Day 6: Stress Test

"Do the scary thing first and get scared later" - Lemony Snicket

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My group for the first day of mock interviews!

One of the first pieces of advice that I gathered from today's mock interviews was that its important to learn how to turn something negative into something positive. I feel as if, the standard and one-on-one interviews, this was mostly true as being able to talk about personal (and application) weaknesses is something integral to acing an interview.

This was the day that I know many of my peers and I were dreading as people from previous MedEx tiers had told us the mock interview days were some of the longest and most difficult to get through. They certainly weren't wrong. The day was full of nonstop talk about ourselves and what felt like delving into every reason why I wanted to be a doctor.

Better today than the actual interview day though.

Standard interviews were first for my group with two of the medical students directing questions at each of us. In the beginning it was a little uncomfortable to answer the questions in front of the others (especially since it seemed like everyone else had fantastic answers) but when I realized my medical school interviewers were going to be strangers now was the time to get over that nervousness.

The word of the day was definitely concise. One of the parts of interviewing I've come to realize I struggle with is to be concise with my answers or the stories I choose to tell to get my point across. Not only that but as important as it is to stay on track with the interview questions relating the answer back to medicine is another issue I grapple with.

So much to remember!

Two of the sessions I struggled with the most were the Ethics and Healthcare related questions. I feel as if with these questions its just important to know your stuff but also be able to state that when you don't know something you just don't know it; no BS-ing here. Vaccinations, abortions, insurance, and the current American healthcare system are certainly recurring topics and empathy is the right way to go for any answer.

The MMI's were so much more fun than what I was expecting. I never thought I would be using my skills from being a babysitter to teach an M2 how to tie her shoes but it was a lot of fun! It was good that my group had this session right before the Defense Style interview because I was glad for the break before discussing my weaknesses... its certainly not something that Im comfortable with and I don't feel as I've found the best way to convey them in an interview yet but I am trying. I guess that's whats most important for now.