Hi! I'm Dr. Lauren Prufer. I'm an admissions expert with BeMo Academic
Consulting. Thanks for joining me on this week's episode of BeMo's
admissions v-log. Today I'll be going over our top eight strategies for
preparing for and acing your multiple mini interview. Let's get started.
The multiple mini interview commonly abbreviated MMI is one of the most
dreaded interview formats. This is because the actual questions are less
predictable than traditional or panel type interview. Each mini interview has a
different question type and applicants find it hard to prepare for them. First,
realize that the multiple mini interview is essentially an in-person CASPer test.
Both of these admission screening protocols were created by McMaster
University, a public university in Canada. This is important to note because
although different universities may have slightly different combinations of
question types they all share the same principles created by McMaster. Now I'd
like to give you some of the strategies we've developed at BeMo
based on our experience helping hundreds of students ace their MMI each year.
The approach to the MMI involves a similar strategy to those that we
discussed in a previous post on student dr. Network I encourage you to read
those strategies before watching these videos as I won't go into the details
again what understand the MMI process it's important to understand how you are
being evaluated before you start preparing for the LMI McMaster publicly
shares an interview manual which can be found on their website importantly note
that interviewers are instructed to grade each response based on three
things a your communication skills B the strength of your arguments and C your
suitability for the profession to learn to manage stress nothing is worse than
feeling so nervous and you walk into an interview room that you can't even
formulate a coherent response yet one of the most common reasons that students
fail their MMI is precisely the inability to control their stress levels
we call that your being assessed based on your communication skills unless you
have your stress levels in check you won't be able to express yourself
articulately here are some short and long-term
strategies to manage stress first prepare well in advanced using realistic
and timed mock interviews preferably with expert feedback to identify your
weaknesses the act of preparation in a itself will help to boost your
confidence because preparation removes fear of the unknown second develop
strategies to cope with stress during the actual interview for example tried
deep breathing exercises between your stations alternatively maintain a
dominant body posture by stretching out your shoulders and fetching your arms
out really wide and holding it for five seconds everyone is different so you'll
have to figure out what works for you whatever you choose practice it
consistently during your mock interviews so that the routine comes naturally an
interview day 3 read each prompt at least twice make sure you take the time
to read each prompt outside the interview room at least twice if you
rush you are more likely to miss keyed information and end up delivering a poor
or even judgmental response remembered you usually have one to two minutes to
read each prompt and between six and eight minutes to deliver a response in
practice and organized and concise response should take no longer than
three to four minutes this means you'll have extra time inside and can afford to
take an extra minute or two to formulate a response if you do enter the room
light make sure that you briefly apologize for the delay and explain that
you wanted a bit more time to gather your thoughts before delivering your
response this would actually put you ahead of your competition because it
shows careful thought and deliberation even in high-stress situations for use
the primacy effect to your advantage it goes without saying that once you enter
the interview room you have to smile make an eye contact and maybe even shake
hands all before you deliver your response this is something that students
often miss they're too nervous to remember that the MMI is actually also a
test of their professionalism interestingly your interviewer is more
likely to remember the first things that you say and do rather than anything that
happens after this is a well-documented principle in psychiatry known as the
primacy effect by master your nonverbal communication skills there's ample
evidence in the literature that humans were too frequently communicate with
nonverbal cues and body language than verbal cues this includes using eye
contact effectively smiling genuinely and maintaining a confident body posture
there's a comprehensive article on psychology compass summarizing this
science of body language I encourage you to go and review that article prior to
your MMI six provide your response using the same
strategies we discussed in Casper in case you haven't read our post on
student dr. Network about Casper preparation here's a brief overview
similarly to to do well in your MMI you must a remain
not judgmental at all times be yeah there all the missing facts see identify
who is directly and indirectly impacted by our decisions D identify the question
type and prepare your course of action before you enter the room and E provide
the most rational and common-sense solution to the problem that causes the
least amount of harm using an if-then approach 7 get comfortable with awkward
silences remember this is the test of your communication skills more than
anything else after all that's the hallmark of an excellent doctor a great
physician can convey complex ideas in simple and concise terms if you're being
concise you're likely to finish your response before the times up if the
interviewer doesn't have any follow-up questions you'll need to get comfortable
with the awkward silence that ensues a common mistake that students make is to
continue rambling until the buzzer sounds rather than bringing their
response to a firm conclusion as a result they end up displaying poor time
management and communication skills don't forget to say your good-byes
remember what we talked about the primacy effect earlier your second best
friend for the MMI is the recency effect the recency effect another
well-documented phenomenon and psychology states that people are more
likely to remember the last bit of information mentioned than anything
mentioned during the body of the conversation therefore it is critical
that you lock it up interview room leaving a positive impression it's not
rocket science smile thank the interviewer for their
time and politely say goodbye before exiting the interview room so that
concludes another episode of FEMA's admissions fee log if you're looking for
more tips on preparing for your MMI check out our blog we have a lot of
great resources if you're looking for help with my preparation or interview
prep click the link below to set up your free initial consultation would be much
a day thanks for joining me and I'll see you all again next week