USyd interviews: what went wrong. Points to improve for Melbourne.

I am not talkative in real life. Also, I am younger than most other people applying for graduate entry med (and male, so perhaps less mature than females the same age), and have not been in a job with lots of teamwork involved, so have not had many experiences with difficult interpersonal situations. So I haven't had much experience for those scenarios similar to some interview questions. Also, I score significantly above the average on the autism spectrum test, although not enough for a diagnosis. I also scored less than 50 in section two of the UMAT back in year 12; the "Understanding People" section. All these factors, and maybe more which I can't think of right now, make interviews difficult for me.

However, that does not mean that I cannot perform well in interviews given enough practice. Maybe I need a lot more practice than usual people though. There is also a list of things which I could have done differently for USyd if I was more serious (instead of it being a backup for Melbourne). I could have refused to turn it into a holiday with more than one other family member, and just focused on the interview and come back. I could have taken a plane instead of go by car, so I had more time to learn the answers that the interview practice group I was in came up with, and had more of a rest. Also, I could have told family members not to book cheap accommodation, where the place incidentally stuffed up our booking and made things stressful in the night before the interview. I could also have booked the interview on any day other than the first day of interviews to give myself a bit more time to learn the answers. And of course, as stated in an earlier post, I could act more confident.

Of these things, a lot of them (to do with traveling) are not applicable to the Melbourne interview, since I live in Melbourne. However, I do need to practice speaking confidently and looking in peoples' eyes (and not looking at the "silent observer" either but only the interviewer in front of me, although I do pay attention to the need to do that already), especially since apparently there is more nonverbal than verbal communication, although personally I find text communication or voice communication perfectly OK apart from when I have to draw diagrams or use math formulas which are hard to type or say, and I need to spend time to memorize answers. Also, maybe I shouldn't book for the first day of interviews if I have a choice.

Ah well. The main thing for Melbourne is more practice I guess. Notwithstanding the starting disadvantage that I may have, enough practice should be able to make up for it. If my improvement in section two of the GAMSAT (written communication) by 18 points was anything to go by (although a lot of it was luck), there is definitely hope for improvement of the interview...