Any Advice on the MCAT or Interview Process?

Question

I'm a pre-med student in Canada. Just wanted to know if anyone who has already had the "pleasure" of taking the MCAT and acing an interview would have the time to share a little insight.

Should I focus on volunteer and research work for my interview, or do they just want to know my general opinions and who I am as a person?

If there is anyone out there who has attended the University of Saskatchewan MD program, even better!

Answer 1

I had the great pleasure of taking the MCAT a couple years ago and am in my second year of medical school.

For the MCAT, I bought a Kaplan review book and read through it about 3 times and also made flash cards of equations and such that you need to know for the physics section (I started studying pretty early). About 3 months before the exam, I began taking practice MCATs through the pre-med club at my school. The practice tests, along with reading through Kaplan Review definitely helped me succeed.

For the interview, the best advice I could give you would be to go to studentdoctor.net, which I found to be immensely helpful in preparing me for the interview process. Everyone has a different interview experience, but the website gives general feedback of what types of questions were asked and interviewees' opinion of the school. Every place that I interviewed at wanted to just get to know me as a person and why I wanted to be in medicine. I wasn't really surprised by any questions that I was asked. The volunteer and research experience are important and will probably be asked about, but will also be written somewhere in your application too.

Answer 2

I took the MCAT in 1997. Though I was confident, it was a little unnerving coming to grips with the fact that this one test would determine my future. I got so scared, I shat myself right before the test.

The test is very long and in my opinion, the questions were more general than the in depth questions I was used to in undergrad. I remember the essay question was a bit vague, and a lot of my classmates admitted after the test they may have rambled a bit because of the vagueness. Just make sure you are able to state a clear thesis and have very concise supporting paragraphs.

They will ask you specific questions in your interview: Be sure to have a brief, to-the-point summary of any research you've done in the past. More than likely they will ask about volunteer work, so make the summary brief and to the point as well.

I personally did not know there was a University of Saskatchewan MD program. I've always wanted to visit there.

Good luck