Interview

I took the same flight with GY and KL on my way back Hong Kong. During our casual conversation, the cardiologist questioned about the admission interview of our medical school.

"We asked mostly the usual stuff: Why do you want to study medicine, why do you choose our medical school rather than the one on the other side of the harbour, and so forth," the professor of gastroenterology explained, "In general, candidates with a good examination result would be admitted - unless they appear eccentric in the interview. For the mediocre, it really depends on how well they perform in that 10 or 15 minutes."

The answer was hardly surprising.

But my friend went on, "The annoying bit is, most of the candidates have no creativity and give very boring answers. Take my first question as an example. More than half of them would say they have a special experience when they or their family fell sick some years ago, or they are inspired by some great doctor. You know what, it is often difficult for us to stay awake throughout a long day of interview !"

I nodded. In fact, the better an applicant does in the examination, the more likely they would give a dull answer in the interview.

There is an entirely scientific explanation.