UniMelb MBBS/MD Interview experiencesAlso note that I did my interview back in September of 2005 although I don't think anything has changed since then.

The Melbourne interview is your stock standard panel interview. They put you in front of a faculty member, another doctor and a non-medical community representative for 30 minutes.

The questions are really all you'd expect from this sort of interview with a few exceptions. Be ready to talk about:• Why you want to do medicine and why you're suited to a career as a doctor• The pros and cons of being a medical student/doctor and what you've done to find out

about them• Your support networks and how you'll get through the course• Stress management• What makes good and bad doctors• What you know about post graduate training

You'll also have to answer typical job interview style questions on leadership, team work, dealing with difficult people, difficult decisions and their consequences.

Somewhere in the interview you will be provided with an ethical situation. It will be along the lines of "you are a medical student and the doctor asks you to see Mrs So and So who has...." and you are asked to tell the panel what you would do/say to the patient. You may also be asked something about the behaviour/mood/feelings of the patient.

In another section of the interview, you'll have to explain a technical scientific term as you would to a patient – avoiding scientific jargon.

That's about it really. They'll put you in a holding cell after the interview while they deliberate and reach an agreement about you. If they let you out quickly they all agreed that you either sucked or rocked. If they take ages, they can't agree and there's a chance you'll have to do a second interview in front of a new panel.

In the end it worked out great for me although it was probably the most stressful experience of

my life 

Finally, some general advice:• Don't be an impersonal hard-arse. Smile, enjoy the chance to chat with the panel. Show

some of your personality and try to relax.• Shake the hands of the panel members as you enter and remember their names so you

can use them when you finish and leave.• Don't stress about what to wear, just look nice.• Don't go in with memorised answers – they'll spot it and you'll look and feel stupid even

though you may "sound" good.Practice chatting about why you want to do med with family and friends

My experience of the Melbourne interview is still quite fresh in my mind even though it was 10 months ago.

The interview is structured and goes for approximately 30 minutes but can be shorter or longer so don’t freak out if you are done in 20 minutes. The interviews are run by a 3 member panel with many interviews being run in parallel rooms. If you have the opportunity, perhaps strike up a small convo with fellow interviewees outside to build up some confidence to speak freely. You are seated in the waiting room for a few minutes, which gave me a chance to dispel last minute nerves.

The panel consists of like Galta said, a community member, department member and practicing doctor. One interesting thing to note is that one of them has been assigned to play

the bad-cop. This has been corroborated with others in my cohort. This person will act bored, uninterested, look at their watch, out the window etc. Don’t let this distract you from giving your answers. In my case the doctor was a glum old fellow who barely shook my hand and looked like he would rather be elsewhere! The other two members were very nice and friendly though. There were no tables, just 3 seats with them holding their questions and you sitting close to them. Good posture and body language always help.

First question off the bat obviously is “Why do you want to be a doctor?” Each of us have our own motivations and reasons for wanting to pursue a medical career. Make sure you clearly demonstrate that you have given alot of thought into this matter, not just – ‘Err...I like to help people and I’ve been to the hospital and it seems like a nice job.’

Next question – “Tell us about a difficult decision you made and how did you come about to making it” or something like that. At times they use further probing questions to get more details or clarify a point you are making, like “Did you consult anyone for information?”. They ended with “And were you happy with the decision you made?”. I guess what you to demonstrate your ability to weigh up all factors, options, advantages/diadv, opinions and information to come to an informed decision.

One of the Paging Dr members who did well on the interview last year described the unique

difficulties she had whilst making a pudding the night prior!   I guess the confidence and humour of the odd response was a welcome change.

Next question – “Describe a situation where you demonstrated teamwork”. Which could easily be interchanged with leadership. Follow on question revolved around team members who don’t equally contribute or a difficult team member and how you would approach and resolve that. General job interview type stuff.

As Galta listed – “What will be your support networks and how you'll get through the course”. A person in my cohort took a little while to get to the point, and they had to eventually ask her “What about your friends and family?” Pretty obvious stock standard answer, so feel free to

elaborate and add something personal and unique  

This one luckily I was prepared for – “What you know about post graduate training”. Illustrate that you are aware and have researched Medicine beyond university. That Medicine involves

life long self learning and all that jazz   Post-graduation, specialties, colleges, options etc.

The detechnicalize section where they want you to explain a scientific term in layman’s language (to a patient) is more or less a communication exercise. Use various analogies and breakdown compound words if you can (eg. photo-synthesis). Simplicity and clarity are key. A few examples to practice on include: gene, photosynthesis, biodiversity, catalyst, cell, hormone, global warming etc. Practise with your parents or younger siblings.

Next communication exercise involved a hypothetical scenario. I had a case of an Aboriginal woman that was having concerns with some disease that her cousin had also got. Follow on questions involve how would you communicate – “What would you say?”, followed by what other ways would you be able to observe her dilemma or something. So basically to do with non-verbal cues like body language, posture, expression etc. Your ability to demonstrate

empathy and recognize communication barriers is also a part of this I think  

A question that I had encountered in a practice run with a former board member (Head of my Honours lab) was regarding what would you do if someone was seeking medical advice and you were a 1st year student. For example if a neighbour had a lump and was wondering if it could be cancer. He described how once a girl started blabbing on about elaborate medical facts and advice, which was not a good choice. You are suppose to acknowledge that being 1st year you are incapable of imparting medical advice and should refer the matter to someone senior who can.

Next question I hope I answered well. “What do you believe in the difference between the undergrad and postgrads”. I harped on about something to do with maturity, life experience/backgrounds, more certain of their goal/ambitions etc. As they say, us grads have

been shown to end up as better doctors  

Next question I’m pretty sure I messed up by giving bland generic answers. “What challenges does Medicine face in the future?”. I still am not sure of the what they wanted, I always ponder about if I had said something about the demands of the ageing population, superbug pandemics, obesity/diabetes demands, or the implications of genetics/genomes on privacy and treatment. So in case where you are caught off guard, give yourself sometime to think of a decent answer instead of blurting out junk heh.

That was how i recall my interview, but also be prepared for questions relating to ethics, stress, goals, strengths/weaknesses, alternative career, negative aspects, course structure, why Melbourne, life challenges etc.

Some advice I got from the former interviewer was most importantly to be yourself. If you answer truthfully you should do fine. Try not to panic but if you do just take a few short breaths. Give yourself a few seconds to think about each question before answering to make sure you are saying what they are asking. Obviously prepared answers they can be detected quite easily. Something fresh and unique would surely stand out among the many applicant responses.

Smile and exude your enthusiasm at wanting to study and practice Medicine. Good luck guys,

all the best with your preparation  

The interview panel consists of 3 people:* A member of the faculty staff* Another doctor* A member of the community who is not a doctor

The interview consists of questions and verbal answers only. No group-based tasks, mind games or otherwise. Interviews go for half an hour.

The interview was quite formal in nature and mine ran exactly to time. There's no real opportunity for informal chatter. I was given a chance to ask questions at the end though I don't think I had anything to ask the panel.

As far as the questions go, just think carefully about why you're going to do medicine, how you'll cope and think about the role of the medical student in a health care scenario. Also be ready to explain a scientific concept in very, very, simple language.

After the interview, they place you in a "holding chamber" where you wait until you are told you can leave. This is when the panel checks they all had similar scores for you. If you get let out quickly, there's been little debate amongst the panel – they either all loved or hated you or all thought you were in the middle ground. If there's no agreement amongst the panel, you may be asked to return for a second interview (with an entirely different panel) later in the day. I'm yet to hear from a student to whom this happened though.

Your interview is scored from 1 – 5 which is the direct metric used for selection into the course. Ties are broken by GAMSAT and GPA.

Kai

Following on from Galtaforce regarding Melbourne's interview, it's a good idea to think about a time in your life when you've...

- Had to make a hard decision- helped someone- Worked in a team, including all the good and bad aspects of it and how you handled it.

It's also important to identify your strengths and weaknesses, to understand medical ethics and have a good and realistic idea of the paths one can take post-med degree.

SOME ADVICE...

I noticed, when waiting to be called for my interview that other potentials in my interview group all wore the same drab grey or black suits. My personal advice is to wear something distinctive, whilst still appearing neat, clean and most of all, professional in an effort to help demarcate you from the pack at the get-go.

The interview is designed to test your intelligent, discover your motives etc., but it's also designed to get an idea of your personality. As such, I think that's its best to present yourself rather than a facade to the panel, in both appearance and in answers. When they ask for examples, give them something that you experienced, rather than something you heard about, so they can get to know you. I also believe it's important to go in with your own agenda containing what you want them to know about you. They aren't necessarily going to ask you about your volunteering experiences directly, but you can work it into one of your other examples.

UMELB interview

I had me interview on the second day they were running in the morning.  I walked into the waiting room and everyone was freaking out and dressed uber-formal.  I had ten minutes till me interview and they were the longest i think i've ever sat throgh.  Once i got in there, however, i was eerily calm which was such a relief.  The questions i got were fairly standard, and have been mentioned before:

Why do you want to do medicineDifference between postgrads and undergradsDifficult decision questionsTeamwork questionsHow do you learn the best?Detech exercises (i had explain the visible spectrum)Empathy exercise (i had no idea about this one, think i screwed it up)What do you know about postgrad training?What are the challenges med faces in the future

But i took other things from the interview probably more important than these questions which were:

EVERYONE is freaking out, no-one is eloquent on the spot.  In short the people you are competing with are also human.  Im sure i answered some answers well, a couple poorly, probably didnt elaborate enough on some and probably volunteered too much information on others.

Preparing answers.  In my lead up i researched the questions and tryed to get into the interviewers mind.  Why am i getting asked this? what do they want me to say? This didnt help nearly as much i thought it would.  I got into the interview and i didnt have enough time to think and react like this, instead i just answered the questions.  It reminded me of when i did martial arts a little bit.  You'd spend hours perfectly this awesomely graceful and deadly move and then when it came to sparring it would never come out, instead you would just keep your head down and flail your limbs wildly and hope you hit the other guy.  ?Having said this, definitely you should prepare your answers somewhat.  Have an example of a difficult decision, teamwork or maybe even two in a way i think your interviews expect you to have done so preparation.

