Online Interview for Newcastle University in Malaysia (NUMed): MBBS course

Hi guys! In this post, I will talk about my experience of having the interview by Newcastle University in Malaysia campus ( NUMed ), which is located in Iskandar Puteri, Johor. Due to the pandemic of COVID-19, my interview was actually conducted online using Skype at my home. 

<If you prefer to read about the experience during the interview or interview questions solely, please scroll down until you see a small title with PINK HIGHLIGHT    :)  >

Before I proceed to the interview experience, let me briefly talk about the process for me to get my interview date. So, basically after the submissions of my application form together with my Personal Statement and Reference Letter ( testimonial written by my college lecturer ) on 27 July 2020 through email, I got the response from NUMed quite fast, which was on 30 July ( Thursday), with an email mentioning the date of interview on the coming Saturday. However, due to some personal reasons, I couldn't make it for that day, so I sent another email to Newcastle and the admissions teams tried to arrange another interview slots for me soon. I would comment that the NUMed admissions team is really responsive and effective. I actually got another invitation to the interview on 5th August, which was just about a week with two to three days for public holidays in between. I was so excited when received the invitation after waking up in the morning! As soon as I received the email, I made a reply to them to confirm my interview dates and tell them my Skype ID, together with the filled Health and Criminal form provided in their previous e-mail. After a few hours, they added my Skype account. And that's it, these are all the basic process that you will go through from submission of the application form to the confirmation of the interview date, typically for those who have the interview through Skype, like me. Quite simple and fast. 


My interview session was on Friday, 7th August 2020, at 10.30 am. As I was waiting for my A-Level results to be announced soon, which similar as having the MCO holidays, I tend to sleep until quite late, whereby I usually woke up around 10.30 am to 11.00 am as I stayed up late for movies and dramas, which was around the time for my interview. **This is not a good practice in daily routine, so please avoid it :)****
So, the two days before, I tried to regulate my sleeping time whereby I slept at 12.00am and woke up at 7.00am in the next morning, to ensure that I managed to have 7-hour sleep as well as wake up earlier before the interview. Well, since my parents and sister were going to work about that time, I actually requested them to wake me up until I actually get off from my bed and head to the bathroom :), as I was afraid of missing the alarm due to having a deep sleep. ( It is quite hard for me to wake up using alarm every day. Most of the time I wake up using my natural body alarm, before the alarms set on my phone ring or after the ringing without even realising that the phone alarms are ringing )

>>>>Day of the interview ( 7th August 2020 ): 
On the day of the interview, I woke up at around 7.00am as the two previous days and started with simple body stretching on my bed to wake myself up, then I headed to the bathroom to have a quick bath and brush my teeth to clean and refresh myself. So, I actually dressed in formal attire----a blouse with a knee-length skirt. This was to provide me with the vibe of the interview, which is actually a formal event despite having it at home. **The email that I received actually didn't mention about the attire to be worn during interview, but it would be more preferable to wear formal attire so that your interviewer know that you are really serious with the interview. Even though interview through webcam actually will only show the top of yourself to the interviewers, I would suggest you all wear full formal attire other than shoes or socks, just to give yourself feeling the vibe hahaha** 

Afterwards, I proceeded with having my breakfast, as it is important to have some energy so that we are able to think clearly during the interview. As time was just around 8.00am, I didn't have much appetite, but still, to gain the energy for this important occasion, I chose to substitute my meal with the Ensure Gold Meal Replacement Green Tea Flavour and some biscuits. It was like drinking a cup of 185ml green tea milk haha but this actually makes you feel full just like after eating ( I will talk more about this next time ). So, after that, I started to prepare myself in front of my laptop, opened my Skype, watched some Youtube videos, as well as did some massage just to make me relax and calm. I also went to the washroom after 1 hour having breakfast, to make sure that I wouldn't face any "washroom emergencies" during my interview.  Basically, around 9.30 am, I did some test on the audio and microphones functionality in Skype of my laptop and adjusted to the desirable one. Surprisingly, around 9.50am, the interviewers sent me a message on Skype: "If you are ready, we can start anytime? Please buzz me and I will call you". I took about 10 minutes to calm myself down by taking deep breaths and doing fingers massage. And my interview started earlier than as mentioned :), at 10.00am.

