Medical school interview personal questions on your qualities

Medical school interview personal questions are the ones no reading about ethics or health policy prepares you for, because the subject is you. They run from "tell me about yourself" to a dilemma about splitting a dinner bill, and each one asks you to show a quality through what you've done rather than claim it.

What these questions test

Interviewers check whether your view of yourself matches the record in front of them. A direct question about a strength, a weakness, a failure or an accomplishment tests insight: whether you can name the quality, prove it with an example and say what changed afterward. A question about a role model, a favorite book or what you do for fun tests whether there is a person behind the application.

The MMI scenarios test character under small pressure. Keeping a promise to your brother when a conference is offered, and crediting the intern whose idea won you an award, are choices nobody would check. Raters watch whether you keep faith with people who can't reward you.

How to approach them

1. Before the interview, build an inventory of eight to ten experiences, each with what happened, what you did and what you learned. Nearly every personal question can be answered from it.
2. For a direct question, name the quality in a few words, then prove it with one example told in order: the situation, what you did and what happened.
3. End every example with what changed. For a weakness or a failure, say what you do differently now, with a time you did it.
4. For a scenario, say what you would do, then who it affects and what your choice costs you.
5. For a question about how you handle criticism or how your friends would describe you, give the words somebody used and what you did with them.
6. In an MMI you decide quickly and spend most of the five minutes on your reasons. In a panel your answer supplies the next question, so choose examples you're willing to discuss in depth.

Common mistakes

• Listing traits such as "hardworking" and "compassionate" without an example gives the panel no story to hold onto.
• Offering a weakness that is a strength in disguise, such as perfectionism, signals a lack of insight.
• Reciting your application in date order repeats a document the panel has already read.
• Choosing a failure with no consequence makes the lesson you draw from it sound invented.
• Answering a scenario with how you would feel, rather than what you would do, leaves the decision the station exists to test unmade.