They big piece of advice i got was BE PASSIONATE.  Yet i got into the interview and the only question where i could really show my passion was answering why i want to do medicine. The others didnt really seem to be able fit it in, i couldn't say 'a time i have show teamwork is in my local job and, also, i really want to do medicine'.  So what i've taken from this is, you show your passion in what you say, but also how you say it.  I walked in thinking it would be 100% what i've said that gets me my marks, but im thinking down its 50-50 how you say it. By that i mean body language, eye contact, how you get your ideas across and all the things between the words.

Have an agenda.  Go in with a bunch of things you want them to know about you.  Do you want them to know you were on the school council? good, but they wont ask you specifically, they'll ask you about teamwork experience and then you can put it in.  Same goes from charity work, hardships you've overcome etc etc.  Only thing you have to be mindful of is that im under the impression that the melb interviewers are only following a set script which they wont deviate from.  Therefore dont hint that you may have done something great, as they wont probe you further about it.  Instead tell them about the great thing you did.  

Answer the question (sounds simply, but definitely easier said then done)

relax (sooooo much easier said then done)

Finally, you have 30 mins and you need to sell yourself without appearing arrogant.  For me this was very difficult.  I hope i found the balance in the interview.

Feel free to take this advice with a grain of salt, seeing as i dont know whether or not i made it

in yet.  Good luck to everyone and feel free to ask any questions if you have them  

Alright, well I found this a gold mine resource for my preperations so I'll add my experiences.

My interview was the 9am slot on the second day of interviews. Nervous anticipation got me there early... I had a CD that I had preped to get me pumped up, and I reckon Muse,

Radiohead and Sigur Ros had a vital role in getting me into med school  

There was a bit of chit chat in the waiting room as most people got there early (remember there are 7 panels running at the same time) and there were a couple of gunners in the room, reading their newspaper looking like they weren't too fussed. Then, one by one, the factuly member came in and grabbed their respective interviewees. Once in the PBL room, you're introduced to the other panel. Now, I put sooo much effort in trying to remember their names, but things went just way too quick and as soon as they were introduced, I forgot the names. So if you do forget, don't worry, not all is lost. It's all pretty in your face, just chairs in the room and no table or anything between you and the panel. Sit up straight, know where to keep your hand and be comfortable.

Now, to be honest, the interview was almost exactly what you expect and what I read on these boards. One panel member asks questions, once they're done, another asks more questions and finally the third asks more. I forget the order of the questions, but it was very standard:- why do you want to do medicine- hard decision you had to make that's NOT related to medicine/med school and how you came to a decision- working in a team environment, and a lot of emphasis was placed on conflict and how you dealt with the conflict- what happens once you graduate (internship, residency etc etc)- importance of maturity in a grad and how you'll deal with working with undergrads- how you'll deal with the pressure of med school. This extended to sacrifices and how you've prepared yourself for studying medicine. I tried to crack a joke here, ("I've been watching a lot

of ER"), but they were unresponsive to most of my jokes  

Next (this was asked by the community member), I was give a piece of paper with four words on it: - photosynthesis- hormone- electricity- evolutionI was asked to explain one of them to the community member in a way she could understand. I reckon I got lucky with this one, because I had already prepared something for both photosynthesis and hormone. I pretended not to have, asked if I could have a moment to think about it, just made sure I had it all in my head, and explained hormone. I think the key with detech question is to use an analogy, even if it's not completely right. Also importantly, make sure it's your OWN analogy, as they ask follow up questions about your analogy.

Once done, I was given another piece of paper, with the scenario on it. I was told to read it. The scenario was: You're a first year medical student, asked to talk to a girl before she talks to the doctor. She's an 18 years old and has had diabetes for over 10 years. She's depresed and reluctant to be taking her medication. The questions are like, what would you say? How do you talk to her? How do you read what she is saying (ie. body language, mannerisms, etc)? They were really pushing for me to tell her about her treatment options, and why she has to take them etc. It's important to realise that you're a med student and you can't say ANYTHING about treatments and prognosis. You're just there to talk to her and be a mediator between her and the doctor. Stick to your story no matter how much they push you to give an answer.

There were usually no follow on questions for me, they asked and I answered and they moved on. Most questions they asked I had thought about, and had a general idea what I would talk about. I think this was important, but I did not have prepared answers. Its very helpful to use examples/experiences for as many questions as you can. Smile, look at them when they're talking to you and make eye contact with all of them when you're talking to them (not only to the one asking the question). Right at the end I was asked if there was anything else I'd like to add, I gave them my spiel and thanked them. Stood up and shook their hands (I had forgotten their names) and was taken to the holding chamber.

All in all, my interview was very short (20-25mins). Be concise (they like that) and as hard as it is in that small room, be friendly, confident and comfortable. Don't be afraid to ask for the question again, and if you get asked something you haven't thought about, ask them for a moment to think about it. Use your hands when explaining your answers, and smile and keep eye contact.

I hate having to sell myself. I feel like a tool when I do. However, I have nothing against showing them I'm passionate about wanting to do this. So I don't see it as selling myself, rather as showing them my passion. It is only 30 mintues to do all this, but once the ball is rolling, it'll seem like 30 seconds.

First let me say that the new MMI format at Melbourne is great fun. I had a good time talking to the pretend patients, working through the scenarios and watching videos.

Anyway... here it goes....

At 12:30 we had a presentation from this guy that does this thing at the medical school. Basic information on how the new MMI format  works.

At 1:00 we were shown to the rooms where the interviews were held.

Briefly, there are 10 rooms, each with a different interviewer. You get 2min to read the questions/ instructions posted on the door and then 5min to answer the questions once inside.

Here are the stations and my advice on how to best approach each station (ok, use your own judgement, some advice is clearly there because I want to amuse myself). The number inside the brackets indicate the total number of stations.

The questions include:1) Waching videos to answer questions (2)- one on a gorup of students discussing a topic (very heated and later everyone stared insulting each other. How I would fit right in in that environment, I thought to myself). One where you have to observe a doctor and tell the interviewer what's wrong with the doctor's behaviour.

2) Explain scientific concept in simple terms (1). I chose fermentation out of cloning, vaccination, fermentation and erosion. Psych, no. I chose cloning. Pretend the interviewer is really dumb. Explain everything. EVERYTHING. If you mention cells make sure you explain what cells are. If you mention red, make sure you explain that red is a form of visible light that has the least energy, but has more energy than infared. Also mention other colours of the spectrum, the UV light and gamma rays. Unless you mean red dye then it has nothing to do with gamma rays.

3) Answer standard questions (3 or 4, can't remember)- Australian Health System, Motivation to become a doctor (why? what difficulty might a med student face? etc), situations where you have to work in a group/team. At some point I told one interviewer I sing in the shower to relieve my stress, on the hindsight perhaps I should go with something more constructive (like praying to a picture of Newton). I also told one interviewer I don't do groups because everyone else is stupid (no, I'm kidding, I didn't say that. But you should).  

4) Scenario (1)- you're grandma have eye sight problems but insists to drive. What do you do? What are the potential issues in this scenario? I think the interviewer in this room is tyrying to be the bad cop, and it kind of threw me off at first. I finished early in this station and he suddenly smiled and was all friendly, which confused my little brain to no end.

5) Patient interaction (2)- interact with actors when you're a) a first year medical student and b) a doctor. Make sure you read the information carefully and memorise as much information as you can. I stopped in the middle of talking to the patient to read the information on the A4 paper, and saw the interviewer wrote something down furiously (something along the line of "panics and memory loss under pressure" I am sure). ALso make sure you yell at the patients to show them who's the boss.

There is still one station missing. I can't remember what it is. Maybe someone else can help.

My overall advice is: be yourself, think about what YOU would do in this situation, unless, of course, you're a heartless unempathetic bastards. Enjoy the experience and have fun.

R

There is absolutely no way I would have gotten into UMelb this year if it wasn't for the amazing information and support that this website provides, and so I feel it's important to show my gratitude by adding to this invaluable thread. Luckily, I had thought to write down my thoughts immediately after the interview!

Stress was at an all-time high. I knew that at UMelb, the interview counted as the 100% selection criteria, with GPA/GAMSAT only being used in tie-breakers. I also knew that 40% of the places were either bonded or ERC (extended rural cohort, where you spend all your clinical years in the Rural Clinical School), and that only 45 places were CSP. The knowledge that very worthy PD members had inexplicably missed out on places in previous years also contributed to the general nervousness. I arrived at the designated lecture theatre at 10am for a 10:20am start, and was told by the

Admissions Officer that they were running late (approx 20 mins) because there was a problem with the earlier groups where some computers that had been set up in a couple of the PBL rooms where the interviews were going to take place would not allow anyone to

access their data. I heard 'computers' and must admit I freaked out a little   . What would we be expected to do on computers? Was it a reflex test, an IQ test? I really couldn't devote too much time to that question, as I was simultaneously trying to stop myself from getting up and clobbering the most pompous excuse for a candidate over the head with my fabulous red handbag. I decided that it wasn't fair to the handbag, and instead had to sit quietly and listen to this guy take on the role of surrogate interviewer and grill all people in his immediate vicinity with interview type questions like 'Why do you want to become a doctor?, or 'What

problems do you think medicine faces in the future?'   . He seemed to think it was also equally important for us all to know that he was already a doctor (as in dentist). He then proceeded to tell us how most dislocated jaw presentations at his hospital were the result of idiotic behaviour, and that he was saw a patient with an amazing blah blah blah in his blah blah blah (insert complex medical terminology here). After a while, Kevin from Admissions addressed the group and there was a brief run-down of the interview process. I had asked if there was anyone from PD, and there was only one other member and he looked so sick, poor thing (travel sickness I presume). Everyone else was pretty much 'What is paging dr?' which was reassuring for me, because its an amazing resource, and whatever advantage that provides I will gladly take. Anyway, back to the MMI. It was pretty much identical to the Deakin MMI, in that there were 10 stations, each one running for 5 minutes and there was 2 minutes to get to your next station. There was no confidentiality agreement, and no snack table either! However each room had a cup of water for the interviewee to drink (if they wanted to waste precious seconds drinking).

