Whether you are preparing for your CaRMS interview or for your MMI/medical school interview, having an excellent strategy to answer personal questions is key.

The STARR method is extremely helpful for general expereice questions which show up on your medical school interview.

These types of questions can also be seen on most medical school interviews, CaRMS interviews and specifically the CaRMS family medicine interview questions.

Let’s go through the method and see how we can apply it to your interview questions.

The STARRR Method – Modified by our MedCoach Morgan

This method is excellent for transforming a long answer into one that is concise and packed with impressive and relevant information that the interviewer is looking for!

STARRR stands for:

S: Situation – Give the context concisely. Only provide information that is useful to to the story. DON’T get lost in detail.

T: Task – What you were trying to achieve. DON’T get lost in detail.

A: Action – WHAT you did, HOW you did it (CanMED skills), WHY you did it (shows insight)

R: Result – General summary statement indicating the outcome

R: Reflect – Explain what you took from the experience and/or how it demonstrates the qualities/attributes you are trying to convey.

R: Relate – Briefly explain how the skills / learning points are relevant to the role you are applying for

Think about how you would apply the STARRR method to the following question: “In medicine, a physician is generally working as part of a team. What qualities do you think make an ideal team member?”

Want to see the STARRR method in action?

Check out our Advanced Interview Techniques Course to watch Morgan teach this method and have students answer!

Good luck with interviews!