Although interviews are the last step before earning your medical school acceptance, they’re also one of the most difficult. A bad interview can ruin the chances of an otherwise flawless applicant, which is why it’s so important to enter your interviews as prepared as possible. Think of an interview study guide as last-minute notes to review before a massive exam.
The more interviews you have, the more useful it will become, as you can continue to add notes about what to expect and how you can continue to hone your interview performance.
Now, keep in mind that no two applicants are the same. While this interview guide can provide you with valuable advice to boost your preparation, it is critical that you prepare your own personalized study guide that’s tailored to your strengths and weaknesses.
In this post, we break down what an interview study guide is and what to include so that each interview is better than your last.
What Is an Interview Study Guide?
An interview study guide is a personalized resource to use for reference on the day before and the day of your interview. It will ensure you’re well-prepared and professional on interview day.
The study guide highlights important points and key questions to review right before the interview. It should include your application, research publications, a few unique aspects of the school, and a document that goes over common questions with bullet points of how you want to answer. This is especially helpful for current hot topic issues in the medical field, such as the implications of COVID-19 or the future of AI in healthcare.
Our experts at Med School Insiders have served on admissions committees and interviewed applicants just like yourself. Take it from us: It’s obvious when applicants have done their homework and are prepared, and it’s also obvious when they haven’t.
Keep in mind an interview study guide is not meant to replace all of your regular prep in the weeks before your interviews. It isn’t the only preparation piece; it’s meant to aid the other prep you’ve already completed. It’s a file that could be physical or digital that holds reminders of what you struggle with, what you want to remember, details about the school, and what you had on your application.
The Benefits of Creating a Personalized Interview Study Guide
Creating and regularly updating your own personalized interview study guide makes you a better interviewee. Over the course of your interview process, continually add to your guide, highlighting unique questions or tasks along the way so that you’re better prepared for the next interview.
Take time to reflect on your performance after every interview and add your insights to your guide. Were you asked any questions you hadn’t prepared for that sailed over your head? Did an anecdote fall flat? Did the school run Multiple Mini Interviews (MMIs), and if so, what stations did you encounter? Was your throat dry or did you mumble? What can you do better next time?
By continually updating your study guide after every interview, you’ll find yourself more and more prepared for each successive interview—and preparation is the cornerstone of confidence.
Getting into this habit now won’t only help you with interviews for medical school but also in your residency interviews and future professional endeavors throughout your life.
How to Create an Interview Study Guide: Components to Include
A study guide should be composed of multiple sections:
Section 1: CV and Application Details
Section 2: Common Questions
Section 3: School Information
Let’s discuss these sections in more detail so you know precisely what information to include.
Section 1: CV and Application Details
The first section of your study guide deals with your CV or AMCAS/AACOMAS/TMDSAS application. The most important piece of advice for medical school applicants is to know your CV and primary application inside and out. Applicants should be extremely well-versed in every last detail of their CV or application.
Create a document you can update regularly, and include important notes and details on work and volunteer experiences, awards, publications, interests, and personal details on your CV. This will provide you with a stellar working knowledge of the details needed to naturally and elegantly discuss your prior experiences.
Study this document before each interview and quickly read through your notes. It’s also a good idea to read it on the flight over or the night before the interview.
Keep a separate folder with any of your publications, abstracts, and any other information that can be used to quickly refresh your memory before your interviews. A common pitfall among medical school applicants is not knowing their research inside and out.
Particularly at top-ranked research institutions, your interviewer will be asking you in-depth and challenging questions about your research to determine your level of understanding, critical thinking, and intellectual curiosity. Do not leave these questions up to chance!
Section 2: Common Questions
The second section of your study guide addresses questions that may come up in the course of an interview. One category should consist of common questions you will likely be asked at the vast majority of your interviews, such as:
“Why do you want to be a doctor?”
“Why do you want to attend this medical school?”
These few questions will be asked at nearly every interview, so have a well-prepared but natural answer to each of them you feel confident about.
Create an additional section in your study guide for difficult interview questions. While it is sometimes tough to anticipate these questions, this is a category you can return to after each interview and update if you are faced with a particularly difficult question you did not feel entirely prepared for.
List questions in each category. After each question, list a few bullet points highlighting important points to address when you answer each question. Bullet points are better than writing out a response verbatim, as your responses to these questions should be natural and not sound rehearsed. However, having a few key talking points in mind when you are asked an especially difficult or important question will put your mind at ease.
This will go a long way to helping you sound well-prepared and professional during your interviews. As time goes on and you complete additional interviews, these answers will become second nature.
Here are 21 Medical School Interview Questions and How to Answer Them.
It’s also a good idea to include questions you want to ask the interviewer(s). Since your questions will ideally be tailored to each specific school, it’s critical that you review the questions you want to ask before your interview. For example:
- What are you most proud of about this medical school?
- What are this medical school’s greatest strengths?
- What’s your favorite memory of attending medical school?
- What are the research opportunities like at this medical school?
- How do the students here do in The Match?
- Is there any area of campus I should take a closer look at today?
- Why did you decide to become an interviewer?
Looking for more questions to ask your interviewer? Here are 32 Questions to Ask Medical School Interviewers.
Section 3: School Information
Another vital piece of your interview study guide should be specific information about the school you’re visiting, such as the school’s mission statement, the values you both share, reminders of secondary application questions, the school’s contacts, such as the program coordinator or director, the precise time of your interview and where it takes place, as well as notes about the city. It’s a lot to keep track of just in your head, which is why a personalized interview study guide is invaluable.
With any luck, you’ll be interviewing at several different medical schools, and many medical schools have similar mission statements. It’s easy to mix up the nuances of each program’s offerings and values without carefully reviewing their specific details beforehand.
When you review the details, remember to think about how the school’s offerings and values excite you and what you have to contribute specifically. Even if the school is not a high priority for you, put yourself in the shoes of an applicant who is overjoyed to be interviewing there. Remember, it’s an honor to be interviewing anywhere, and every interview is an opportunity to hone your skills.
Reviewing the details of each program before your interview is always the smart choice. Make space in your interview study guide for information about the school you’re interviewing at, and make sure to study up the night before and on the day of.
Conquer Every Interview
By maintaining this study guide, frequently updating it, and reviewing it during travel time and any downtime you have on interview day, you will be able to continually refine your approach to your interviews. With each successive interview, you will become a more polished applicant and will leave a strong, lasting impression on the interviewer and medical school.
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Check out our library of resources on the Med School Insiders blog, which holds dozens of interview topics, including our Comprehensive Interview Guide, How to Write an Interview Thank You Email, and How to Handle Inappropriate Interview Questions.
