This week, we’ve received lots of emails from excited and (dare I suspect) anxious candidates about their recent USC interview invitations, wondering how our course, Interview Mastery, can help them to get the best results in USC MMI interview as well as the PBL interview.
I’m always honored and grateful for candidates who reach out after receiving an invitation asking how we can help, as I often learn that they’ve heard good things about our interview preparation course from friends that they trust who were able to ace their interviews and gain an acceptance in previous years. Hearing from some of you this week was no exception.
If you’re reading this, you may very likely have an upcoming interview at University of Southern California’s Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry.
Firstly: CONGRATULATIONS!!
Secondly: Let’s break things down. . . .
What’s New for 2020 at USC?
For 2020, USC has informed candidates that the interview experience will consist of 3 parts:
The written assessment and problem based learning exercises have been apart of USC’s advanced standing interview experience for years. What’s truly new this year (thanks to COVID 19) is the Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) component.
SO, How Can We Help with USC Interview?
International Dentist Central has been helping candidates prepare for USC’s interview since we started back in 2013.
Written Assessment for USC
In past years (before 2020), we know that USC has given candidates a written assessment. The assignment has been to respond to a question by writing an essay response. Thus far, the types of questions given to candidates have been standard interview-like questions, instead of questions that test your theoretical or clinical dental knowledge. For example, past questions have been:
- Why did you choose dentistry?
- What are some challenges you see facing dentistry in the next 20 years?
While Interview Mastery (our interview preparation course) doesn’t specifically have a section dedicated to USC’s written assessment, the course videos are likely to cover the types of questions you’d encounter during USC’s written assessment, as they’re similar to the questions asked during most dental school interviews. Thus, we believe that by going through the full Interview Mastery course, you should find yourself ready for most prompts given during the written assessment.
The Mock PBL Interview Session
We’ve primarily helped USC-bound candidates through our yearly USC PBL Mock Session. The PBL Mock Session is, and always has been, a virtual group video chat where we run through a mock problem based learning case based upon an actual USC PBL case that was utilized some years ago. We usually limit the event to 10 participants, all members of Interview Mastery, and if demand is high enough, we’ll do multiple PBL interview mock sessions.
The Next Mock PBL Interview
“But my interview at USC is coming up soon! When will you be holding the next Mock USC PBL session?”
Good News: I (Kevin) will conduct a MOCK USC PBL session as a part of the course inside Interview Mastery course. The session will last 1-2 hours and will be available to any Interview Mastery member (Basic, Well, or Fully Prepared levels). The session will give you a real-life experience of a PBL interview session, very similar to USC’s (especially now that theirs is virtual too). After going through the exercise, I’ll be providing feedback to the group on how everyone did and how to improve.
Past Mock PBL Recordings
I just checked and we have 3 past Mock PBL recordings in our Interview Mastery archive, in addition to a general overview workshop which includes general tips and tricks about how to prepare. (hint: just search “PBL” in our course search box at the top)
MMI Preparation
While USC’s new MMI component to their interview is new this year, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before with regard to other advanced standing programs. University of Michigan has used this method of interviewing almost exclusively for years now, as well as a number of Canadian DDS and Residency programs. The dentistry MMI interview is a brilliant method that evaluates how dental candidates might act in complex real-life scenarios where difficult decisions need to be made and where ethics are of the utmost importance. The goal is to evaluate your ability to put patients first, consider ethical dilemmas, and get a sense for your patient bedside-manner (in contrast to testing your clinical knowledge or skill-level).
While we don’t know exactly how USC will structure their MMI component at the time of this writing, we can make some solid assumptions based upon their decision to use the term MMI in their invitation email.
At IDC, we offer 2 ways to prepare yourself for the MMI component of USC’s interview:
- Interview Mastery includes a thorough learning module of MMI styled interviews. The is a past workshop that I conducted earlier this year all about MMI. The video is over an hour-long, and goes into the history of the MMI, why it’s being used more and more by both medical schools and dental schools, and how to best navigate the Multiple Mini Interview process to perform your best. If you missed the workshop, or simply want to refresh yourself with the topic, it’s a great way to prepare for any MMI structured interview experience. (hint: search MMI in our course search bar at the top)
- NOTE: All Interview Mastery members (Basic, Well, and Fully Prepared) have immediate access to this video
- In addition to the video-lecture above, we offer an MMI-style Mock Interview session. This 2 hour 1 on 1 session is markedly different than our standard 2-hour mock interview that comes with Interview Mastery in that it’s structured as a virtual MMI session, with MMI example questions from real MMI interviews used in medical and dental school interviews (hint: dental schools often use the same questions as medical schools).
- NOTE: Interview Mastery Well or Fully Prepared members levels that wish to use their mock interview session as an MMI session, may do so by just letting us know ahead of time.
Next Steps
Interested in getting our help with USC’s PBL Interview Session and MMI interview experience? Here’s what to know:
- If you just want access to Interview Mastery including the learning modules all about PBL interviews and MMIs + you want to join our Mock PBL this Thursday (Oct 22nd), then you’ll need to join Interview Mastery (Basic, Well, or Fully Prepared).
- Note: The USC PBL Mock session will be announced by email to all Interview Mastery members and there will be limited space – first come first serve
- If you want access to all of the above (course modules, participate in Mock PBL) AND you also want to do an MMI styled Mock Interview Session with one of our interview coaches, you’ll need to be an Interview Mastery member (Well or Fully Prepared only)
- Note: Due to limited staff, only a limited number of MMI interview mock sessions will be available this week – first come, first serve – so please check with us first before signing up to make sure we can still accommodate you.
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