Prep for MMI format interviews?

Hello,

I want to apply to Dundee university for Medicine. From what I've read their interview is MMI. It sounds like a good concept but I have no idea as to how to prepare for it.

I've heard of different scenarios which may come in an interview and I've looked at some websites concerning MMI interviews, most are saying you can't prepare?

Is this true? If so any advice on this style of interviewing would be great? What were your experiences of MMI? Any tips on what to do and what not to do would be fantastic.

If you can prepare then please share how :smile:

Thank you. Any help will seriously be appreciated! :biggrin:

Reply 1

fallenangel

I'll do my best to give my experience of MMI when I'm on my laptop abit later on :smile:

Reply 2

adsyrah

10

I've only got experience of King's MMI.

It wasn't vastly different from any other interviews I went to - they asked questions about my background and motivations. There was only one station that was a bit "out there" where I had to describe an image.

Basically, prepare like you would do any other interview by having answers prepared for the obvious "why medicine?" and "why at this university?" questions and keep calm for if / when they throw something strange your way!

(edited 11 years ago)

*subscribes*

Original post by -Neuro-

Hello,

I want to apply to Dundee university for Medicine. From what I've read their interview is MMI. It sounds like a good concept but I have no idea as to how to prepare for it.

I've heard of different scenarios which may come in an interview and I've looked at some websites concerning MMI interviews, most are saying you can't prepare?

Is this true? If so any advice on this style of interviewing would be great? What were your experiences of MMI? Any tips on what to do and what not to do would be fantastic.

If you can prepare then please share how :smile:

Thank you. Any help will seriously be appreciated! :biggrin:

Aberdeen will be MMI for 2013 entry onwards i.e from now on.

''From 2013, the interview process will change to that of the Multiple Mini Interview format. Each candidate will be 'interviewed' five times for seven minutes, by five different selectors in turn as they rotate through five separate interview questioning stations. The total interview experience will last for 40 minutes.''

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/medicine/prospective/planning/advice/interview/

Reply 5

myyrh

9

Original post by -Neuro-

Hello,

I want to apply to Dundee university for Medicine. From what I've read their interview is MMI. It sounds like a good concept but I have no idea as to how to prepare for it.

I've heard of different scenarios which may come in an interview and I've looked at some websites concerning MMI interviews, most are saying you can't prepare?

Is this true? If so any advice on this style of interviewing would be great? What were your experiences of MMI? Any tips on what to do and what not to do would be fantastic.

If you can prepare then please share how :smile:

Thank you. Any help will seriously be appreciated! :biggrin:

It's true you actually can't really prepare for them (well not to the extent of a traditional interview anyway). Although I can't discuss individual scenarios for my MMI, I would say the most important thing would be to keep calm and composed. You're likely to encounter a bad station but you must keep in mind that you'll have an opportunity to preform better in the next one. Some interviewers are there to see how you handle being put on the spot so be prepared. Make sure you remain professional and friendly at all times because you want to leave a good impression on each interviewer.

Reply 6

-Neuro-

OP

12

Original post by adsyrah

I've only got experience of King's MMI.

It wasn't vastly different from any other interviews I went to - they asked questions about my background and motivations. There was only one station that was a bit "out there" where I had to describe a painting.

Basically, prepare like you would do any other interview by having answers prepared for the obvious "why medicine?" and "why at this university?" questions and keep calm for if / when they throw something strange your way!

Regarding the painting, was it the obvious things like colours, shapes and whats happening in the painting or would you need to go into depth about the underlying emotions and things? How did you come about answering it?

I would have stated the scenario as a whole. Then mentioned the obvious elements of it (As i said earlier colours, composition etc) before giving a more in depth analysis of it. Although MMI is timed I believe?

How much time do you get per station approximately?

Original post by TooSexyForMyStethoscope

Aberdeen will be MMI for 2013 entry onwards i.e from now on.

''From 2013, the interview process will change to that of the Multiple Mini Interview format. Each candidate will be 'interviewed' five times for seven minutes, by five different selectors in turn as they rotate through five separate interview questioning stations. The total interview experience will last for 40 minutes.''

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/medicine/prospective/planning/advice/interview/

Whoa, thank you so much for this! I don't know how I missed it and I shall take a note of it! :eek:

I was set on how Aberdeen was traditional. From what I've heard most of the questions where related to the course and why you liked Aberdeen.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 7

username356927

13

Original post by -Neuro-

I was set on how Aberdeen was traditional. From what I've heard most of the questions where related to the course and why you liked Aberdeen.

Don't shoot the messenger! :tongue:

MMI is a much fairer way of doing it. Though maybe there is something to be said for the older two-scary-people-and-a-desk set up. After all you will probably face that interview style at some point in your career...you can't be molly coddled forever :smile:

Reply 8

adsyrah

10

Original post by -Neuro-

Regarding the painting, was it the obvious things like colours, shapes and whats happening in the painting or would you need to go into depth about the underlying emotions and things? How did you come about answering it?

I would have stated the scenario as a whole. Then mentioned the obvious before giving a more in depth analysis of it. Although MMI is timed I believe?

How much time do you get per station approximately?

I honestly don't know what they were looking for. I think they wanted to see how you described it (like you said: colours, composition etc.), but as to what the "right" answer was? Feck knows!

