..."okay, time for a test." Then she whipped out a slide, put it on the microscope, and asked me if I knew what it was.

At the same program, another one of my interviewers asked me to tell him "everything I know" about a particular rare disease process.

Just trying to keep me on my toes, I guess.

As Cartman would say in his AWESOM-O robot voice, "Not cool. Totally lame."

 

[yaah]

Quizzes/exams at the interview visit...can't imagine it.

However, there is another way they can getcha! Have any of the programs that invited you mentioned that you can sit in on a sign-out session during the interview? BIDMC comes to mind.

Not only could they potentially pimp you during the interviews themselves but they could totally pimp the hell outta ya during these sign-outs 😀

...or maybe i'm too paranoid and reading way too much into this.

Some programs have you attend the morning lecture/slide session/whatever. I went to the outs conf at MGH, a micro lecture at Northwestern, a CP clinico-path thing at U Chi, and I can't remember others. They didn't ask me any questions. I think they want you to sit quietly and absorb things. If you really have a burning question I would ask it.

And I too had a couple of interviewers show me a slide (clear cell variant of papillary thyroid cancer, a weird hepatitis). But nothing too intense. Just for fun. I think if someone shows you a slide and acts like they are pimping you, don't worry. You aren't really supposed to know anything. A lot of people starting path residency have only done a few weeks of pathology, which may or may not have included slide review.

Don't overestimate how interviewers and other residents rate the intelligence of applicants and new residents. Do you know what this is? It's a neutrophil!

 

[Doctor B.]

I'm glad no one showed me a slide on an interview! I would have tanked.

I did look at a frozen with one of the Wash U staff b/c he was on frozens that day.

One of the more interesting questions I was asked was at Iowa. One guy there asked me if I thought I'd miss seeing patients. Fortunately I replied "yes"; his reply was "Good. I think if you didn't miss seeing patients, you shouldn't be a doctor."

 

[b&ierstiefel]

Whip out a slide and I be like...

"Identifying slides is where I draw the line! Screw you guys. I'm going home."

 

[deschutes]

One guy there asked me if I thought I'd miss seeing patients. Fortunately I replied "yes"; his reply was "Good. I think if you didn't miss seeing patients, you shouldn't be a doctor."

I honestly do wonder what I would have said. I know I will miss those moments with patients when I feel that yes, I achieved something - made someone happy, even if only for a while.

It's just so much easier to ask people how they are feeling when you're not the same person who DREs them.

I had ... (clear cell variant of papillary thyroid cancer, a weird hepatitis). But nothing too intense.

yaah, you scare me.

 

[b&ierstiefel]

I honestly do wonder what I would have said. I know I will miss those moments with patients when I feel that yes, I achieved something - made someone happy, even if only for a while.

It's just so much easier to ask people how they are feeling when you're not the same person who DREs them.

Nicely put. Surely I will miss the moments when patients feel better during their stay in the hospital. I will miss the times when I can just sit and chat with the patients when all they need at that present moment is just someone to talk to. I'll miss the "Thank you's" from the patients and their families when things go well or even if things don't go well despite our best efforts.

I won't miss the DREs. I won't miss the rectal disimpactions. I won't miss the drug seeking malingerers who just come to the hospital with deceptive purposes just to get some candy. I definitely won't miss the angry patients who shout curses and obscenities at me.

yaah, you scare me.

deschutes, you scare me too. you have this knack for rearranging or paraphrasing other people's posts so that they are interpreted differently.

It's funny stuff though 👍
it's kinda like yaah is your punching bag tonight.

 

[path19]

ok, do you think a pgy-1 interviewing to transfer to a program is more likely to be pimped since i'm supposed to have learned something in the last 3.5 months?

i certainly hope not because that would ruin all chances of being accepted.

 

[yaah]

OMG Where have you been?!?! Haven't seen hide nor hair of you in many moons! Welcome back the artist formerly known as rads19!!

I don't think they will necessarily pimp you for information if you are transferring, that will come from your evaluations and their discussions with people at your current program. What they likely will grill you on is why you are leaving, why you want to come to a new program, and what you hope to get out of it. They basically would want to find out if you are going to stay and finish in their program.

