Do Not Give “Canned” Answers to Interview Questions

Although it is important to practice your interviews, interviewers are looking for genuine, unforced answers to their questions. You do not want to sound rehearsed and please, do not answer their questions with answers that you think they want to hear, instead of what you really think or feel. There might not always be a right or wrong answer to a question posed during an interview. The interview has more to do with how you express yourself than with what you say or know. Sometimes an applicant may give an answer to a question that he or she wanted the interviewer to ask rather than answering the question that was actually asked. This may call the applicants listening skills into question. Ask for clarification if you do not understand the question. Be sure to review your answers to your primary application as well as to the medical schools secondary application as part of your interview preparation. If you are asked about something you wrote about in your application and you respond with, I am not sure what you are talking about. Could I please see the essay? you will sound completely unprepared for you interview and will bring all the answers to the questions in your application into question. This post is excerpted from 101 Tips on Getting Into Medical School by Jennifer C. Welch, who has served as the Director of Admissions at SUNY Upstate Medical School since 2001.