So my mom and dad drove me to Kingston yesterday afternoon, and we stayed in a hotel overnight. I had to be there at Queen’s at about 10:45am this morning, and our hotel was just a 5 minute drive away from the place. I’m not much of a morning person, but didn’t want to have to spend the whole day anxious for an afternoon interview – so that’s why I picked a late morning interview.

I went to bed at around 12 am, but I just couldn’t sleep. I’m pretty sure it was partly because I was quite anxious/excited/nervous. But it was also because the air conditioning or heater or something kept making a sound every half hour. Plus, someone was snoring super loud – I think it was my dad, but he vehemently denies it, and says he’s sure it was my mom.

In any case, I maybe got a few hours of sleep max. I mean, it’s not like I’ve never been on little or no sleep before, but I would say these these interviews are much more important than any exam or test I’ve had to miss sleep before =)

But in my experience, I have always had adrenaline rushes during interviews or something, so I’ve never had problems staying awake during one. My parents and I both figured the same would happen this time.

When I got to the actual building, I checked in, and took a seat in the waiting room with the other students waiting to be interviewed, as well as some first year medical students. I sat down next to a guy from Saskatchewan, talked for maybe five minutes, before I was called for the 15 minute writing assignment.

I signed a confidentiality form, so not only am I legally bound to not give any details away, but I don’t think it’s ethically right to be sharing the details – it’s also counterproductive for myself, given that it is a competitive process, and it’s not very smart to be giving out information that could cause me a relative disadvantage. I will say that I wasn’t surprised by the writing assignment, and while I don’t think I did fantastic (I am a much better typer than hand-writer), I think I did okay. I’m not really sure what the admissions committee is looking for, but I have some varying ideas about possible reasons for introducing this writing assignment for the first time this year.

After the writing assignment, I went back down to the interview waiting room. I met two other candidates from Alberta, and chatted a bit with a first year medical student. I had no idea she was a medical student at first, though I should’ve guessed by her very casual look with Jeans and cowboyish boots =P

My in-person interview was scheduled for 11:40am, and I wasn’t sure exactly when I was called in, I think it was maybe a little before that, though I’m not really sure. The person who took me to my room actually turned out to be my medical school interviewer (the other being a physician), so I’m glad I spoke to her on the way – if I didn’t, I might have come off as super anti-social or something. Somehow I mentioned I went to York, and so I told her a bit about my experience with the strike.

Again, I won’t give any details about the questions, but I will say that it was a pretty pleasant experience. My interviewers were kind and warm individuals. The med student kept smiling as I spoke, and nodding as I said things, so I’m hoping that means she was listening and finding what I said interesting as opposed to just being nice =P

The physician was actually pretty cool. He often commented on or joked about what I said and asked a few follow-up questions, which is a really good sign, because it means that he was listening to me and didn’t find what I said boring (and thus zone out). For example, I brought up the fact that I have sung in some choirs, and he joked that they would have me sing at the end of the interview. Of course, I told him that I would definitely do it if they asked, but I hadn’t prepared anything in particular – but if I had to, I think I would’ve gone with Seal’s Kiss from a Rose because I’ve really liked that song lately. lol. I definitely think anytime your interviewers are relaxed and engaged enough that they make comments or jokes, it’s a good sign. I mean, I’d like to think of it as a good sign, but considering that there are going to be 760 students interviewed for 100 spots at Queen’s… there’s only so much wishful thinking I can do =)

I actually learned a lot from this experience, and there are definitely some interview concepts that I had thought about previously, that today’s experience seemingly helped confirm. One thing I will say is that all of my preparation helped a lot – not because a lot of what I reflected on our studied was used (because most things weren’t), but it’s sort of like any test that you prepare for. By studying everything possible, you don’t get surprised. I feel like I was only surprised once in the entire interview today, and that was because I had spent a lot of time reflecting throughout the week.

With my Toronto interview coming up in about a week, I think today’s experience, plus all of the preparation I did this past week, means that I don’t have too much homework to do for that next week. I feel really good with where my mind is at – I would have no trouble walking into that interview tomorrow if I had to.

Unfortunately, I still have my molecular biology exam tomorrow evening. It’s 7:53pm, and I still haven’t started studying yet. All of today’s excitement, plus exhaustion from little sleep, has really reduced my motivation to pick up my notes.

Despite the fact that I ended up over-preparing for my interview (at the cost of not preparing for my exam yet), I think that over-preparation not only made me ready for answering 99% of what was thrown at me, but gave me a ton of confidence walking in there. Instead of worrying about having missed some random health care issue or forgotten experience from my life, I was able to walk in there with a mind brimming with ideas and concepts from the past week that I was able to instantly draw from when needed.

Okay no more procrastinating – time to hit the books!