Interviews… where to begin? An introduction to different types of interview questions and creating responses.
If you are currently preparing for your interviews you have probably heard that the ‘style’ of questions you can be asked in an interview vary a lot as they depend on the university or type of interview you would be attending (Multiple Mini Interviews ‘MMI’ or Traditional are the 2 main categories).
There is a wide range of questions you could theoretically be asked. So how do you, in the narrow window of time you may have to prepare, get ready to answer any question they throw at you?
The answer is when time is of the essence, efficiency is key. Although there is an endless list of questions you could be asked and may feel tempted to draft a response to, try to match these questions with the overarching style they belong to. Then, highlight or number these in order of which is most likely to be asked. An example of what this could look like is given below.
Further interview topics and questions are covered in our tuition services.
Constructing responses to questions with a high and low likelihood of being asked
For questions that are quite likely to come up such as “why do you want to study medicine?” spend time crafting a personal, well thought response. Create a number of points based on your ‘why’ and within each offer profound and substantiated personal reasoning. Your most likely to come up questions should almost put you at ease when asked, as you should have a pre-made set of ‘fleshed out’ bullet points you can simply rattle off.
Moving down your list of topics that you want to prepare for towards the less common, just because a question is less likely to be asked does not necessarily mean that it will not be asked at all. Certain interviewers, most often those at MMI stations, have a propensity for asking difficult questions, these will be questions that are indeed far down your list or not even on it at all! Therefore it’s important that you build the mental flexibility to be able to construct a response to unfamiliar questions. You need to develop an ability to critically think on the spot. Many ‘knowledge’ based questions that require you to draw upon your understanding of current affairs for example fall under this realm of questioning.
Top tip: Utilise an answering framework
Striking a balance between feeling confident that you can come up with an answer to any question (and being natural, unrehearsed) versus fully memorising responses is difficult. As often when interview questions we feel more comfortable doing the latter and attempt to memorise as many answers as possible. However, it's important to know that you cannot and should not memorise everything (a full response to every possible question), as it can sound overly rehearsed.
Top tip: Expect the unexpected
Learn to expect the unexpected, you will come across variations of questions or entirely new questions that you have not heard before. Answer frameworks can help you navigate unfamiliar questions. Answer frameworks ensure you have communicated in enough detail your reasoning and they allow you to retain a logical flow to your speech whilst creating a sense of structure and completeness. One structure unique to RoadtoMed coaching is the CRAI structure for answering questions where you need to match a skill you are being asked to demonstrate to an experience you have had. Following the structure you should begin by making the claim that you have demonstrated this skill through x experience. Then stating the relevance of that skill (important quality for a doctor to have) followed by the analysis of the situation (how did what you did showcase that skill) and the impacts of the event (what was the effect of you using that skill, how have you benefited from that skill or used it since).
Answer frameworks also give you room to ‘wiggle’. Say you were asked “why would you like to be a doctor instead of a researcher?”. Now imagine you only prepared a response for “why do you not want to be a nurse?”. Committing a set of bullet points to memory made based on a framework versus attempting to memorise responses for the range of “why would you rather be y instead of a doctor” questions would give you greater ability to pick out the relevant parts of what you had prepped and combine this with your underlying knowledge, letting you adapt to any situation or way they may pose a question.
There are a number of different frameworks that can each assist you in answering different styles of questions.
What are universities and interviewers looking for?
Most universities share a consensus of what they would attempt to ascertain from a candidate in the interviews on their dedicated admissions or medical interviews web page. Reading this information should give you a sense of what they are likely to ask you.
However in the circumstance that they (the university) don’t release much information, something you must read which they are guaranteed to share is their course structure and content. Within this you should be able to find all the ‘facts’ of their medical curriculum, which is quite important to be aware of. Use these pieces of information to differentiate between how medicine is taught at different universities and hence say why you want to study there as opposed to elsewhere!
In interviews it's very important that if you have any claim for example saying “one of the reasons why I would love to study at your university is due to the course’s involvement of self directed learning and the opportunity to do research in a specific field in or outside medicine”, that you are able to back it up with specific information. So, use the facts you know about the university to back up this reason: “the intercalated year that is woven into the course, that is mandatory to pursue as opposed to other places of study, provides an opportunity to myself and many students who desire to broaden our understanding of medicine or health care. I also saw that your university offers x intercalated degree which is something I could see myself really enjoying!”
