If you are here in search of information concerning student interviews, then you are on the right page. In this simple article, I will give some of the best tips to dominate any school interview.
Student Interviews are one of the many first-day experiences most people cannot deal with easily. The anxiety and the stress are inevitable.
Schools especially medical schools conduct interviews for new incoming students. You certainly have to go through the interview before admission.
Since most schools conduct interviews before admission, it is very difficult to guess your fate from home.
Many people have gone through school interviews, and that is to say, there are lots of experiences to learn from. Being it a high school, university, or medical school interview, you have to know what to do.
Before we go further, take your time to review the table of contents below. It shows the overview of the content of this page. You can always click on any of the topics to jump right to the particular article.
Preparing For The Student Interviews
There are some key things you must do to prepare for your student interviews. Whiles some of the preparations must be done specifically for particular interview types, the below preparation list is general no matter the type of interview.
- To prepare for your interview, you first have to know the institution very well including its goals and aspirations. You have to get more insights into the institution.
- Importantly, you must know exactly why you are deciding to join that particular institution. In addition, you must also know how you think the institution will help you and how you will also help the institution.
- Further, you must research and gain more knowledge about the courses you will sign up for in the school. Do not learn so much that you sound like a robot when talking. But do not feel too relaxed that it feels like you don’t know anything at all.
- Kill the anxiety. My dad tells me all the time to stare the interviewer in the eyes until he or she feels too shy to look at me. Don’t be rude but just try as much as possible to keep eye contact when talking or being talked to.
- Looks count a lot when going for student interviews so you must look very presentable as well.
- It will be a very good idea to roleplay school interviews with strangers at home before your actual interview. It makes you build confidence for the interview.
- Above all, Know how student interviews are conducted (I will explain that below). If you know, then you can handle everything.
Different Types Of School Interview Methods
Student interviews are conducted in three different styles. They have Modifiedc Personal Interviews, Multiple Mini Interviews(MMIs), and Panel Interviews. Some schools will employ all three methods at a go but others will employ only one or two. You must know how schools conduct interviews from all angles to be fully prepared for these student interviews.
Panel Student Interviews
“Panel Studnet Interviews” see multiple interviewers accessing one interviewee. More like multiple people teaming against one. This particular interview always has a very low success rate because the interviewee must impress multiple interviewers at the same time.
Many factors including the fact that the panel gets to access the applicant in a single context make the success rate very low. In this context, the personality of the applicant can greatly affect the interview score as well.
Questions
Most of the questions will be about your application materials. Since there are multiple interviewers, there will be no extra questions derived from your answers. But there will definitely be questions that will demand that you recount past experiences to answer.
All other questions including why you are pursuing a course and what you know about the health system could also pop up. Most schools combine this type of interview method with others.
Preparation
You must know everything about your application materials. There should also be a reason why you are persuading a particular course.
You can roleplay this by simply going out to interview random people in three or four sets. Make sure instead of you asking them questions, you make them do the questions and you do the answering.
Also, check your attitude because some things could skip a first eye and a second one, But definitely not the third one.
Modified Personal Interview (MPI)
This type of interview is more of a one-on-one interview where there is only a single interviewer. But you have to meet that same interviewer at up to four different stations. According to history, this interview method was founded by the University Of Toronto and employed during their 2013 -2014 application cycle.
Questions
The questions mostly target communication skills, teamwork, ethical decision making and knowledge about the healthcare system. Most of the questions are written rules. But since it’s a one-on-one interview, the interviewer is likely to go out of his or her way to ask other questions.
To dominate this particular interview, you must relax and answer your questions most of the time with past experiences. Some of the questions even come in a way that you only have to recount a past experience to answer.
Preparations
In preparing for this type of interview, you must ensure you can answer any questions about your application materials. You must also prepare yourself to be able to answer any question about why you are deciding to pursue a particular profession.
You must also be a good storyteller. That will help you if you have to recount past experiences to answer questions.
Your first impression counts a lot. But do not be too confident that your first impression turns soar.
Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
The MMI is almost the same as the MPI But with this one, you will move from station to station. You have to get to up to six interview stations to complete the interview. Each interview station will be in a separate room with signs on the doors to give you clues on what you are going in for.
There will be a time allocation for you to answer questions which most of the time, you must not exceed. The interview score will be the average score for your total interviews so there is enough room for error.
Questions
The questions are always similar to that of the panel interview questions. But this time around each interviewer will only ask one question. Lots of the answers must be personal experiences and research.
Teamwork is key in all student interviews so any personal teamwork experiences will improve your chances of passing the interview. The same applies to critical decision-making.
Preparation
Reading signs is key so keep in mind to read all signs and understand them. Moral ethics and a good attitude will improve your score greatly. If unfortunately, you err, prepare to let go before moving to the next station.
About 80% of people who participate in MMI make the most errors at the very first station out of anxiety. That is to say, the errors are normal, you just have to perform better at the rest of the stations to atone for your error.
Summary
While these tips target medical student interviews, I will assure you that it is the same procedure for almost all types of student interviews. Being it high school, college or basic school. The questioning might be a bit different but it is always the same method.
In this modern age, student interviews are booked and conducted online too. Websites like schoolinterviews.com.au help make it possible.