Hey motziyu,
Sorry, this is my first time too haha. The only advice I can give is to be familiar with pharmacy background and maybe potential subjects of controversy or discussion (e.g. what do you think about the movement to give pharmacists limited ability to proscribe certain medications?). This way you'll have more background knowledge to draw upon if any pharmacy specific situations pop up. But with an MMI, honestly they can concoct any situation they want. Like maybe, on an exam you see someone who is writing with what appears to be notes i.e. you suspect them of cheating. What do you do?
Don't be afraid to think outside the box. If it's a problem solving situation try to come up with more than just the standard response. If I were the examiner who had to sit through endless rotations and someone gave me an out of the box (but logically deduced) answer I'd rank them higher, just my 2 cents.
I don't know how easy it is, but try to figure out what they are trying to test you on. As in the exam cheater example, maybe they're testing your academic honesty/integrity? (<- it's probably never this obvious). Anyways, if you get a sense at what they're trying to test for you can cater your response to address that.
Also, don't be afraid to verbalize your reasoning. Quite often we do all of the logical thinking in the head and just give a response. The examiner can't read your mind so something logical to you may not be obvious to them. Just like how showing your work can net you part marks on an exam, verbalizing your logic and only help you. If your response is flawed because of an incorrect assumption the examiner will at least know how you reached the conclusion and see that you did in fact deduce your response logically. Heck, they may even prompt you by pointing out the mistaken assumption.
Everyone says this and it's common sense. Don't panic and lock up! Sometimes in the heat of the moment you try to process something too fast and just end up tripping over your thoughts and draw a blank. If you catch yourself doing this, just step back take a deep breath and start over. Try to think in a stepwise fashion (cause and effect: The problem is X. This is caused by A, B, and C. A causes X due to ... and we can solve this by... then go on to B, C, etc). Generally this approach works well in problem/solution cases.
Someone mentioned this already (i don't recall who), but you should socialize a bit with your fellow candidates prior to the interview. It allows to you settle down a bit and keep the nerves from creeping up.
Sorry I couldn't be of more help and good luck!![]()
oh im not sure why I assumed that you had experience then! lol sorry - but thank you so much for the tips its nice to know that we're here to help each other!🙂