Are Ottawa interviews really that 'tough'?

[hkm91450]

I've been reading around and it seems like Ottawa is notorious for super tough interviews? Is that true?

By no means am I saying interviews are easy, but tough to the point where they tear apart and try to find everything wrong with your ABS, etc.?

[future_doc]

I would not take such an approach or attack personally or react negatively, rather it is an opportunity to defend and explain my ABS and show how my activities allowed for my growth and development.

[rmorelan]

I've been reading around and it seems like Ottawa is notorious for super tough interviews? Is that true?

By no means am I saying interviews are easy, but tough to the point where they tear apart and try to find everything wrong with your ABS, etc.?

I would prepare for tough - they grilled me quite a bit actually. Basically no matter what I said they responded with yet another followup question..... :)

Still if you know that going in it is a big help!

[LookingForInfo]

I would prepare for tough - they grilled me quite a bit actually. Basically no matter what I said they responded with yet another followup question..... :)

Still if you know that going in it is a big help!

Wow...thanks for the heads up. I read on another website (can't remember off the top of my head) that Ottawa had super relaxed interviews and such. Guess these people just did superbly well.

[hkm91450]

I would prepare for tough - they grilled me quite a bit actually. Basically no matter what I said they responded with yet another followup question..... :)

Still if you know that going in it is a big help!

Thanks for sharing rmorelan.

If you don't mind me asking, did you get accepted/waitlisted/rejected at Ottawa?

[rmorelan]

Thanks for sharing rmorelan.

If you don't mind me asking, did you get accepted/waitlisted/rejected at Ottawa?

Don't mind at all! - for full disclosure I was actually rejected at Ottawa, waitlisted at Queens, accepted at U of S, Western, and Toronto. I didn't apply to Mac or NOSM. Since I accepted Western I have no idea where I was on the Queens waitlist :)

I was kind of surprised by the outright rejection, as my mock interview went well there and I was first round pick at other heavy interview based schools - U of S is 100% interview OOP, Western 50%, Queens, well, Queens had a ridiculous number of applicants :) My GPA kind of towers over the interview at Toronto I suppose so I can get nothing really from that - they are so academic dependent there. Still it goes to show you the crazy world that medical school acceptance is!

I guess at the interview I was a still taken back from the rather stark colder approach of the interviewers. Now this is just one sample point, I have been told that it is highly interviewer specific at Ottawa so I wouldn't extend this to mean all interviewers :)

[supafield]

rmorelan... when you say outright rejected... do you mean the unlikely waitlist... or was there another category beyond that which was an outright rejection?

[rmorelan]

rmorelan... when you say outright rejected... do you mean the unlikely waitlist... or was there another category beyond that which was an outright rejection?

ahh sorry, just looked up the email. Yes, it was the unlikely waitlist. As you can imagine once you get even one acceptance, the rest of the details on the big day kind of fade into the background :)

[supafield]

ahh sorry, just looked up the email. Yes, it was the unlikely waitlist. As you can imagine once you get even one acceptance, the rest of the details on the big day kind of fade into the background :)

Haha, oh how I've imagined...

[rmorelan]

Haha, oh how I've imagined...

Hopefully not for much longer, I am expecting good things this May 13th :)

as a side note May 15 last year was the start of the long weekend. For most of us any details we did remember were destroyed during the festivities!

[joshto]

when you say they try to find something 'wrong' with your ABS, how exactly can an experience listed be 'wrong'?

[rmorelan]

when you say they try to find something 'wrong' with your ABS, how exactly can an experience listed be 'wrong'?

this is not something from my interview, so I am not breaking any rules here and I will be quite general.

Let's say you listed a particular volunteer position you had. They ask you want you learned from that position, or coming at it another way they ask you to provide an example of "positive trait X" and you talk about your experience.

The interviewer then says that experience did not demonstrate that trait and asks you to prove that it did more forcefully (note no matter what you say, they can continue to press the issue). You might be tempted to jump to another example but likely this one would be weaker than the first one (which is why you didn't pick it the first place). You can hold your ground and try to present your case again without sounding like you are repeating yourself (you don't want the dreaded "You already told us that, you haven't added anything really....). This can go on and on and on.

