The Med School’s MMI Interview: Final Thoughts

Small But Giant Prompts. Not every MMI prompt will be hypothetical-scenario-based. Some will be like those comically brief traditional interview questions encouraging huge, important answers. Yes, "Why our school?" could rear its head again. To answer this, connect the dots between your past experiences and current interests, with what is happening at the school, what resources they have, etc. Be ready for “Tell me about a time that you failed” and “Tell me about a time when you had a conflict” again too. Review your secondary essay responses and go right ahead and reuse any applicable content. Those were your experiences and your takeaways, after all. There's no need to invent a whole new self.  

Critical thinking. Every question you’re asked in an MMI is going to require critical thinking and explaining your thought process. We’re simply adding this short selection of questions that obviously require critical thinking so that you can more consciously practice meeting those goals. 

• A patient with breast cancer is curious about Eastern Medicine, particularly acupuncture. How would you discuss this topic with her? 

• How would you handle multiple patients leaving negative reviews about you online? 

• What should be the primary focus of medicine—preventing or treating disease? 

• What is responsible conduct in medical research?

On Blowing It at an MMI Station. You obviously want to do well at all these stations. But what if you blow one of them big-time? Welp, take a deep breath and move on. At your next station, you’ll be assessed by a new interviewer who has no idea what just happened. If you come in strong at other stations, having one fumble will not lose you the game. Your score is cumulative, with each station being worth between one and 10 points. And it is relative. Your performance will be compared to other applicants’. (Maybe the other applicants bombed too!) You almost certainly will make a mistake at some point—probably right out of the gate. “There is research on it—the first response is shakiest no matter what competency is being tested,” said a test facilitator. “Most applicants will get better at this in a matter of minutes. And by mid-interview season, they’ll be a pro.”

Related:

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Moral & Ethical Situations

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Healthcare Policy Questions

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Role Playing Scenarios

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Teamwork Activities

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Writing and Picture Stations

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Writing and Picture Stations

The Picture Station. It’s possible that your MMI will include a picture station, where you are presented with an image and asked to describe it. The image could show something emotionally evocative or medicine-related or look like a vacation photo. Like most MMI stations, this one tests your communication   skills. The most important thing to do here is to deliver a comprehensive response. Don’t just share what is in the image, share how the image is presented. (“On the right side…”) If the image is related to a current event or medical task, share what you know about it. If the picture makes you feel a certain emotion, share that too.

The Writing Station. Not every school will have a writing station, but the ones that do will present you with their prompt (or two and you can pick one) and a time limit. That could be eight minutes, it could be 30.  Our previous blog posts cover the type of material you might be presented with at the writing station—it could be a scenario, policy, or personal question. The only thing that makes this station different is that it is testing your written communication skills.

As we have often said, you’ll want to focus on clarity in your writing. If you complete your answer, don’t feel the need to add more. You’re allowed to be done early. You might find that you run out of time and that you’re cut off before you complete your response. That’s a shame—but it happens. Don’t dwell on it. The content you have hopefully expresses some strong reasoning, etc. You likely did just fine.

Related:

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Moral & Ethical Situations

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Healthcare Policy Questions

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Role Playing Scenarios

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Teamwork Activities

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Final Thoughts

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Teamwork Activities

Medicine is a team sport. To gauge your collaboration skills, some schools will assess you in teamwork activities that you complete with another applicant. The pair of you might be asked to create an action plan together or one of you may act as an instructor and the other as a doer. (And then that gets flipped in a second exercise.)

An interviewer might ask you to build something with Lego blocks or do a puzzle together within a short timeframe. Only one of you can see a picture of the finished product, and the other person must listen to verbal instructions to assemble it. Medicine is intensely collaborative, so as silly as it seems to build a primary-colored train together, this activity will show some important communication skills. (And because more medical schools are shifting towards small group learning experiences—they want to see how you'd behave in them.)

Other schools may ask you and a larger team to find a solution to a problem or create a plan for a future program together. Things can get a little more heated here because opinions play more of a role. The most important thing to remember is that your teammates are not your competition, they are your colleagues. Listening to and empowering your teammates is a big deal. If you notice someone being left out of the conversation, be the person who asks, "What do you think, Tony?” If you're blocking out what a teammate is saying because you're waiting for your turn to speak, you will not do well in this team activity.

What if I don't finish?

That's okay! This isn't really about building the Lego train. You might be paired with a complete dud of a partner, someone who is so nervous that they can't focus. If you're the instructor in this activity, keep your cool and show patience with your partner. Search for new ways of explaining the same concept. If you are the doer, ask thoughtful questions. This is going to reflect well on you, finished project or not.

Related:

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Moral & Ethical Situations

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Healthcare Policy Questions

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Role Playing Scenarios

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Writing and Picture Stations

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Final Thoughts

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Role Playing Scenarios

"Enter the room and…" Not every school that utilizes the MMI will use role-play. But if they do, you could be presented with scenarios—in an in-person interview, it is sometimes taped to the door of a room—in which you must enter the room and speak to the actor inside as if they were your patient, a patient's family member, your colleague, or a close friend. An interviewer might be in the room watching, or there might be a camera in the room catching your big debut. (Since more schools have moved to doing interviews remotely, the “room” might be on Zoom or Kira.) Time yourself doing these practice prompts. In addition to other MMI prep, if you’re working with Apply Point, your AP advisor can act as a patient and give you notes at the end of the session.

You're not always going to "win" these scenarios. Your fake patient could continue to push back against your advice, etc. The point here is to show your empathy, thought process, and—this is the part people mess up—your ability to listen. Ask your partner questions about their thoughts, fears, or concerns. Don't give a soliloquy. Yes, this is your interview but in real life, these interactions would be conversations. Encourage an exchange. And don't be afraid to be quiet sometimes.

Think about how you'd handle these scenarios:

• A patient is refusing a treatment that would prolong his life because of its side effects. The patient's family passionately wants him to submit to treatment. Speak to this family.

• A physician’s assistant in your gynecology practice has repeatedly misgendered a trans patient. Your patient is upset. Talk to this PA.

• Your patient is terminally ill. Tell them.

• A hostile patient is demanding an opioid prescription for a supposed back injury—his X-ray does not show such an injury. Talk to this patient.

• Your best friend has been struggling with depression and is self-medicating with alcohol. Talk to her.

• You overhear a colleague using a racial stereotype when talking about a patient. Enter the room and talk to him.

• Your patient wants to hold off on starting a cancer treatment plan until after a family vacation in three months. Her condition is advanced, and you don’t think she should do this. Talk to this patient.

“Teach Me How to Tie a Shoe.”

Another potential task you might do with an actor or interviewer is walk them through a process step-by-step. One example is telling someone how to tie a shoe. Now that you’ve thought about that for a sec, you see how this might be difficult, right? Be patient with the other person and

yourself. Choose your words carefully and if you make a mistake, backtrack without panic. The point of a task like this is to test your communication skills. Are you being clear? Are you being comprehensive? Are you asking your partner what they want to know more about? Are you keeping a calm tone the way we’d want a doctor to when they’re explaining a complex treatment plan?

Related:

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Moral & Ethical Situations

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Healthcare Policy Questions

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Teamwork Activities

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Writing and Picture Stations

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Final Thoughts

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Healthcare Policy Questions

As you move through the MMI stations, a blunt quiz show question on healthcare today may be in the mix. Something like: "What is an HMO?" While interviewers will never ask you to diagnose anything, they will try to find out how much you know about the world of healthcare. How well read are you? How informed? The only way to answer a question like this is to be informed. So, know some basics.

And follow the news: Is there an antibiotic shortage? Is there a controversial new Alzheimer’s treatment? Did research scientists recently grow a human nose on a pig’s back? You don’t have to have read every behind-a-paywall study that has been written in the last two years, but certainly be up on the stuff that’s in the mainstream media. The New York Times is great for current events related to health care, as are MedPage Today, MedScape, and Stat News. We also recommend that you set up Google alerts for key phrases related to healthcare and/or your research interests and desired specialty to ensure you’re up to date.

