 Hey yo, what is up guys? Karma Medic here and welcome back to another dose, a second-year medical student at Kings College London And I make these videos once a week to try and help you guys throughout the application process I'm coming to you live from Amman, Jordan, the big J.O I'm here to visit my family that I haven't seen in quite a long time And I'm also gonna be sorting out some military stuff renewing my passport, my national ID card, etc, etc We're currently on our Christmas break at KCL and second year of medical school just over the last two days I've gotten about 10 messages from people telling me that they've received offers for Kings College London Medicine I can't believe it. That's so exciting. Well done to all you guys Congratulations. I'm sure you guys smashed the interviews if you've been getting your offers and to everybody else waiting for an offer Have patience have have faith. It's a bit of a process and as long as you haven't heard back from the medical school You're still in the running. They're still considering your application So don't give up have some faith be patient and hopefully more offers come through if you do get offers Please do let me know it's so cool to be able to follow you guys through the journey from studying for the UK Cat and the BMAT sending in your applications getting interviews and now actually receiving offers That's something that really keeps me going keeps me motivated to make these videos So if you guys do receive any offers, please do let me know. So yeah guys thought I'd record a video here as well I'm coming to you with my full scruffy beard Some traditional Arabic tea and also my traditional Arab robe Probably looking like a big fat black bear right now But bear with me as we get through this MMI video So today the topic that I want to cover is how do you deal with stress or how do you cope with nerves or stress at an MMI interview or before a big presentation or anything like that I know I am one hell of a stressful person when it comes to giving presentations or doing interviews or anything like that So I want to talk to you guys a little bit about my experience how I tend to deal with stress How I cope with it some tips and tricks that you guys can use before your MMI interviews as well And without further ado in this very traditional Arab clothing, let's get right into the video All right, so let me take you guys back to 2013 when I was applying to medical school for the first time out of Athens, Greece And I was applying to the UK for medical school I applied to Cambridge, Edinburgh, Kings and Imperial all the top schools that I could think of at the time I ended up getting rejected from everywhere, but I got an interview at Cambridge. I didn't really know what to do I didn't know how to prepare for interviews. I didn't know how to get myself ready I didn't know what kinds of questions I might be asked So basically what I did was just studied my biology textbook which in retrospect was a horrible idea Obviously the interviews about a lot more than just your knowledge of biology But anyway, that's why I did because I didn't know what I was doing and I ended up bombing the interview But the key point is that I didn't bomb the interview because I studied the wrong things Although it definitely wasn't the best thing to do. The reason that I bombed the interview was because of my stress and my nerves I'm somebody who's very psychosomatic So my brain affects my body if I'm feeling anxious or if I'm feeling stressed out then I start to sweat I start to shake my stomach starts to feel uncomfortable I just get a full-on reaction to feeling stressed out as do a lot of other people I'm sure so the point of this video is to try and learn from my mistakes that that doesn't happen to you guys in your interviews Quick side know about the Cambridge interview One of the first questions that they asked me was to explain to them how blood flows through the heart Of course, that's something super simple That's something that I knew very very well at the time But I just couldn't get the words out of my mouth I physically couldn't explain how blood flows through the heart even though I knew it off my heart backwards so so well But I was just so stressed. I was like shaking out sweating. I couldn't think of the heart I couldn't picture in my head all I could focus on was how embarrassing the situation was and that really screwed up my interview experience ended up going really really badly and of course I didn't get an offer feel like I've rambled on a little bit too much Let's get right into this video about how to cope with stress before an interview and how to deal with your nerves So the very first thing that I want to say and what to me I honestly think is the most important is that you want to be prepared before you go to your interview You want to know what kinds of questions are going to be asked You want to know what's probably going to come up and actually interestingly enough I got a message from one of my followers on Instagram I think it was for Sheffield saying that they had sent them the questions that were going to come up on them MMI interview and they did that so that students wouldn't have a prepared answer They would be able to see the question really think about what it is that motivates them to do medicine or what it is that they liked about their Work experience and give that answer in the interview So I thought that was really interesting and I think medical schools will probably be moving towards that in the future Letting their students see the questions that they don't just prepare random ready-made answers Anyway, I keep on rambling back to the tips So the first thing is to be prepared if you Google Like King's College London medical school interview questions or Imperial medical questions or whatever You will get a list of questions that are very likely to come up in your interview For example, why do you want to be a doctor? Why do you want to study medicine? What about this medical school makes you want to be here and makes you want to apply here Tell me about your work experience These questions are almost guaranteed to be asked at your interview So you better have a really good answer You better have thought about it in detail and you better have practiced saying that answer out loud And you better be ready to give that answer in an interview It may sound cheesy but feeling confident in your ability to answer questions It's one of