The MMI (multiple-mini-interview) is a great method to assess soft skills like communication and professionalism in a less-biased way than a panel interview. There are many types of MMI stations, but specifically acting MMI stations are able to test your emotional responses and creative thinking on the spot! role play station involves interacting with an actor who’s posing as a patient or a friend, and you’ll be asked to act out a scenario. You can also find MMI acting station examples below!
What Is An Acting MMI Station?
MMIs can be a lot of fun (if you are prepared and not stressed).
You enter a room (or a virtual room) and you are presented with a situation. You are either asked questions about the situation or are asked to respond to an actor. These actors are very well trained so it feels real!
In an acting MMI station (also known as the role playing station), you are presented with a prompt (usually with little detail) and then “enter the room” to act it out. These stations are great for testing your communicator role (check out the CANMEDs roles to see what the MMIs test for) as well as other roles depending on the situation.
It is very important to understand WHAT SKILL the MMI is testing. If you can understand this, you will be able to tackle any MMI question without getting caught up in the details.
Situations that are common involve giving bad news, communicating something sensitive, or dealing with an ethically grey area. You may also be placed in a role of authority and asked to discipline someone!
You need to be ready for anything 🙂
MMI Acting Station Examples
Some examples of MMI Role Play stations include:
- Your friend has asked you to watch over their pet turtle while they are away for a week. You have been very responsible and making sure to feed and take care of this turtle as if it were your own. After 4 days of taking care of this turtle, you are invited out by some friends and since you needed a break you went our of the apartment for a few hours. When you returned to the apartment, you find the turtle dead on the floor. It somehow escaped it’s cage and got in to your bag, where you had a bag of snacks open. You think the turtle might have gotten into the snacks but you cannot be sure. You friend is now back from their vacation and eager to see their pet again. Go in and speak to your friend.
- While working in the research lab alone late one night, you decide to invite your friend over to keep you company (they do not work in the lab). Taking a break, you and your friend decide to play hacky-sack only to realize moments later that this was not a good idea…the sack hit and broke some medical equipment holding a few months worth of data. Enter the room and discus what to do with your friend.
- You are captain of a sports team and recently have noticed that Jarred is performing less than his usual. Go in and speak to Jarred. (This could be a number of things like drug use, depression/mental heath, stress, etc)
Want to see more examples with people practising live in front of our coaches? Check out our Weekly MMI Recordings!
Want to Practice With A Medical Student?
Practising with and getting feedback from medical students who have been through the process themselves can be very rewarding!
You can book a session with a coach of your choice: