Hey guys,
If I haven't said this to you yet in a personal message, CONGRATS!! One more week till the interview..hope u guys are all prepping well in the midst of exams. I've decided to compile a list of FAQs and answers - hopefully this will answer most of your questions.
Q: How many applicants are interviewed and how many are accepted?
A: Most of you know this already; 240 interviewed, 120 accepted.
Q: What should we do for our 5-10 minute spiel?
A: As the email from Louise might have mentioned already, "this is NOT the time to describe your academic achievements at length, recite your CV, or describe your ambitions for a career as a pharmacist".
First you have to ask yourself what is one thing that you are passionate about? For many ppl this can be completely off-topic from pharmacy, health care, or anything along the lines of "helping people". Let me give some examples:
- your passion in a particular area; dance, music, camping, just to come up with examples on the spot
- you're a hardcore traveler and want to share the different cultures and religions you gained appreciation of
- you were part of student government and did something spectacular, or something you thought you weren't able to do
- you were involved in some project and the turnout was great, or not so much, but you learned something out of it..
Whatever you decide to talk about, remember to have a powerful conclusion at the end of the interview to tell the panel why they should know this about you. Afterall, they really aren't THAT interested in your personal life (to be realistic here
), but what they want to do is to be able to make the connection between the experience you just described to
an attitude or behaviour that is desired in the profession. If you can make that connection for them in ur conclusion they'll do less work, be happier, and score you more points
Also, remember that it's not just the content that they're paying attention to; some ppl are good at making eye contact only when they are listening, speaking, or neither. Your goal is to do that for
all instances but do not glare at them
; shows that you are attentive and observant of your surroundings. Watch for non-verbal behaviour (i.e. interviewer looking bored or anticipating you to provide a better example to illustrate a point you just said)
i.e. a passionate dancer can elaborate on their committment to things in life, once they have made a decision pursue a goal. This is a trait that pharmacists should have.
Q: What kinds of questions are asked?
For me they were all behavioural-type; for example, "tell me a time when you showed so-and-so trait". The trait can be persuasive skills, problem-solving, communicating with people who are unwilling to listen, etc. These parallel the kinds of situations that pharmacists deal with on a regular basis, like talking to difficult patients and dealing with compliance issues, which is why they would ask questions like that.
Remember everytime you're about to speak,
structure your answer. Do not ramble. which is something i did..not good lol. It's very easy to go on a tangent and then suddenly realize that there was no good purpose of saying it. Not only does it waste interview time, it also misses the oumph of your answer. Have an introduction to briefly describe the situation, be clear on the type of problem you had to address, how you went to address/solve the problem (or attempted to), and what you learned from the experience to wrap up. Do this for every single question.
If there are any at-the-spot questions, for eg. "what would you do if you were in this situation?" then take some time to think about it if you need to (not for too long). Don't feel pressured to jump into it right away and risk giving choppy answers that lack coherency. I can't give much advice on this since I haven't had any of this type, but mock interviewers will definitely give you good practice.
Q: What is the RC/WT like?
Last year this was a scientific article (about 8 pages) with the usual components intro, methods, discussion, conclusion. We had to summarize it and write in a tone that targets a university student population. Time limit was 50 minutes. The article assumes that you will have some basic knowledge in statistics like p values, but really..content wise there's nothing to worry about. The article will very unlikely describe some novel cancer gene or protein structure that has some crazy active site with so and so amino acids.. none of that. So no need to read up on a molecular bio textbook the night before..but do practice summarizing articles in a set time limit. THey want to know that you are able to pinpoint the important points under time pressure and piece it together. Summarize each part (intro, methods) on its own and try to have them flow from one to the next. It's definitely much more a test of your writing/reading filtering abilities rather than knowledge of the subject matter itself.
Are you guys actually getting a scientific article this year? Who knows..they might even change it around..
Q: How are the different components weighed?
Keep in mind, once you are in the interview stage, the admissions committee is already pretty comfortable with your academic competence. The interview is to see how well you can interact with others. Our applications last year were closed file (prolly for you guys too), so it's nice that they don't want your marks or "resume components" to set any biased views on the interview panel.. which means that your interviewers will really know nothing about you and you're starting off with a blank slate.
I would say that the interview is weighed more heavily than the RC/WT, cuz i thought i did pretty horribly on the test hahaha. The exact breakdown is not published. But be assured that marks should not be a major concern for you right now. The only reason they would go back to your online application is to make sure pre-reqs are completed and final exam marks are not horrible.. other than that, your interview day is the really the day to shine and make the lasting impression.
I think that's pretty much all the questions you guys asked..feel free to remind me of more as they pop up.. and before i close it off, here are some additional tips though i'm sure you've heard enough of them already
1. Relax, relax, relax. The more you do the better your interview performance, and the more opportunity for light humour to enter the atmosphere.. that always makes things more positive for the interview panel. (use humour carefully!)
2. If there is one thing that wins the interview panel, it would be your passion. It's observed in the way you answer your questions, the way you conduct yourself, body-language. Don't use it more than you feel natural doing but do try to use some hand gestures occasionally to communicate the message more effecitvely.
3. Get enough sleep the night before.
4. Don't get intimidated by what other interviewees bring with them to the interview. These can range from resume copies to laptops to karate gear to paintings to..nothing at all (=me). (i'm glad sadiq isn't on SDN.. or maybe he is ahhaha). These ppl bring what they feel are necessary to illustrate their passion/interests and will help them communicate their 5-10 min spiel more effectively. If you feel that you don't need that kinda stuff, chances are, you don't. Trust you instincts and make your interview experience your own, not on others' standards.
5. Try to have some fun in the interview. Your interviews will pretty tired by the time you walk in, (depending on which slot you're in). Regardless of what happens, it's the experience that you're getting =)
aight boys and girls, that's it for me for now. pop anymore questions you have here! If it's something you feel will benefit everyone, please post them here insetad of PM-ing me. But if it's something more personal, then feel free
GOOD LUCK! Who's going on Sunday morning btw? I'll be there to help out (i.e. freak you guys out )
-viv