The thing that freaked me out a little was that the 5 minutes included any reading time that was necessary for the scenario/station. I was under the mistaken impression that perhaps the details of the scenario would be placed outside the door for us to read during the 2 min transition, before we entered the room. However, although there was a sign outside each door that indicated what the station would be examining, there wasn't too much detail. Five minutes was barely enough to answer questions without the need to read material too. We had two stations where there were professional actors. They were totally amazing, very convincing as patients. We also had two stations where we watched a short video (the reason for having the computers) and answered some questions relating to it. There was  also a mix of the traditional questions and an ethical scenario too. Station One: You were a doctor that had to inform the actress/patient that she had a virus, and would require 2 Panadol, 4 times a day and would need to take time off from work (she worked in a nursing home). Once this information was communicated, she then proceeded to say that she couldn't take any time off because she had used all her sick leave when her husband was sick. You then had to deal with all the issues and obstacles that she brought up. Station Two: You had to define, in layman's terms, one of four scientific words using examples from real life. The options included cloning, corrosion and vaccination (can't remember the fourth). I chose vaccination and used Gardasil as the real life example. There was an observer in the room for this station and that threw me off a little bit. It's important to make sure that you use simple terms and analogies to explain the term, and not slip into scientific jargon. Station Three: This was a traditional station that aimed to determine your motivation for studying medicine. There were 4 questions that were asked. Why do you want to study medicine? What are the challenges/negative aspects to studying medicine? How do you think you will need to change your learning style? What sort of training is necessary to become a fully fledged doctor? Station Four: Another traditional station that posed several questions. What are the biggest challenges facing health care in Australia? What can be done to correct those problems in the

next few years? What are the challenges facing rural doctors and why are there problems attracting doctors to rural areas? What can be done to improve rural health care? Station Five: I was shown a video of a PBL session, and there was an argument that brewed between a male and female member of the team. I was then asked questions pertaining to the group dynamic and how the problems could have been solved earlier. I found this station at bit difficult. The interviewer was young, a bit of a cold fish, and he had a moustache. Who, in this day and age, under the age of 30 has a moustache? (outside of Movember?) Station Six: Another traditional station asking about the pros and cons of working in a team, and also asking me to give examples of when I have worked in a team. One of my worst stations, I had a couple of long pauses where I quietly freaked out. Station Seven: Another practical station with an elderly actor. You were a medical student who had to sit with him before he saw his doctor. He confides in you his problems and feelings and asks for medical advice. Took me a little while to get into the groove with this one. It is important to realise that as a medical student you cannot dispense medical advice, because you are not qualified to do so. This station was testing your ability to form a rapport with people, and your ability to show compassion. Station Eight: An ethical station. My 75 year old grandmother is suffering some problems with her eyesight and is delaying seeing an optometrist and asks me not to tell anyone. What do you do? The interviewer kept throwing obstacles my way, asking me what I would do if my grandmother absolutely refused to see an optometrist. I was honest and said that if my cajoling and persuasion didn't work, nor my reassurance that I would be there for her throughout the process, then I would confiscate her keys as she would be a danger to herself and society, until she agreed to come with me to the optometrist. Tough love, and I agonised over this for ages, thinking this would be the station that sunk my hopes and dreams of Medicine, but I must have done better than I had thought. Station Nine: Another video, this time of a very obviously stressed patient that has concerns that her cancer might return and the doctor is very dismissive and joking around, telling her to go home, not think about it and have a cup of tea. The questions then related to the interaction between the two and what did I think the patient was feeling. Important to talk about body language here (the patient was wringing her hands) and about the duties of doctors involving communicating with the patient, listening to their concerns and addressing them appropriately. Station Ten: Another traditional station, that posed the question 'Tell me about a time in which you had to make a decision, and how you came to that decision'. I spoke about the decision I had made to quit my research degree to become a full-time carer to my daughter who has autism. It was risky, because in the back of my mind I was afraid that it might appear to be an obstacle to my future studies, but I emphasised the point that my personal circumstances had changed to allow me to focus on my own needs.  

My feelings at the time:

I'm not very sure how I feel. Some stations I felt I did extremely well. Others, I am quite unsure. I am naturally a very pessimistic person, so am hoping that I did better than I think. Funnily enough, the more time that passes the worse I feel I went, and it doesnt help reading posts on PD by certain people claiming the process was 'fun' and gave them 'a high'.

Even in hindsight I still cringe over some things, but I have figured out that it is impossible to determine exactly how you perform. Some people will say they felt comfortable, but miss out, and others will be convinced they flunked but then scrape through. I am just relieved that I

don't have to sit GAMSAT or interview ever again!    

Tips:

- be yourself. Don't try and portray someone that you are not, because the interviewees will see through your facade.- be passionate. If you have strong opinions about something, express them with as much passion and conviction as possible.- don't cry over spilt milk. As soon as you finish one station, wipe it out of your mind. Don't obsess over your performance in the previous station when you need to focus on the next one approaching.- smile and show a bit of your personality.- don't park in a two hour spot, only to finish late and find a $50 fine awaiting you on the

windscreen  

-Melbourne Uni – 2009 Entry-

The Melbourne Uni Interview process had 10 interviews of 5 minutes each (MMI). At each interview, a number of questions were asked and we had to make sure that we gave the interviewer enough time to ask all the questions. Some of my friends had spent too much time answering the first question and eventually they left the interviewer no time to ask the rest of the questions. Some of the interviews gave us a scenario and we were asked a few questions from it. Then there were also a few interviews where they showed us a video and asked us questions from it. Lastly, there were about two interviews where we had to talk to a person acting like a patient. On the door of each room where each interview was held, there was a paper telling us which criteria was going to be assessed at the interview.

-Station 1-

This was about rural medicine. 1. what do you think the main concerns and issues are today in the health system of Australia?2. what are the pros of rural medicine? 3. what are the cons of rural medicine?

-Station 2-

Here we had to talk to a patient who had started feeling very forgetful. He says that he has lived by himself ever since his wife passed away. He also says that his family wants him to come stay with them or go into a home for the aged. But he says that he's too independent to do so and that he feels he's still fit enough to live alone. Also, he has come to talk to me before seeing his GP since he knows that I'm a student who is planning on doing medicine.

-Station 3-

Here they showed us a video of a PBL group discussing the classification system of Cancer. One student gets something wrong and this other student loses his temper and starts scolding and being rude to everyone. The questions were, 1. what are the main issues shown here?2. how do you think Steve (the boy who lost his temper) should have responded?3. what could you have done if this occurred in your PBL group? What will you do?

-Station 4-

Here they showed us a video of a conversation between a doctor and a cancer patient who had just undergone surgery. The doctor wants her to go home and rest and says that the surgery was successful and that she has nothing to worry. But the patient keeps asking "Doctor, I'm very scared. Did they get all the cancer cells?". The doctor replies saying that everything is fine and that she has nothing to worry. The patient again asks the same question. The doctor again smiles and says again that she has nothing to worry and to go home and relax. The questions were,1. what are the main issues seen here?2. How would you have responded if you were the doctor?

3. what are the issues that the patient is concerned about?

-Station 5-

1. why do you want to do medicine? 2. what have you done to prepare yourself for medicine?3. have you done any voluntary work in the past? (I said something that I did in my last year in school and they wanted to hear something more recent than that.)

-Station 6-

We had to select a term from a list of 5 and describe it to the interviewer. I chose 'vaccination'. I really can't remember the others.

-Station 7-

The acting patient's diagnosis was given to us on a sheet of paper and we had to describe what was wrong with her and what she had to do. (This was all given on the sheet of paper) She was down with the flu and we had to tell her to take panadol, two tablets at a time, after meals and not more than 4 times a day. We also had to tell her to take about two days off from work and she responds by saying that she cannot do that since recently also she took leave for a holiday. We then have to keep talking to her.

-Station 8-

At this station, we were given a scenario. The scenario was that my grandma feels that her eyesight is deteriorating but says that she is going to keep driving since she is only going to be doing so in her town which she says she is very well acquainted with and knows her way around very well. She also says that she will go and see her optician 'soon' and that she will be very disappointed if I tell someone else about this. The questions were,

1. what will you say to her?2. what will you do if you find out that she is not going to see her optician?3. what will you say to her now?

-Station 9-

1. what are the pros and cons of team work?2. have you been part of a team and give us an example.3. what were the issues you had to deal with when you were in the team?

There has to be one more station, but I can't remember it. But I will think of it and if I do remember I'll post it here. Hope all of this helps.

Forgive the selective memory here; some scenarios are as clear as day, others not so.

Station OneThis was the archetypal 'why medicine' station. I'll leave it to other people to recall the rest of the prompts - it was my opener and it flew by.- What are your motivations for doing medicine?- How have you prepared for it?

Station TwoVideo - PBL with five students and a moderator. One student insults another for suggesting a particular discussion topic. Another responds by criticising the first student. Moderator says nothing. Same scenario as 2 years back for MBBS entry.- What are the issues?- How did the students react? Was this acceptable?- If you were in the room, would you have intervened?- What are the problems with this kind of environment?

Station ThreeVideo – Post op cancer patient is concerned that cancer may return. Doctor is dismissive, claiming that she’s fine and should go home, relax and eat a nice meal. She repeats her concerns ad nauseum.-   What are the issues?-   What’s wrong with the doctor’s behaviour?-   How would you expect the patient to react to the doctor’s advice?

Station FourScenario – You’re a university undergraduate living in the same city as your family. Your parents have gone away for the weekend and you’re babysitting your 14 year old brother, who claims that he’s been bullied. He asks you not to tell anyone about this.- How would you react?- Would you inform anyone?- Why would you come to this decision?

 Station FiveRole Play – You’re a first year medical student reading an anatomy text on a plane. The woman sitting beside you begins talking. She says:- I’ve fallen twice in the past few months. What do you think I should do?- I’ve listened to an ABC radio doctor who said a particular exercise regime can be used to help people after they’ve fallen; what do you think about this?- My daughter wants to put me in a retirement home. My doctor said I was fine six months ago but she’s so controlling. What should I do?- I can’t talk to my son about any of this – he’s in Sydney and going through a divorce.

Station SixA station about decision making. Seemed rather circular to me and the interviewer (by design or not) seemed preoccupied with the idea of issues.-   Explain a difficult decision you had to make?-   What were the issues?-   What methods of research were used to make the decision?-   How did it affect you and the other people?   Station SevenThis one came from left field – it was about feedback, and seemed undersubscribed in terms of the interviewer’s prompts. We were asked to explain a time, professionally or at university where we were given feedback, positive or negative. The follow up prompts were:- How was the feedback given?- How did you react to it?

