As we are all now in full swing of the interview season, I thought I would share a brief overview of some of the tips that I have to ensure you remain focused, yourself and calm during medical school interviews.
While I did manage to succeed at interview and gain a medical school place when I first applied, do not take these tips as biblical. Different techniques work for different people and for different universities.
1. Remain yourself – do not try and be someone you are not. Medical schools will pick up on this and know that you are not being genuine. Although the process is daunting, they are real people as much as you are and are looking for you to be yourself and shine.
2. Keep calm. It can be easy to slip into a state of panic before what could be the biggest interview of your life, but it is important not to let this fear take over you. You will have (hopefully) done the prep and so there will be no need to worry. This is your time to really show what you have to offer to the medical school, so make it count|!
3. Do the preparations before-hand. Getting this far should mean that you have done many hours of work experience or voluntary work and from this, you should have learned so much about the career, the traits needed to make a good doctor and the pitfalls of medicine. Remember these – the work you did was not to get you into medical school, it was to make sure your motivation was genuine, to ensure you could cope with the requirements of such a career and an opportunity to learn what it is like to be part of such a multi-disciplinary team.
Look over the politics affecting the NSH and if you haven’t already gauge an opinion on such, taking into account all sides of the issue. Keep up to date with new findings and recent publications, and be aware of the ethics surrounding medicine.
4. Practice – whether this be in front of a mirror, in the car with your parents, with help from your friends or in the form of a mock interview make sure that you have stimulated what the day will be like and you have an idea of the ways in which questions are asked and how you can answer them.
5. Plan the day.
– Ensure you have your outfit picked out and ready for you the night before – this may seem tedious but it can be overlooked and cause unnecessary stress on the big day.
– Look at the route to the medical school, any traffic problems and, alternative access if roads are blocked.
6. Think positive – you are a strong applicant that the medical school have seen something in. Remember this when you may begin to compare yourself to the other applicants around, or worry that you have not done enough prep. The medical school picked you from tons of applicants to invite to interview – this is an achievement in itself.
Best of luck to all applicants preparing for upcoming interviews – remember you are amazing!!
Holly x
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