Hi there! Today I would like to take a few minutes to talk to you about the most overlooked aspect of
MMI preparation and one that can seriously impact your overall evaluations and that most overlooked
aspect is your behavior in between stations, in between interview rooms. Before that, hi my
name is Dr. Sarah Kleeb and I'm an admissions expert with BeMo Academic Consulting. So most
of the time when we are preparing for an MMI, the focus is on tips for what happens inside
the room. Being able to present your best self, to make a lasting impression, techniques for handling
different questions or question types, making sure that your answers are strong, nuanced, robust, even
some tips on stress how to deal with it, what to wear, how best to present yourself and all
of that. And when we're doing mock sessions with students mock MMIs we can usually see them
in between each station, our camera turns off so they can't see us but their camera stays on so
we can see them. And the reason that we do this is because during the actual MMI you will also
be watched in between stations. What happens in the interview room is of critical importance
absolutely. You'll be dealing with challenging questions, maybe difficult ethical dilemmas,
talking about things you might not be entirely comfortable with, whether it's contentious issues
or your own personal shortcomings, tell us about a time you failed, what's your greatest weakness, all
these things that we loved talking about in high pressure situations. And sometimes when students
get questions like that we see them sigh, maybe roll their eyes, huff, make a disgruntled noise
or gesture if they're not happy with their performance and basically we can read it
all over their face if they're unhappy with their performance. And that response is natural and it's
understandable but we also try to give feedback when we see this happen because it can be really
easy to become myopic. That is to say to become hyper-focused on the one primary task at hand
which is answering the question. But on the day of the MMI, everything about your appearance your
demeanor your approach is under scrutiny. Including how you act in between stations, or even before the
stations get started for the day. And you need to make sure that you're demonstrating the same level
of professionalism composure and maturity inside the room as you are outside the room. So that
means when you're in between stations when you're just having some general interactions with others,
maybe making small talk before everything gets started, or even your behavior at break stations.
A lot of times in an MMI about halfway through there will be a break station where you can just
sort of decompress, de-stress a little bit and all of that is being watched and evaluated. So
you need to pay attention to how you're acting how others might perceive you in that situation.
So again whether this is in between stations or just socializing with others, you
need to ensure that you're being pleasant, cordial and courteous, friendly if that comes naturally
to you, but pretty much that you're just being a smiling, mature, appropriate professional even under
an immense amount of pressure. Having the nerves or the jitters, being stressed that's completely
understandable. It's a stressful situation even if you're massively prepared, even if you have an
approach down to tackle any kind of question you're probably still going to be nervous or
stressed. Now when it's prior to the beginning of the stations when you're just starting up at the
beginning of the day, you can excuse yourself to the washroom if you need to de-stress a little
bit, take some deep breaths, run your hands under cold water and dry them thoroughly if you tend
to get clammy hands when you're nervous so you're not giving a sweaty handshake, but you also need
to bear this in mind and think about little ways to manage that stress in between stations as well,
as you exit one room or exit one station and get ready to enter the next. You don't want to radiate
that nervousness or anxiety if possible. You want to try to ensure that everything that happens in
the interview room stays in that interview room. You need to try and it's not easy but try not to
carry the stress with you. If you feel like you didn't perform as effectively as you'd like in
that room or at that station, try not to carry that burden on your shoulders because it will
weigh you down. Remember they're evaluating what happens in between the stations but even when
you get into the next station or to the next room, the interviewer at that next station doesn't know
what happened at the previous one. They don't know if you excelled or if you just completely
bombed. Right so don't allow something that's over and done, something that can't be changed
sabotage your performance in the next station. If you don't perform as effectively as you want to at
a particular station it's totally normal to feel frustrated, to get upset but what's done is done.
Right, you need to start preparing mentally for the next station so that you're fresh and alert
and ready to go. You need to reset if you can so that you can go in give a pleasant greeting, hello
a handshake if appropriate, and keep making that first best impression at each and every station.
Leave the negativity that might have come in the previous station in station. You can't change it
so for now at least don't dwell on it. This is what we call compartmentalizing. Right, having that
negative experience and setting it aside. Again for now, once you're done and you leave, you're on your
way home or meeting up with family and friends to de-stress a little bit afterwards, by all means at
that time vent, let it all out because those are valid feelings and they need to be dealt
with. They deserve acknowledgement, resolution. But part of being a mature professional means
learning how to compartmentalize those reactions. Acknowledge them, set them aside but understand
that those emotions need to be wrestled with after completing the full circuit of interviews so that
you're not just dragging that frustration or negativity around with you. And I would be the
first to admit that all of this is much easier said than done, absolutely. But at BeMo we can
offer distressing and compartmentalization techniques in our sessions as part of our
overall coaching and mentoring programs and so in any case whether you work with us or not I wanted
to get this out there because it's not something that's talked about all that much. Again the focus
tends to be on what happens in the room itself and the focus tends to be on the questions and
that's completely understandable. But remember the MMI evaluators want to see how you perform
under pressure. But that's not just sort of limited to what happens in each
room or at each station. You're being watched outside those rooms as well. So make sure that
you don't compromise your overall performance by being very professional in the room and then sort
of falling apart in between stations. It would be really really unfortunate to have something
like that reflect negatively on you. And remember if you're doing an MMI it's likely that you're
trying to get into a very high-stress profession. Physicians, lawyers, veterinarians, all of those sorts
of jobs carry stress with them, its inherent, it's part of the job. So you need to demonstrate that
you're at least working toward these kinds of distressing and compartmentalization techniques.
You don't have to be perfect, you don't have to be a professional, they know you're still
learning, they know you haven't gotten to that level yet and that's okay. But you need to be
able to demonstrate that you're at least working on such techniques. They don't expect you to be
perfect I want to really reiterate that as there does tend to be this feeling that you
have to be perfect, that it's all or nothing and it's not. But they do want to see where
you're starting out. Right, these things can have much larger implications later on, depending on
your chosen profession. Right, you don't want to be a surgeon who unfortunately loses a patient
and then carries that negativity, that feeling over into their next operation. Right, that
would be a really significant issue. So showing that early on, you are able to set those feelings
aside, again acknowledging is valid, set them aside to deal with them later, but focus on the task at
hand, you can show them that then you're doing their a lot of good for your overall evaluation
outside of just whatever score you get on the questions that you answer. So I hope that this
video was helpful and that you enjoyed it, if you did please do go ahead and like it, share
it with a friend who might benefit from it, and feel free to comment with any questions about
it that you might. Have shortly after this live session is over I'll ensure that the video is
accessible for those purposes. And if you'd like us to help you out with your preparation please
click the link that I hope shows up either above or below this video to schedule a free
consultation with us and we'll set you up with one of our admissions experts to answer any questions
that you might have and get you started on your own preparations whether you're preparing for
an MMI, another interview format, a CASPer test, or even if you're just working on or working
towards your application. We have many different programs to suit whatever your needs might be and
of course we're always happy to work with you to determine which plan is going to support you
most effectively. So thank you so very much for your time, take care, and I'll see you next time!