the most important things you want to know your main stories off my heart You want to know your reflections off my heart You want to know the main points that you took away from each of your work experiences You want to be able to describe those and share those in vivid detail in a way that is concise But important to the interviewer so that they know what it is that makes you a good medical school candidate And I've made several videos on this topic about how to prepare for medical school interviews about finding the questions Writing all your answers practicing talking them out loud. I'll link them in the description somewhere here on the screen Definitely watch those definitely do your preparation. It's super important before my King's College London interview I had prepared for all of my Canadian interview exams. I had also done and prepared for the Bristol Medical School interview So when my KCL interview came around I honestly felt ready to answer any question that was going to get thrown at me And in fact every question that they asked me at the KCL interview I had done some variation off I had already answered that question. I had already said it out loud So I knew exactly what I wanted to say. I was just a matter of going through the stations and saying it out loud Anyway, so preparation is number one make sure you prepare number two And I say this to everyone who sends me messages on Instagram saying not sir karma medic You know, what do I do? I'm really really stressed my interviews tomorrow I always say the same thing and I say well I say two things But the first thing is make sure that you try and treat the interview as a casual conversation as opposed to like a formal interrogation Remember that the interviewers they just want to know more about you They want to know who you are why you are such a great candidate And why you're gonna be a good addition to their medical school. They just they really when it comes down to it They just want to learn more about you So if you take the process a little bit more casually if you treat it as a conversation And you loosen up a little bit then you're really gonna have an easier time giving across that information And you're gonna create better rapport with the interviewer They're gonna think more nice things about you you're gonna be able to tell them more about yourself And it's just gonna go a lot better also a quick side note You are definitely going to loosen up as the stations go by I remember in my first station. I was still really nervous I was like shaking a little bit, but then by the last station I had a much more relaxed posture I was sitting back talking to the interviewer. We were smiling laughing We even told some jokes at the end when we ran out of time I know we're out of time when we finished all the questions that they wanted to ask me at that station So really you do loosen up over time and everything just becomes better Tip number three is the evening or the afternoon the day before your actual interview and the morning of Just really don't do anything. Don't study. Don't cram. Don't go over the stories again in your head Just take it easy. Relax. At this point, you've probably been studying or preparing for like a week or two Maybe even more you've done a lot of work and if you keep on studying till the last second I know at least for me that that really stresses me out and that makes me confused and makes me self doubt and Think that I'm not prepared enough. So really just the day before, you know, take it off What's your favorite movie? What's your favorite YouTube videos? What's your favorite or listen to your favorite book? Listen to music? Whatever it is Just keep yourself calm relax yourself Don't put any additional stress on yourself right before the interview at this point You know everything that you're gonna know and you just have to do your best if you do wake up in the morning And you know that there's a couple of things you want to quickly brush over to refresh your memory or keep them Nice and close to the forefront of your mind That's totally fine Obviously like make sure you cover the things that you want to cover if that's what makes you comfortable But what I'm trying to say is don't cram or stress really hard the night before or the morning of it's better To just take it easy and keep yourself your mind and your body calm like I mentioned before I'm very much like a sweaty person and a shaky person I get quite nervous around interviews formal presentations and anything like that and I want to touch on that a little bit So I'm someone who gets like really red in the face. I get really sweaty Etc. Etc. I've been over this a million times I found that the best way to cope with that to deal with that foreign interview situation is just to fully acknowledge That that is what is going on if when I was in the interview I started sweating or I knew that I was red in the face because I could feel the heat on my cheeks Then that would just make me way more stressed out I would start focusing on the fact of what my appearance is what I'm looking like instead of the actual content that I'm trying to deliver So I knew that there was no way of me getting around this if I'm gonna have an interview I'm going to get read in the face. So I just acknowledged it I came to terms with that fact and I realized that the interviewers know that this is gonna happen to a lot of Students and they don't care. They care about what's coming out of your mouth the actual content and substance that you're delivering to them They don't care if you get read in the face or if you're sweaty or if your voice is a little bit shaky Those are fine Interviewers know that students aren't going to be nervous and it's okay So just coming to terms coming to grips or whatever the phrase is with the fact that I was gonna get read in the face Just made me feel a lot better about the whole situation tip number five that I want to cover is exercise Now exercise for me has been a great great great stress reliever over my university years I understand that not everyone wants to exercise and different people have different forms of exercise that they like But if you enjoy going to the gym if you enjoy going for a run or even just doing like pull-ups push-ups or sit-ups in your home I find that really helps get rid of stress it takes all of the Like mental stress that you have in your body and it lets it out in a physical way kind of sounds stupid and cheesy But it