Resource allocation MMI questions on dividing scarce supplies

Resource allocation MMI questions put you in charge of a supply that can't stretch, such as 40 meal boxes for 65 households. They ask how you'd decide and whether you could defend the decision to the people who lose. The reasoning behind a meal box is the reasoning behind triage, the sorting of patients by urgency when care cannot reach everyone at once.

What these questions test

Interviewers test whether you can name a principle and apply it to every claimant alike. The candidate principles are greatest need, equal chance through a lottery, first come first served, greatest benefit, past contribution and a promise already made. Each one favors somebody, and raters listen for whether you can see who loses under the rule you choose.

Justice is the fair distribution of benefits and burdens. The questions test it as a matter of process too: who decides, whether the rule is known in advance and what the people who lose are told.

How to approach them

1. State what is scarce and what each claimant needs it for, rather than who they are. A neighbor who depends on a breathing machine and a family whose house is going cold have needs you can compare, and seniority and sympathy are not.
2. List the rules you could apply and say who wins and loses under each. Doing this aloud shows the rater that you considered the people your choice will disappoint.
3. Choose a rule, or a combination, and say why it fits. A lottery suits claimants whose needs are alike and can't be ranked, and a promise, such as meaningful minutes for every child, binds where one was made.
4. Say what you'd do for the people who lose: a waiting list, partial help, an alternative source or an honest explanation.
5. Name the process: who else should have a say, such as the other volunteers or the club's members, and what you'd tell everyone about how the decision was made.
6. MMI follow-ups add pressure, such as a neighbor offering to pay for the fuel, so hold your principle and say what would change it. A panel question, such as the $10,000 to give away, asks for your principle in the abstract, so bring one example.

Common mistakes

• Refusing to decide, or splitting everything equally when needs differ, hands the rater no reasoning to score.
• Deciding by who is most sympathetic rather than by a rule you'd apply to everyone makes the decision impossible to defend to the person who lost.
• Treating a promise as void because the stakes rose teaches everyone who relied on it that the rule was never real.
• Describing a rule without saying how you'd tell people leaves out the conversation the scenario was built around.