PA schools love to utilize the MMI process to give team-based exercises like this to evaluate candidates, so be sure to practice being both a leader and a follower by doing tasks like completing puzzles and giving directions for everyday life tasks. Work with a friend to give you feedback on how you react in both roles and bring that advice with you to your PA school MMI interview.

The best first step is to give your partner an overview of the entire picture as quickly as possible. From there, describe the scene in portions or sections. As your partner begins drawing, give them constructive feedback and encourage them along the way. If they do something wrong or miss a direction from you, correct them positively and professionally. Once you have described the larger items and sections, and if you have time, you can get down to the details. Asking for feedback from your teammate will be expected, so be sure to do so.

"(First, study the picture as quickly as possible and ensure you can give clear initial instructions) Okay, John, I have a beautiful picture looking out from a beach over a large lake or ocean, and the sun is just about reaching the horizon. The water starts about halfway up the page if the water and sunset are on the top and the beach is on the bottom. The water is a bit wavy, and some birds are flying in the distance to the right of the sun. Are you okay getting started there with an outline? Great! That's looking awesome so far. I probably didn't explain this enough, but the sun is a bit smaller and a little closer to the horizon; are you okay fixing that? Okay, now looking at the beach, there is a pile of larger rocks near the water on the left-hand side and a pier that extends out into the water. The pier has long support poles, and there are no boats parked there. Two people are walking back towards the beach in the middle of the pier. Yes, that looks amazing. Did my description of the rocks make sense? Okay, last will be the scene on the beach in the middle and to the right. To the right, there appear to be two people throwing a frisbee with a dog running between them. The people will be drawn pretty small because they are close to the water and in the distance. Yes, that looks perfect!"