Student blogs

So, interviews have started. Yipee!! We have seen lots of fresh faced applicants wandering around SAF and it has been pretty exciting. I was having a think about things that I wish I had known when I was getting ready for my interview and I hope that this will help you guys (this is only my opinion though!).

1)      Why do you actually want to do medicine? No seriously. We know you like people and that you hope the world will be cured by your skills…but that’s not a full answer. Come up with something original and really think about it. This question is a pretty important one and if you haven’t worked out a valid reason about why you want to study Medicine, why would anyone want to let you?!

2)      Keep hobbies to a minimum…really. Two or three hobbies is a good number. One of my friends discussed 13 clubs he wanted to join at University. Although this may show you are keen…it isn’t very realistic and to be honest I have only joined one of the 3 clubs I thought I would when I came to Imperial. Show interest but don’t go overboard and start wearing an Imperial hoodie to the Interview.

3)      EVERYONE AT THE INTERVIEW IS A GENIUS. No one has got this far into the process without having silly amount of A Stars and extra curriculars. Ignore the boasters. Some of the people there in your interview waiting room will have even gone to Africa and helped a 14 year old girl give birth to twins. Don’t let any of this put you off. You go in there with your one day of work experience at the local GP and you sell it better than the Africa Story. You make your GP day sound like the best day of your whole life. You can do this.

4)      Was your stressful situation really stressful…or are you just showing off? Here is an example of what I mean by this:

Interviewer: “Tell me about a time when you were leading a team during a stressful situation”.

Student: “This one time on my gap yarrr I was climbing up a set of rocky mountains. I was leading a team of 12 walkers as I had the map at this time. Suddenly it got really stressful because we all couldn’t decide what to have for dinner. I took charge in this stressful situation and got my archery kit out and shot a passing deer. I was named a hero for the rest of the trip”.

5)      Bring some food/drinks to keep you going during the day in case there is a waiting time. If you have any extra chocolate after your interview please just leave it under a white table in SAF with a label saying “Mala” on. Cheers.

Good luck folks. You’ll be great. Sit up straight and just smile and nod if you don’t know the answer.

 

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