Final Medical Interview Questions

Front 1

Tell me about yourself

Back 1

Good Morning po Mam and Sir,

I am Rizza Mae Mape Balbalosa, born at the municipality of Daet, Camarines Norte. But I grew up in the City of Legazpi, province of Albay. I was the youngest among the 6 children of Mr and Mrs Warren Balbalosa. My 3 elder siblings were a graduate of Bachelor of Science in Nursing, followed by a graduate of BS in Sociology, in Food Technology. While, i graduated of Bachelor of Science in Biology last April 7,2018 at Bicol University College of Science.

Inspite of their busy schedule, if we have the time to gather as a family, we usually go to Church and stroll along the seaport of Legazpi. Thats one of our ways in relieving our stress and worries.

If I have some spare time, i usually played with my nieces, do household chores, read random books, watch vlogs or kdrama or go to the beaches to snorkel.

As a student, I am a determined, reasonable, and goal oriented, I do my best to improve. I study hard, and take excellent notes. I complete all my assignments and requirements on time, and do well on quizzes.

Aside from school work, I participated in different extracurricular activitities in highschool and college. I joined Youth camps, and became a platoon leader in our Pathfindering class.

Also, participated in sports. I do Badminton and play board games in Fourth year.

I engaged in Academy Student Association in year 2014 as a student leader and became a member of a choir and a Sabbath school secretary in our church.

I have received honors when I was in elementary, a dean's lister and Class Associate secretary in highschool and an honorific academic scholar in college.

After I graduated in college, i worked as a Coastal Extension Officer at Department of Environment and Natural Resources PENRO ALBAY.

Overall, I am a hard working and tenacious student, who is eager to learn new ideas and insights from the professors in your University po.

Front 2

WHAT IS YOUR STRENGTH?

Back 2

My strength is i do not give up easily and not easily stopped by difficult people and situations and i have a grim persistence to do the things which i want to accomplish.

I remembered in my undergraduate thesis, me and my thesis partner proposed a topic, gathered data and information that was needed and a week before the thesis proposal defense, my thesis adviser confronted us that our thesis proposal might fail because of some reasons.

Inspite of that circumstance with a limited time that we had. I did not give up, instead i became highly motivated that come up to a new topic, and was able to defended it to the panel successfully and on time.

With that I learned that MY PRESENT ACTIONS WILL FORETELL MY FUTURE OUTCOMES AND IF I DO NOT CHANGE SOMETHING MAY IT BE IN MYSELF OR OTHERS, NOTHING WILL CHANGE.

Front 3

WHAT IS YOUR WEAKNESS?

Back 3

Honestly, before Ive never been comfortable with public speaking.But with the help of my professors in college who trained me to speak different topics in front of the class was a great help for me.

Further, in my previous work in DENR, Ive used to talked to different people in the community, do house to house, and speak to baranggay officials to inform them the importance of our coastal ecosystems and how they can help in protecting and conserving it.

Good thing, they have responded and cooperated in a good way.

With those circumstances, was a great help for me to overcome my weakness. And now i used to do it with confidence.

Front 4

Why do you want to become a doctor?

Back 4

My choice to do medicine wasn't a snap decision, it was a build up of different decisions that accumulated in pointing towards this is what i want, and this is what i will do for the rest of my life, so it started around when i was at my young age.

1. I have seen and witnessed my relatives from Burias Island, Masbate travelled for several hours to the city of Legazpi just to receive a medical assitance from our doctors and medical professionals and be treated at the hospital. Up until now, if they are sick they need to travel a distant just to be treated.

My lola who has difficulty in walking because of her arthritis, endured the pain just to have her check ups for her operated eye.

2 Further, I have witnessed my nieces how they grow and suffer from mild to severe diseases, one was diagnosed with asthma the other with pneumonia.

One will say, Tita if you're going to become a doctor, you should take care and treat me first. I smiled and promised that I will do what she wants. Though I can see how hard it is for them.

I wanted to take care of them, i wanted them to grow healthy and free from those sickness.

3 Moreover, during my stay in the coastal baranggays of the Municipality of Manito and Legazpi city, I was priviledged to talked and be exposed to different people in their community.

I observed that most of the children are malnourished and have a lot of bruises in their bodies, a lady who has a mental illness, a crippled young boy who does not receive any medical treatment. And i know that there are more people there who needs medical attention.

One time, i said to the head of the family."Tay, bakit di nyo pa po ipagamot at dalhin sa ospital ang anak nyo, and i would not forget what he said to me na, Mam sakto lang po ang kinikita ko para sa pagkain namin sa isang araw, minsan pa nga po ay kulang. "

i felt the pain and difficulty that they are going through. I felt how hard it is for them.

These are some of the people who are unserved, underserved, hard to reach, and economically underdeveloped areas in our country. They need people who will provide them the health care services that they need.

