To be offered an interview for vet school is a great achievement in itself - so, if you’re reading this having received one (or several) invitations to interview, then congratulations! However, as of course you will be aware, the hard work does not stop here - to give yourself the very best chance of getting into vet school to study Veterinary Medicine, it is vital that you interview well in order to convince your interviewers that you are deserving of a place. This may seem daunting, but thankfully there are plenty of things that can do before and during the interview to make it a success - here are our top tips:
1. Make a good first impression
Ensure that when you first meet your interviewer(s), you greet them with a smile and introduce yourself in a friendly, confident way. Give a firm handshake (see our other blog post on this), make eye contact and do try to pay attention to your body language. If you set the tone in this way, not only will you feel more confident before the interview has even begun, but the interviewer will naturally be more receptive to you as a candidate.
2. Preparation is key
Although you can never entirely predict what questions will be asked in your interview, there are many that will be asked time and time again - for example, “why do you want to study Veterinary Medicine?”. Give thought to these in advance, and structure a rough answer before the interview. Don’t rote-learn anything as this will make you come across as insincere and likely slightly robotic, but it will serve you well to have an idea of how to answer such questions when they arise. We have a comprehensive list of past interview questions on the website as part of our packages, so make the most of them!
Don’t rote-learn anything as this will make you come across as insincere and likely slightly robotic, but it will serve you well to have an idea of how to answer such questions when they arise.
3. Think logically
It is likely that you will be asked questions in a veterinary interview that you don’t specifically know the answer to, but don’t panic! This is not put in place to catch you out but, rather, so you can demonstrate your thought processes and prove that you can think on your feet. If you don’t know the answer, just take a deep breath and think about how you can apply what you do know to the question in hand, taking the interviewer through each step of your thought process before you reach your conclusion.
4. Research your university
A common interview question that you will come across is “why do you want to study Veterinary Medicine specifically at this university”. Each vet school is different - whether that being in relation to the course structure, campus layout, extracurricular opportunities - so there is always something to say about why any given university particularly appeals to you. See our Universities Guide for further information on this! Have a look at the societies, and consider which of these you might join, as interviewers like to see how you might contribute to the university as a whole.
5. Remember why you’re there!
Interviews are daunting, but don’t let imposter syndrome strike - you have been offered an interview because you’re already one of the top candidates that have applied for Veterinary Medicine at this university. You deserve a place, and the more you believe this the better you will be at proving it to the interviewer! Self-belief will go a long way in achieving veterinary school interview success.
Written by Dr Rebecca & the BecomeAVet Team
Click HERE to find out more about how our tutors can help you maximise your chances of gaining an offer to study Veterinary Medicine.
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