Station EightThe classic detechnicalize station (explain a medical concept, with aid of an everyday example or analogy, for someone with no scientific background). I could choose between kilojoule, DNA and osmosis, though they did change day to day apparently.

Station NineAustralian Health System.- What are the major issues, in your opinion, within our health system?- Specific to Indigenous health, what are the problems we face?- Fast forward 10 years; will the Indigenous health situation have changed?- If you were Health Minister, how would you move to remedy these problems?

 Station TenTeamwork/collaboration. Quite liked this one as a way to close things out.-   What are the positive aspects of teamwork?-   Provide an example of a team environment you’ve previously worked in?-   What would you do if someone in your assignment group was taking credit for the work of others?

-   Would you confront them and what are the potential consequences?

Melbourne MMI - Wednesday 29th September 2010My questions were the same as Esky's, I'll try to give an account of my experience rather than restating the questions, and try to fill in any blanks wherever possible.

I was in the morning group. We began with a powerpoint presentation that explained the key points. The main thing I got out of that presentation: TIMING IS ESSENTIAL! Most stations would have 4 questions that we only had 5 minutes to answer. We were told clearly that the interviewer would not prompt us to stop talking so they could ask the next question, and that if they ran out of time and couldn't ask all of the questions that we would lose marks for the questions unanswered. I had a big break before my interview, so I spent some time watching a clock and running possible answers through my head to get a gauge of exactly how long 5 minutes is. I think that helped me a lot, because I managed not to run out of time on any of the stations.

I'll refer to the station numbers by the numbers that Esky used so I don't have to repeat the descriptions again:

The first station for everyone, regardless of where we started was the "why medicine" station. My answer was the typical stuff that I'm sure the interviewers hear every single time they ask this question. One thing I remember being asked at this station that hasn't previously been mentioned is "what changes will you have to make to study medicine." It's hard to know how I went on this station. Even though I was honest, it felt like my answers sounded rehearsed.

My next station after that was Station Six.

Station SixI really enjoyed this station, but I suppose I was lucky because I had to make a very important decision not all that long ago. The interviewer at this station was my favourite for the day. I felt that we connected really well and she was very interested in what I was saying.

Station SevenLike Esky, I really didn't see this station coming. Unlike Esky, I was asked specifically to describe negative feedback, how it was given and how I handled it. I've recently started a new job where I'm making heaps of mistakes and receiving feedback almost constantly, so I didn't have much trouble with this station either. The interviewer seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say here, so I think it probably went well. One concern is that I referred to one of the biggest mistakes I've made at work as being something that I "screwed up". Probably not the best choice of language.

Station EightThe words I was given: Alkali, Chromosome, Gravity. The final result: Disaster.The description on the wall said to make sure to ask the person whether they understood your explanation. However, I was so bothered by my awful description of gravity that I completely forgot about doing that until after the bell rang. I finished with at least a minute left and we sat at spoke about the footy. Easily my worst station.

Station NineTo question 1 of this station I spoke about Indigenous health. I'm glad I did, because I essentially answered the first two questions in one, which meant I had heaps of time to answer the last two questions in more detail. I felt that this was my best station.

Station TenI can honestly say I didn't see this station coming. However, in hindsight I definitely should have, given that medicine is all about teamwork. I've needed to work as part of a team in every job I've ever had, so even though I felt like I should have prepared for this station, I think I still managed reasonable answers. Fairly happy with how this station went.

Station TwoThe first of the two video-based stations. I'm not entirely sure why, but just before the bell rang for this station, a lady walked into the room. She sat there in the corner during my whole MMI, and then left after it was done. I'm still not sure whether that was deliberate or not, but I don't think it affected me too much. I think my answers to this station were pretty decent.

Station FiveMy heart sank when at the pre-MMI presentation we were told that at least one station would have an actor. I was pretty sure I'd have a difficult time with this station. The actor was still talking when the bell rang, but I've been told that this was supposed to be the case. I'm not quite sure how I did with this station, but I know I didn't make the mistake of offering medical advice. Overall, I think it probably wasn't too bad.

Station ThreeI always hated drama class, and I've often called it the most useless class I ever took in high school. This station made me eat those words. In the video, the Doctor walks in and the first thing the obviously distressed patient sees is his back. It's all she sees for the first 10 seconds or so. When he finally turns around, the Doctor is flopped back into his chair, and really looks like he couldn't care less.Everything we learned about body positioning and body language was so useful for this station. I might even find my old drama teacher and buy him a bottle of wine.

Station FourMy last station. When I mentioned that I would be prepared to break my sister's trust if I felt that she was in danger, the interviewer seemed to cringe a little. That unnerved me a bit, and I felt that throughout the rest of this station I was a little bit hesistant in my answers because of that. Every question the interviewer asked seemed to be the same thing as I'd already answered, and I repeated myself a bit, which indicates that I probably wasn't listening carefully enough to her questions. Not the ideal finish.

Melbourne MMI 29th Sept

All the questions are the same, but I think some of the prompts have changed.

Station 1: Why do you want  be a doctor?What are the negative aspects?How do you learn?How will you have to change your learning style?

Station 2: As Esky's

Station 3: As Esky'sI was unsure about this station since I finished with time to spare, probably because I was speaking to fast...

Station 4: Same as Esky'sWhat are the issues here?What will you do?I can't really remember the prompts beyond that. One of my worst stations. I didn't really discuss the trust/confidentiality aspect of it and spoke more about ascertaining if she is indeed being bullied (or just taking things the wrong way), or if there is physical abuse involved and why she doesn't want to tell anyone because there are pros to discussing this with the teacher etc. I emphasized my concern, and that bullying shouldn't be tolerated- by not speaking out we are allowing this behaviour to continue.

Station 5: Slight different scenario. Same anatomy textbook on the plane and elderly woman suffering from falls. However, she doesn't want to see a doctor, nor tell her children about this because she doesn't think it's important and that her daughter would want to put her in the nursing home.

I felt pretty tense throughout, so not my best station.

Station 6: Same as Esky's

Station 7: Same but she asked "did you change your behaviour?" I was surprised at this since there is a clear "correct" answer, and it's not "no".

Station 8:enzyme, virus, electromagnet (I think? I went with enzyme straight away so I could be wrong about the last one)

Station 9: Essentially the same, but I don't think my prompts were about indigenous health only. I could be wrong, since I spoke mainly about indigenous health anyway and ran out of time...

Station 10: First two prompts the same. The last prompt was "How would you deal with people from diffrent cultures in your team?" I was also asked about the pros AND cons of teamwork.

I flew down from Brisbane the day before, I am glad I did this because I HATE flying! It also allowed me to get my bearings and figure out which tram to get to the Uni.

I was in the afternoon session, so that morning I had a quiet breakfast in my hotel room (yay

room service  )and spent the morning reviewing my notes and watching tv.I wore a business dress and white shirt with stockings and low black closed in heels with simple makeup and neat hair. It was freezing in Melbourne and I was underprepared I should have had a jacket!

I got the the venue about an hour early and sat downstairs for awhile so I could psych myself

up to getting on the elevator to the 8th floor 

Waited for awhile and they did the intro speech some people were in the group starting straight away (me)  and some were in the group starting in 2 hours (they were allowed to leave and come back)We were broken up into groups of 10 and taken to the MMI rooms. From here on in everything went REALLY quickly.

1. Motivation for pursuing a career in Health Science

2. Dr-Patient video: patient post cancer surgery visits the GP because she is concerned about the outcome of the surgery, doc is dismissive and tells her to get over it. We had to discuss the issues with the scenario.

3. Talking about a major decision that you have had to make, how you made it, who it affected, how did you find out the necessary info, how did you know it would affect people in certain ways?

4. Decision Making - Sister being Bullied at school, she approaches you one weekend when parents are away. What decisions do you make, how do you make them, who do they affect?

5. Taking negative feedback, when was a time you recieved feedback and how do you deal with it, what do you do when you get negative feedback?

6. Technical terms (ozone layer, recessive, soluble)

7. Issues in Australian Health Care: what are some of the issues in Australian health at the moment? what can be done about them? what are some of the downfalls of the health system

catering to aboriginal communities?

8. PBL Video : argument in a PBL group , how do you feel that pbl session went? what could have been done to make it better? is there anything they could have done to avoid this situation?

9. Teamwork - tell us about a time that you have been on a team , have you ever been in a situation where someone tried to submit work that wasnt their own?, have you ever caught someone plagarising?

10. Empathy exercise with actor you are on a plane reading an anatomy book and the traveller next to you begins to talk to you. she is having falls and is concerned about being sent to a nursing home by her daughter.

Overall I actually thought it was quite difficult, I struggled with the 5 min times and found it really hard to connect with some of the interviewers, I felt as though some of them just stared blankly at me and didn't give anything away, which I found quite uncomfortable. A few of them were lovely and smiled which put me at ease.Once it was all over we were hearded to the elevators and told to leave the Uni immediately.

I did the Melbourne interview with mostly the same questions as Esky, but some different prompts, which i have elaborated on.

I feel I did NOT do very well, despite lots of preparation - stress does crazy things to you sometimes!! I found myself coming out with things on the day that i couldn't BELIEVE i was

saying   oh well!!

Station OneWhy medicine?How do you learn?How would you have to change this?

This interviewer i didn't get a great vibe from. He seemed smug and smirked at a few of my answers. Made me really shaky and nervous - shame, because i had to have him twice.

Station TwoPBL video - same prompts as Esky- What are the issues?- How did the students react? Was this acceptable?- What could have been done to prevent this situation from happening?

Station ThreeVideo – Post op cancer patient is concerned that cancer may return. Doctor is dismissive, claiming that she’s fine and should go home, relax and eat a nice meal. She repeats her concerns ad nauseum.-   What are the issues?-   What’s wrong with the doctor’s behaviour?-   How would you expect the patient to react to the doctor’s advice?

Station Four14 year old sister being bullied...

I TOTALLY missed the last point about the sister not wanting me to tell anyone. TERRIFIED about how i did in this station consequently - I started off talking about how i would comfort the sister, see if she had support from friends, and then TELL MY PARENTS! eek. Interviewer then prompted me asking if i would inform the school, I said yes.

