How scholr AI was built and how it scores
scholr AI rates your practice interview answers. A rating is worth acting on only when you know who wrote the rubric behind it and how it's applied, so this page sets out both.
Who built the rubric
Physicians who have served on medical school admissions committees created the rubric scholr AI scores against. Each of them has interviewed applicants and scored those interviews. The five levels and the nine competencies on this page are theirs.
scholr AI applies that rubric to your answer and reports each rating with the evidence behind it.
How scholr AI reads an answer
scholr AI reads the whole exchange before it rates anything: the question, your answer, and any follow-up questions with your answers to them. You can type an answer or speak it, and your browser transcribes a spoken one. Adapting well to a follow-up question counts toward the top two levels.
Each question is tagged with one to three of the nine competencies, and scholr AI rates only those. A reflection question asks nothing about teamwork, so a teamwork rating on it would be a judgment the question never asked for.
- It reads the question and the one to three competencies the question is tagged with.
- It reads your answer, together with any follow-up questions and your answers to them.
- It rates your answer on each tagged competency, on the five levels below.
- It quotes or closely paraphrases your own words as the evidence behind each rating.
- It lists what worked and what to work on, then describes how a stronger answer would approach the question.
The five levels
Each tagged competency is rated on one of five levels.
- 1Not yetThe answer misses what the question tests, or takes a position without reasons.
- 2DevelopingThe answer sees the main issue but argues one side of it, or its reasons don't hold together.
- 3CompetentThe answer names the main considerations and reaches a position it can defend.
- 4StrongThe answer weighs competing views, adapts when a follow-up changes the situation, and says what you would actually do.
- 5ExceptionalThe answer does all of that and adds an insight an interviewer would remember, such as a person or a consequence others miss, delivered clearly within the time.
The nine competencies
Medical schools interview for personal and professional qualities rather than science knowledge. The AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) publishes the Premed Competencies for Entering Medical Students, and these nine cover the qualities on that list an interview answer can show, such as empathy and compassion, teamwork and collaboration, critical thinking and ethical responsibility.
Medical schools in Canada assess the same kinds of qualities in their multiple mini interviews (MMIs).
Ethical reasoning
A physician faces competing duties, and an interviewer wants to hear how you reason when two of them conflict.
What scholr AI looks forThe answer names the competing duties and explains why one outweighs the other here.
Empathy and compassion
A physician's patients and colleagues are people under strain, and an interviewer listens for whether you notice them.
What scholr AI looks forThe answer considers what each person in the case is feeling and needs.
Communication
A physician explains hard news and plans to people who aren't doctors, and an interviewer judges whether you can be understood the first time.
What scholr AI looks forThe answer runs in a clear order, in plain words, within the time.
Teamwork and collaboration
Medicine is practiced in teams, and an interviewer wants to see whether you bring in the right people or act alone.
What scholr AI looks forThe answer brings in the right people rather than acting alone.
Critical thinking
A physician decides with incomplete information, and an interviewer watches for whether you notice what is missing before you decide.
What scholr AI looks forThe answer asks for the missing facts and says how they would change the decision.
Professionalism and integrity
An interviewer wants to see whether you hold to honesty and duty when doing so costs you.
What scholr AI looks forThe answer holds to honesty and duty when doing so comes at a cost to the speaker.
Cultural humility
A physician treats people whose backgrounds differ from their own, and an interviewer listens for whether you ask about a person's situation or assume it.
What scholr AI looks forThe answer asks rather than assumes, and treats each person's background with respect.
Self-reflection and growth
Medical training runs on feedback, and an interviewer wants to hear whether you can describe your own conduct honestly.
What scholr AI looks forThe answer says honestly what the speaker did, what they learned and what changed.
Health systems and advocacy
A physician works inside a health system that fails some patients, and an interviewer wants to see whether you see the system around the single patient in front of you.
What scholr AI looks forThe answer connects the case to how the health system works and who it leaves out.
What scholr AI does not score
scholr AI never expects or rewards medical or clinical knowledge, so a drug, a dose, a diagnosis or a procedure in your answer earns nothing. A medical school interview judges reasoning, ethics, communication and character, which any thoughtful person can show. Where a question is set in a hospital, scholr AI rates how you handle the people and the dilemma.
For a spoken answer it ignores filler words and transcription errors, and it never marks you down for them.
Frequently asked questions
Physicians who have served on medical school admissions committees wrote the rubric. They have interviewed applicants and scored those interviews. scholr AI applies their rubric and quotes your words as the evidence for each rating.
No. scholr AI never expects or rewards medical or clinical knowledge, so a drug name, a dose, a diagnosis or a procedure earns nothing. A medical school interview judges reasoning, ethics, communication and character, which any thoughtful person can show.
No. For a spoken answer it ignores filler words and transcription errors, and it never lowers a rating for them. It rates the reasoning in your answer.
A Competent answer names the main considerations and reaches a position it can defend. A Strong answer also weighs the competing views, adapts when a follow-up changes the situation, and says what you would actually do. The feedback under each rating describes how a stronger answer would approach the question.
Mock interviews
If you want to practice with our medical students and physicians who have served on medical school admissions committees or interviewed applicants, we run mock MMI and panel interviews with feedback on every answer.
