More Medical School Interview Prep Tips
1. Anticipate everything that’s going to happen in your interview by learning the common questions and scenarios you absolutely will have to face.
After taking The Medical School Interview Video Course, you’ll have learned the 19 aspects of the medical school interview you’ll need to master.
If you haven’t taken the course and your interviews are on the horizon, I strongly recommend you take that course right now because it covers everything you need to know about the entire interview process, leading up to your final rehearsals. Learn more about the course here.
Some of the topics I cover in The Medical School Interview Video Course that you absolutely must master:
- Standing in the Interviewer’s Shoes
- How to Answer a Question You Don’t Know the Answer to
- How to Deal With the Ethics Question
- Taboo Topics.
2. Be enthusiastic and personable
Knowing what to say only solves half of the equation, because how you present your answers is frankly more important to your success. Most medical school applicants are doing it wrong because they approach the interview with a somber and serious attitude that bores the interviewers.
A dry presentation lacking spirit is the hallmark of the nervous applicant “This interview is as nerve-wracking as a parole hearing” applicant, and nervous won’t sell you to the interviewer.
Remember, it’s not so much the content of your interview, as it is you. You can make them want you, if you distinguish yourself from the typical applicant by being enthusiastic and personable.
3. Practice, practice, practice!
Thriving within an interview setting doesn’t come naturally to most medical school applicants — or anybody, really. It takes years for most of us to get the hang of job interviews, and we often experience rejection and failure. In the job market, there are always many more opportunities to develop and perfect our interview skills after we bomb an interview or two.
But with medical school, you only have one shot. For each application cycle, you will only get a handful of opportunities to interview, so it’s crucial that your interviews go well the first time, every time.
If you want to walk into your first interview and “kill it,” you’ll need to make a diligent effort to practice your interviews many times. After several rounds of practice, you’ll have memorized your answers to all the common interview questions.
The outsider’s perspective: Practicing with friends and family
Interview preparation usually begins with study, followed by interview rehearsals with friends and family lending an ear to help you out. Your friends and family can give you insightful observations from an outsider’s perspective: they aren’t familiar with what goes on in a medical school interview, but they can tell when you seem nervous or when you appear confident.
Because your friends and family know you, they can tell you when your practice interviews are bringing out the best qualities of you — the qualities that will get you accepted to medical school.
Friends and family can give you valuable insight about how you present yourself, but they can’t tell you how your answer content and presentations work together to persuade a medical school interviewer.
Typical feedback you might hear from family and friends: “You’re really confident and enthusiastic, but I’m not sure about your answer to the Ethics Question. I’m not sure what medical schools want to hear about that kind of thing.”
The insider’s perspective: Mock interviews with an expert
Practicing your interviews with friends and family falls short in one big way — they can’t tell you with confidence whether your answers and your presentation are what medical schools are looking for. An outsider doesn’t know how the interview runs, and they don’t know what makes interviewers tick.
After you’ve gotten outsider feedback about your interviews, the best way to hone your interviews to perfection is to run a mock interview with an expert. An expert — someone who has intimate knowledge of the medical school interview — will give the the finishing touches that you’ll need to “wow” the interviewers on your first — and hopefully only — attempt.
I’ve conducted mock interviews with thousands of premeds
As a medical school admissions coach, part of my big comprehensive admissions package ($10,000) is two mock interviews with me. I realize that most premeds don’t need my biggest admissions package, so I’m offering standalone mock interviews for a deeply discounted price of only $497, but only to students who bought The Medical School Interview Video Course.
You’ll get a lot more out of a mock interview if you’ve taken my online course first.
Applicants who have practiced mock interviews with me have raved about their interview feedback — their interviewers were genuinely impressed with their poise and comfort level when compared to the average nervous applicant.
I’ll tell how to say what you want to say, and how put forward the very best you in your interviews.
2 Mock interviews with me for $497
The old standalone price for two mock interviews with me – $647 – has been marked down to only $497.
Here’s what you’ll get for just $497
- Two mock interviews with me — up to one hour-long each — Via video chat (Skype)
- My analysis: Tips, pointers, advice, suggestions, and recommendations on how to perfect your interview – Live