Rinse and repeat on the next 10 questions....

However you realize this is just a bit of the game you likely can do much better - they be completely aware that experience X does show trait Y, and actually be impressed. It actually has little to with that! I learned from related things done at the Ottawa interview and used what I learned at the other interviews whenever anything like that came up - I guess I developed a "ego shield" to such attacks :)

On another tangent You may also list something as research on your ABS and they challenge you by saying it actually just a job/volunteer position. You didn't actually research anything.

[hkm91450]

this is not something from my interview, so I am not breaking any rules here and I will be quite general.

Let's say you listed a particular volunteer position you had. They ask you want you learned from that position, or coming at it another way they ask you to provide an example of "positive trait X" and you talk about your experience.

The interviewer then says that experience did not demonstrate that trait and asks you to prove that it did more forcefully (note no matter what you say, they can continue to press the issue). You might be tempted to jump to another example but likely this one would be weaker than the first one (which is why you didn't pick it the first place). You can hold your ground and try to present your case again without sounding like you are repeating yourself (you don't want the dreaded "You already told us that, you haven't added anything really....). This can go on and on and on.

Rinse and repeat on the next 10 questions....

However you realize this is just a bit of the game you likely can do much better - they be completely aware that experience X does show trait Y, and actually be impressed. It actually has little to with that! I learned from related things done at the Ottawa interview and used what I learned at the other interviews whenever anything like that came up - I guess I developed a "ego shield" to such attacks :)

On another tangent You may also list something as research on your ABS and they challenge you by saying it actually just a job/volunteer position. You didn't actually research anything.

Great insight and tips, thanks again! As a first time applicant to any medical school and being an OOP (so I really don't have a chance to visit the school nor do any mocks there), any opinion about the interview process is greatly appreciated. :)

[LookingForInfo]

On another tangent You may also list something as research on your ABS and they challenge you by saying it actually just a job/volunteer position. You didn't actually research anything.

What exactly would the consider research then? Would it be more of...if you contributed in terms of publications? Thanks for the above tips though!

[mattg]

i think it would be referring more so to whether or not you actually made an intellectual contribution, whether in design of the research question/project or interpretation of the results, as opposed to just manual labour, such as making measurements or something (ie. you were essentially like a volunteer lab tech)

[Julie]

Now this is just one sample point, I have been told that it is highly interviewer specific at Ottawa so I wouldn't extend this to mean all interviewers :)

I second that. I really depends on who you get and interviews can, and often do I think, feel quite relaxed (well, as much as a med school interview could). Also, your evaluation of your experience/of how well it went doesn't really seem to correlate with your chances of being admitted. So basically just do your best and try not to worry about it once it's done!

[thatonekid]

Well, the people I know who are at UofO right now all told me that they got grilled on minor details in their ABS. So, I'm basically preparing for the worst and hoping for the best!

[rmorelan]

Well, the people I know who are at UofO right now all told me that they got grilled on minor details in their ABS. So, I'm basically preparing for the worst and hoping for the best!

Just reinforces the point I was making about there being a variety of interviewer types at Ottawa. Be prepared for either one (don't get flustered at a tough one, don't go overly relaxed on a more casual one) :)

[sarakj]

Hi everyone .. good luck with your interviews.. I will be helping with the interviews this yr so I will be seeing some of you ! and helpfully, we make the process more enjoyable for all of you ! I am going to list some tips that might help you with interview preparation:
1. walk in with smile and self confidence
2. As soon as you get in the room, think you are the best and there is no one better than you
3. think think and think before you answer any question... if not sure , ask us to repeat the questions.. some time when you are nervous you do not get the question so you do not answer right and this way you loose points
4. very good eye contacts, whoever ask the question should be involved more but try to look at the other members as well
5. when you do not know an answer and you need time, just say i am just going to think for a few mint if that is ok with you
6. give us a story for your answers.. the stories will stick to our mind when you leave the room
7. know your application well, every little details are important
8. be honest and if you are not sure about sth DO NOT make sth up , jut say I am not sure
8. leave the room with smile !