Apparently i am going to make a lousy doctor who has no respect for the privacy or

confidentiality of people   haha

 Station FiveRole Play – You’re a first year medical student reading an anatomy text on a plane. The woman sitting beside you begins talking. She says:- I’ve fallen twice in the past few months. What do you think I should do?- I’ve listened to an ABC radio doctor who said a particular exercise regime can be used to help people after they’ve fallen; what do you think about this?- My daughter wants to put me in a retirement home. My doctor said I was fine six months ago but she’s so controlling. What should I do?- I can’t talk to my son about any of this – he’s in Sydney and going through a divorce.

I got all of these prompts. My strongest station, as i work as a phone counsellor and have lots of training in open question asking and reassuring/validating people's strengths. I think that it is important in this one to recognize that the woman is competent and a good judge of her own abilities - but to encourage her to become more informed about her situation.

Station SixA station about decision making. Same prompts as Esky-   Explain a difficult decision you had to make?-   What were the issues?-   What methods of research were used to make the decision?-   How did it affect you and the other people?   Station SevenFeedback question - only asked about NEGATIVE feedback.- How was the feedback given?- How did you react to it?

Station EightDetechnicalize station - I had metabolism, evaporation, normal distribution. Chose evaporation but ACTUALLY started explaining vaporization. When i asked if i was being understood, the interviewer said no. Eeep! sat awkwardly for about 2 minutes after

failed explanation in silence. Have to laugh about this one it was so bad. Pretty disappointing to see that other people got osmosis because i had prepared a cracking analogy for that one!

Station NineAustralian Health System.- What are the major issues, in your opinion, within our health system?- Specific to Indigenous health, what are the problems we face?- Fast forward 10 years; will the Health situation in Australia have changed?- If you were Health Minister, how would you move to remedy these problems?

 Station Ten

-   What are the positive and negative aspects of teamwork? - Tell me about when you have worked on a team to complete a project (this one threw me, as i have worked in MANY team environments and can talk prolifically about them - but the insertion of "project" made me feel limited to discussing a uni project, which was very awkward and such a poor answer compared to one i could have given to a general prompt, which it seemed other people got)  

- have you ever worked with someone who tried to pass of someone else's work as their own?

I ran out of time here.... i said no, but imagine they then would have prompted me with "how would you have responded if you did encounter the situation"

General advice: they will encourage you to relax. PLEASE do try try try as much as possible. My nerves got the best of me, and i thus answered very poorly to some things which i have amazing experience in. If i get the opportunity to interview again i would spend much less time thinking about possible questions and stressing and MUCH more time developing ways to be confident and relaxed.

I had my interview at the University of Melbourne- the questions were very similar to that described by other interviewees so far. I had so much fun that I don't really remember much of the specifics. So in no particular order:

1.   Interest in the health sciences. Basically reasons why you chose medicine, and learning styles (I had to think back a couple of years to when I was at uni, and describe how I took notes in lectures etc.). I had a fantastic interviewer for this station. He really opened up to me- told me he was a doctor and taught at the university (they’re not supposed to talk about themselves). It felt more like a conversation (probably due to his experience). He also nodded very encouragingly at my answers (very different to some of the descriptions here of interviewers which gave no indication of how you were doing). I was VERY lucky to get him twice. The second time we spoke about teamwork, and what to do if you were working in a group and someone had plagarised. He even joked with me right at the end!2.   Video about a group session in which a guy was berating a girl in the group for researching too much into something that was potentially un-examinable. You had to describe the interaction, and what the tutor could have done. 3.   Video about a lady going to see her GP post-surgery for cancer and the GP was dismissing her concerns. The interviewer I had for this station was also very nice. 4.   Australian health issues. I did quite badly in this station because I totally ran out of time. I had a feeling the interviewer wasn’t as experienced as the others. She asked me to name some of the main issues. I described a couple and she asked me if there were any more I could think of. Of course there were more, but we didn’t have all day! So I didn’t get to answer the second question which was about aboriginal health issues, which I was gutted about.5.   Establishing rapport. I had to talk to a lady who was, hypothetically, sitting next to me on a flight, and she talked about experiencing falls and asked me what she should do about it. She also went to a GP who told her it wasn’t serious. Then she told me her daughter was considering putting her in a home. The interviewer didn’t have a job except to observe our interactions. I ran out of time for this station, but I think I got near the end at least. The questions actually seemed endless for this station.6.   Describing scientific terms in layman’s language. Choices were Kilojoule, DNA and osmosis. I chose DNA and only took two minutes. I don’t know how well I did, but it did help that we got to use paper or the whiteboard. The interviewer said not to worry about being brief- “sometimes it takes two minutes and sometimes it takes five.” The rest of the time I spent talking to the interviewer about Melbourne and the football.7.   Feedback. Describing a recent situation when you received feedback. I think I aced this station, because I receive feedback so often in my line of work- I even did a course on giving and receiving feedback, so I said all of this, and the interviewer said I told a nice story. Haha.8.   Describing an important decision you recently made. From listening to the questions, it was almost like they expected you to say “applying to medical school” or something along those lines, because then you had to describe how you considered your family in your decision. 9.   You’re babysitting your little sister, who’s 14, while your parents are away. She tells you she’s being bullied at school. What do you say to her?

All in all, I had a great time at the interview. All the interviewers were nice and very fair- I was expecting bad cops everywhere! It went by so quickly, and even though there were many more things I could’ve said (5 minutes isn’t long enough!), I felt pretty good about my effort. I actually expected a lot more scenario-based questions, but I felt the questions they asked weren’t particularly hard- as long as you’ve got the right mind-set, and you know why you’re

there! I was very relaxed for my interview. I had a good sleep, and I was pumped for the interview. Confidence is a BIG plus- it’s not just about what you say but how you say it!

Well, what an experience!The others look to have covered things well, so I’ll just add a bit of my experience and fill out the big picture a bit.

I decided to walk to the med school, it got me in a good space. I gave myself heaps of time and relaxed at Seven Seeds coffee, makers of the best coffee ever to pass my lips, in the excess time.Everyone was nervous when we arrived, I was determined to talk to people to break the ice, and was chatting to a guy in the lift who told me that UMelb is the best program in Australia. I immediately thought, “That wouldn’t pass muster on PD!”So glad I wore a suit! Probably about three of the guys there weren’t in suits so this seems to be the formal end of the scale. The girls were tidily dressed ranging from suits to smart casual, but very muted. But I would still recommend people wear something they are reasonably comfortable wearing.They divided the people present for that session into three time groups, each time group was further divided into three groups of ~ten peeps who did three simultaneous MMIs in different locations in the building.

The MMI occurred in a single corridor, each station was in a different room and you simply went to the next door for your next station. In between we made jokes, talked to the invigilators and gave each other encouraging smiles as we steeled ourselves for the next challenge. I quite liked that – it wasn’t as cutthroat as I thought it would be.

Stations:We were briefed that there were five domains being examined; I think these were along the lines of: motivations for studying med, health issues, decision making, communication skills, and rapport. Not sure. Anyway, there are two stations for each. They tell you on the door which domain is being tested and give you minimal info on what will happen, e.g. “you will watch a clip and answer questions”, or “They will ask you some questions”

Detech:I got DNA, osmosis, kJ. I went with DNA, spent no time on the much lauded double helix and went back to first principals – in the nucleus of cells, universal code, made up of nucleotide building blocks, triplets of which code for AAs which make proteins. Underlined that DNA is the code, proteins are the print-out with the actual function. Nearly started going on about other functions of DNA such as NETs but luckily stopped myself. I talked about the section of DNA that codes for a functional protein being called a gene, since I had no doubt he would be familiar with the term. He asked a question if we both had blue eyes, would we both have the same gene, to which I replied that it was likely in that case but not always that simple. I felt that I was showing him a lot of my back as I wrote on the board, so tried to limit that. As far as confirming he got it, I just asked him if he got it and he said yeah, then asked the aforementioned question.

The guy on a plane:This one I found really fun. The dude seemed to be a professional actor and I think I was able to talk to him as though it was a real conversation, which I’m pretty sure most of us can manage. I mean you all know how to talk to people right?! My back was turned to the assessor too, which helped me forget about her.

PBL argument:I really hope this was staged, it was quite horrible to watch the group explode like that. The guy who was older and wore a tie who said nothing may not have been the tutor, so I was careful to say that if he was the tutor he could have said something. The young woman with wavy red hair may have been the tutor too, but I think she was probably just a member of the PBL group with  the guts to stand up to the guy who snapped.

Feedback, Teamwork, Decision making ones:

Pretty standard, give an example, discuss…

Health issues: Pays to be on PD, read the newspaper, talk to docs, give two s ts, etc! Nothing too scary unless you have your head in the sand.

Bullying:This one came under decision making but it seems like it was ethics in sheep’s clothing. I was careful not to betray the younger brother’s trust unless danger to him outweighed the breach of trust. Talked about maybe speaking in hypothetical terms to a friend who didn’t know the bro. Also mentioned looking up how to help on the web. Discussed what might be behind his request for confidentiality i.e. shame, fear of retributions, and how that needed to be factored in.

It didn’t seem to race past but it certainly wasn’t a drawn out affair. You could keep a track of progress by the number of stickers you had left. Afterwards they told us to clear out! I went and had a Coopers pale.

Hey all, it's been about two-ish weeks since my MMI interview at Melbourne Uni and I couldn't have done it without PD. So here's my contribution, I'm sorry if I can't remember some things, but I think I got most of it.

Station 1:Why do you want to be a doctor? (Probably the hardest question to answer my advice - stay calm and be passionate. Show them that you really want it.)What are some challenges you would face when studying medicine?(I guess they just want to make sure you know that it's going to be a long hard haul and that you are prepared for it. Emphasise that being a well rounded person is important and juggling priorities and finding time for things outside academia would be the biggest challenge)

Station 2:What are some problems with the Australian health system? (There are numerous and some reading on the national health goals is probably a good idea)What would you suggest as a solution to some of those problems?What are the main health concerns in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities?

Station 3:There was a video of a PBL session and a boy in the group totally shut down a suggestion made by a student and starting telling her she was stupid for saying that and continued to shout at her. The tutor did not intervene. What was wrong with that group?How could they manage the problem?How would you handle the situation?

Station 4:There was an old woman actor and we were given a scenario. You are a first year student on a plane reading a medical text book and an elderly woman notices this and asks for advice. The women was falling alot and her daughter was concerned about this and wanted her to move into an aged care facility. The woman did not want to lose her independence and was worried that moving into an aged care home would mean that she would.You need to develop a rapport with the woman and offer suggestions on how to solve her problem. It is important to acknowledge that you are just a student and that you cannot offer any medical advice.

