Mature Physiotherapy Interviews

ahorseortwo

Hi All,

Hoping to link in with any mature Physiotherapy students who might have any insight into the interview process.

Have a TCD interview in just over a week and hoping for some hints as to the amount of prep might be required.

Would also appreciate insights into the course from a mature students perspective too.

Thanks

DeeAvery

I don't know how physiotherapy does it but I'm sure there are similarities with most mature student interviews. I did an mature interview for Maynooth in March, one for Social Work in TCD on last Monday and I have another one for a different course in Maynooth next week.

Both were casual but I found the TCD interview was more like a job interview. Social work in trinity is well known to be a competitive course.

One tip I will give is if your interview is at college green give yourself loads of time. That area is full of Road works and traffic restrictions. I made my interview just on time but when I arrived I got stuck behind tourists and Trinity Monday. Bad luck. I was told in my email to go straight to an interview waiting room and not a reception. They had a4 print outs to sign post the way. I was waiting there a few minutes when one of my interviewers came looking for me. Good thing I was there! I was interviewed by two lecturers off the course and not someone from the department or admissions which I thought was different. I could be wrong.

With the maynooth interview they were just interested in telling me how the cao works and talking about my previous academics and results. (Including my LC, I was like WTF, I thought being a mature student was about your experience but anyway). They were clearly just trying to find out if I could do assignments at level 8 standard. They didn't even ask why I wanted to do the course. I am in Maynooth right now doing a level 8 cert so that might have made my interview different. They did ask how I would fund myself though. It was for arts and they didn't even ask what subject combination I wanted to do. I brought that up myself.

Trinity asked things like: What does a social worker do? Why do I want to be a social worker? Give an example of when you helped someone and what would you have done differently looking back? How would you deal with aggressive behaviour? Have you worked with social workers before?

I was also asked what would I see as the most challenging thing about going to college. I said handing in assignments/doing homework. (That what I was like when I failed out as not a mature student. I went to class all the time but was too lazy to do independent study). They continued the conversation on with how would I overcome that. And I talked about how I'm handling the courses I'm doing now.

They were quite positive though, it was casual and they asked if I had anything I'd like to add at the end that I didn't get to say. (After the any questions part) I said no. A few hours later I thought of what I should have said. Ah well.

I made them laugh that's all I care about lol

ahorseortwo

Thanks so much for such a detailed response.

Congratulations on all your interviews. Interesting to hear they asked more detailed questions in Trinity, perhaps a nod to the demand for the course itself.

Sounds like a positive experience all in all. Fingers crossed for you on the outcome of them.

Interview is next Monday in St. James Hosp actually so hoping there might be some Physio matures on here somewhere who might have an idea of the specific questions asked so I could prepare for some of them. Unsure how much my knowledge of Physiotherapy itself will be tested which is what I'm most nervous about, I feel I can prepare well for the other questions similar to those you mentioned for yours.

ahorseortwo

Will post a reply for future readers,

Completed interview, and was successful, yesterday.

Questions were basic, asked me to tell my story of leaving school to now and how that worked out.

Asked for my understanding of the role of a physiotherapist, if I had done any shadowing and about my academics to date.

They also asked what I knew about the course itself and the content.

They asked if I had considered finances and whether I had applied to other colleges.

Then asked if I had any questions, I asked if there was and hindrance to mature students in the course or classes.

Interview lasted 10 mins and felt very informal. By 3 pm had received notification of an offer for the course.

Best of luck to future interviewees.