Ace Your Medical School Interviews!

Doing well on your medical school interviews depends on your preparation and performance. You wouldn’t take your MCAT without spending countless number of hours studying and practicing questions, right? Likewise, it’s important to spend time preparing for your interview.

The best way to prepare for medical school interviews is to practice with someone and do mock interviews. Get a list of typical interview questions and have your friend ask questions. First, start off easy to get you used to being interviewed. At the same time, have the interviewer observe your gestures and body language. For example, do you slouch? Do you sit up straight? Do you lick your lips after you finish your sentences? Do you say “like” and “umm” when you speak? These are all things you want to work on before you enter the interview room. Interviewers will scrutinize you and you want to do your best to sound as professional as you can.

Once you feel comfortable answering questions, have your friend ask difficult questions and to put pressure on you as you speak. During certain medical school interviews, interviewers will intentionally ask questions that will make you feel uncomfortable. The point is to see how well you do under stress. When you’re a doctor, there will be patients who are rude and obnoxious, but you always have to keep your cool and be professional. Get used to being grilled. Fortunately, not every interviewer will grill you. On the other hand, you don’t know at which interview you will be grilled so it’s better to over prepare.

Finally, I would suggest to doing the following if you have time. Record yourself and study yourself. Try to see if there is anything else you can work out. Do you smile when you talk? Is there energy and sincerity when you speak? If you don’t want to record yourself, then go into your bathroom and talk to yourself in the mirror. Get comfortable looking at yourself as you speak because you want to be as confident as you can when you interview. It was really awkward at first when I looked into the mirror, but the more I did it, the more comfortable and confident I felt when I answered questions about why I wanted to be a doctor.

Once you’re done with your preparation, you have to perform well on the day of the interview. As you’ve probably heard, practice makes perfect. Well, this translates into medical school interviews as well. The more you practice, the better you’ll perform on the day of the interview. Now, things are never predictable. Maybe you’ll get a question you didn’t prepare for. It’s okay, when that happens, keep your cool and don’t panic. Take your time to speak and don’t babble. That’s the worst thing to do and if you really don’t know the answer, admit it. It’s better to admit you don’t know something rather than making answers up.

Also, on the day of the interview, it’s important that you show your energy and enthusiasm. You can talk very well without stuttering and whatnot, but if you have to have heart behind your answers. You have to sound like you really want it. Interviewers will be looking out for this. They don’t want to accept you if you don’t sound like you want be a doctor. Why should they? There are so many applicants out there who would make great doctors. So you have to stand out. You need to look your interviewers in the eye and mean every word you say. You have to convince your interviewers not with just your words, but with your sincerity and passion.

Good luck on your medical school interviews!