really really works. Okay now on the day of the actual interview if you're able to bring a friend or family member Or a significant other I find that that can actually really really help Of course it depends on the person But if you're someone who feels like you might be more comfortable with someone else then just do it ask someone to come ask them To do a favor for you and to come with you I know that before my interview for Bristol my girlfriend came with me and before my interview for Kings College London I had my sister come with me and just for those like 20 minutes half an hour before the actual interview having someone to Talk to who you're familiar with who you're comfortable with can really really help ease your nerves If you don't have someone with you or if that's something that you don't prefer Then I would definitely recommend just listening to some music walking around Looks like my camera stopped recording halfway through that video Think what I was talking about was that if you can bring a significant other family member or a friend with you to the interview Then you should go for it Don't feel shy or feel embarrassed about asking someone to come with you or having someone accompany when you're there Even if it's your mom your dad your sister Whatever it is that makes you feel comfortable if you think that you're gonna be able to relax a little bit more If you have someone to talk to about random things just to calm your mind and ease yourself before the interview Then just do it the most important thing is that you feel best prepared for the interview setting My next tip is slightly related to the previous one And it's not when you're waiting to go in for the actual interview when you're there sitting with all of the other Candidates if you're someone who feels like you don't want to make small talk or you don't want to talk to anyone else in The room then don't don't feel obliged to talk to other Interviewees or any people there as part of the administration or anything like that if you want to just listen to your music Listen to your audiobook or just stare at the wall then you do you don't feel obliged to make small talk or anything like that I know that it definitely helped me I didn't mind making conversation with anyone who is there just sort of helped me get my mind off of what was happening and Make me forget that I'm actually about to do one of the most important interviews of my life But you know for some people that doesn't work and they just want their own alone time So if if you are that person don't feel obliged to talk to anyone else give yourself some space be by yourself And try and calm yourself down now another tip that I want to touch upon is about how you dress And I don't want to talk about this tip because You need to dress a certain way or you need to be super super formal or smart casual business casual Whatever the reason that I want to talk about dress is that you want to feel confident in whatever it is that you are Wearing if you're wearing something that you feel you look a little bit odd in or is Uncomfortable then that's something that you might be thinking about throughout the interview process And that's the last thing that you want on your mind Whatever it is that you decide to wear to the interview make sure that it's something that you feel confident in I know for me when I went to that interview it was like I was wearing one of the first suits that I'd ever worn And I thought I looked so good. I felt so confident. I was really happy with the color That's happy with the tie I was happy with my shoes and that really gave me a lot of confidence in me It made me not have to worry about and think about what it is that I was wearing and I could focus on just delivering my Information on my content in a good way to the interviewers But just make sure that whatever it is that you do decide to go in you will feel comfortable in lastly I know you've probably heard this a million times before but I'm just gonna say because it is really important It's that once you finish one interview station Then it doesn't really matter how badly it went or how good it went You just need to forget about it and focus on the next station for one of my interviews one of the stations I totally messed it up. I had no idea what I was doing. I had no idea what I was talking about I was just trying to BS my way through it and blast out the five or six or seven minutes, whatever it was But when it was finished, I knew I had completely screwed up that station But if you have seven or eight or nine or ten stations It doesn't matter if you've screwed up one of those stations You just need to focus on the next ones because no interviewers talk to each other about that no one else knows What happened? It's just you so if you can get past that mental block Put what happened behind you and move on to the next station It's gonna help you a lot in succeeding in the next ones. Alright guys And I think that's all of the tips that I wanted to cover and tell you guys I'm only here in Jordan for a couple more days and then I'm gonna fly to Greece where my family is so that we can spend New years together most of you be seeing a lot of my friends from high school there really looking forward to it And I've actually got a progress test when I get back to England early in January Which is what I should be studying for right now instead of making this video That's what I'm gonna do after I finish this video. I'm gonna go study for progress test number two I'll show you guys what I'm currently studying right now actually I just made a table of different induction agents and opioids kind of looks like this I don't know how clearly you can see that on the screen different drugs mode of action use pharmacokinetics Pharmacodynamics different drugs in the accident and emergency room self-harm suicide delirium in patients All kinds of really interesting stuff that you will all get to do once you're in medical school Anyway, I've rambled a bunch in this video. That's it for me I'll see you guys in the next one. Keep telling me if you're getting offers and nothing makes me happier than to hear that news If you want to ask me any questions or communicate with me or whatever Follow me on Instagram if this video has helped you Please do leave a like on this video and subscribe to my channel if you want to see more videos from me And yeah guys, thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next video. Peace