The medical school interview can make or break your chances of acceptance—regardless of how stellar your application is. If you have a bad interview, it’s understandable to feel extremely frustrated. All of the hard work it took you to get here, and you flubbed the final step.
But all hope is not lost! Here’s how you can bounce back from a bad medical school interview and continue your dream of becoming a doctor.
1. Breathe and Take a Moment
If you have a bad interview, it’s vital that you do not react right away. Losing your temper with your interviewer or with other members of the faculty or student body on your way out will be a great deal worse for your future career than a lackluster interview. Medicine is a close-knit community, and program coordinators talk.
Take some time to breathe and process your emotions. Interview season is an incredibly stressful time of year, and there’s a lot on the line. Denying your emotions or forcing them down won’t do you any favors. Acknowledge how disappointed and frustrated you feel so that those negative emotions don’t show themselves in other, more destructive ways.
After taking some time for yourself, remember that it was only one interview. Yes, it could be an interview at a medical school you desperately want to attend, but there are other medical schools in the sea, as they say. Hopefully, your application was strong enough to yield more than one interview opportunity.
Even if this was a make or break interview, this one setback does not define your doctor journey. In fact, it could be a cornerstone lesson that defines your growth, dedication, and new path forward. While this is sure to feel painful now, the road to becoming a doctor is very, very long. In the grand scheme of things, this is a mere drop in the bucket.
Whether a surprise question threw you off, a personal issue got in your way, or you simply didn’t get along with the interviewer, that experience is over now, and the best, most constructive thing you can do is determine where things went wrong so that those mistakes do not carry over into future interviews.
2. Identify What Went Wrong
Reflect on why the interview didn’t go well. Did you flub a response? Did something throw you off, and then you couldn’t get back on course again? If this is the case, what was it that threw you off course?
Did you honestly put in adequate practice before your interview? Does this experience show a pattern of bad interviews and poor mock interviews, or is this a one-off poor performance? In other words, was it you who was unprepared, or was it unlucky circumstances?
If it does show a pattern, this is the time to flip the script and turn things around. Do you need to do more research about what each school has to offer? Do you need to build more foundational answers to common interview questions? Are you a mumbler who needs to work on your enunciation? Is your interview attire too uncomfortable and confining? Do you need to do more interview prep in general?
If it’s a one-off circumstance, you may already know what went wrong. Were you late for the interview? Did you forget to turn your phone to silent?
Did you recently go through a break up or lose someone close to you? Is a family member or close friend sick with a serious health issue? Were you feeling under the weather yourself? If it’s not to do with your personal life, did you struggle to get along with the interviewer? Did they ask questions you did not expect or prepare for?
Keep in mind that this isn’t about beating yourself up or throwing a pity party. Identify where you went wrong so that you can focus your further preparation on strengthening those weak areas. Don’t simply shrug off the experience without taking the time to thoroughly analyze it. Take the time to separate the flukes from your real paint points so that you know which steps to take next.
3. Assess the Complete Situation
Your steps moving forward and bouncing back after a bad interview are entirely dependent on your specific circumstances.
First, do you have any other upcoming interviews? This will determine whether you turn your attention to increased interview prep to ensure you don’t make the same mistakes.
However, if you flubbed your last interview or your only interview, dedicating time to improving your interview skills in the immediate future won’t do much to help your situation.
More Upcoming Interviews
If you have more interviews ahead of you, you’re in a much better position. You have the opportunity to learn from your mistakes and knock your next interview(s) out of the park.
Your situation is quite clear in this case. You must take the time to address what went wrong and complete any prep necessary to ensure you don’t repeat the same mistakes.
For example, if a specific question threw you off, and you weren’t able to recover, there are two issues to address.
First, what was it about the question that threw you off? Were you unprepared for that question specifically? Or did you not adequately prepare in general? The ideal interview prep will keep you on your toes, surprising you with various questions and scenarios so that you can adapt no matter what you’re asked.
Second, why was one question able to throw off the rest of your interview? Interviewers aren’t expecting you to be perfect; in fact, they want to see how you’ll adapt and pick yourself up if something doesn’t go quite right. One small flub won’t make or break your interview, but letting it get to you will.
To combat this, there’s no getting around the fact that you need to practice more in a format that simulates the pressure of the actual interview experience.
Thinking on your feet and being able to adapt no matter the question is a skill you can build, and by far, the best way to prepare is with the Med School Insiders Interview AI Course.
