Hi 2016 Medicine applicants, I am a first year Medic at Cardiff. I hope everythings well.
I wanted to share with you a guide I created about my experiences with MMI's. I hope it will be of benefit to you and help ease some nerves you may have of the interview day.
I will try and explain MMIs and my experiences with them in general. The overall way the MMIs are designed and run is probably very similar for all med schools but the actual stations will always vary.
In both my MMIs we were given a briefing before the session outlining how the process runs, so don't worry too much. We were also asked to sign a confidentiality agreement saying that we won't disclose any information about the stations.
MMIs usually last between 60-90 minutes (mine were this long however it depends on the medical school itself). I think around 75 minutes is probably the right amount of length.
The purpose of Multiple Mini Interviews is basically to see if you have the right qualities to be a doctor. In a normal panel interview you can't really test someones empathy and patient communication, you also can't test someones ability to take in and process a lot of information under pressure in a minute and then communicate it back and hold and develop a conversation.
These are all essential qualities of a doctor hence MMIs have been developed.
After your briefing you will probably be split into a circuit. This means you will start at a particular station and then they will explain where you will have to go next. I.e if you start at 7 you will go to 8 then 9 etc.. until you complete all the stations.
When your about to start you will stand outside the station and be presented with some instructions relating to that particular station. You will hear a bell ring and will have one minute to read through the instructions. Make sure you read this carefully and DONT panic, I repeat DONT panic. Also I would spend around half the time reading and the other half planning in your mind how your going to spend the 5 minutes in the station. Have some key points in your head to make sure you know what your doing/saying when you go in.
You will then hear another bell and will have usually 5 minutes at the station. The general types of stations are Roleplay,Ethics,Personal questions,Motivation questions etc..
There may also be connecting stations, for example you may be shown a video clip at one station or interpret some text/data and then at the following station you will have to do the actual task.
The aim for these MMIs is basically to stop people preparing for them and rehearsing answers. Honestly at one of my MMIs last year everyone came out saying that preparation was a waste of time as some of the stations were not even Medical related (I remember I had a station of politics in the UK and we had to debate an argument).
But you can prepare for these to an extent.
For Personal questions/Motivational/ Ethics questions. I would advise preparing exactly the same as you would for a normal panel interview. Buy some interview books (ICS one is good), go over your statement and perhaps do mock interviews.
The only difference is that you will need to speak about that one topic for around 5 minutes so be sure to have a couple of points in your mind to develop and elaborate on.
One thing to remember is ITS OKAY TO THINK. Honestly you don't have to constantly talk all the time. It's better to take 10-20 seconds out and think through what your saying BEFORE you speak.
The other type of stations are roleplay. It is very likely there will be a roleplay station in your MMI, infact it is also likely that there will be 2. These were my absolute favourite stations. This is not a test of your acting skills but more of a test of your empathy,body language and communication.
The types of roleplays you could be asked include Breaking bad news, Consouling someone, Talking to a friend whose depressed etc.. The scenarios may even be related to real life sitations (e.g they may ask you to play the role of a shopkeeper for instance and you will have to deal with an angry customer and they will see how you react).
DONT freeze or panic. As long as you have a few steps in mind on how to tackle the problem, then these stations are alright. Your tone of voice and body language are just as imporant as what you say.
The best way to prepare for these stations is to grab a family relative (My sister helped me loads) and practice different scenarios out on them, so that way when you get to your interview and are presented with one of the types of roleplays you know how to tackle the problems.
Ask the other person to think of new random scenarios and act them out in 5 minutes.
The more you practice the better you will hopefully become. Also these are stations where you cannot be shy and you must speak clearly and confidently like you would to a friend.
The actors are generally very good and they will play out a script. There will be someone watching in the corner and scoring you. Just ignore that person and focus on the actor ONLY.
The last type of stations are rest stations. MMIs are intense and the interviewers know it is nearly impossible to concentrate for 75 or so minutes. They will integrate around 1-3 rest stations onto your circuit.
In these rest stations JUST RELAX. They will usually give you something to drink/eat Don't dwell on what happened or overthink the next stations. Just relax and zone out !!
Obviously one thing you need to remember (and you will hear this soo many times), every station is a new station. So technically you could completely mess up on one station and still get an offer. Always try and stay optimistic and forget the previous stations. Keep in your mind that you can always do better and get full marks on the next station and you will be fine!!