What Should I Do If I am Faced with a Hard MMI Scenario?

Session 5

The MMI scenario is written very specifically. It’s not meant to be easy. Sometimes it’s there to make you think and put you in a hard spot. Don’t fight it.

I was doing an MMI scenario with a student I’m working with and I gave a very common scenario I give to students. Most of the MMI scenarios are hard and so many students complain about how difficult it is.

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[00:55] An Example of a Scenario

So, this scenario I gave the student involves picking a group of people that’s going to die and a group who’s going to live. This student didn’t read the scenario carefully enough, or he wanted to show how perfect a student he was, and wanted to save everybody.

The scenario said these people are going to die or live, and it’s your job to figure out how you’re going to make that happen. Now this student was trying to be the hero. He said he’d save everybody.

What it came down to was he was trying to fight the scenario to try to prove a point.

[02:03] Don’t Fight It

In the MMI, you’re given a s scenario for a specific reason. Your goal is not to fight that scenario. Your goal is to answer a question in that scenario.

If it asks how you’re going to kill 100 people, answer how you’re going to kill 100 people. While the MMI is a test on your ability to think and process information and to communicate that information.

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[03:19] Answer the Question

If the question asks you about something about A, don’t tell them anything about B. Just because you think it’s going to make you look like a better person, a better student, or a better applicant. That is not your job in the MMI. Your job is to make the interviewer understand that number one, you can read and process information.

Number two is to communicate with the interviewer and your ability to think critically through this scenario. Be able to communicate your thoughts with them on solving the scenario or fixing the problem or whatever it is.

[Tweet “”Don’t go thinking you need to prove something to the admissions committee member by fighting the scenario.” https://medicalschoolhq.net/what-should-i-do-if-i-am-faced-with-a-hard-mmi-scenario/”]