An interviewer may ask for your opinion on hot-button issues in healthcare. Think: "What are your thoughts on stem cell research?" If you don’t have an opinion on a topic because you don’t know much about it, acknowledge that it is an important or controversial topic, then pivot to something relevant that you know about in-depth. Something like: "I have not done a ton of reading on stem cell research. But because of my clinical research position, I have worked with a novel treatment and believe that…" will have to do. 

Here are some other Healthcare Policy Questions to ponder: 

• What would you say is the biggest challenge facing medicine today? Why? 

• Do you think doctors are paid too much? 

• What are your thoughts on predictive and presymptomatic genetic testing?

Related:

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Moral & Ethical Situations

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Role Playing Scenarios

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Teamwork Activities

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Writing and Picture Stations

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Final Thoughts

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Moral & Ethical Situations

In an MMI interview, the Moral & Ethical Situation prompts are the ones that terrify applicants. They feel so high stakes. For example: Decide which of these two patients gets an organ transplant. Geez Louise.

Many MMI questions—especially the ones about morals and ethics—may omit details you might've considered when contemplating your answer. Fill in those blanks and consider them still because your answer could be conditional from an ethical or legal standpoint. "Conditional" does not mean wishy-washy but rather "If X factor is present, then my answer is Y."

Think about how you would answer this ethical question: A minor teenage patient asks you for a prescription for birth control pills—and doesn't want their parents to know about it. How would you handle this request?

You might reflexively have an answer to this—but pause and consider potential conditional factors, even if you ultimately dismiss them. Beyond answering your patient's request, what else might you discuss with your patient? You might ponder these questions:

• Are there legal matters to consider?

• Are there health risks to consider?

• Is your patient sexually active already or considering becoming sexually active?

• Is your patient 13 or 17?

• Will your patient be using a second form of protection to prevent STIs?

• Are they being pressured into a sexual relationship?

• Is there anything you should know about their partner/partners—like how old they are?

• If those things were not factors in your decision-making, why not?

Here's an example of a response to this question:

"If there are neither state laws limiting my ability nor significant health risks present, I would give my teenage patient a prescription for birth control without their parents’ knowledge. I would not tell their parents because the teen is my patient and deserves doctor-patient confidentiality. But there are things I would want to discuss before providing this prescription.

I would first provide my patient with information on all their birth control options. I'd advise my patient to use condoms as a secondary form of contraception to prevent STIs and ask them what they know about STIs.

Next, I'd want to establish that they want to have sex and that this isn't a case of a partner pressuring them to have sex. If the latter is true, it wouldn't determine whether I'd prescribe birth control, but it would influence our conversation, as I'd want to take care of my patient's mental health as well as their physical health. I'd also ask about their partner's (or partners’) age. Many age of consent laws have a close-in-age exemption, but some do not. I’d inform my patient if that was the case in our state, just so they’re aware of certain risks. If my patient revealed that they were already sexually active with a partner who was older than 18, I'd refer to my state's age of consent. I am required by law to report any suspected child abuse. I would also direct my patient to information on predatory behaviors.

If their partner was their same age, I likely would not weigh in on a 16- or 17-year-old’s choices beyond asking the aforementioned questions and providing helpful resources. But I might respectfully discourage a younger patient from having sex in the same way that I'd encourage a young patient to take care of their still maturing body and mind in other ways. (I know I'd advise my 14-year-old cousin or niece to consider waiting to have sex.) But again, I would still give a prescription to any patient that I legally can prescribe to, whether I was a family doctor or practicing at a sexual health center."

This is not a gut reaction—it's thoughtful, it's careful. This response considers legality—that's important. It involves a thorough conversation between doctor and patient. Wanting to connect shows empathy and asking the patient questions and providing answers to questions that they have or haven’t asked shows strong communication skills. The answer also expresses the respondent's personal beliefs; they would advise a 14-year-old relative to think more before having sex at such a young age. You might think this info has no place in the answer, but the interviewer wants to hear your internal monologue, not only what you'd say aloud to the patient. What matters most is that your resulting action is based on facts and that you showed your patient respect, not harsh judgment. You may not agree with this sample answer—but you should understand why it's a strong one.

Related:

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Healthcare Policy Questions

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Role Playing Scenarios

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Teamwork Activities

The Med School’s MMI Interview: Writing and Picture Stations