What are five of the hardest med school interview questions that exist? This is something we get
asked quite frequently. What are the hardest, what are the most difficult questions that you can get? And
so I'd like to discuss some of those questions with you tonight maybe some that are expected,
maybe some that are unexpected, and give you a few clues on how you might be able to respond to these
effectively. First, hi my name is Dr. Sarah Kleeb and I'm an admissions expert with BeMo. So if I
were to boil down all of the med school interview questions that we deal with and had to pick five,
these are the five that I would say rank at least in that top five spot. There are a lot of
hard questions, they're all going to be hard. So I struggle a little bit thinking about which are the
which of the ones that I've chosen are actually the hardest, are these the hardest well that's a
matter of perspective as well but I think that these are five of maybe the ones that you need
to think about a little bit more strategically or they're some of the ones that students just
really struggle with in general so thinking about them ahead of time ahead of the interview would be
really useful. Now along with the description of this video I've included a link to our blog to
our repository of med school interview questions so that you can look through those, see these and
even some different examples or different twists on these as you begin your preparations. But first
let me dive in. So one question that I think is really tricky, in part because students tend to
answer it as if it were a slightly different question, is this one. What would you say is
your greatest limitation as an applicant this year and why should we select you from all the
other very qualified candidates. Now one thing I want to note is that this is different from
another really difficult question which is what is your greatest limitation. When it's asked in an
open-ended way like that they are asking for that kind of personal introspection, what's a challenge
that you've really had to overcome, what's something maybe you failed at and what did you learn from
it, all those wonderful negative things that we love talking about especially in high-pressure
situations like interviews. This questions a little bit different though and so a lot of
students really prepare for what's your greatest limitation and so as soon as I start saying this
at a mock session or something like that they're ready to talk about their greatest limitation but
that's what this is asking. This is what's your greatest limitation as an applicant this year
and then of course that second part why should we choose you we've got all of these very qualified
candidates, why you? So greatest limitation as an applicant this year is again still a question
that you want to think really strategically about because in a way they're asking you know nobody's
application is perfect yours is obviously strong because you're here but what maybe isn't your
strongest point as an applicant. And so you have to think about that a little bit differently than the
personal question what's your greatest limitation. If you know that maybe you're shadowing experience
isn't the same as everyone else's, obviously you've been able to balance that in your application with
something else or else you wouldn't be at the interview, but you need to be able to speak to
that. Being able to objectively review your history and identify your own weak spots and how you're
going to sort of correct for those is part of that maturation process. They want to see that you are
a mature professional who can acknowledge their own limitations and be able to talk through how
they're going to overcome those or or make up for them in other ways or catch up with others
in that regard. And then of course there's that second part. We tend to be really uncomfortable
comparing ourselves to others particularly in somewhat negative ways so they've already sort
of set the tone what's your greatest limitation as an applicant this year, what about you isn't
perfect as an applicant? And now using your own imagination because you have no idea who else
they're they're interviewing what those other people's qualifications are or anything so using
your own wild imagination in this high-pressure situation, why should we select you for
all of these other people?Maybe some of them are perfect, you're not perfect so anyway the point is
we can really get caught up in our heads and get and sort of let this negative train of thought
run out of control and we don't want that which is why we need to prepare for a question like this. So
that's when you think back to your own strengths. What is one thing that you uniquely bring that
no one else can? There's something. If you haven't found it yet, you haven't dug deeply enough but be
prepared for this question it is as you can see a really really tough one and one that a lot of
people stumble on. So number two this is more of a question category than a specific question but
if you go to the to our repository of questions you'll see some specific instances. Challenging
scenarios especially if the ethical variety. We've talked about these and a number of our videos but
some I'll give you some examples in just a minute. I want to point out that we tend to associate
scenarios with the multiple mini interview but it is absolutely possible to get a scenario posited
to you in any variety of medical school interview. So if you think that you've escaped this because
for some reason you didn't have to do the MMI for wherever you're applying well no, you still
need to a prepare for it so things like you're a physician and a 14 year old girl comes in and
she wants birth control but she doesn't want her parents to know. Or you're leading in the
ER and in comes a Jehovah's Witness who needs a blood transfusion oh and she's also a minor. Or
who gets the kidney, the 24 year old binge drinker or the 80 year old retired professor? There's only
one kidney, only one person's getting out of here with a new kidney, who are you going to
choose? These are extremely challenging ethical scenarios. I'm going to give you an answer to
one of these questions when I get to the end but there's no way to go into all of these scenarios
but these are sort of the top in that scenario category that people really really struggle with
so you need to be aware that laws around some of these things might be different depending on where
you are with regard to minors getting birth control without their parents knowing in the
United States that can vary state by state so be sure that you're aware of your local state
and of course national laws in Canada and the US and anywhere else. Likewise in terms of Jehovah's
Witnesses getting a blood transfusion, this might might be contextual, some of the courts differ a
little bit in how they treat this so there isn't necessarily one universally applicable answer to
this. The point though is to make sure that you're looking into these challenging ethical dilemmas
that are in your field even if you can't give a perfect answer they know you're not a physician
yet. But you need to be able to demonstrate that you are looking into the main pressing
challenges of your field and that you can respond to these effectively. Number three, this is more of
a personal question but I think it tends to throw people off and I know that it would throw me off
in an interview as well. What makes you angry is a really challenging question. We don't like to think
about you know the sort of things that we might call negative aspects of ourselves and certainly
not in an interview when we are trying to put our best self forward. And so the idea that we
would have to talk about something that makes us feel a very negative emotion and maybe
you know that makes us act in ways that we aren't particularly proud of sometimes, that can really