At King's it was 7 stations taking 5 miutes each with about a minute wait in between. The first station you went to was a dummy session to get you used to the format (you visited this station again at the end), then the latter 6 stations along with the dummy station a second time were what you were marked on.

Reply 9

domzy_7

I had this experience at one interview last year. I would say know what you said in your personal statement and why you said it. Anything you said in it, be prepared to back it up. Also rethink some of the important experiences you had on work experience and what they helped you understand/made you think about. I think there will be some questions that you really have no idea about, for example I was asked the difference between managing and leading.

I don't actually understand the point in these interviews. They are trying to score a subjective interview objectively. I think they may as well give you a pen and paper and ask you to write down the answers. I think it might make it easier for them to pick, but I'm not sure it aids them in picking the best candidate.

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Reply 10

adsyrah

10

At the King's MMI they said that personal statements and your UCAS application had absolutely no bearing on the stations or interview questions.

If you were invited to MMI, you were all on a level playing field and were all subjected to the same questions / stations. The interviewers in each station knew nothing about the candidates.

Reply 11

username356927

13

Original post by adsyrah

At the King's MMI they said that personal statements and your UCAS application had absolutely no bearing on the stations or interview questions.

If you were invited to MMI, you were all on a level playing field and were all subjected to the same questions / stations. The interviewers in each station knew nothing about the candidates.

This definitely isn't the case with Dundee. One station was about your PS in general and another focused on your work experience...as far as I can remember :smile:

Reply 12

kiwipomme

Hey. I had an MMI interview at St Georges in December so I can tell you a bit about my experience if that helps! At Georges there were about seven or eight stations I think and you had five minutes at each station with a one minute gap inbetween so the interviewer could write down their comments about you. We had an "ice-breaker" question to start which was something along the lines of "we have x many places on our medicine course, why should one of them go to you?". We had five minutes to answer the question and the interviewer just listened and made notes, they didn't ask any follow-up questions or anything. Then we all rotated around the rest of the stations. From memory they included:

[Specifics removed]

I found that the questions themselves weren't hard to answer but once they'd given you the question, the interviewer didn't speak again for the entire five minutes which is kind of off-putting when you've said everything you can think of! But they did say beforehand that you wouldn't necessarily fill the whole five minutes at every station. Obviously at every uni they do things differently. At Manchester we did a group interview and then a kind of mini MMI thing and all the interviewers were really chatty and friendly there!

In terms of preparation I'd say do the obvious stuff like reading through your personal statement, making sure you know what your answer is if they say "why medicine?" and think about the skills they'll be looking for in a future doctor which many of the questions may pick up on e.g. team-work, empathy, communication etc. For the problem-solving questions talk through all your thought-processes with the interviewer so rather than immediately say "I'm going with option A because..." start with the question, identify what they're asking you to look for when making your decision and then explain why you've discounted the other options too. Also practice ethical questions - giving a balanced argument etc - and read up on some recent scientific advancements before the interview. A lot of what you need to do well in an MMI you'll automatically be doing for panel interviews anyway and part of the point of doing MMIs is that they through up questions you couldn't possibly have prepared for anyway so don't stress about practicising loads of problem-solving questions and stuff. Hope that helps and good luck! :smile:

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 13

mirror+probe

Original post by adsyrah

At the King's MMI they said that personal statements and your UCAS application had absolutely no bearing on the stations or interview questions.

If you were invited to MMI, you were all on a level playing field and were all subjected to the same questions / stations. The interviewers in each station knew nothing about the candidates.

I was just about to ask you this; but you've answered it in the same post. I've been told that KCL use a double blind method when it comes to the application process i.e. a team assesses the UCAS forms and selects who to invite to the interviews and a different team carry out the interviews and know nothing about the personal statements etc.

Reply 14

-Neuro-

OP

12

Original post by TooSexyForMyStethoscope

Don't shoot the messenger! :tongue:

MMI is a much fairer way of doing it. Though maybe there is something to be said for the older two-scary-people-and-a-desk set up. After all you will probably face that interview style at some point in your career...you can't be molly coddled forever :smile:

I was applauding you for saving me, not shooting you!

I'm not applying to more than two MMI universities, so the other method will be traditional and hence two-scary-people-and-a-desk set up, or even worse with 3 people! :eek:

Any more tales of MMI anyone?

Reply 15

mirror+probe

Original post by -Neuro-

I was applauding you for saving me, not shooting you!

I'm not applying to more than two MMI universities, so the other method will be traditional and hence two-scary-people-and-a-desk set up, or even worse with 3 people! :eek:

Any more tales of MMI anyone?

MMI aren't as bad as you're making them out to be, as the KCL admissions tutor said; the good thing about them is you have more than 1 opportunity to make a first impression and can use similar examples and answers at more than one station (if relevant). All the universities I've chosen are MMI format (that was just a coincidence though).

Reply 16

Happydude

11

I think they're a great idea! I really enjoyed my interview at Dundee.

There really isn't much more to say about them, they are quite self-explanatory! A couple of stations are standard set-ups where they ask you questions about your personal statement and work experience. There are some interesting scenarios set out for you to work through, though we all signed a non-disclosure agreement so I can't say much more :tongue:

I've spoken to you before Neuro, and your forward planning is impressive but given it's still more than a year until you need to apply I think you should chill a little! Good luck in all you do, but relax a wee bit! :biggrin:

Reply 17