DURING INTERVIEW:

I was interviewed by the Senior Admissions Manager in Newcastle University (Malaysia campus), Ms Hani alone, which was a one-to-one interview. 
**REMARK: What I heard from my other friends and seniors, usually there would be two interviewers to one student. I didn't know why it became one-to-one for my situation. Perhaps, it was because of the COVID-19 issue, so there were some changes?? :)**

Similar to the other interviews, it started with greetings and followed by the usual questions that would be asked in Medical interviews. I am not going to talk about much details regarding the interview but just proceed to the interview questions directly. 


Interview questions:

1. Why do you choose Medicine?
2. Why don't you choose other professionals, like engineering etc.?
3. Why do you choose NUMed? What do you understand about the teaching at this university?
4. What do you understand about the disadvantages and advantages of being a medical doctor?
5. Since doctors are actually working in a multidisciplinary team, so what do you understand about the role of a doctor in the team?
6. Do you have any teamwork experience? What kind of role that you played in the team?
7. If your friend were to talk about you, what strength and weakness that they would say about you?
8. So in your personal statement, you mentioned about volunteer work. Tell me more about that.
9. Please share with me a clinical experience of you being as a patient if there is any. 
10. What attributes that a doctor has to be equipped to be a good doctor? 
11. What do you do during your free time to relax?
12. Do you know how to play any musical instruments? 
13. Do you face any problems like the club members disagree with you or activities organised by you? How do you solve these problems
( Q12& Q13 were asked because I mentioned about my experience as a conductor in Music Club and orchestra for my answer in teamwork experience Q6 )
14.What kind of study approach that you used? How you study?
15. Any questions? 


In overall, the whole interview took about 40 minutes, roughly around 30 minutes also. Probably the time was longer because I had asked quite a number of questions at the end, which were about 3. 

Some Thoughts/ Comments Regarding the Interview:
I was quite surprised as the interview conducted in the form of one-to-one, which was out of my expectations. Also, based on the questions that I got from my seniors and friends as well as through online research, they actually had at least one question related to ethical issues or open questions. Yet, I would say that I didn't really being asked about it, though I have actually prepared for this kind of questions. But, overall, I would definitely say that NUMed admissions team is really efficient in their work. Even before my application, I tried to email some of my queries regarding their course as well as the application process, they actually managed to reply to me relatively very fast and I would comment it as the fastest one compared to other universities that I applied to. For the interview, I think the interviewer was actually very friendly and nice ~ When I talked about guzheng ( for the question related to musical instruments ), she asked me about it. So, I actually had a short session with her on finding out the way to explain what guzheng actually is to her. In fact, both of us laughed when she managed to figure out that guzheng is the musical instrument that you can find in WUXIA drama(武侠). Her reaction was also very interesting. Also, compared to another interview that I had by another medical school, I think quite a number of questions were asked during NUMed interview. Another thing that I would like to point out is that the email regarding interview date by NUMed (SKYPE METHOD) is quite different from IMU as it does not mention any other details regarding the interview like appropriate attire and how much time before the time stated you have to be ready and standby. Anyway, it still went through smoothly :)


**And surprisingly, I have received a conditional offer letter from NUMed during the evening on the same day as my interview ** And I am so excited with this!!!

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SOME EXTRA QUESTIONS for NUMED MBBS INTERVIEW:
( compiled from searching online, bloggers and questions from my friends and seniors )
1. What do you think about euthanasia?
2. What do you think about the Malaysia healthcare system? Any pros and cons?
3. If you had a chance to change the healthcare system in Malaysia, what would you do?
4. If you have an emergency in hospital and family at the same time, what would you do or which one would you choose?
5. Will you choose to be a top scorer or just passed?
6. A-Level system is different from the university, how would you adapt to this?
7. If you have a huge amount of money, will you choose to help the kids with cancer or the old folks?
8.Which specialist that you plan to go? Why?
9. What would you do after MBBS programme?
10. Do you understand the procedure to be a provisionally registered doctor in Malaysia?
11. What makes you become a good doctor?
12. What do you understand about the differences between healthcare in Malaysia and in UK?

