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SAMPLE Q/A:

What other interests do you have?

Like answering all other questions, you want to be concise and specific. Discuss two or three hobbies; you may want to ask the interviewer about his hobbies. Be prepared to defend yourself if you are asked about your time commitment to these hobbies vs. your studies! Always keep in mind that your studies come first.

1. Do you plan to continue your hobbies through medical school?
2. If you had one day to do anything, what would you do?
3. What was the last book you read? What did you think about it? Would you recommend that I read it? The last movie you saw? What did you think of it?
4. What was the last medical book that you read/studied? If you have not studied one, don't lie. But usually, everyone has looked at medical books when someone in the family has been sick. One good book that I had used in undergrad was the Merck manual which discusses most common illnesses.
5. Which classes did you enjoy most? Why? --talk with great enthusiasm when you are talking about things you like in general. Make sure that your enthusiasm is at its highest when you talk about medicine!
6. How would your friends describe your personality? --AKA, what are your strengths?
7. If you were stranded in an island, what three books would you want to have with you and why? --think of practical books or possibly spiritual ones. You want to maximize your chance of survival in the island. For example, would you want to know which plants were poisonous?
8. What are your strengths and weaknesses? What would you change about yourself?
9. Is there something about you that would make it difficult to get along with you? What type of people do you get along with well? --good physicians have to be able to work with all types of personalities throughout their training. As residents, you need to depend on other residents to get many tasks accomplished. As surgeons, you depend on your scrub nurse and assistants. In general, you like to convey that you get along with most people well. To show that you are hardworking (hopefully one of your pre-planned strong points), you may discuss that working with people that do not give their best effort may be difficult. You should, however, add that you have been successful in working with these types of people (by putting forth more effort on your side)! This is what I honestly felt when I was asked this question; think of something similar for yourself.
10. Describe the most exciting (scary, unusual, etc.) event of your life?
11. What do you think will be the most difficult aspect of medical school? --don't come up with multiple answers which would convince the interviewer that you would have a tough time in medical school. State the obvious like the need for increased studying; you may want to add that you can handle this sudden increase in your workload based on some previous quarter or semester in which you took 5000 units, etc!
12. Why did you do so poorly in bio 191? --this is a good opportunity to defend or explain bad grades, etc. Use it to your advantage; think about what you will discuss very carefully. You may even want to bring up this subject when you are asked "do you have any more questions?".
13. Imagine that you find a lamp that gives you three wishes? What would they be?
14. What qualities would you look for in a doctor? --think of all your strength and stress the importance of possessing them as a doctor! You need to remind the interviewer that you possess all these strengths.
15. What qualities would you look for in your patients?
16. If you could be any animal/body organ/cell, what would you be and why?
17. Who do you admire the most in your life? If you could chose one figure in history to have dinner with, who would it be? --family members (like your dad) would be an easy way to go. Describing his good qualities and comparing them to your own qualities is yet another opportunity to sell yourself. Use these opportunities as the interviewer may not ask you about your strengths and weaknesses.
18. Have you always put forth your best effort in every situation? --you need to balance being modest with guaranteeing that you will do your best at all times in medical school.
19. Tell me about something that you know a lot about? --this could be a hobby or anything you feel like you are an expert in. You can discuss making a web page for children with cerebral palsy. Don't forget that you want to be concise. Talk for a few minutes and pause to see the interviewer's reaction (this holds true for all the answers!)

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