Mayera Tufail's AKU Interview Experience

Mayera Tufail (a very amazing person) is from the Batch of 2018 and this post contains her recollection about her AKU interviews.

FIRST INTERVIEW

My first AKU interview was with Dr. Maria Andrades, she was really polite and asked the routine questions. Like, tell me about yourself?
How would you examine a male patient? (DRE digital rectal exam is their favourite)

To which you answer that you would take informed consent (that requires telling the patient what the procedure requires you to do) and then take consent along with keeping a male chaperon (attending or a nurse) nearby to make the patient comfortable.

Next, she asked me about the social and economic problems of Pakistan.
I mentioned female illiteracy. So, she wanted me to tell that what have I done at grass root level to help the cause and how I educated my maids. I replied that mass media is a better way to reach out to them.

Oh yeah, when they ask you your weaknesses be sure to call them your areas of improvement. This session lasted for 35 minutes to be exact. So, nothing out of the usual.

SECOND INTERVIEW

(This interview was bilingual; english and urdu.)

My second interview was something of a roller coaster! Dr Asad jamil, chairman of the department of surgery, was the interviewer.  His office was in the community health centre. So, when an administrative employee escorted me to his office I read all the signboards along the way, scared of a rumour from my friend that her sister was asked which ward she had passed and in which department was she sitting. I was not asked that but you can never be too careful. Always ask for your interviewer’s name if you don't get it the first time, and refer to them by their name for the rest of the interview; Dr. so and so.

Well, soon the the intimidating interview started.

Dr Asad: Tell me about yourself?

(This question boosted my morale. I told myself: Yeah Mayera, you can ace it. This will just be like the one before like you practiced. So, I went on with the usual.)
But then, Dr Asad stopped me in the middle.

Dr Asad: So, you mentioned you have been to three different schools uptil now. How has each of them impacted your personality?

Me: (Yikes! what the hell? This was not a routine, well one can expect anything in an AKU interview after all. I took a millisecond to understand this and then started)
Mama Parsi was a very strict school, marks would be subtracted from our daily report for every small mistake we made (I did not quite like it there but don't ever say anything negative about your school), if we were late for assignments, if we talked in class or interrupted the teacher. It made me very disciplined in life, taught me time management skills and very proper behavior. I learnt to respect my seniors and my teachers.
St. Joseph Convent, well, it was a missionary school. Much less strict than my previous school. Teachers taught us for a monthly salary of a thousand rupees. Education was virtually free. Teachers just came in to teach us in hope for seeing a better future for Pakistan, they instilled in us a deep sense of patriotism.

Dr Asad: In a country where almost everyone reads their prayers and is religious yet corruption is the highest. People still break the traffic signal. My driver has a beard, he reads the Qur'an and yet he breaks the signal. They take to the streets like crazy on 14^th august yet no one is honest to the country. Do you think with this type of people in Pakistan there is hope for our country?

Me: (This conversation was heading in uncharted territories but I had to speak with passion.)
I think there is hope for the country. I am optimistic and optimism pays off. My teachers taught me that even if there is one good fish in the ocean, everything will work out. We all have to learn to see the light in the darkest of places. We all have to work.

Dr Asad: How are you going to convince others? With these people I have to keep a guard because my money and my life is not safe; political violence, target killing, drones.Is Pakistan heading into its darkest era?

Me: You have to be passionate, dedicated and obstinate to achieve your goals. I told him that one night my street light was left on during the day, I called KESC to come and close it because I felt electricity was being wasted. I bugged them so much that they had to come in the end to close the light. They said I was insane but so be it. When I went to get my equivalence made, there were agents yet I still stood in the line to reach the end of it. As long as there are people like you and I, I am positive that together we will save Pakistan.

Dr Asad: Girls leave during or after MBBS, they do not contribute to the work force. Most of our students leave us to settle in the US and they never come back. I feel that as a teacher they disrespect me because I trained them and made them what they are today but they just leave. We have put our entire lives for the service of the country. My son lives in the US, I can’t convince him to come back as the water shortage and increased crime rates bother him. How do I convince him to come back?

Me: (The entire time I was listening carefully.) Dr Asad, I told you that I am very patriotic. I will never leave my country and never forget what it gave me; my childhood, my memories and everything. I will give back to my country.

Dr Asad: How are you different? Because, what you said, everybody says it for the sake of getting an admission.

Me: (This question gave me the creeps. How could I make him read my mind, suggest him to give me a truth serum, I think they exist, or use a time machine? I took a deep breath and spoke with a dedicated tone.)
Dr Asad, I cannot give you any guarantee at this moment but 10 years from now I will come to tell you that I have fulfilled my promise.

He, to my utmost relief, understood me and moved on (Well, sort of)

Dr Asad: Exactly why do you think people don’t have values anymore?

Me: The world has become materialistic. None of the grandkids have the opportunity to live in an extended family. Those who do, don’t interact with their grandparents. Gadgets like television and smart phones have widened the generation gap. No one listens to their grandparents' stories; what they experienced during the partition of Pakistan and why was this country created. We have not seen the harsh times.

Dr Asad: Haan ab tum logon ka waqt hai hum ne umar gava di ab tum log is mulk ko bachao*

Just then the personal assistant came to my rescue “sir ab ka patient so and so wait kar rahe hai**”

And then, Dr Asad had to cut the interview short  from his expected time. (Yaaaay!)

Dr Asad: This debate beta can last for an eternity, we'll debate more on this but if you say so then there still might be hope for our country.

Then, he asked me if I had any questions.

Me: Yeah. I saw a video about AKU that computer software simulators are used to train AKU residents for real life crisis situations. Is that technology available for my course ?

Dr Asad: Yes, it is.

Too happy to be done with the interview, I came out and switched my mobile on. To my surprise, my second interview lasted for one and a half hour. It was exhausting but it was an awesome experience. Don’t freak out due to the length of your interview, they can be short or long. Keep the conversation interesting and don’t ever look at your watch during the interview; it shows you are distracted. And yeah, just be sure to take out your mobile's battery even when you have to take it. (you can never be too sure about the untimely alarms!) Of course, this is only for those mobiles that power the alarms despite being switched off.

Best of luck! And be prepared for an apocalypse.
Kidding. Stay Cool B)

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From the AKU Challenge Team: We hope that the interview experiences posted at this blog help you with AKU preparation. Drop in an email or comment below regarding this interview or any other queries.

Read Sohaib's Interview here.
Read Lubaina's Interview here.
Read guidelines for AKU Interviews here.