The Medical School Interview

Why I am writing this post

I have been invited to give a talk to aspiring high school students who are considering a career in medicine. Part of the program also involves a session where the students undergo a simulated interview as if they were applying to go for a certain medical school.

Medicine, the chosen career option for straight A students in Malaysia

What is my opinion of such programs? Yes, I wish I had attended such when I was a high school student. It might have been useful. But more so, I wish there were programs which allowed people to explore other options other than the oversold medical career. Not sure about other countries, but in Malaysia, there is a certain perception particularly amongst parents, if not the general public, that it is 'great' to have a child studying medicine.

Motivation to study Medicine

I do this quite often, whenever I chance encounter groups of medical students, I would ask them why they want to be doctors. While there are variable answers, a significant proportion (anywhere between a quarter to half) of them would describe their parent/s as important or main motivators.

There is also a subgroup I include here, where the students would say that it was a childhood dream, or that they decided from an early age (anything less than 10 years old) that they wanted to become a doctor. In those instances, I am pretty sure that the parents had something to do with the 'ambition'. How do I know? I'm a parent too. *GRIN EMOJI*

The real reason why I am writing this post

I may not be able to attend the program, hence I decided to write this blog post to share whatever knowledge and experience I have regarding 'interviews to enter medical school'.

Lets start by attempting to answer these two questions:

Why do medical schools conduct these interviews? Do all medical schools interview potential future students?

My experience with medical school interviews as a student:

When I was one of the eleven students with MARA sponsorship in Dublin, studying for the pre-university exam known the Irish Leaving Certificate in Leeson Street, there were three medical schools in Dublin that most of us were aiming for:
1) Trinity College Dublin (TCD)
2) Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (better known as RCSI)
3) University College Dublin (UCD)
Only RCSI held interviews (and it is the only medical school out of the three listed that is a private institution.
So yes, I did attend the interview that RCSI held, although my aim was TCD, only because it was (and still is) the best medical school in Ireland, and my husband (at that time future husband) was also a medical student there.

So I went to that interview not really having anything at stake (because it wasn't my first option), I didn't really prepare anything, I was also under the impression that as a private institution, the main thing was that the student had money/ability to finance their education, and that they just wanted to meet you in person beforehand to see if you are a nice person, that they can offer a place later when exam results are out.

The medical school interview, my personal experience as a student:

I think there were two interviewees, a lady and a man, both relatively old (with mostly white hair or balding), they were very friendly and it was a laid-back, calm setting.

I don't recall much otherwise regarding the interview, but I remember them asking about one of my hobbies, which is playing the piano, and I had difficulty deciding which piece was my favourite (couldn't remember the name).

Basically they had a copy of my CV (which didn't contain much at that point, I was only 18 years old), and a lot of the questions (which weren't that many) surrounded that.

Perhaps I was a bit nervous, I am not sure. My only other experience with interviews at that point was getting the MARA scholarship, which was again, something that I went through not really desiring the outcome (a story for another blog post) and hence it was a relatively non-stressful event.

When the Leaving Certificate results were out, I was ecstatic (not because I scored 590 points, all A's except for chemistry, my favourite subject), because I was offered a place to study medicine in the top medical school in Ireland, TCD, which coincidentally was also my first choice.

I know, that's not very helpful if you are a looking for information on how to prepare for the medical school interview. Wait, there's more.

I felt it was necessary to share the experience, just to show that for some institutions, the pressure is less, the interview is just an informal meeting to see that you are indeed a nice person.


The medical school interview, my personal experience as a doctor/lecturer:

Upon returning to Malaysia, I joined the University Sains Malaysia (USM) as a medical lecturer in 2007. It was somewhere along that time that USM was awarded the status Apex University and decided to interview prospective medical students (it was given some authority to pick and choose its own students due to the status, where as before that, USM would just accept any students given).

Unfortunately, I left USM to join Taylors University before being able to participate in any of the selection process. Yes, I received some feedback from friends that they were able to reject students who were basically 'forced' by parents to choose medicine, as the students revealed during the interview that they did not really want to study medicine after all. Interesting eh?

So if you haven't figured it out yet, one of the main reasons medical schools interview candidates is to choose the right ones, those who desire to study medicine for the right reasons. Only because medical is not only difficult and arduous, so is the lifetime career of medicine, and the cost, not merely financial, is a mighty one to bear. So much so a lot of people are way better off not entering the arena in the very beginning, rather than realizing later on the mistake when the costs are much higher.

As a medical lecturer in Taylors University, it was decided that the medical school, TUSOM, was the only school in the university to conduct interview as part of the student selection process. Taylors is probably well known for its business school, hospitality school and pre-university courses. The medical school was relatively new at that time.

The interview panel consists of the dean, vice dean and usually one other lecturer. Sometimes a lecturer who was non-medical, for example the communications lecturer, was also involved as an interviewer. I was so very keen and interested to participate that I volunteered myself when there was an opportunity to do so.

Each interviewer was given one section. There was actually a script which we used for the interview and it was followed reasonably rigidly. Often the dean or vice dean would start the interview with a brief introduction of the panel. Then the candidate would be invited to tell us about her/himself.

The first question had to do with the reason/underlying motivation to study medicine. There were a few options of types of questions to ask and the interviewer would chose which. The panel each has an answer sheet where they make note of the candidates answer, we are given a choice of good reasons to study medicine and a list of 'not good' reasons such as being forced to etc.

In the second part of the interview, the candidate is asked to give evidence of their interest to study medicine. For example attending basic life support course, of being a member of PBSM (Persatuan Bulan Sabit Merah), doing attachments in hospitals, any reasonable hard proof that the student did not just suddenly come up with the idea of doing medicine the day before the interview.

I was often given the third and last part of the interview, which was 'the scenarios'. Here, the student is given one out of five possible scenarios, usually the concept would be that of ethics, and the student is asked what they would do in a particular situation. Here, the panel are looking at a few things:
1) The ability to answer spontaneously and think on the spot.
2) The ability to think critically.
3) How the candidate handles a bit of pressure

Usually, most candidates would have expected and may have even rehearsed answers for the two earlier parts of the interview, thus the third part would shed some light in other areas that would otherwise not have been shed. Frankly speaking, I did enjoy seeing how the candidates handled themselves.

Later on, I joined Perdana University Graduate School of Medicine as an assistant professor. They too, did interviews as part of the student selection process.

Although I did not have a chance to participate in the student selection process in my short stay there, what I gathered from the other academic staff was that the interview was a very tedious process where each candidate was interviewed by three panels separately, with each interview lasting about 30 minutes each.

To be continued.