cause a bit of a hiccup in our response. So you know you can reform the question a little bit
you know if I were presented with this question I would say well you know when I think of you
know anger for me anger is expressed more as frustration or something like that and then
I would talk about something relevant. But do be prepared they may ask you about things that you
don't want to talk about but you're also allowed to be a human being, you're not expected to be some
perfectly detached hominid type creature that doesn't experience the full range of emotions
and things like that. If things you know make you upset that's fine but be strategic about how you
answer this. Think about ways to sort of make the question your own and define it within terms that
make you more comfortable and think about the kinds of qualities that they are looking for in
this question and any question of course and how you can sort of take the question and use it to
demonstrate those key qualities, values, soft skills, things like that that will you know sort of soften
maybe the the negative feel that you have towards the question. Number four is a question that if you
are planning on going to med school you will get asked a hundred times and then probably a
hundred more times after that this is actually the most basic, fundamental question that you will get
asked but it is one that a lot of people struggle with. And that question is why medicine? Why do you want to
be a physician? Why do you want to be a doctor? Why do you want to go into the field of medicine? This
is a challenging question because if you haven't prepared for it likely a whole lot of things flood
into your mind all at once. All of the things that make you want to go into this particular
profession. So you really need to start early with this question even as you're putting your initial
applications together, if not sooner than that, to really craft your own narrative. What is it
about this field that is pushing you in that direction? What draws you in, what catches your
heart or your mind, what makes you feel like this is not just what you want to do, but it's who you
want to be. Come up with a short narrative two to three minutes that encapsulates that feeling and
speak to it authentically. Don't use cliches: I want to help people, okay that's great most people want
to help people and there are a hundred if not more different ways to help people that aren't
going through the rigors necessary to become a medical doctor. We can help people in any number
of different ways so while that tends to be the first thing that people say it's actually not
the best answer. So really think strategically about this and what you want your narrative
to say about your impulse and your drive and dedication towards this particular goal. Last,
if you could choose any profession other than medicine what would it be and why? So again this
one's challenging, you want to go in there and show them that going into medicine is who you are, it's
what you do, it's what you're going to do, this is your passion, you are not deviating from this
path and now here they ask you a question that's the exact opposite of that. What else would you
do? And why if you weren't going to do this? So again this is a question where you need to be
honest to some degree of course and to think again about those core qualities, those core competencies,
those core values that they're looking for and think about ways that they would translate into
a different context. Maybe it's a slightly similar context, maybe it's a completely different context,
maybe if you weren't going in medicine you would be I don't know working as an organic farmer or
something like that something completely different. But actually now that I'm thinking about it that
could that could work depending on the qualities that you highlight. So let's formalize it a little
bit and this will be the one that I answer. So if I was asked the question if I could choose
any profession other than medicine what would it be and why? I would think about living systems, about
the kinds of care that are necessary, about the kinds of science that would be needed, so instead
of saying organic farmer let's formalize that a little bit and say something like botany could
still translate into the organic farming realm, so botany. Well if I weren't going into medicine
I would think about going in the field of botany you know there's a lot of research I love being in
the lab and I could maintain that in that field, I'm naturally curious and I like to explore how
things have been used and what things have been overlooked over the ages so I think that I could
get some opportunity to do that there. As well you know there are a lot of medical treatments and
drugs that began by understanding plants. Aspirin for example is just salicylic acid. Salicylic acid
was found in certain kinds of willow bark so the field of botany and the field of medicine aren't
completely divorced they're still utilizing the same kinds of skills and overlapping at times
and so I think that could be really useful. I could still contribute to medical advances
potentially outside the formal field of medicine if I were to pursue that career. As well you know
botany taking care of plants and things like that and understanding how they work, that's still a
process of nurturing living things there's beauty to behold when the systems are working correctly.
There's growth that takes place when everything is tended to and equilibrium is sustained. But
there's also illness you're dealing with complex systems and things can fail at times and you have
to be able to use your insights and your knowledge to figure out how to set those complex systems
right again. And you know in my personal time I I've always enjoyed sort of gardening and tending
plants and I'm sort of fascinated by the ways in which things grow and thrive or don't and the role
that humans can have, whatever the type of life we're dealing with, in that growth and thriving
or the opposite. So I think something like botany would allow me to continue pursuing the kinds of
things that I enjoy however of course it's not the same as being able to contribute quite so
directly in human lives, having that day-to-day patient interaction which is something that I
really value. I think patients and physicians can form really unique and beneficial relationships
which of course is something we can't do with plants. So if it turned out that I didn't cut it
for medicine perhaps that's something I would pursue but really I feel like partaking in
the practice of human medicine is what speaks most to my core and where my skills are going
to be most useful and effective. All right there we go a couple of minutes got it down if I'd had
time to think through it a little bit more I might have polished it around the ends
a little bit but as a first run-through I'm pretty happy with that. I'm still speaking to those core
qualities to that care, that research, the passion, the sense of responsibility, the understanding of
interconnectedness all of this stuff and I'm able to speak to why you know even though this all
sounds really interesting to me, I still think that my skills are best used and I'll be most fulfilled
in the realm of human medicine. But it's still I think a pretty convincing answer and an
interesting way to take on something like that. So there you go there's your muddled answer to
one of these questions again I encourage you to look through our repository of questions
and start playing with some of these on your own these are difficult questions but you can
absolutely prepare for them in advance and do so in ways that are unique to you so that
you're being your authentic best self in your interview. So I hope that you enjoyed this video
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