What am I missing by not doing a mock interview?

[IDrads]

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Hello everyone,

I'm interviewing for medical school finally on Monday! I'm a bit nervous of course, but I have always been told that my strength is my ability to interact with faculty and come off as a mature, composed individual.

Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to do a mock interview (this get-secondary get-interview thing happened so quickly!). If anyone can say what they learned from mock interviews and the kind of thing I'm missing, I would try and internalize your advice and work on that as much as possible before Monday! Any general interview advice would be greatly appreciated. I will be sure to check interview feedback as well 🙂

Thank you so much for your help!

 

[Web MD]

I guess you're missing a potential mock rejection and mockery from people on these forums. Be relaxed, be eloquent, be your destiny

 

[NickNaylor]

If you normally do well in interviews you're not missing anything.

 

[Kaustikos]

If you normally do well in interviews you're not missing anything.

Agreed. I think I got the hang of answering questions so I only looked up what questions the schools would ask. I had a friend listen to me as I answered, just to make sure my answers made sense, but it wasn't an interview. More like "Does this answer sound like bull****?"

 

[TheMightySmiter]

Wow, what med school interviews this early in the cycle?

 

[Kaustikos]

Wow, what med school interviews this early in the cycle?

The imaginary ones

 

[golgiapparatus88]

Wow, what med school interviews this early in the cycle?

that's what I was going to ask. Maybe early decision?

 

[FrkyBgStok]

for most traditional students, the mock interview is good because many students have never had any kind of job. but if you have interviewed before, its the same. don't be a giant tool.

 

[EgotiStick]

Lots of benefits from a mock interview. It's always good to get a fresh look at your profile. Just make sure you critically evaluate their advice to see if its makes sense or not.

When you interview, people will be making obvious idiot moves. Whether you are the idiot doesn't depend on the mock interviews, but it will certainly help you to stay out of that category.

 

[KLycos]

Interviews already? Troll.

 

[Law2Doc]

Hello everyone,

I'm interviewing for medical school finally on Monday! I'm a bit nervous of course, but I have always been told that my strength is my ability to interact with faculty and come off as a mature, composed individual.

Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to do a mock interview (this get-secondary get-interview thing happened so quickly!). If anyone can say what they learned from mock interviews and the kind of thing I'm missing, I would try and internalize your advice and work on that as much as possible before Monday! Any general interview advice would be greatly appreciated. I will be sure to check interview feedback as well 🙂

Thank you so much for your help!

Your timing is questionable, as is your listing yourself as MS-1 when you haven't gotten in anywhere yet. But for the reading public, I would suggest that at most med schools the interview is hugely important, and interviewing is a learnable skill. You will get better with practice.

 

[carlogu]

Interviews already? Troll.

That is exactly, verbatim, what I thought when I saw the op

 

[chidoman]

.

 

[IDrads]

Your timing is questionable, as is your listing yourself as MS-1 when you haven't gotten in anywhere yet. But for the reading public, I would suggest that at most med schools the interview is hugely important, and interviewing is a learnable skill. You will get better with practice.

Sorry, that was pretty ambiguous of me - it's supposed to be MS negative 1 as a joke; I hope to change it to MS0 in a few months if I get accepted ^_^


Thank you and thanks to everyone who has provided advice thus far. I think I'm going to brush up on my medical ethics using the University of Washington online medical ethics module, and attempt to learn some universal healthcare/single payer/socialized medicine/whatever you want to call it health care politics. And of course use SDN interview feedback.

Do you guys agree that it is important to know these things for the interview? Are there any other topics or resources you would use before preparing for your first (or any) interview?

Sorry if I am rehasing frequently discussed topics - thanks again for your help

 

[BlkQueen]

The imaginary ones

The mock med schools

 

[ozzi22]

Interviews already? Troll.

TCOM has already started interviewing.

 

[IDrads]

Sorry, that was pretty ambiguous of me - it's supposed to be MS negative 1 as a joke; I hope to change it to MS0 in a few months if I get accepted ^_^


Thank you and thanks to everyone who has provided advice thus far. I think I'm going to brush up on my medical ethics using the University of Washington online medical ethics module, and attempt to learn some universal healthcare/single payer/socialized medicine/whatever you want to call it health care politics. And of course use SDN interview feedback.

Do you guys agree that it is important to know these things for the interview? Are there any other topics or resources you would use before preparing for your first (or any) interview?

Sorry if I am rehasing frequently discussed topics - thanks again for your help

Bump

 

[Narmerguy]

I think the best thing to learn from mock interviews is how you respond under a pressure situation. They'll tell you things you might not otherwise notice like you bouncing your leg, looking at your hands often, making weird guttural noises when you answer questions... you see what I mean?

There's a bunch of other stuff of course but that's some of the benefits that people often overlook that will appear very visible to the calm person sitting in front of you.

 

[Ladoctora44]

Although mock interviews are not required, I think they can be very helpful. If you have never applied before, then the medical school interview can be really intimidating. The mock interview allows you to become familiar with how a medical school interviews are "generally" conducted. I say "generally" because different interviewers have different interview styles. Out of the interviews I had, I had a panel interview, an ethics interview, an academic interview, but mostly laidback conversational interviews. Since you won't get a chance to do your official mock interview, I might have a parent or friend just sit with you and ask you various questions as serious as they can. That is essentially the mock interview. However, with every interview you do it will become easier. Just be yourself, be the intelligent person that you are, and allow your personality to shine. Make good eye contact and be prepared not only to answer any questions, but also to ask questions about the school and their program. Remember, they are not just interviewing you, but you are interviewing them as well. So, if they ask you if you have any questions, let that be your chance to ask intelligent questions about the school.

Good Luck!

 

[UnclePhil]

Mock interviews can be helpful. I wish I did one before I actually went on a real interview.

At some point I decided that it was OK to just wing it and that I would just be candid and that would be the best way to determine if my personality matched with the school. It didn't turn out that way, I didn't come across as candid, I came across as unprepared, blithering idiot, and my first interview was a complete trainwreck. You can bet that I didn't make that mistake the next time around.

 

[random cell]

no matter how "good at interviewing" you think you are a mock interview will always help. practice will always help. love the people that think they're "good at interviewing" who have never had a job, never had to interview (other than for college...if that can even be called an interview), never had to speak professionally. hilarious

and no despite how many posts you read about it, you will not be talking about baseball for 30 min during your interview and if you did then you had a terrible interview, not a great one.

 

[CerebroDad]

Mock interviews can make a huge difference in some cases; the did for me. They helped me provide a well thought out explanation for some weaknesses in my application.

I'd previously been told that I interview well by advisors/employers/etc, but I still think the mock interviews I practiced played an important part in helping me get in.