OTHER LINKS OR BLOGGER RELATED to NUMED INTERVIEW:

1. NUMed MBBS website
2. NUMed Careers Service: Interviews
3.http://angchongchong.blogspot.com/2015/08/general-malaysia-medical-interview-tips.html
4.http://reginarandomrants.blogspot.com/2017/05/medical-school-interview-2-newcastle.html
5.daniellimjj.blogspot- Details regarding MBBS Course in Numed 2020 ( please read this!!!)
6.https://twitter.com/numedmalaysia/status/738249762948841472?lang=en

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Here are some of my advice for YOU who may have the interview from NUMED in the future:

> Try to get enough sleep the day before your interview so that you are able to think clearly.

> Take some time, maybe a few days or a week to prepare for your interview. Try to do research online, searching the questions for the medical interview as well as read through the website and brochure for the university that you have applied to have a better understanding of the university. Think of how would you answer the questions. This is to make yourself have a mental preparation on what might be asked during the interviews and hopefully, you have some ideas on how are you going to answer the questions.

* You DON'T have to write in full sentences like an essay. Just write in point forms. As long as you can understand. * Please don't try to memorise the answer. Just have an idea on what you probably could talk about when you're asked with the questions :) *

> Have a sufficient meal 1-2 hours before the interview. Don't eat too much, just to prevent you from feeling sleepy before/ during the interview. 

>Please remember to wear tidy formal attire! An interview is a serious an formal event. You don't want your panel to feel that you are joking or does not take it seriously. Also, with tidy and near appearance, you able to leave a better first impression in the panel's mind, show that you actually respect them and the interview. EG:

Men= Long sleeve shirt with ties and long pants
Women= Dress/ Blouse and knee-level skirt/ long pants

***This is for the interview through online. For face-to-face interview, you will have to take note of your shoes as well :
closed shoes ***

>Try to practice speaking in front of a mirror or record your voice, also practise it with your friends or family members, so that they can give some relevant advice to improve your speaking skills or ideas. Try out the questions you have compiled especially those commonly asked in Medical interview.(e.g.Why Medicine? What are your strength and weaknesses? ) Practice in front of a mirror can be really helpful. **I personally didn't believe with it before this, but I saw the effect after I have tried :) **

>Take a deep breath before or during the interview when you feel nervous. The interviewers understand that you will feel nervous. It's okay to know your limitation and take some deep breaths to calm yourself, rather than mumbling with something wrong and unclear due to being too nervous. 

>Be wise to use sentences like:" That's a good question. May I have few moments to think about it ?" , "Sorry, I didn't catch what you have said. Could you please repeat again?" 

>Ask for clarifications if you don't understand the questions or maybe certain words in the questions. This would be better rather than just booming with unconfirmed answers which might be wrong.

>Be true. Just think of it as a daily conversation. Speak naturally like you are having a conversation with others in daily routine. You don't have to be bombastic, but try to speak in a way that others can understand clearly. Don't try to 'create' an event that doesn't really happen in your life just for giving an example to fulfill the questions asked. It's okay to admit things like you don't have any clinical attachment before etc. Just tell the interviewers that you don't experience or know much about it, instead, try to relate your answers to similar topics like volunteer work. You don't have to act or 'create' something. Just be yourself! :)

EG: You can tell the panels that you have never experienced any clinical attachment before but you do take part in volunteer works before. Then, you may ask them whether you shall talk about the volunteer work instead of the clinical attachment.

>Be prepared with questions related to your personal statement. (particularly NUMed for universities in Malaysia)


>It's okay to speak in a slower way instead of mumbling :) Just speak in the pace that you can manage with. 

>For online interview, make sure your Internet connection, audio and microphone are all doing well before the interview. 

>Also, pray hard for the smooth flow in interview, especially online interview. You don't want to have any cut-off or unstable connection happens during the interview. :)




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Here is a quote for you:

"Opportunities are only for people who are prepared" 

So please do a good preparation for important events or work like interview or exams.
Your hard work will definitely be paid off one day when you succeed! 


Pray hard. 
May wish you all the best and blessed with fortunate :)