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Interview Resources!


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Hello all! I was hoping to get some additional interview resources, tips and advice people have for the PA school interview! I've stumbled upon a few resources, but any and all tips and additional resources you can provide me would be amazing. I'm hoping others can benefit from this thread as well, so I'll try and update it here with things as people add them. If there's a similar thread that currently exists I'd love to be pointed to it, I couldn't find one in my search. Thank you in advance! 

Books:

  • How to "Ace" The Physician Assistant Interview - Andrew J. Rodican
  • Physician Assistant School Interview Guide: Tips, Tricks, and Techniques to Impress Your Interviewers - Savanna Perry, PA-C
  • The Ultimate Guide to Getting into Physician Assistant School - Andrew J. Rodican (a chapter has some interview advice)

Online Resources/Blogs:

  • ThePaPlatform.com
    • Mock Interview Service
    • Blog Posts
    • Mock Interview Question Guides
  • MyPATraining.com
    • Mock Interview Service
    • Blog Posts
  • ThePALife.com
    • Mock Interview Service
    • Blog Posts
    • Question Lists/Workbook

Tips/Tricks/Advice:

  • Practice!: "Practice, practice, practice! I was always told the best way to overcome interview anxiety and get over nervous ticks was to practice. I don't mean read every possible PA school interview question you can find and write down an answer and memorize it. You don't want to be rehearsed, but familiarize yourself with some of the questions asked and the nerves might subside a bit when you realize you've at least seen variations of these questions before." - whitecoat.rosegold
  • University Offered Mock Interviews: "One thing that may be available that people don't realize is a mock interview through your university. My school offers a free mock interview current students and recent graduates through the career center. My school was on the smaller side (satellite campus for larger university), so I'm guessing that if they offer this then a lot of schools do.

    They have one specifically designed for pre-health students with faculty that are more knowledgeable about the process. It's quite formal from what I understand and they give feedback in the end about things to work on." - hmtpnw

Edited by whitecoatrosegold
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I like this idea!

One thing that may be available that people don't realize is a mock interview through your university. My school offers a free mock interview current students and recent graduates through the career center. My school was on the smaller side (satellite campus for larger university), so I'm guessing that if they offer this then a lot of schools do.

They have one specifically designed for pre-health students with faculty that are more knowledgeable about the process. It's quite formal from what I understand and they give feedback in the end about things to work on.

Edited by hmtpnw
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19 hours ago, hmtpnw said:

I like this idea!

One thing that may be available that people don't realize is a mock interview through your university. My school offers a free mock interview current students and recent graduates through the career center. My school was on the smaller side (satellite campus for larger university), so I'm guessing that if they offer this then a lot of schools do.

They have one specifically designed for pre-health students with faculty that are more knowledgeable about the process. It's quite formal from what I understand and they give feedback in the end about things to work on.

Thanks so much for the tip! I wish I was near my undergraduate university. Maybe I'll email and see if they do any online interviews like all the pre-PA websites offer. I know mine did offer the face-to-face ones. I'll add you're tip to the list!

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19 minutes ago, whitecoatrosegold said:

Thanks so much for the tip! I wish I was near my undergraduate university. Maybe I'll email and see if they do any online interviews like all the pre-PA websites offer. I know mine did offer the face-to-face ones. I'll add you're tip to the list!

I would imagine it would be easy for them to do it virtually! Definitely worth asking about. 

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Just now, hmtpnw said:

I would imagine it would be easy for them to do it virtually! Definitely worth asking about. 

I looked on their website and am going to contact them! I did just find a really cool website my school pays for us to have access to (even alumni thankfully!) and it looks like it will be really helpful!

It's called InterviewStream. You can create interviews with specific questions (I looked up PA in their system and they have 28 questions specific to the PA profession and of course there are more general ones as well such as "define professionalism"). You create an interview with a set of 10 questions, and then the questions are prerecorded by an "interviewer" who asks the question and you answer and the website records you, counts how many times you said "um" and "like," and lets you review yourself answer the questions after! 

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Definitely prep for the common questions and throw your personality into the mix, do not sound rehearsed. DO not make it sound like what they want to hear. Also, DO NOT regurgitate Rodican's answers. 

Lastly, best thing to do is to TAKE YOUR TIME ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS! Don't rush into answering questions as fast as you can. It is okay to say "let me think about that", gather your thoughts and state your reply. It helped me tremendously and scored an acceptance literally 2 days after my interview.

PS- for me just having one interview under my belt helped a ton for the 2nd one, but that's how I learn. 

 

Edited by JD2012
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  • 11 months later...

Hi Pre-PAs!

I was just accepted into my number one school and I would love to give back! I am willing to give advice on the applying process as well as doing a mock interviews with whoever is interested 🙂 I am not looking for compensation, I just really want to give back, as I had so many people help me on my journey and I am excited about this field! Best of luck to everyone!

 

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