Station 5: A video of a woman come in for a consultation following surgery. She had cancer and the surgery was to remove the cells. She was very worried that they did not get it all and asked the doctor if they did. The doctor just brushed her of and told her "yes, yes don't worry, you're fine.." and she was like "oh but it's really getting me down etc.". He basically just brushed her off.

What was wrong with this scenarios?What problems would arise in doctor-patient relationship?How would you handle this?

Station 6:How do you make decisions and when did you make a decision that has impacted the person around you?And follow up questions on decision making.

Station 7:There are two kinds of feedback, positive and negative. Give an example of recieving negative feedback. How did you deal with it?

Station 8:Your parents are away for the weekend and you move back home to look after your younger sister. She is 14 years old (if i remember correctly). She comes to you and says she is being verbally bullied at school and tells you not to tell anyone. How would you deal with this situation?

Station 9: Describe a situation where you worked in a group. What are some advantages and disadvantages of working in a group? Did you ever come across a situation where a person did not pull their own weight? How did you deal with it?

Station 10:Explain one of these words to a lay person:EvaporationMetabolismStandard Deviation (I think this was the last one)You are allowed to use a white board and be sure to ask the examiner if they understood and if they were following you.

Finally, stay calm, they are just normal people. The most important thing is to be yourself and

be passionate. 

The Melbourne MD interview is a quite intense hour long MMI. The questions which I had were identical to those which have ben posted by others in previous pages, so I wont repeat them. However, I will discuss ways in which to approach the interview.

1- The Melbourne MMI is comprised of 10 x 5 minute interviews, where each station examines a particular attribute the medical school is looking for in candidates.Basically in an MMI you have to answer the question(s) of a station SUCCINCTLY and CLEARLY!! Get to the point, do NOT waffle on or try to speak eloquently with flowery language. The MMI is a race against the clock (simliar to Gamsat) and 5 minutes passes with lightning speed. You are graded on the quality of the answers and the ability to complete all questions competantly in the designated time.

2-The stations which involve video footage are especially tricky, as the length of the video is around 1.5 minutes, leaving you with 3.5 minutes to answer several questions pertaining to the scenario.

3- A lot of people seem to struggle with the Detechnicalization station. In my interview I was asked to explain the term 'Nucleus' in layman's terms. The important point here is to use a tangible real life example which serves as an analogy. The interviewer here was quite demanding and made a concerted effort to unsettle candidates with follow up questions. Make sure you ask the interviewer whether they understand your explanation, this sort of communication is what they are looking for and reflects interactions in clinical practice.

4-The Role play station with actors can be either a lot of fun or terrifying, depending on your

disposition. I think this station is your chance to shine and show your personality. Be warm and show compassion to the actor, smile, use eye contact, listen to them - again this is what you will be required to do as a doctor on a daily basis.

5- The "why medicine"? station: This is another question which for some reason strikes fear into candidates all over the land. One would think that after the ordeal of Gamsat and efforts to boost GPAs, candidates would have clarity as to WHY they want to study medicine. I think some people struggle here as they are trying to find the perfect answer which will dazzle the interviewer, which in my opinion is the wrong approach to this question!! Others simply have no mature or genuine motives for pursuing medicine and scramble to put together a "textbook" answer. Ultimately, you need to do some self assesment and be clear and honest to yourself as to WHY you want to be a doctor. Be sure to explain to the interviewer why medicine interests you and back it up with a real life example. If your motives for wanting to study medicine are genuine, your passion will definitely be reflected in the answer.

6-DONT LIE!!!!! The interviewers are extremely intelligent and perceptive people who are trained to decipher genuine answers from crap ones. Be honest and back your answers, after all they want to get to know you, not a false puppet!

7- Be HUMBLE!!! Once again the interviewers can detect arrogance and pretentiousness a mile away. I have personally spoken to previous interviewers who in the past have either failed or marked down a candidate because of a "know it all" and arrogant attitude. Nobody likes a cold stuck up individual!!! Just remember studying medicine is an honour and a privelage, just because you have an interview or a high Gamsat/GPA does not mean you have a God given right to walk into medical school on a red carpet!!

8- Have fun: The interview process is stressful and intense, but it can also be enjoyable. Be pleasant and courteous to the other candidates, you are all in this together!

After the interview............enjoy a glass of cab-merlot. You deserve it     

A couple of PDers have been confused about why no-one wrote up their 2011 interview experiences, so thought I should post what I remember. Overall - it was very similar to to previous years. There were 8 stations with 5 minutes each.

I received an allocated time for my interview. I had something else on, so they said they'd try to reschedule me - and they did. I ended up interviewing on the day all the kiwi students were being interviewed.

I reported to the lecture theatre (Wright theatre I think). There's a list up on the projector screen to tell you what time your interview is, and groups are progressively called down to the front of the room to be ticked off on the attendence sheet and to be given barcodes.

Then you sit and wait in the seats, and chat to whoever you're sitting next to.

Eventually, your time comes. They walk you up the stairs (several flights of them) to the 7th floor. This is where PBL/CSL tutorials are held. You stand in front of a door and leave your bag there. By the end of the interview you'll be back at the same door and can pick your bag up. The corridor is reasonably secure, so it feels safe to leave your bag up there.

There is a paper sign on every door to tell you what the station is testing, and to give you other information about the station. You get a short time to read it, then the bell rings and you go in. You normally sit on the short end of a long white rectangular table, while the interviewer sits on the adjacent long side - so you're sort of diagonally opposite each other. You say hello and hand over your barcode.

Then you start in your own time. I think there was a copy of all the station information inside in case you need to read it again.

My stations were:(1) Watch a video of a bad tutorial interaction where one student yells at another one for being too concerned with details and slowing the class down; explain what was wrong and how it could be addressed.

(2) Sit down with an actor who is playing the part of an elderly person - he notices you are a medical student, and says he's had a fall, and his daughter is all concerned about him, and what should he do? ** don't get hung up thinking you have to do anything very original here, or that it's a chance to show you are a worthy, kind person; it's to see whether you can build rapport, and you don't need to be a nice person to know how that works (nor do they care) you just need to do stuff like this (we have a checklist in first year of how we are expected to interact with patients): nod your head, say "u-huh", not interrupt, lean in towards them, clarify things they say, echo what they've said, occasionally re-summarise what they've said, give some useful & appropriate advice, express polite appropriate concern for their distress.

(3) Explain a scientific term in laymen's terms, using everyday examples & a whiteboard (I chose phenotype/genotype & made a hash of it). You must ask the interviewer whether they understand what you're saying so they can ask you to clarify things on the way. It's the only station where I finished early.

(4) Why do you want to study medicine? You won't be challenged with silly questions about "why not nursing?" - it's very straight forward.

(5) Watch a video of a doctor talking to a woman about her cancer, which can been "cured". She is very worried anyway, and he is very dismissive and patronising towards her. You watch the video and answer several questions about what was wrong, how she felt, what should have happened to improve the interaction etc.

(6) What are some of the advantages & disadvantages of working in a group? Talk about some examples from your own experience.

(7) How do you make decisions?

( 8 ) Can't remember, so it was probably about giving & receiving feedback (you are expected to learn to do this in first year).

It's run exactly the same as the OSCE exams we take in first year, and most of the skills are things you need to learn & use during first year.

This isn't an interview to find out about your deeper self or your ethical thinking or how confident & eloquent you are (cf. USyd interviews), or even whether you're a kind, empathic person.

This is a very practical sort of interview. They're just doing some basic tests for everyday skills you'll need to navigate the course, so be well-prepared, but don't over think it. Also, don't worry too much about what you wear. It really isn't worth getting your hair & make up done, or even buying a special outfit. Just look tidy so you don't stand out.

Here's what I remember:

Everyone showed up early, loads of people were already there when I arrived a half hour before start time. Waited in the lobby area, some people attempted to psych other people out, other people didn't suck and subsequently didn't do that. At start time everyone was invited into the lecture theatre, where we were told that we would be separated into two groups. Everyone registered at the front of the lecture theatre and then went and sat down.  We waited about 20 minutes (not sure why that was necessary) then watched a quick video about the MMI format. I was in the first group so I only had to wait another 15 minutes before we were escorted up to the MMI rooms. Everyone stood in front of a door and waited for the cue to read the prompt (posted on the door). You got 1 minute to read and then a bell would ring and you would enter the room. You had 5 minutes in the room before a second bell would ring

and you would have to leave and go to the next door. Rinse and repeat for 8 stations.

1) The first station for everyone was "why medicine?" with follow up questions about issues in Australian health. You were required to discuss three examples.2) The second station I had was the typical "when have you received criticism?/how did you deal with it?" although the prompts were different to past years and I can't remember them.3) This station was a video station. The video was of two doctors gossiping about patients and making judgmental remarks. You were required to identify the issue and how the patient would have felt had they overheard.4) I believe the next station for me was the "what would you do if a group member wasn't pulling their weight?" question, with follow ups about the group member having a sick mother and whether this changes how you would approach the situation.5) Another video station. This time about a doctor that was really confusing a patient by not communicating clearly.   6) Detechnicalise station. Had to pick two of four words and explain them both, then say which you felt you explained better and why. I picked immunity and genotype, and subsequently can't remember the other words that were in the list.7) The typical "your grandma is old and can't see but continues to drive, what do you do?" question. I believe this has been used previously/it floats around PD a lot.

The "how do you learn?/will that need to change for medicine?" station. I talked about Honours and the interviewer seemed disgruntled that I was comparing medicine and Honours as similar endeavors..

Overall I think it went well, I finished early on all stations - some with more time than others. Had a general chat to the interviewers afterwards (sometimes their comments were quite funny, definitely eased the nerves). I don't think I could have done better, however in a non-time pressure situation you can always think of more eloquent answers.

Edit: Victory below has evidently snuck out the question sheets because that summary is

essentially word for word

The University of Melbourne MMI was a challenging and intense experience, but it was also lots of fun and very exciting. Despite some overt face-palm moments, I thoroughly enjoyed the MMI and the interviewers were very friendly. I was genuinely honored and privileged to be there, and this was exuded through my undeflatable smile ☺

I arrived for a 10:00am session. Everyone looked well groomed in their interview outfits, and there was a mixed aura of determination and nervousness. I was mostly excited and felt content. As Skyhigh stated above, we were divided into 2 groups. I was designated to the later group at 11:40am. We watched a short video, which culminated with Professor Geoff McColl advising everyone to “relax” …with this, the entire lecture theatre exhaled synchronously. Those in the earlier group left shortly after, and those (incl. myself) in the later group waited in the lecture theatre or were allowed to leave for a short while and come back. I went to grab a coffee with some other lovely interviewees whom I had just met.

