Ok guys i finished my interview and thanks SOO much for your help. i think i did pretty well in comparison to some of the other interviewees (we discuseed responses with the other students in teh waiting rooms after the interviews).
two days before the interview i had NO clue WHATSOEVER, and thanks to you guys i managed to get a load of information on dentistry through which i managed my interview.
before i talk more about the interview i must add that i was EXTREMELY dissapointed with the competition......
most of the applicants there were just arrogant med students who are just lazily doing their dent interviews because they have a high enough UMAT to do so. out of the 20-30 people i met, only 3 actually wanted to do dentistry.....
yes, although i too am a hopeful med student, i did take the interview quite seriously, (forgive me for my language) and i was shocked to see lazy idiots there who thought the Adelaide BDS course lasted 6 years instead of 5 .... and they said that in their interview.....
thats the first thing i noticed about the interviews.
be it dentistry or medicine, adeliade has a reputation (of being mispelt by me, sorry) for wanting their students to have a GREAT knowledge of their course. from my post interrview surveying, these were some of the questions they asked.
What subjects will you be studying in the first year?
What elective do you think you will choose?
Tell us a bit about our university? (ignore the "bit")
Why do you want to study at our university?
What makes our university course different to others?
What aspect about our course do you find most exciting?
EXAMPLE. one applicant i met told me about her response... here is how it went....
when asked what she knew about the course, she said "5 years, get a BDS degree thingy, on campus, lots of contact hours"
and then the interviews apparently replied "is that all you know?" --- ouch, serves her right though.
As you can see, if you want to prepare for the adeliade interview, do a lot of research on their website. Here are the main things to know.
(please correct me if i am wrong) :S
they start learning about clinical competency in the first year - which includes teaching of communication skills.
they learn about study skills etc --- a good thing to mention when they ask you "how do u cope with stress etc etc",
they learn about general human biology within the first year
they start clinical placements within the first year ----- important
in the first year the students can perform scaling on each other ---- i included this as an interesting fact and added a joked (something along the lines of performing extractions on fellow dent students, i forgot how it went. it was funny though
)
there is a lot more information about their course. everything i mentioned above i managed to mention in my actual interview and i also talked a bit more about other aspects of the university and the course as well.
IMPORTANT
do not baffle on about superficial details such as
"5 years"
"on campus etc" <---- this is not even 100% true
" BDS course"
.... those answers are not only lame, but also applicable for most dent courses. Talk about what makes the adeliade course unique and interesting. mention how you get to perform dental procedures on fellow students etc
for a 20 minute interview, this question ALONE will take about 25% of your time and weight. do a lot of research.
IMPORTANT
if there is anything u missed out on mentioning, mention it again at the end of the interview when they ask you "is there anything you want to add". that is a GREAT opportunity to remention some of the other aspects about their course that u did not mention and REINFORCE why you reaaallllyyy want to study at adlediade and talk about other things.
its also a great place to add a bit of humour. i mentioned how i managed to look around most of the university as i got lost and could not find the damn place etc ( dent school is on FROME st, which is segmented from the rest of the campus, ergo may be hard to find). remention some key details about teh course that appeal to you and so on.
Good Luck!!! I REALLY hope that you dentistry hopefuls out there will do well in your interview and outperform those arrogant (and somewhat pathetic) med students. And for the record the INTERVIEW is A LOT MORE IMPORTANT than the UMAT. the UMAT is only countback.... the interview is the primiary source of selection.
GOOOOD LLLUCCCKK!!!!
P.S and if you are a wannabe med student like me, take the interview seriously as it is a very fun experience and u can learn a lot about the dentistry course. who knows maybe you will change your mind.