I hope these helps..
good luck again
Sara Kj 2010

[takashi]

Hi everyone .. good luck with your interviews.. I will be helping with the interviews this yr so I will be seeing some of you ! and helpfully, we make the process more enjoyable for all of you ! I am going to list some tips that might help you with interview preparation:
1. walk in with smile and self confidence
2. As soon as you get in the room, think you are the best and there is no one better than you
3. think think and think before you answer any question... if not sure , ask us to repeat the questions.. some time when you are nervous you do not get the question so you do not answer right and this way you loose points
4. very good eye contacts, whoever ask the question should be involved more but try to look at the other members as well
5. when you do not know an answer and you need time, just say i am just going to think for a few mint if that is ok with you
6. give us a story for your answers.. the stories will stick to our mind when you leave the room
7. know your application well, every little details are important
8. be honest and if you are not sure about sth DO NOT make sth up , jut say I am not sure
8. leave the room with smile !

I hope these helps..
good luck again
Sara Kj 2010

Great advice! Although I do not have an interview with Ottawa, I will definitely remember your tips :)

[LookingForInfo]

Great advice! Although I do not have an interview with Ottawa, I will definitely remember your tips :)

Definitely will keep your tips in mind when doing my mocks. Thanks so much for the heads up. I know most of it sounds basic enough, but I guess the challenge for me is to keep those tips in mind while my nerves are jittering! :p

[mattg]

H
5. when you do not know an answer and you need time, just say i am just going to think for a few mint if that is ok with you

If you do say "is it okay for me to think about that", how long can you really think? you said a few minutes... but is it really okay sitting their for minutes? what would you say (sara) as well as you other guys, is an appropriate time to sit and think about an answer?

[rmorelan]

If you do say "is it okay for me to think about that", how long can you really think? you said a few minutes... but is it really okay sitting their for minutes? what would you say (sara) as well as you other guys, is an appropriate time to sit and think about an answer?

Maybe up to a 30 sec - minute? Still rather sit there and think and get it right, than blurt out some nonsense :)

At my interview in Western I paused for one minute on one tough question. I mean if I did it over and over again it probably wouldn't be good, but otherwise not a big deal. Of course you can also start describing a bit of your response while you are thinking out the rest a bit as well.

[mattg]

even 30 seconds to a minute... isn't that a lot of dead air? that seems like quite a while... what about the average question... should you take 5-10 seconds for every question more or less?

[thatonekid]

even 30 seconds to a minute... isn't that a lot of dead air? that seems like quite a while... what about the average question... should you take 5-10 seconds for every question more or less?Through practice, I've found that when you actually sit around, 30 sec seems like a lot of time to you, but it doesn't seem like that much time to the interviewer.

[rmorelan]

Through practice, I've found that when you actually sit around, 30 sec seems like a lot of time to you, but it doesn't seem like that much time to the interviewer.

and the interview knows when they asked you a tough question, so it isn't surprising that you are taking a while.

i mean I wouldn't want to pause on a question like "why do you want to be a doctor" - you should know that :) But a ethics question of some complexity, or comment on health care - take your time. A good answer is better than a quick one by a huge margin.

[Atreides]

I got into Ottawa and my interview experience was very similar to rmorelan's, and several of my classmates said theirs was as well so it is by no means an exception. Of course, others had relatively laid back interviews as well, so you can never tell. Also I waited for a few minutes to answer when they kept hammering so that I could provide an actual well-thought answer and apparently they didn't mind that so its usually fine to pause for even a few minutes (maybe not a few minutes more like 30-90 seconds).

[panda__eyes]

I got into Ottawa and my interview experience was very similar to rmorelan's, and several of my classmates said theirs was as well so it is by no means an exception. Of course, others had relatively laid back interviews as well, so you can never tell. Also I waited for a few minutes to answer when they kept hammering so that I could provide an actual well-thought answer and apparently they didn't mind that so its usually fine to pause for even a few minutes (maybe not a few minutes more like 30-90 seconds).

When you mean "hammering", are you referring to hammering about what you brought up in your autobiographical sketch or any question in general?
By the way Atreides...nice username...if you're referring to Dune =).