When it was time to commence the MMI, the nerves kicked in. Here is what I remember:

STATION 1: Motivations and health care issues.What motivates you to pursue a career in medicine?What do you think will be the main challenges studying medicine?What do you think are the three main issues facing health care in Australia?

STATION 2: Professional behaviourVideo showing two medical students inappropriately discussing patients. I was horrified by this video. There were follow up questions.Can you describe to me what you saw in the video? This felt like my memory and ability to recall was being tested. I literally described chronologically what I saw and heard.What did you see the students doing? This felt like a trick question...I just said they were

carrying out their duties while continuing to have their discussion about patients. They weren't 100% focusing on what they were doing etc.If you were in the common room with these medical students when this happened, what would you do?

STATION 3: Corroboration ie. Team-workScenario: You are working in a group of 5 people, on a university project worth 35% of your mark for the unit. One of the students does not turn up to meetings, and does not complete tasks even though they say they would.What would be your response in this situation?What would you do if your initial response was unsuccessful?What would you do if you found out the reason was because the student's mother was ill?What would you do if members of the team were unable to agree/disagreed?

STATION 4: Establishing rapportVideo: Patient-Doctor interactionI was asked to describe what I saw, what were the issues, how would I feel if I were the patient. I was also asked the abominable "did you notice anything else..." and thus, I wonder If I completely missed something...

STATION 5: Decision-MakingThis was based on the typical scenario about your grandma, who is having problems with her eyesight but wishes to continue driving. She is having trouble reading speed-limit and other signs. She had her license renewed 9 months ago. She says she will only drive locally, and that she will see the optometrist "soon". She does not want anyone to know.What are the main issues?What would you do?What would you do if your initial response did not have the desired outcome?What would you do if your grandma lost her license?

STATION 6: DetechnicalizationThere was a list of 5 science terms and you had to choice 2 to describe in very simple english. There was Enzyme, Bimodal Distribution, Gene, Habitat and I cannot remember the other one. I choose Gene and Enzyme. I was then asked, which one did I describe better and why?

STATION 7: Learning skillsHow do you identify and address your own learning needs?How will you have to change your learning in medicine?How do you hope to have improved in 4 years after studying medicine?

STATION 8: ExpectationsProvide an example of a time when you have not met expectations.How did you cope/react when you did not achieve your expectations?What did you learn from this experience? / What were the outcomes?What would you do if you were at risk of failing a subject?

I got the exact same questions posted by victory and amended by jasrulz.

Like Chiron, the most difficult station for me was the "learning habits" station. I am unsure of what they expect for this one. I emphasized that one needs to be proactive about their education to succeed in the medical course. They then asked how will I had known I developed certain skills after four years.

For the detechnicalise section- I am unsure of what the purpose of the whiteboard/pen and paper is. For many biology terms you can explain things with analogies more effectively than drawing something out.

For the video and scenario stations, it did not feel like a multi-mini interview; rather, it was more like an oral exam. I think they were very specific in what they wanted.

Also, for the expectations station, they asked what would you do if you realized you were failing a paper? I added that inherently, everyone has their limitations or weaknesses. Failing a subject does not mean you will not be a good medical practitioner, however it means you will have to address your weakness: which may ultimately involve repeating the subject.

All in all, the examiners were extremely friendly, and encouraging. I felt quite relieved after the assessment, and didn't think it was at all, difficult. However, from experience I think it is never a good thing to feel happy after an interview, because it tends to suggest that there are important things you have over-looked.

Personally, I am not sure how they assess the marks in the MMI. the 1-5 grade scale is entirely subjective- and is difficult to judge the score of each question individually, rather it is easier to judge on your overall impression. I would very much like to see their marking schedule, and see how they train their interviewers.

Also, the atmosphere of the interview was not at all formal- it was a simple procedure, and i think the last thing the interviewers cared about was how you dressed- it is more important just to be friendly and natural.

These interviews have been covered pretty well so far, so I'll just quickly add a couple of things because I found that as I was approaching my interview, I scoured these forums for even the smallest thing that could help me even if I'd read it before. Edit: alright, this has become an essay...

Something that really surprised me -- these interviewers were really friendly. I'm hoping that it's a sign of the kind of staff that the university employs for medicine, because they seemed extremely approachable! For instance, in the station where we watched the two medical students in the ward complaining about the patients they have and how much they smoke, how fat they are etc, when I turned around and said about how horrific that was we actually joked about it for a second. It was great to go into the questions for that station after we'd both had a laugh! I felt like after that he could see that my answers were completely genuine as well -- not just me explaining how to approach that situation as though I was reading from a 'best practice' book. Looking back now I wonder if I was too informal, but having talked about it with my friends we think that being like that maybe allowed me to be more comfortable, and act more naturally. Plus, you read on these forums everyone saying to be yourself, and to relax, and I think that's excellent advice!

Others have posted in this forum telling people doing this interview (and others) that if you want to tell the interviewers something, you can't wait for them to ask you about it because they're just not going to. So for me, in my 'why medicine' station while I showed the woman my passion for medicine as best I could, when I had a minute at the end for additional comments I told her a bit more about my passion -- and particularly, why I want to be a neurosurgeon. There's nothing I'm more passionate about than the brain and the people who work on it, and by the end of me telling her all about that she was positively beaming and nodding vigorously haha. So don't be afraid to just slide in to your answers something you want to say! I mentioned some of the community work that I've done in one of my answers. Did the guy ask for it? Nup, but now he knows just that little bit more about the kind of person

I am, and that (hopefully) can't hurt

Now that this is an essay, I might as well go station by station and say something about them. I'll use victory's station numbers:

Station 1: Motivation and healthcare issues

• The why medicine question is one that only you can answer!• For the main challenges studying med, I said things like finding the time to balance my life.

Study vs friends and family vs hobbies, etc. Then of course, trying to get through the coursework. The last thing, and one that I'm the least sure about, was that it's going to be hard to learn how to save people, but harder still to learn how to lose them. We can't save everyone, and I am not looking forwards to learning that lesson.

• 3 main healthcare issues, I went with the big ones: rural health, aging population, med student tsunami. With med tsunami, I spoke not only of intern places but of the absolute dearth of specialist places (down to like less than 10 for the country. Ridiculous)

• I got the infinite money question too. The first thing that came to mind, and that I said, is

that I'm not sure how many of those problems money can solve the woman seemed happy that I said that. I said though that services like Royal Flying doctors have of course done wonders for rural healthcare, but providing monetary incentives to get more primary care into rural communities would be good. Rurally, it's all about infrastructure, infrastructure and more infrastructure (in my opinion). Aging population...I don't know, I probably fluffed this one -- I certainly can't remember what I said so it must be a repressed memory. For the med student tsunami I said that we certainly need the extra doctors, so reducing the student population is not a solution -- we simply need more training places. Trying to think of monetary solutions to that was difficult, so I think in the end I said that incentives for perhaps practices to take residents or interns would help, or providing higher incentives to consultants to take on residents.

Station 2: Professional Behaviour

The video was horrific.• What were they doing wrong? What were they doing right?? They patronised the patient

they started at by calling her dear when clearly from her response she'd already asked them to call her 'Mrs Jones'. Then they proceeded to complain about having to look after these elderly patients when they were never going to have to again in what they would end up doing (they actually said words to that effect). About how the patients kept smoking, have you seen my patient in bed 10 he's so fat, etc etc etc. It really was a showcase of the worst behaviour you can imagine a doctor exhibiting. Other patients could clearly hear what they were saying, making it all that much worse.

• The number of questions on describing what the students were doing made me think I'd seriously missed something. I felt like asking something like 'do you want me to describe how he washed his hands?' It got on my nerves how much emphasis there was on that.

Station 3: Team work/collaboration

• This station was pretty straightforward for me at least. I made sure from the get go that the interviewer knew that I would assume nothing as to the reasons why the person was not contributing. It's always important to find out from them what's going on. I also said that before asking them I would check with the other people from the group, to find out if I was the only person who thought the person wasn't pulling their weight. Have I perhaps missed something? Is the person in communication with the other members, and all is fine? Communication is key here

• I got the supplementary where her mother was dying. I was glad I'd put so much emphasis on finding out why she was not contributing because now that communication was validated -- her situation is of course completely understandable. I said we could as a group try to give her the easiest parts to complete, we could also help her as much as possible, and if she decided that she had to pull from the group then we would cover her part as best we could. We could also go to the person organising the assessment and explain our situation if we think it will affect our performance

Station 4: Doctor patient interaction

• I found this station pretty tough -- there were clear things that the doctor could have done

much better, but overall the interaction wasn't utterly terrible in my opinion. I felt like he could have explained the patient's present condition better, and could have explained better what would happen in the coming days so that the patient could feel a little more reassured. As it was, the patient seemed confused and seemed to doubt that the doctor really knew what he was doing haha. But the doctor still gave a definite treatment plan going forwards (return if your queasy stomach doesn't go away, return if the rash on your leg gets worse because it should be gone soon). Since I think I must have missed something big here, I won't say anything more about it

Station 5: Decision making

• This was the classic 'grandma wanting to drive but can't see well' situation that has already been discussed even here in this thread a lot, and there's not much more groundbreaking stuff that can be added. It was great to have this situation though, and having been able to already give it a lot of thought since they've used it before!

Station 6: Detechnalisation

• I completely bombed this one. The detechnalise words that I chose were momentum and normal distribution (unfortunately I can't remember the others). Initially I chose another in the place of momentum, but when I came to explain it after normal distribution I couldn't think of anything, so the lady allowed me to change to momentum. I then proceeded to mess up momentum because I was falling over myself trying to not explain inertia! Go figure. That made it pretty easy to explain which word I thought I had explained better -- I think I actually said "normal distribution, because I have a maths background...and I fluffed up momentum" with a sheepish grin =P

• Best way to prepare for this station is to just look through this thread and make sure for every single word the people post, make sure you have a complete method to explain it! The chances that there won't be a single word you've already prepared for I would imagine would be very slim.

