Free medical interview prep seminar

We’re running a free seminar with key knowledge, tips, and tricks to help you succeed in any upcoming medical interviews. You’re very welcome to come along - it’ll cost you nothing, after all!

Key info

• Date: 18 November
• Time:
  • 1pm in WA
  • 4pm in NSW, VIC, TAS
  • 3pm in QLD
  • 3:30pm in SA
• Cost: Free. Zilch. None.
  (No advertisements for a paid interview course, either.)
• Signup link: here

About Ollie

Hi everyone,

I’m Ollie and I’m currently a second year student at the University of Melbourne, studying Maths & Stats in the provisional medical pathway. I graduated high school with a 99.95 (420 TEA) and a UCAT of 3200. I was a School Prefect and Captain of Debating at Hale School, WA. While I never achieved much debating greatness myself, I helped to coach a Year 7 team who made it into the quarter-finals of the Western Australian Debating League – I’ll live vicariously through their success!

I sat a couple of medical interviews at the end of Y12; here are the offers I received:

• the University of Western Australia, unbonded, 1st preference
• the University of Sydney, unbonded, 1st preference
• the University of Queensland, unbonded, 1st preference
• the University of Melbourne, unbonded, 1st preference
• Flinders University, unbonded, 2nd preference*

* I didn’t get accepted into my first preference for SA, the University of Adelaide. I plan to talk briefly about what I suspect went wrong in that interview.

You can find out more about me at my personal website, https://oyc.id.au.

Why run a free seminar? What do you seek to gain?

I volunteer to moderate the r/UCAT Discord community online, which brings together 6,300 members who are aiming to get into medical school in Australia or the UK. Through my participation in that community, I’ve noticed a lot of paid courses which suggest to teach students everything they need to know to succeed in the interview. I disagree with this assessment. I think the industry is at times predatory and can mislead students. There are tons of resources out there, for free, which can enable students to excel in the interview.

Checkpoint Education does not offer an interview course, and I will not be advertising an interview preparation service. We believe that success in the interview comes down to the right kind of focused practice with a little bit of mentorship. While this seminar is great advertising for us, your journey through high school is done. I first ran this seminar last year intending to help out the ~100 students who attended, and provide them with the skills required for success. I plan to continue that tradition this year. That’s why this seminar is completely free.

What we’ll cover, in brief

We’ll cover key ideas of rural health in Australia and other important knowledge which is worth bringing in to your medical interview. A complementary focus will be on delivery and presentation skills - how to look your best, sound your best, and organise your thought so you can respond to impromptu questions in a natural manner. I believe that these skills are equally important as content to interview success, but are rarely taught. If you’ve been invited to an interview, you’re smart enough to learn and memorise concepts and approach ethical issues sensibly. However, you may find it helpful to hear from a past candidate and public speaker about the speaking skills required to deliver that message.

Signup

We’ll need your email to send out more information and keep track of participants. We have zero intent to sell your data. You’ll get emails about the seminar beforehand, and then a feedback email after. No spam, I promise!