How I prepped for the interview

In this post I talk about the services of a couple organisations, so bear that in mind before you read it! I have not been asked by them to talk about it, so I promise this is my honest opinion on them.

Just as they did for UMAT, iCanMed offers some awesome free seminars that you can go to that give you insights into the interview process! There were two seminars in my year.

I went to my first free interview seminar in September. This seminar focused on:

As you can see, this was a very general seminar filled with lots of good broad advice for your interview.

The second seminar was held in November after the big biomed exams and gave specific tips for Auckland and the styles of questions Auckland has. Although Auckland does use an MMI structure, it asks different questions to the typical MMI questions found in Australian universities. Hence, it is a good idea to attend this seminar for Auckland-specific tips!

In the description of this event, it said that “the workshop is completely practical”, and it “will show you exactly what to do to answer the hardest sort of MMI questions.” The guy that does the seminars, his name is Michael, is actually an interviewer and has lots of experience (he even trains other interviewers).

This seminar covered:

iCanMed provided excellent information and advice for free and I would highly recommend going to these seminars, if they are doing them in your year. Look them up on Facebook and like their page to get updates of events that are happening!

Just like for their UMAT course, they offered a discount for their online interview course. Besides the fact that I had already paid for an interview course at this stage, I wouldn’t have chosen to get this one. Why? Well the course is mainly designed around MMI in Australia, which is different to Auckland, as I explained before. I decided it would be better to do a course specifically for Auckland when it came to the interview. UMAT was a different story as everyone in Australia and New Zealand does the same test.

I cannot recommend this enough!!! Seriously, I believe it’s the only interview course worth spending money on!

Okay — so it’s quite expensive…BUT it is SUCH great value for money!!!

I purchased this course early on in the year, because there was a discount, and I wanted to be in the early stream. I figured that if I didn’t end up getting an interview offer, the course would still be so helpful when I applied again as a postgrad.

This course is so comprehensive and you get a whole lotta bang for your buck. There are a few different elements that make this course what it is.

Workshop
The workshop is 6 hours of theory and advice for content preparation. It works through a detailed guidebook (explained later) and has real doctors come and talk about the healthcare system as well as the reality of their day-to-day life. Justin goes through the most common mistakes and how to avoid them and strategies for the role-play using techniques taught in medical school. This workshop is definitely full-on and intense, but you come out with invaluable information to help you in your interview.

JTT Efficient Guide to Interviews
This is a booklet that Justin has developed himself. It explains everything about the interviews as well as:

The booklet has space down the sides for you to take notes, and is basically your one-stop-shop for all interview tips and advice!

Small Group Coaching
You get allocated a small group of 2–3 students and you are assigned a trained interview coach. These coaches have gone through the interview process themselves and can give you individualised feedback on your structure and content. I found this super beneficial and even made some awesome friends in my group.

Online Modules and Knowledge Bank
This is something I have seen on Justin’s website under what the interview course offers. It was not available when I did the course so I can’t give my feedback on it, but it sounds helpful! The JTT website states that the online module:

I mean, the course was amazing without this, so it doesn’t really matter if this is good or not — but it sounds like it will be!

MMI Simulation
This is amazing! At the end of the year, a couple weeks before your interview, you get the chance to have a practice MMI. It has the exact same format as the real interview, and you are given personalised feedback sheets with critiques and scores for each station. It is honestly so helpful to experience the stress of the interview process and to actually have practice thinking on your feet. It was also heaps of fun and made me feel A LOT more relaxed about the real thing. It is basically your chance to test all the skills you have learnt over the course and provides you with feedback on your strengths and weaknesses for you to polish up before the big day!

Early stream starts with the workshop on the first weekend of Semester 2, compared to after your biomed exams in November for the late stream. Early stream gives you a lot more time to think and prepare for your interview, but in all honesty, I didn’t properly start prepping till after exams anyway.

The real bonus from being in the early stream is that you get more time in personalised coaching (6 hours instead of 2 hours). You can also attend the late stream workshop for free, however, if they run out of seats you’ll have to sit on the floor.

Early Bird for Early Stream = $349
Early Stream = $395
Late Stream = $349

Once the full courses have sold out (32 people per stream), they will sell workshop-only packages for $199, that do not include the coaching or MMI simulation.

In terms of my content, I just spent a bit of time thinking about the big events in my life that shaped me into who I am today. I thought of times I resolved conflict and times where I had to work in a team and what I learnt from that. Just think of a whole lot of memorable experience in your life, and what you’ve learnt from them. That way you’ll have no shortage of stuff to draw on if needed in the interview.

I had lots of notes about interviews, from iCanMed’s seminars, as well as JTT’s workshop and personalised coaching that it was all quite overwhelming and jumbled. After my exams, I sat down and typed up all the key notes and strategies, collated and condensed them down into one handy guide for myself with all the best things from all the different things I went to. If you are going to do what I did and get a lot of notes, I would recommend doing this as it helped me cement my own system that worked for me. This meant I had a clear strategy in my head for the day.

To round things off, the interview was honestly the most fun and easiest part of everything that went into my application, and I believe if you go into it confident and prepared, it will be like that for you too!

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