MMI Info Sheet for Applicants

MMI Info Sheet for Applicants

General Information

The Multiple Mini Interview at the University of Calgary Cumming School of Medicine in 2016 will consist of 10 structured brief assessments. Each assessment will contribute equally to the applicant’s overall score on the MMI. One of the 10 assessments takes the form of a group activity, which will involve groups of 6 or 7 applicants collectively completing a task while being observed by one or more assessors. The remaining 9 assessments will take place in a traditional “circuit”. That circuit will consist of 8 minute stations, with 2 minutes between stations to read the prompts on the door and to gather one’s thoughts.

Comments on the the Evolving Nature of the MMI

This is the 10th year in which the University of Calgary has used the MMI format. During that time, we have undergone an evolution in terms of the station structure and design. Originally, nearly all the stations followed a similar structure. The applicant was positioned in a hypothetical situation, and asked to discuss their approach to this situation. They were then prompted with scripted questions related to the situation being discussed. These are the types of stations of which there are video examples on our website. While we still use stations of this type, we have found that many applicants have developed a somewhat formulaic and algorithmic approach to these kinds of scenarios. We have increasingly, therefore, been developing stations which do not follow this kind of a structure. In the past few years, we have integrated stations using a professional actor, or non-text-based visual materials, or which require applicants to complete a task. While there is value in asking applicants what they think they would do in a particular situation, or how they would respond to a particular problem, this is at best an indirect assessment of applicant behaviour and attitudes. We have therefore moved to incorporate more direct forms of assessment into the MMI stations as well. In other words, while we might ask you how you would solve a particular problem, we might also choose to simply ask you to solve a problem. The implication of this evolution, for applicants, is that there is no one best way to approach an MMI station – i.e. there is no formula to apply to every station. Many of the MMI resources that are out there purport to share a universal approach to answering MMI stations. These approaches work reasonably well for the more traditional MMI stations described above (although they often result in answers that appear to assessors as scripted and insincere), but frequently do not work well for other stations. Applicants should be particularly careful not to try to force a proverbial round peg into a square hole.

Comments on MMI Station Design

Each station of the MMI is an independent assessment, and is designed specifically to assess some particular attribute of interest. What exactly that attribute is will frequently not be clear to the applicants, and our best advice is that you simply respond to the content of the station to the best of your ability. Time spent trying to “figure out what they want me to say”is probably time wasted, and often leads to inconsistent and transparently superficial answers. Each MMI station is an assessment, and as such has a goal and a purpose. We do not use stations that are designed simply to put an applicant off balance or to be bizarre for the sake of being bizarre. That is not to say that applicants might not occasionally be surprised or confused by a station, but that is not its purpose.

The futility of trying to figure out what a station is trying to assess is perhaps best illustrated by an example. Imagine a station in which you are asked to separate two metal shapes, like these:

What would be the point of such a station? The answer is there could be several. It could be an assessment of manual dexterity, or visual-spatial ability, or frustration tolerance, or perseverance, or even multi-tasking ability (depending on how you set it up). The same station, in fact, could be used to assess two different things in two different years. What might be a great performance could also be just a good performance, depending on what we are trying to assess. The take home advice that follows from that, I think, is that your best option, as an applicant, is to simply do what is asked of you, and not expend valuable time and energy trying to “out think” the station.

How the MMI Day is Going to Go

The start time you have been given is the start time for registration, not the interview itself. Be on time, or a few minutes early to be safe, but you do not need to arrive 30 minutes before your designated time. Once registered, you will sit at tables with the other people who will be interviewing in the same “circuit” or “track”. I will come and talk to you briefly, and field any last minute questions. After that, each “track” of 9 applicants will be taken by two of our current students (we call them “team leaders”) to the location where your group activity station is going to be held. Once there, you will find your name in the lists on the doors of the available rooms. Once your entire group is in the room, you will be read the instructions by the assessors in the room. The group station takes longer to complete than the other stations, but still only counts for one station in the final MMI score.

Once the group station is complete, you will be escorted to the location of your MMI circuit by your team leaders. The individual running that particular area will then speak to you briefly to remind you of a few important details and show you where you can leave purses, cell phones, etc. Each group of 9 applicants will then be brought into the MMI location, where you will be placed in front of your first station, with your back to the door. This makes for a few uncomfortable minutes staring at your fellow applicants until everyone is in position. Once everyone is ready to go, the announcer will announce the start of the MMI. At that point, you can turn around and begin to read the prompt / stem on the door. You have two minutes to read and collect your thoughts.[1] There will then be another announcement, at which point you enter the room and greet your assessor. After sitting down, you can begin doing whatever you were asked to do at the end of the prompt on the door. When there is one minute left in the station, there will be an announcement to that effect. That gives you a bit of time to wrap up. At 8 minutes, another announcement will be made, at which point you should say goodbye to your assessor and immediately move to the next station and begin reading the prompts on the next door. The two minute timer does not start until the last person is in place, so you may get a few seconds more than two minutes to read the prompts, but you will never get less.

For any stations where your assessor is required to ask you follow up questions, those questions are scripted and must be asked in order. If you think you have already answered the question that was asked, you can say so. The questions are used to guide the discussion in the direction that is of interest to us, so it is generally in your best interest to hear the questions, even if there are no specific points awarded for using or not using the probing questions.

After the circuit is complete, you will be escorted out of the MMI location, provided with a snack and taken to one of our lecture theatres where the students have a video and presentations for you. You will have a chance to ask any questions you may have about the process at that time.

Some General Advice for the UofC MMI

1. Pay attention to the question that is being asked or the instructions you have been given. Every year we get people who give very lucid and cogent answers to questions that were not asked in the first place. They tend not to score well.
2. If a station asks you to say what you would do, take a few seconds to think sincerely and honestly about what you would say or do. The alternative is to try to think about what impression you want to give, and the problem with that is that the impressions thus provided frequently lack depth and internal consistency. The one thing that will never lack depth or consistency is you, since you have had 20+ years to develop a way of thinking and being in the world that makes sense. Be yourself, and share that with your assessor.

Answers to Common Questions

1. Yes, there is paper and pencils outside the room, so it is ok to take notes. All we ask is that any notes taken be left in the MMI rooms upon completion of the station.
2. There will be a second copy of the scenario inside the room, so it is not necessary to remember every detail of what is written on the door.
3. You can use as much or as little of the 8 minutes as you wish, but if you finish before the 8 minutes is up, you are expected to sit in silence and not engage your examiner in small talk.
4. If you are so nervous that you start off badly, you may ask for a restart. Your assessor has been instructed to allow you to restart, and to “reset” their scoring. You do not, however, get more time. This is usually only an issue for a handful of applicants on the first one or two stations.

Good luck, and we look forward to meeting you on interview day.

Ian Walker, MD

Director of Admissions

Cumming School of Medicine

University of Calgary

[1] There are occasional stations (this year there is one) where the prompt on the door asks you to enter the room immediately and begin working on a task. If you are expected to enter prior to the two minute signal, the prompt on the door will say “enter the room now” or something to that effect.