If you had too many things on your to-do list, how would you decide which to do first and which to postpone?

"I feel very fortunate to have worked in a couple of very high-paced and busy settings during high school and college. My four-year Bachelor's program was very intense and required an innate ability to prioritize and stay organized. Prioritizing work came down to my ability to know my workload, track it, and continuously reprioritize what tasks were most important. As a student of your dental program, I would use this same philosophy when prioritizing a difficult academic load and a large patient load. I would come here with the ability to build a strong rapport with support staff and be able to delegate tasks that I needed help with."

As you answer this question, there are a couple of things that your interviewers will want to hear. Taking the time to organize your day by doing the most important patient tasks first frees up time later. Sometimes, it is helpful to delegate to others when possible, but it's never acceptable to allow patient-care-related work to go undone because there wasn't time. Talk about your ability to be efficient in your classwork and your future work with patients. Finally, to get at the heart of the question, let your interviewers know that you would prioritize the most critical patient items before moving on to other tasks throughout your day.