Those people were asking for my help, but it hurts me a lot that I cannot do something to lessen the pain that they are suffering. I know how it feels to feel the pain but hesistant to have medical check up, buy medicine, and go to hospital for medication because of financial constraint.

I WANTED TO BECOME A DOCTOR, BECAUSE I WANTED TO AID THE SICK, TO HELP, AND SERVE ALL THOSE IN NEED.

BUT i can only do it if I will be permitted to be one of your medical students this coming school year and acquire learnings and new insights from you Mam and Sir.

Front 5

Why UNP, instead of other medical schools?

Back 5

Well, i think po all medical schools are performing well through different ways.

However, in choosing a medical schooI, there are things i need to consider po since this will be the school that will mold and help me prepare intellectually, emotionally and physically capable in handling my future patients who are waiting for my medical care.

I have chosen UNP because of some reasons po:

1. First, The school provides quality medical education committed to produce caring, compassionate, socially conscious, and globally competent physicians who are guided by Christian principles.

2. Second, The school offers problem based learning (PBL) approach, which i believe is more practical and effective, with that the students can easily apply the theories that they learned into practice.

3. Third, the school takes active role in the promotion and maintenance of health, prevention of diseases through strengthened and updated Health Science Education.

4. Fourth, the school is one of the partner schools for the Department of Health (DOH) Pre-service scholarship Program for Medical courses.

5. Moreover, I have heard that the medical professors are approachable and teach the students with passion incorporated with inspirational stories that uplift the medical students who are having a hard time and for me that would be helpful.

6. Also, the school has a multiracial community. Having international students apart from the locals. Learning diff culture and traditions is a pleasure for me since I can develop the value of being open minded.

7. And aside from the academics, the school offers several extracurricular activities and different organizations. I appreciated to be involve in the Community Advancement Medical Program (CAMP) in which medical students from diff levels provide medical mission to certain locations and boost public health programs.

8. Further, the school is situated in a place where there are no distractions, which is more favorable for me so i can concentrate in my studies.

Overall, i believed that the UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN PHILIPPINES College of Medicine is the medical school that will help and mold me to become a great and compassionate physician.

Front 6

Why should we accept you?

Back 6

Well, the reasons why you should consider my application po are

First, I am a persistent and resilient person.

I remembered ive got a failed exam in Genetics but inspite of that. It did not stop me, instead i study harder and received a good grades at the end.

Eventhough i am not academically gifted like others, I can assure you po that i will study harder to improve better.

I told myself that i need to pick myself up after each problem ive encountered and move on.

Because for me, It’s not how many times I fall that matters but how many times I pick myself back up.

Second, I am a good team player and a good leader. Ive become a group leader in our laboratory activities in Animal physiology, Cell and Molecular Biology and Developmental Biology. As a leader, I acknowledge my team members' expertise, do our responsibilities, help each other, and worked as a team.

As a result, we come up to a good laboratory output and research paper that gave us remarkable grades on those subjects.

Third, I'm good at communicating and persuading other people. I gave advices to my friends who are having a hard time.

Also I am enthusiast when it comes to helping other people. I prioritize to help those in need before my own welfare.

And i have a great time managenent skills, i complete and submit my requirements, weekly and monthly reports on time.

I also have a sense of humor,

Although Life can be stressful and gets harder, filled with ups and down but we all deserve to be happy.

Laughing is a form of healing, so I always smile and i am grateful to have a conversation with you po Mam.

Front 7

Why you took up BS BIOLOGY as your pre med course?

Back 7

I took up this degree po sir, because The BS Biology curriculum presents a balance treatment of various topics such as

1 the CHED-mandated general subjects like (physiology, genetics, histology, microbiology, zoology, botany and ecology);

2 also, the essential Biology-core courses with laboratory classes (wherein ive experienced dissecting a frog, chicken, cockroach, fish and a cat and studied their anatomy).

3 And it also includes non-Biology tool subjects; the science electives, Special Problem and Thesis Presentation.

As a biology student, I was exposed to the different aspects of Biology through lectures, laboratory work, research, and field trips. "

Having fun while learning" , is what i like the most when i took this degree. That is why I considered taking up BS Biology as my pre med course. And with God's grace, I was able to finish it on time.

Front 8

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR UNDERGRAD THESIS

Back 8

For our thesis, we work on the Repellent activity of Canarium ovatum (Burseraceae) and Sandoricum koetjape (Meliaceae) ethanolic leaf extracts against Aedes mosquitoes. Me and my thesis partner deduced that the ethanolic leaf extracts of those plants have the repellent activity against Aedes mosquitoes. And i realized that the most challenging part of doing our research is it will test your patience, why ? during the actual experiment wherein we will monitor the behavior of the mosquito while the animal subject (mice) is inside the mosquito chamber, and it took us to wait for several hours just to see if the mosquito bite the exposed skin of the mouse but despite that me and my thesis partner was able to finish it successfully.