PA Program Cycle 2017-2018 MMI

[itsleahhh]

Hey everybody! Wanted to create a thread about the Multiple Mini Interview design that a lot of PA Programs are utilizing. Does anybody have any tips, tricks, or ways they prepared for these interviews? Tips that I have so far are looking up MMI examples on YouTube and having friends ask you the typical questions with a time limit of roughly 6-7 minutes. Any input would be greatly appreciated, especially from the experienced interviewees. 

[PACrankset]

There isn't really a good way to prepare for the content of these types of interviews. The best preparation is to improve your abilities at improvisation and formulating well thought out responses in a short period of time. I think one thing that helped me is not to panic and start talking, take 30 seconds if you need it to think about the question and formulate a response.

It is also a good idea to be up on the current national level issues, these include insurance stuff, vaccinations and even tax stuff. After all the questions you may get vary greatly and sometimes they are not very related to healthcare.

[harden4mvp]

like the above poster said, it's hard to prepare for these because you don't know what questions you will be asked. but what you can do is practice and prepare beforehand. it is important to try to answer questions within the time frame they give you, so if you have 5 min to answer, try to answer a question within the 5 minutes and record yourself if you can. the timing can really mess you up if you aren't prepared. another thing that helped me is to actively tell myself to TALK SLOW, so that i wouldn't babble or go off topic. pausing or taking a few seconds to think before you speak will help you come up with an intellectual and well-reasoned answer. it's not really about the content of your answer, but how you come up with the answer - your thought process, your reasoning, the way you speak, can you come up with a decision in just a few minutes of time, etc. i bought MMI books and spent hours on youtube as well.

[itsleahhh]

On 11/5/2017 at 4:06 PM, milesHenson1 said:

There isn't really a good way to prepare for the content of these types of interviews. The best preparation is to improve your abilities at improvisation and formulating well thought out responses in a short period of time. I think one thing that helped me is not to panic and start talking, take 30 seconds if you need it to think about the question and formulate a response.

It is also a good idea to be up on the current national level issues, these include insurance stuff, vaccinations and even tax stuff. After all the questions you may get vary greatly and sometimes they are not very related to healthcare.

 

On 11/6/2017 at 9:15 PM, eliam22 said:

like the above poster said, it's hard to prepare for these because you don't know what questions you will be asked. but what you can do is practice and prepare beforehand. it is important to try to answer questions within the time frame they give you, so if you have 5 min to answer, try to answer a question within the 5 minutes and record yourself if you can. the timing can really mess you up if you aren't prepared. another thing that helped me is to actively tell myself to TALK SLOW, so that i wouldn't babble or go off topic. pausing or taking a few seconds to think before you speak will help you come up with an intellectual and well-reasoned answer. it's not really about the content of your answer, but how you come up with the answer - your thought process, your reasoning, the way you speak, can you come up with a decision in just a few minutes of time, etc. i bought MMI books and spent hours on youtube as well.

Thank you both for the insight. I had my MMI interview about a week and a half ago and you're right. There really is no way to prepare. I could tell it's all about your thought process because a lot of the questions where describing pros/cons, advantages/disadvantages, and views. Actually, I don't even think I was asked why I wanted to be a PA. Very different approach, but I liked it. 

 

After going through the process, my tip would be if you get a question related to the field you're currently in, DO NOT go off topic and try to show how much you know about the treatment and science behind it. I made that mistake with one of my interviewers and I think I barely answered the question. I ended up getting to caught up in the details of treatment rather than the outreach portion of the question. 

 

Best of luck to anybody who comes across this post and has a MMI coming up!