I think they would assume basic PGY-1 level knowledge, which frankly isn't much. PGY-1 year is when you learn the tricks of the trade, the lingo, and start figuring out how to evaluate things. You really don't know a ton, but you are figuring out where to find out the stuff you don't know. Every program is different for PGY-1 - some have no CP, some don't expose you to much surg path, etc.

 

[deschutes]

Punching bag? My bad. I was not trying to convey that yaah had either papillary thyroid cancer or a weird hepatitis, God forbid. Instead I was trying to convey that I certainly wouldn't know what a clear cell varient of papillary thyroid cancer or a weird hepatitis looked like under the scope.

So this is what it takes to be pursued by MGH! 😉

 

[b&ierstiefel]

Punching bag? My bad. I was not trying to convey that yaah had either papillary thyroid cancer or a weird hepatitis, God forbid. Instead I was trying to convey that I certainly wouldn't know what a clear cell varient of papillary thyroid cancer or a weird hepatitis looked like under the scope.

So this is what it takes to be pursued by MGH! 😉

suuuuuuuuuure....
howz the new place workin out?

 

[yaah]

Punching bag? My bad. I was not trying to convey that yaah had either papillary thyroid cancer or a weird hepatitis, God forbid. Instead I was trying to convey that I certainly wouldn't know what a clear cell varient of papillary thyroid cancer or a weird hepatitis looked like under the scope.

So this is what it takes to be pursued by MGH! 😉

I knew you what you were talking about. As random chance often dictates, I had seen a case of clear cell variant of papillary thyroid cancer not one week before this interview. Thus, not all that impressive, I'm afraid. As for what it looks like - well, picture a thyroid with a nodule of clear cells.

I do not have hepatitis nor thyroid cancer (that I know of). My current medical fear is being colonized by various unpleasant bugs. With all that time sniffing the Pseudomonas plates to determine the presence of the "fruity odor" I would imagine I am now colonized with about 50 different strains. Plus the VRE and the MRSA. They would fear me on the wards now, for I am The Colonizer.

 

[deschutes]

With all that time sniffing the Pseudomonas plates to determine the presence of the "fruity odor" I would imagine I am now colonized with about 50 different strains. Plus the VRE and the MRSA.

I decided the sniffing was hazardous to my health - I never sniffed directly, preferring the chemistry method of waving one's hand across the top of the test tube (and in this case, petri dish).

In my two weeks on ID, I washed my hands obsessively. First with water/soap, and followed with alcohol rub.

I also washed my white coat 3 times. Which is not a whole lot, but when you consider that most people wash theirs maybe once a year...

 

[LADoc00]

Warning: WashU will orally pimp you, usually in front of other residents, faculty. If you see Steve Tietlebaum (sp?) on your itinerary be prepared. Usually it happens during autopsy conference, luckily my tale is that I randomly knew the German guy present an post mortem the day of my interview through a friend of a friend and knew the whole case cold. When he asked me a question I gave a 20 min mini-lecture, of course he was pissed.

Also saw (and Im not joking) an applicant at the Brig who was taken into a frozen and asked to make the diagnosis. She freaked, started crying and ran out. Sounds crappy (Im doctor evil, evil lite- just one calorie of evil), but we spent the rest of the day laughing our a$$es off, I had never seen such old school stuff. Made me fall in love in with Harvard really.

 

[yaah]

I didn't experience that at the Brigham...but I wouldn't have minded, honestly. I think people shouldn't worry too much, if it does by chance happen. If you don't know the answer, so what? They're not going to reject you because you don't happen to know a certain answer - you're not even a resident yet. They may, however, reject you if you run screaming and crying out of a room! After all, if you can diagnose a frozen, why do you even need to go to residency?

Ha. I think I have a little evil in me too, that would amuse me too. Not that I enjoy seeing someone run screaming out of a room in terror, though.

Seriously, people, DO NOT stress over this. If they ask you questions about path, do the best you can, but realize that they might just be trying to figure out how you think, not whether you're right or not.

 

[b&ierstiefel]

Whatever happens happens. That's what I say. If they pimp me, I'll do my best to give an educated guess, no matter how far left-field it may seem. If they think I'm stupid as a result and rank me low, so be it. I'm a control freak but screw it but I realize one can't control everything and we'll all have a variety of interview experiences (hopefully more good than bad).

I heard about Teitelbaum. Probably from these forums. Thanks for the heads up LADoc00. If I see his name on my itinerary this coming December, I'll be sure to piss my pants.