[mattg]

I got into Ottawa and my interview experience was very similar to rmorelan's, and several of my classmates said theirs was as well so it is by no means an exception. Of course, others had relatively laid back interviews as well, so you can never tell. Also I waited for a few minutes to answer when they kept hammering so that I could provide an actual well-thought answer and apparently they didn't mind that so its usually fine to pause for even a few minutes (maybe not a few minutes more like 30-90 seconds).

30 to 90 seconds just seems like SOO long to me... is it just me? did you make noises while sitting like "hmm", or talk through your thought processing? or you literally sat there for a minute and a half, thinking?... how many times did you do this?
thanks :)

[DrManhattan]

30 to 90 seconds just seems like SOO long to me... is it just me? did you make noises while sitting like "hmm", or talk through your thought processing? or you literally sat there for a minute and a half, thinking?... how many times did you do this?
thanks :)

My suggestion would be to have a water bottle with you, slowly take a sip and think about it. Be silent and look down at the table. Key thing is not to look (or sound) nervous - so don't change your body posture or fidget your hands, or talk it out.

Stay calm and composed, and don't start talking until you've put together a clear answer in your head. I'd say 30 seconds should be the upper limit here... any longer, and the interviewers might get bored.

With regards to the laid back vs. hard interviewers: I've talked to people with who thought they'd have been rejected for sure, but got accepted.

I'm not sure if I lucked out, but mine was really laid back and enjoyable. My ethical question also seemed to be really easy compared to other applicants I talked to. In fact, I felt that it was all a little too good to be true, so I was a little surprised when I got my acceptance letter.

Good luck!

[mattg]

My suggestion would be to have a water bottle with you, slowly take a sip and think about it.

Thanks for the advice! This was another thing I was wondering ^, so it's okay to bring a water bottle into the interview... that would be ideal - I can definitely see my mouth drying up:p ... is it common to bring water bottles into interviews?

[viscous]

I got into Ottawa and my interview experience was very similar to rmorelan's, and several of my classmates said theirs was as well so it is by no means an exception. Of course, others had relatively laid back interviews as well, so you can never tell. Also I waited for a few minutes to answer when they kept hammering so that I could provide an actual well-thought answer and apparently they didn't mind that so its usually fine to pause for even a few minutes (maybe not a few minutes more like 30-90 seconds).

So by hammering you mean that they gave you the chance to give a better answer than what you gave previously?

[Atreides]

By hammering I mean they asked me a question about say ethics, and then when I gave an answer they "disliked" (now looking back I think they possibly did not dislike the answer and simply wanted to see if I would remain consistent) they continued to ask me more questions on the topic and then related but not exactly the same situations and so on for the majority of the interview.

And if I was waiting for more than 10-15 seconds I'd probably say something along the lines of, well, thats an interesting question/situation I'll need to think about it for a little while to formulate a cohesive answer (I probably didn't actually say cohesive,my writing is considerably more formal then my speaking). They would have been prepared though because they went into great depth about the topics they'd asked me about and they asked questions that were in direct contrast of what i'd already articulated as my position. The water drinking is an excellent suggestion, they often provide a water pitcher with glasses, I am unsure if this was true for Ottawa as I no longer remember. I only didn't use this because I am clutzy, and more so when nervous so that would have ended poorly.

And yes, my name is from Dune, you're probably the first person who ever made the connection.

[Atreides]

Also maybe it felt like a 30-90 seconds and was actually much shorter, I cannot be sure. I just mean that I paused for a good period of time to formulate a response (as in long enough for me to formulate a response, so probably long enough for the average individual to formulate a response as they were on topics I had not thought of prior to the interview relating to my autobiographical sketch or in general). It felt quite long to me, but perhaps it was shorter then 30 seconds.

[panda__eyes]

Thanks for your response. My interview is next week so I'm slightly nervous...
And yes, I am well familiar with the books, the movie and even the computer games (old and 'new').:)

[viscous]

So from what I gather, the subject matter of ottawa interview is pretty much like MMI's, you will get tons of ethics and health policy questions.

[Julie]

So from what I gather, the subject matter of ottawa interview is pretty much like MMI's, you will get tons of ethics and health policy questions.

I don't think there's a guarantee you'll get a ton of any time of questions. Unlike the MMI, not everyone interviewed will be asked the same things, so you may or may not get lots of ethics & health policy questions.