u/Fancy-Ad-34

MMI season is coming up and I've been getting a lot of questions on how to prepare from the undergrads.

For context, I am a final-year MD student who failed my first MMI and got in with my second attempt. Trust me, it's not nice to put your life on hold just because of a single interview especially given I had a 7.0 GPA and a 73 unweighted GAMSAT.

When should I start preparing?

• There's no magical time to start preparing, different people require different amounts of preparation. For example, someone who has a allied health background probably needs significantly less prep vs someone who is fresh from a Bsci undergraduate degree.
• In my first attempt I prepared 2 weeks before the actual MMI. I was probably overconfident given my scores and in hindsight regret this decision. My second attempt I started 6 months before, doing biweekly practises and transitioning to weekly practises in the last 3 months then daily in the last month.

How should I start preparing?

• There are plenty of free resources online which essentially all say the same thing. Use them and figure out how you would answer different scenarios. Common approach you see online is the STAR approach for decision making stations- you can google this yourself.
• Before I began answering scenarios, I would start by getting a good grasp on the four pillars of medical ethics (and behyond), you can google "AMA code of Ethics" and download the doc there. I personally went through the entire document - it isnt long but provides a strong foundation on how you should be approaching scenarios.
• Additionally, you want to familiarise yourself with medical school handbook for the University you're most likely going to be interviewing at. This will help you understand what domains the Unis are specifically looking out for during their assessment. It will also help you tailor your personal questions - google "[university name] MD Handbook".

Should I pay a tutor or purchase resources?

• I personally did do a couple of tutoring sessions through my second run. However, I don't believe it is necessary. If you have friends in MD, see if they have time to sit down and assess your responses.
• Resource wise everyone uses the AMSOP doc which contains questiosn until 2013. Spam these questions as you will get a good idea of what questions to expect on the actual day.

Final tips:

• Look presentable on the day - don't appear as if you've just woken up
• You will be anxious in your first station, acknowledge that and the nerves will fade slowly. The MMI is actually a fun experience and the examiners are generally quite nice.
• Pick the earliest session and make it morning if possible - get it done with and move on with the rest of your life. A couple extra days will not make a significant difference in outcome.

Feel free to ask me any questions down below or shoot me a DM!

Hi friends,

Has anyone ever had this sort of situation?

I'm a student in my second masters level course. Due to disability reasons, I dropped out of my first course and I was allowed to increase my allowable Austudy time. However, this allowable time expires 6 months prior to me finishing the degree. Meaning I will have 6 months of no Austudy and no financial means to support myself.

I am unable to work part time due to University comittments and am having extreme difficulty at the moment finding a weekend job.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Any success in applying for more allowable time or receiving job seeker payments till the end of the degree?

Thanks