Help me prepare for a Multiple Mini Interview

February 14, 2014 7:23 PM

Soon I will be undergoing a Multiple Mini Interview for a Master's program in health science. How to prepare?

This is a completely new interview format to me, and there weren't many previous AskMe's about preparing for MMIs. If you've been through one of these interviews, particularly for a health care or health science program, I would love to hear your tips on preparing for and going through the interview itself.

From the little bit of reading I've done, apparently these interviews focus mostly on one's interpersonal and "soft" skills. Is there anything I can do ahead of time to help my performance?

Or have you been through a MMI where lots of knowledge-based questions were asked? I'm all ears.

posted by anonymous to Education (2 answers total)

I have been an interviewer during an MMI for a healthcare institution (although I am not a medical professional myself, so I was more doing the softer questions you mention). From what I recall, you should expect a mixture of the two types, but you already know that. The format where I did this was two minutes to read the posted question outside and formulate an answer, then eight minutes in the room. Without knowing any more specifics about your situation, the best thing I can tell you is read the question and read it again. Applicants occasionally came in to my room having not the faintest clue what the parameters were, and came prepared to follow some instructions in their head that were nothing like what they were supposed to be doing. That always left me underwhelmed.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:45 PM on February 14, 2014

It's good to practice it by getting mock questions and a bell and some volunteers to help you with a full mock set of interviews that match the format for your interview. Teachers, lawyers, social workers tend to give good feedback.

You can probably get mock interview questions on internet forums with some googling. People might have posted past interview questions and experiences online.

A good general approach is to answer from your own experience. So you use a personal anecdote, then explain how you processed/reflected on that, and how it would affect your outlook on/approach to the question at hand. You should do this even with questions that rely heavily on background knowledge (say you were expected to expound on some healthcare issue of current relevance)- you just weave that information into your personal-anecdote-spiel. This tends to lend an air of sincerity to your answer, which inteviewers will like.
posted by JeanDupont at 3:00 AM on February 15, 2014