Ace Your Medical School Interviews with Confidence- Tips and Strategies for Success

 👩🏾‍⚕️ Ready to conquer your medical school interviews with confidence? We’ve got you covered! Join us for an enlightening episode of the Black Med Connect podcast as Dr. Jasmine Weiss shares invaluable insights in under 10 minutes! With interview season upon us, Dr. Weiss spills the tea on three key tips to help you shine in your medical school interviews. From knowing your application inside out to practicing with mock interviews, you'll gain expert strategies to make a real difference. Discover how to turn nervousness into natural conversation and why your interview day is a two-way street. Dr. Weiss also offers bonus tips for acing virtual interviews. Comment below to share your interview season tips, and don't miss out on our free download for additional interview tips for success! Tune in to empower yourself on your journey toward medical school success. 💼🎙️
 

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If you enjoy this week's episode, learn more tips about the interview process from our episode with Dr. Darin Latimore, linked here, and our episode with medical student  Antoinette Charles linked here!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

OMG is med school interview season. Ah, over the past few weeks, I've talked to quite a few students who are preparing their medical school applications and I thought it'd be interesting to jump on and share three key tips to help you ace your medical school interviews. In under 10 minutes Yep, that's right, in under 10 minutes. I'm going to give you three key tips, as well as a few bonuses, on how to help you shine on your medical school interviews. Roll the music. Welcome back to the BlackMed Connect podcast, affectionately known as the Be man podcast, where we share inspiring stories of black physicians and physicians in training at the intersection of medicine, culture and innovation. So why am I talking about medical school interviews? Well, at this time of the year, individuals who have applied to med school are about to start receiving their interview invitations, and some may have already received some interview invitations. I remember what it's like all too well to get those invites and get really nervous about oh my gosh. It's finally here my opportunity to share about why I want to become a doctor. I remember the nerves, I remember the jitters, but I also remember how I took the time to prepare, and that's what I want to share with you all today. All right, so you've submitted your application, you've turned in your secondaries and now you're starting to get those infamous interview invitations. Well, I am here to help you ace those medical school interviews and do it with confidence. I'm going to share today with you three key tips to help you prepare for your medical school interviews. So let's jump right in.

Speaker 1: 2:03

Tip number one is know your application. That's right. Make sure you know your application through and through, inside and out. Why is this important? It's so important to know what you wrote in your application because individuals who are interviewing you want to get a sense and a feel for who you are when you talk with them, and the way they do that first is by reading about you. So, of course, naturally, they're going to ask you some questions that are relevant to your application. So what does that mean? Practically, that means, if you said you did a research project, know a lot of detail about the project that you did, be able to talk about what you did, why you did it and what you learned from it and, most importantly, how it's going to prepare you or help you think about your future. So remember to know your application through and through. If you wrote about it. You got to be able to talk about it, all right.

Speaker 1: 3:04

Tip number two is make sure you practice, practice, practice, practice. Of course, we know practice makes perfect, but in this case, practice really does help you get those jitters out. So what you can do is there are a lot of different threads out there with practice interview questions, so make sure you take some time to review some of those questions and actually look at yourself in the mirror while you answer some questions. Or you can do this with an actual person, and so have your friend ask you some questions and then go ahead and respond to them, and those people can give you some feedback. Now I mentioned a friend, but an even better way to do this is by doing mock interviews, and there are a lot of different resources for mock interviews. Some people have mock interview opportunities at their school, and there are also some online opportunities to sign up for mock interviews. So go ahead and use that infamous Google to sign up for mock interviews.

Speaker 1: 4:05

When you practice, remember practice is so that you get a feel for the flow of the conversation. You don't want to get into a situation where you haven't ever thought about possibilities for ways to answer a question. Of course, you may get a question you haven't practiced before, but at least you'll have rehearsed some responses in your head so that when you're asked in real time, you can use what you've practiced and mix and blend it into the conversation more naturally. My last tip for you is to remember that this is a two-way interview. Yes, that's right. Tip number three is you are interviewing them just like they are interviewing you, and what I mean by that is you have already submitted a phenomenal application. You've done your due diligence, you've done your research, your volunteering, your clinical experiences, you've gotten great grades and great MCAT scores, and now it's your opportunity to also learn about the schools that you are applying to. So don't be afraid to ask questions. When they ask you, that infamous. Are there any questions? Right, be sure you think about some questions and have some questions prepared.

Speaker 1: 5:20

On your interview day, some schools will give you the names of the individuals that are going to interview you. That's a great time and a great way to go ahead and look those individuals up to learn a little bit about what they do. So don't forget yes, you want to look up the individuals who are interviewing you, but you also want to look up the school as well. What is their mission statement? What are some of the core values that they show? What are some of the things that this school helps prepare students to do in the future? These are all things you can get a sense of and a feel for by going to the institution's page and website and learning more about the school in advance. That way you can be armed with that knowledge when you're in your interview so you can again ask some really really good questions.

Speaker 1: 6:08

So let me recap for you those three tips to help you ace your medical school interviews. Number one know your application. Make sure, if you wrote down a hobby or some hobbies that you have, make sure you can talk about them and some experiences you've had with them. Tip number two was practice, practice, practice. This makes perfect. So if you can sign up for mock interviews or practice with a friend or even practice in the mirror, it'll help you build your confidence for that interview day and feel like it's more of a natural conversation. And the third tip remember, don't forget, this is a two way street you get to interview those institutions too by asking them some really great questions on your interview day. That way you can walk away from your interview feeling like you got to know a little bit about the institution that you may go to in your future.

Speaker 1: 7:08

Now a few bonus tips. When you do these interviews, remember they may be virtual, so make sure your background that you have behind you, is nice and neat and it shows that you are professional. Also, remember that these conversations they can be long, so make sure you drink plenty water before, but not too much, of course, and make sure that you are feeling confident and comfortable before you jump right into the interviews. And lastly, don't forget that this is an opportunity to really show your confidence. You've done amazing things and now isn't the time to be shy about those things that you've done.

Speaker 1: 7:46

Now is the time to highlight what you've done and talk about why this makes you a great fit and a great candidate for a particular school. So here's what I need from you Comment below, help each other out. What are some tips that you may have for interview season? Is there something that you may have done during your interviews? Or do you have any tips that you've learned as you prepare for your interviews that you want to share with others? Well, comment below and make sure we share that knowledge with everyone.

Speaker 1: 8:18

If you liked this episode where I shared three key tips about how to prepare for medical school interviews, then you will definitely definitely like the free download that we have that shares a few other tips about getting ready to ace those interviews. If you enjoyed this episode where I talked a little bit about three tips for medical school interviews, then you should definitely check out our previous episodes with Dr Darren Lattimore, where he shares more about how to prepare your application and get ready for interviews, as well as our episode with student Dr Antoinette Charles, a current medical student at Duke University School of Medicine. Until next time, always remember to dream without limits. Bye.