Notts & SGUL GEM Interview?

[simos]

It could well be that we'll get asked 'normal' inteview questions similar to those that they would have asked on thier old style panel interviews but in the mmi style to make it less subjective. There is no mention of any of the other types of questions or role play etc that was used at sgul.. guess the letters should tell us more! I'm April 14th by the way....

[Dr. Cool]

April for me, thank god for the extra prep time. Can't say I'm happy with it being MMI after SGUL.

Hopefully the 6 mins instead of 5, is to give extra time between stations. As at SGUL, the staff could barely keep up! With most, I'd get into the cubicle only to find them fumbling away trying to organise themselves. At one point, it got so bad I had to sit and wait for a minute or so while they finished taking notes on the previous candidate! Ran out of time on that station, yay.

Ideally they'll allow for interaction as well. To be told in the prep pack for SGUL they’d be looking for communication skills, then making it impossible to do things like check the person you’re talking to understands, pick up on their concerns, etc seems like a complete lack of appreciation for the two-way process that *most* communication is. Of course that’s assuming all the interviewers do what they are supposedly told, maybe they will at Notts.

On actors... They said the panel will consist of academics, clinicians and "professional lay persons". Yes, sometimes people from the community do form part of the panel, but I have an inkling those ‘professionals’ will be ‘actors’.

Lordi that got ranty, apologies : )

[cd.thomson]

Hi Dr. Cool,

I'm very surprised they have announced MMI style interviews at such a late date. When is yours in April?

I wouldn't bet on any two way communication outside of the same constraints as St George's. The interview is designed to be completely standardised from the point of view of the university. This allows them to give quantative scores rather than qualiative reviews. I'm not promoting that hell that is MMIs, but it certainly makes sense (as far as they're concerned) to just ask a question then rate a response rather than having a conversation.

I'm April 16th. Good luck everyone.

[dances_with_lamposts]

On actors... They said the panel will consist of academics, clinicians and "professional lay persons". Yes, sometimes people from the community do form part of the panel, but I have an inkling those 'professionals' will be 'actors'.

Last year the 'professional lay person' in my interview was a member of staff within the school (i.e. not one of the lecturers or clinicians). I know that this year is different with the MMI's but I wouldn't be suprised if they were part of the interviews again rather that going to the trouble of getting actors in.

[Dr. Cool]

Heya,

12th. The Monday actually works out pretty well - will only need one day off work.

Sadly, I think you're right Seeing as we won’t know the extent of shared experience/knowledge the interviewer has (pretty easy to figure out in a two way interaction), I think I'm going to run into problems with ‘depth of thought’, and essentially end up gambling at the level to go to. BAH!

[Dr. Cool]

Last year the 'professional lay person' in my interview was a member of staff within the school (i.e. not one of the lecturers or clinicians). I know that this year is different with the MMI's but I wouldn't be suprised if they were part of the interviews again rather that going to the trouble of getting actors in.

Ahh. Excellent news :P

If you're able to say, do they look for any science knowledge at interview? Similarly, when they're looking for an 'interest in medical research', do you think they'd prefer it to be something steming from science?

[emj1987]

An interest in medical research could simply be having a butchers at the bbc new online health section. Just keeping abreast of new developments, not necessarily knowing in molecular detail the new antibody therapy for an autoimmune condition (for example). Last year they asked about a medical story I'd read recently and I regurgitated something about smoking in pregnancy and how bad it is that i'd read that morning. All was well until the interviewer asked me if I thought there was another side to the story.... What?!

Like Dances said, the lay person was someone from within the school last time, so maybe someone from the clinical skills department. Not necessarily a lecturer but still Uni of Notts staff.

Sounds like they're hiding us all from you! Most of you seem to be having interviews during our Easter break. Good luck to you all! It's best to be relaxed I reckon.

[dances_with_lamposts]

An interest in medical research could simply be having a butchers at the bbc new online health section. Just keeping abreast of new developments, not necessarily knowing in molecular detail the new antibody therapy for an autoimmune condition (for example). Last year they asked about a medical story I'd read recently and I regurgitated something about smoking in pregnancy and how bad it is that i'd read that morning. All was well until the interviewer asked me if I thought there was another side to the story.... What?!

Like Dances said, the lay person was someone from within the school last time, so maybe someone from the clinical skills department. Not necessarily a lecturer but still Uni of Notts staff.

Sounds like they're hiding us all from you! Most of you seem to be having interviews during our Easter break. Good luck to you all! It's best to be relaxed I reckon.

Hey, I'm still trying to figure out whether you're big Em or little Em?

They asked me about a medical story I'd herd recently too - I answered with something about helathcare workers getting flu jabs, it was something I'd read on the bbc news health section the day before. No need to go into great detail. There was no more science knowledge needed!

[emmabelle]

Right- I've got a date for the 25th March.

I thought MMI was okay at SGUL- like a few people have said, the question areas were pretty identical to traditional interview ones, but the whole process is meant to be more objective. Mentally I also found changing stations made it easier to focus on the question at hand and not fluster the whole thing if you struggled at any one point. But then I didn't get offered a place from SGUL, so maybe that just shows a lack of insight on my part...

Good luck to all!

[Dr. Cool]

Hmm. I may just go with the news stories then, to keep it simple. I've read some fairly interesting research without bioscience at the core, but it would be kind of tough to explain in 5 minutes or less. Or would it be worth the extra chance of appearing long winded/unclear, to show you've actually delved a little deeper?