What makes our course so valuable is the unlimited feedback you’ll receive. Access immediate and unlimited personalized evaluation of your answers. That’s right—your feedback is immediate. It won’t just give you feedback on the content of what you say, but also how you say it. It’s truly cutting-edge, and you have to experience it to believe it.
Learn more and try it for yourself! If you’re not completely satisfied after 7 days, we’ll give you 100% of your money back!
No More Interviews
If you don’t have any more interviews, it’s time to get serious about next steps.
Was this your only interview, or did you have others already that went better? How well did those interviews actually go? Make an honest assessment of your chances. If you’re unsure, you may want to consult with a one-on-one advisor who can unbiasedly assess your situation and help you make the best decisions moving forward.
If you didn’t have many interviews or if the bad interview was your only one, it’s time to face the harsh reality that there’s a good chance you will not receive an acceptance. If it’s still your dream to become a doctor, you may need to reapply.
And this is where timing gets tricky. For example, if you interviewed in the fall or winter of 2025, you’ll need to reapply in the spring of 2026, just a few months later.
Since your application yielded at least one interview, you already know you have a decent application. Can you fine-tune it and improve upon some weaknesses in time to reapply in May or June when applications open? July is also possible, but you don’t want to push it too much later than that.
How Late Can You Submit Your Primary Application? (Without Consequence).
Don’t leave anything to chance the second time around. The absolute last thing you want is to end up in the same position, or worse, without any interviews at all because you failed to improve your application. Admissions committees expect to see updates and improvements in a reapplicant’s application.
Med School Insiders offers comprehensive medical school admissions packages that include individual advising with physicians who have served on admissions committees, systematic application editing, essay editing, and mock interviews. In other words, we address all aspects of the medical school application process from beginning to end, from crafting a personalized roadmap to success to helping you finally crush the interview at your dream program.
4. Establish a Concrete Plan for Moving Forward
If you still have more interviews, it’s vital that you build a plan that addresses your weak areas.
If you haven’t already done so, create an interview study guide, which is a personalized resource to use for reference on the day before and the day of your interview that ensures you’re well-prepared throughout your interview season.
The guide should highlight essential questions and ideas to review right before the interview. It should contain your application, unique aspects of the school, research publications, and common questions with a few bullet points of how you want to answer.
If there was something specific that threw you off during your bad interview, make sure you address this in your interview study guide.
Learn more: How to Create an Interview Study Guide.
Based on what went wrong, focus your practice and prep on your weaknesses. You may not have very much time before your next interview, so it’s imperative that you use your time wisely and zero in on the improvements that will make the largest impact.
If you don’t have any more interviews left, your next steps are a little less urgent but still important. Examine your chances of acceptance more closely, and establish a plan for the worst case scenario of not gaining an acceptance. How can you ensure you’re prepared for the next application cycle should you need to reapply?
Of course, not having an upcoming interview does not leave you off the hook for improving your interview skills. Whether you need to reapply or are accepted, interview skills will be necessary as you continue your training and into your future career.
5. Build Back Your Confidence
No matter your situation, whether you have more interviews or not, it’s clear you’ll need to work at building your confidence. Without any more interviews, this may not be an urgent priority on your list, but keep in mind that confidence and interview skills take time to hone.
You may not need them for another interview in two or three weeks, but this isn’t the only time you’ll need to confidently answer questions or speak in front of other people. This includes group work, presenting at conferences, job interviews, scholarship interviews, and let’s not forget that every successful medical student will need to repeat the interview process once it becomes time to apply to residency.
If you had a bad interview once, it can certainly happen again. Recognize this weakness and the potential for an interview to go wrong again in the future. Make it a priority to hone your interview and public speaking skills from now on until you feel confident in and comfortable with your abilities.
This confidence doesn’t just come from interview prep. Build your confidence with speaking to others through improv, public speaking groups, presenting at conferences, acting in plays, or starting your own YouTube channel.
Confidence is made, not born. While some people are naturally more confident than others, confidence can be honed through skill-building and regular practice. The more you prove to yourself that you can do something, the more you’ll have faith in your abilities. If you demonstrate that you can do one thing really well, the next challenge won’t seem so daunting.
Stepping outside of your comfort zone will also build your confidence and adaptability, and this will reflect back long-term on your interview skills, communications skills, body language, and how people view you. Push your boundaries and see what happens. Try something new. Try something you never thought you’d try before.
Not sure where to start? Read How to Step Outside Your Comfort Zone—Student Guide.
Never Experience a Bad Interview Again
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