Station 7: Learning styles/skills

Like others above this post, I found the learning habits station not so much difficult, just something that I hadn't given any thought to before. I think the best thing to do in the case of a station that you haven't prepared for is to try to not sit there silent as you think -- let them know your train of thought. By getting it out in words, you sometimes find that you're actually

putting together a pretty reasonable answer anyway I would think they would like to see as well that you can sound things out, instead of being afraid to speak until you think you have a 'correct' answer. That's just my opinion though!• My first question was more along the plain lines of 'how do you learn' I think. I said that I try

to identify how I will need to use the information first. If it's a series of facts that I need to be able to use on demand then I rote learn them, and revise them weekly. If it's information that I need to learn in order to understand something else, then I try to learn them together so that I can see how they interrelate and the second thing builds on the first.

• How will my learning change in medicine? I have no idea I said that with much more of a clinical focus, I'm going to need to learn in a much more plastic manner -- not knowing how I'll use my information, I'm going to have to learn it from all sorts of different angles. I'm pretty sure I fluffed that station because of how little sense my answer made

• How will I have changed by the end of medicine? I think this is a pretty personal answer, so I'll leave that to you.

• I think for this station I was also asked what would I do if it looked like I was failing a subject in medicine. I said something like that I would try to identify why I was failing and attempt to address it by working harder, or smarter, or by working out any issue in my

life that was preventing me from working well. Then I said if that still didn't work then I would ask my peers how they are studying and try to identify basically what is a better way of going about the subject. There's also, I'd imagine, a pretty extensive support network provided by the school, so I would try to use that.

Station 8: Not meeting expectations

• Another awful station. Who tries to remember times when they've not done well at something?? I wasted about a minute here trying to think of a situation that would be appropriate (knowing what the subsequent questions would likely involve). Because it's important to not say a situation that would mark you as unsuitable for the course! If you end up having to say that the reason you didn't do well was because you just didn't feel like it that day, then that's not going to sound good.

• In addition to the questions listed by others, I was asked how my feelings changed over the course of the situation

By the last couple of stations I was getting frazzled -- I shook my last interviewer's hand when she reached out for my sticker, despite having shook her hand not moments before...awkward laughs all round -- so I just kept the smile on my dial and made sure I took a breath before replying. Giving yourself even just a moment to give your mind clarity can be priceless, and is probably something that will be useful far into medicine.

I met a friend on the bus back to the airport after the interview. I asked her if she had been on the melb MMI PD threads, and she hadn't even heard of PD. I told her that many of the stations that we had I already had prepared for, and was expecting, and she was frankly flabbergasted. I know there's been discussion on here previously about whether threads like this one are fair, but clearly there's at least one person outside of PD that strongly believes it is anything but.

PS just as a side note, I think the question asking how I think I will have changed by the end of medicine was asking about the 5 'course attributes' that the MD course is going to try to develop in us, that can be found here: http://medicine.unimelb.edu.au/study-here/md/course_information/course_attributes  Reading that before my interview probably would have allowed me to give an answer slightly

more eloquent than what I gave on the day

PPS I was one of about 3 guys in my session that weren't wearing a full suit. The non-suit-uppers, myself included, wore a plain jumper (black in my case) over a collared business shirt, with dress pants and shoes. I think we looked a lot more comfortable, and perhaps more like doctors...and since my aim in this interview was to try and let my interviewers imagine me as a doctor, I think that might have helped. Others will say and have said that it's a job interview, why would you not go in a suit, and I see the logic in that. There's many schools of thought, and I would argue that each has very valid points.

I am pretty sure blackout has been lifted, as admissions are out etc.

and now for the 2013 questions:Hopefully in 10 months time someone will read these and stress a little bit down before his Melbourne interviews.quick note: The people are NICE! they want to help you and actually care about what you say.

Also you get cake and juice at the end

Melbourne uni questions 2013-09-29

1.   Why do you want to study medicine?a.   What are some of the challenges you will personally face in studying medicine?b.   How do you usually address your learning needs?

c.   Can you talk about extracurricular activities you do outside of university and work?2.    Communication: Video of doctor- patient interactiona.   what did you see in the video?b.   What were the issues?c.   How do you think the patient would have felt after the interaction?

3.   Observation skills: medical students b h ing about other patients in a hospitals. They are judgmental, rude, clearly don’t want to be there, and it looks like the patients can hear thema.   What are some of the issues in the way you saw?b.   How would you have felt if you were a patient in that area?c.   Would it have made a difference if they were in the student common room?4.   You are given 100,000 dollars to address a medical need. What would you spend it on?a.   Why would you choose that topic?b.   Who would you speak with to go about your project?c.   How would you evaluate the success of your project?5.    A person with a mental disability moves into your apartment block. You can see that other residents don’t want him there, but you don’t really mind. Recently you noticed that there is a lot of noise in his house. You suspect other people are taking advantage of him, and using him to buy alcohol.a.   What can he do to gain support?b.   In a building council meeting the other residents complain about the noise, and asked you to speak with the parents of the person. What would you say?c.   Would you act differently if his parents were friends of your parents?6.   Talk about a time in which you received feedback, positive or negative.a.   How did you respond when you were given the feedbackb.   How would you respond if the feedback you receive does not match your expectation of your performance?c.   Can you think of a time in which you were given feedback, which was unhelpful?7.   Think about a time in which you worked in a team and had to face a difficulty. What was your position in the team and how did you respond?a.   What are some of the advantages of collaborations?b.   What are some of the disadvantages?8.   you and your friend both started working in a sports store over the summer holidays. You recently noticed that your friend started stealing from the shop. He has been taking shoes and sporting equipment.a.   What are the issues in this situation?b.   What would you do to address the situation?c.   You tried to speak to your friend, but he does not see a need to change his actions. What do you do?d.   Your friend tells you that he has been stealing to pay off a debt he received from gambling. Does that change the situation?

So I wrote down all the questions on the day of the interview specifically for this reason so I could share them and it didn't matter if I forgot! They're still not perfect though, and won't be the same wording, I may also have forgotten a prompt or two because every question had four.

Station 1

Why medicine?What are the challenges you will face in medicine?How will your learning change for medicine?What are your extracurricular activities?

Station 2

When did you get face-to-face professional feedback from a person in a senior position?Did you agree with this feedback?How was this feedback given?

Would you have given the feedback in the same way?

Station 3

On the door was 2 paragraphs of info about young drivers and how often they have accidents or speed and that a study on psychological testing has found some young people have less mature brains.

Why do you think young drivers crash more often?Do you think psychological testing would be beneficial?What else could be put into action to help with this issue?What role do you think parents have in addressing this issue?

Station 4

What are the major health issues in Australia?Which do you think health professionals would think is most important?What are some practical solutions to these issues?Which issue do you think is the most important one to address?

Station 5

We were read a scenario about being in a group project worth 35% at university. One of the students does not turn up to meetings, and does not complete tasks even though they say they would.

What would be your response?What would you do if your initial response was unsuccessful?What if the group member had a sick family member and this was why they weren't contributing?What if your group couldn't agree?

Station 6

Tell me about a time you made a decision anywhere in your life.What did you decide?How did this impact positively and negatively other people?What are the pros and cons of the decision?

Station 7

We were shown a video which has been used before, 2 med students are talking badly about their patients in earshot of other patents and making fun of them and complaining about them.

What did you hear in this video?What did you see in this video?How do you think the patients would have felt?Would this have been appropriate in another situation?

Station 8

When were you responsible for something that went wrong?How did you respond?What did you learn from this?What would you do if in a year you realised medicine wasn't for you?

So do keep that in mind! Manage your time wisely and try to answer all the prompts in each station. Do practice but make sure not to prepare rehearsed answers as the interviewers are trained to detect these.

Anywho, here are the questions. Each station seems to have one central question/ scenario followed by 4 prompts. Each prompt was worth 5 marks.

Station 1 - Motivation and Learning Skills

a) Explain why you want to do health sciences using the words ‘help’, ‘people’ and ‘science’ as minimum as possible. b) What are the challenges you will face in the career?c) How will your study habits change while studying this course?d) How will you manage your hobbies during the course?

Station 2 - Receiving Feedback

a) Tell about a time where you received negative feedback.b) How did you respond?c) How would you have liked the feedback to be given?d) What did you learn about giving feedback to other people from this situation?

Station 3 - Ethical

Scenario: Among road accidents a large majority is composed of young drivers. A new idea is to image people's brains and only allow people to drive once their brains have matured. (Some statistics were mentioned on the information sheet outside the station door, which I can't remember).

a) Why do you think young drivers have a higher tendency to cause accidents?b) What do you think of the idea above?c) What can parents do to help young drivers?d) What is a way you could reduce the death toll?

Station 4 - Meeting expectations

Tell me about a time where you didn't meet your or someone else's expectations.

a) What was the cause?b) What could you have done to fix things?c) What did you learn?d) What would you do if you are struggling with medicine next year?

Station 5 - Video of student patient relation

Same one from previous years. Two intern students are in a hospital. They walk in to speak with an old lady, who can't hear what they are saying and complains that they called her 'dear' instead of Mrs Jones. The intern repeats loudly, then 'storms' out complaining about old people, their smell, their attitude e.t.c. He then complains that he sees them smoking and doesn't even get why they even need to treat them. Says why they have to deal with them now even though they would not be dealing with them in the future. The other student talks about patients who can't even speak english and don't understand what they even say. Talks about how one of the patents is obese and make fun of them.

a) What did the students say?b) What did the student do?c) How do you think the patients would have felt after hearing this?d) What do you think should have been done?

Station 6 - Teamwork

Scenario: You are part of a five person project worth 35% of your overall mark. The marks are supposed to be the same for each group member. One person is not contributing and is

absent at meetings. He doesn't do what he says he would do.

a) What would you do?b) What do you do if other members of your group had different solutions?c) What do you do if he still doesn't take your advice?d) What do you do if he told you it was because his mother was sick in the hospital?

Station 7 - Healthcare Issues

a) What are the current major health issues in Australia?b) What issue would health professionals want to solve?c) What issue would you want to solve?d) How should the issue be solved?

Station 8 - Decision making

Tell me about a time when you had to make an important decision that included other people.

a) How did the decision affect the other people?b) How did you decide on your final decision?c) What was your final decision?d) What were the advantages and disadvantages of the decision?