Hi! I literally saw this comment a while ago and then completely forgot I wanted to respond!
So for me, I like to view interviewing as a game, it really helps to take the stress out of it for me and helps me calm down. The first thing I would do is brush up on the STAR method if you're unfamiliar with it!
STAR Method
Second is I would find a series of "behavioral questions" and start either bullet pointing or cataloguing some sort of list of experiences or situations you would bring up for a given question. (I'm attaching the handout UMN gave us because it was really helpful when I prepped for their interview). If you are able to at least have a bullet pointed list of experiences that you would talk about for any given situation that should help with the "scrambling" I think sometimes happens when you are asked a question you're not expecting/didn't prepare for. Most situations we have experienced can work for multiple situations so if we've already compiled a mental or physical list of scenarios and run through how we would discuss them in the STAR method, it should be much easier to pull one of them if you get thrown a very random question. (But it happens!! Trust me, I had 5 interviews this cycle and I'm definitely not a stranger to interviewing in general and there was still a question or two that threw me and I had to scramble for a good answer! A few awkward answers/pauses isn't going to kill your interview!)
For example I talked about doing 2 masters programs and completely funding them myself by working 2 jobs in the context of questions that were asking a variety of things like:
- how do you think you can handle the debt of vet school
- what makes you think you are prepared for the rigor of vet school
- are you organized?
etc
I of course didn't talk about this specific singular example for every question, but I am trying to highlight that having a mental bank of experiences that would fit multiple things can help you prepare pretty well for most interviews.
Another resource I would use is the student doctor network question banks for certain schools, I know some schools block theirs but I used it for some of the schools I got interviews with and it helped me kind of see the flow of their questions.
Third I would make sure you have a "spiel" or "blurb" for yourself down-pat. I practiced my blurb for myself multiple times and made sure I was hitting all the points I wanted to hit and also remaining succinct. Some of the things that were important to me mentioning was that I was a multiple times reapplicant and what I had been doing during this time and how I had improved my application/why I feel I am the best candidate now. Most of the behavioral interview schools had you basically introduce yourself at the beginning of every interview, and as someone who kind of hates doing that, it was paramount I have a better "spiel" about myself ready to go.
Practice!!! I know this can be hard but ask someone you are completelyyyyy unfamiliar with, but I find it hard to truly get in the mindset for practice unless the person I'm talking to is unfamiliar with me. I think the feedback becomes more genuine in that case too as I have tried to practice with friends and family before or even superiors at work and it doesn't seem to help me as much as a completely unknown third party. You can also go into a zoom room by yourself and practice just speaking and looking at the camera versus at your picture. Another form of practice for me was just applying to jobs. During this application cycle I was also trying to go for a promotion at my work and that helped because I was having to use my interview skills in actual practice despite it not being for vet school specifically. (At the end of the day, all interviews are just interviews, whatever they're actually for, a lot of the questions overlapped and I'm not even currently working in the vet field).
For MMI interviews these are even more of a talent I would say. I would also look up example questions online that you can run through and I would try to always look at both sides of the problem/situation. In my opinion MMI interviews are intending to ask you difficult questions that are likely not going to have a "right" answer. They just want to see how you problem solve. I think it has a lot of similarities to that show "what would you do?". In my opinion I also think they aren't looking for a strong opinion on either side of the situation, but an ability to use empathy and situational judgement to help untangle a complex problem.
The classic one I think of in life is "what would you do if you saw someone stealing food? would it change how you would respond if it was someone stealing food for their starving family?" I'd practice some of these scenarios looking at all angles/view points. There are going to be a variety of feelings on subjects like these from stealing is always wrong to stealing is wrong unless given these circumstances. I believe interviewers really want to test how well you see and understand the gray area in life!
Lastly, I am a firm believer that all of us have been prepping for years to get to this point. I know it's easier said than done, but reminding myself before every interview that this was what I was meant to do really helped me calm down. I always told myself "what could they possible ask that I haven't prepared for?"--and there was literally maybe 1 to 2 questions that I came out of the interviews being like....oof that was a rough answer.
I also just wanted to end, make sure to prepare a list of questions you want to ask the school, I generally struggled with this during my first interview because I did a lot of pre-research and because of that I didn't know what to say, but getting a set list of: "what is your favorite thing about XYZ school? what do you love about the area? what do you feel sets this school apart? How do you feel the curriculum prepares students for their first job right after graduation?" etc.
Anywaysssss, sorry that was so long! I hope any of that helps and if you ever want to message me privately to talk more I'm always down!
♥️