GPS Prep: Creating a Custom Practice Interview for Graduate School or Professional Programs

Welcome to VMock! This guide enables you to independently create and practice graduate school and professional program mock interviews using VMock’s robust question library, ensuring you are well-prepared for professional interviews. Follow these steps to create your own mock interview experience based on questions related to a variety of health related graduate or professional programs, law school, or just graduate/professional school interviews in general. Questions? Contact AAP@ucf.edu

Career Education
35 steps
6 minutes

Vmock

Microsoft Login

Logging into VMock

Follow these steps to access and log into your VMock account: 1. Go to <https://vmock.com/ucf> and click the "Students/Alumni" tab. 2. Click the red "Continue with University ID" button. 3. Enter your UCF e-mail \[your **NID**@ucf.edu\] and click the blue "Next" button, then on the next screen enter your NID password. You may be prompted to verify your log in with Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).

Once logged in, you'll be taken to your VMock Student Dashboard. In the next section, we will review how to design your custom interview using the GPS Prep interview or question library.

From your VMock Student Dashboard, find and click on the "Interview" tab on the top horizontal menu. The Interview Suite dashboard will appear. Here are two ways to practice interviews for Graduate and Professional School: 1. Community Interviews: Click this option on the left-vertical menu to explore pre-built interview experiences from GPS Prep. If choosing this option, proceed to [Step 3](https://scribehow.com/viewer/GPS_Prep_Creating_a_Custom_Practice_Interview_for_Graduate_School_or_Professional_Programs__Lc1KoNoOQZeUrQLi_NRdWw?scrollToActionId=6dee552a). 2. Custom Interviews: Click this option from the vertical menu on the left to access the graduate/professional school question library and design your own interview experience. If choosing this option, proceed to [Step 7](https://scribehow.com/viewer/GPS_Prep_Creating_a_Custom_Practice_Interview_for_Graduate_School_or_Professional_Programs__Lc1KoNoOQZeUrQLi_NRdWw?scrollToActionId=131017c5).

Pre-Built GPS Prep Interviews

From the interview dashboard (see [Step 2](https://scribehow.com/viewer/GPS_Prep_Creating_a_Custom_Practice_Interview_for_Graduate_School_or_Professional_Programs__Lc1KoNoOQZeUrQLi_NRdWw?scrollToActionId=eaffa9fd)), select "Community Interviews" from the left vertical menu.

Ensure that you have the "Graduate/Professional School" tab selected. Scroll down the page to review the various profession-specific practice interview sets designed by [GPS Prep](https://career.ucf.edu/gps-prep/).

Choose which interview you would like to practice and click anywhere in that interview's tile.

Review the questions provided and click the blue "Start Practicing" button on the bottom right to begin. Proceed to [Step 17](https://scribehow.com/viewer/GPS_Prep_Creating_a_Custom_Practice_Interview_for_Graduate_School_or_Professional_Programs__Lc1KoNoOQZeUrQLi_NRdWw?scrollToActionId=a651315c).

Customizing your Graduate/Professional School Mock Interview

A pop-up will appear and will walk you through selecting interview questions for your custom experience. In the "Categories" menu on the far left, find and click "Graduate/Professional School," then for the "Sub-Categories" menu in the middle, review the list of graduate/professional programs and select which one you want to pull questions from.

In the right menu pane for "Questions" you will see a supply of graduate/professional school related interview questions. Review the list and click the box next to each question you want to practice, or click the box for "Select All" to choose all the questions.

To remove a question, click the blue check mark in the box next the question you want to remove.

While building your custom interview, you can pull questions from multiple categories and sub-categories. Check/uncheck boxes to the questions you want to include or exclude accordingly. The bottom of your pop-up view will keep a tally of how many questions you have selected in total.

You can also adjust the "thinking" time in between each questions. On the bottom, under "Prep Time," click the up or down arrow to increase or decrease the amount of time VMock gives you between questions to think and prepare your answer.

Additionally, you have the ability to add your own custom questions. On the top right of your pop-up screen, click the blue "+ Add Question" text button.

A new pop-up will appear. You can select the "Question Type" from the drop-down, identify the career/program "Function" area from another drop-down, choose a "Career Track" for your interview, and enter your question in the "Type question here" field. Enter your response time (in seconds) and click the blue "Add" button on the bottom. If you change your mind, you can click anywhere outside the pop-up frame to return to the Question Library screen.

You're almost there! Click the blue "Create Interview" button on the bottom right once you have selected your custom interview questions. Alternatively, you can click "Show Draft List" to review all of your questions together before proceeding.

Once you click "Create Interview" a small pop-up appears prompting you to title your custom mock interview. There is a character limit, so enter a brief title you'll easily remember for future reference or reattempts. Click the blue "Save" button. On the next screen, you should see "Interview Created Successfully" with the title and date you created this practice interview. Click the blue "Start Practicing" button to begin. Proceed to [Step 17](https://scribehow.com/viewer/GPS_Prep_Creating_a_Custom_Practice_Interview_for_Graduate_School_or_Professional_Programs__Lc1KoNoOQZeUrQLi_NRdWw?scrollToActionId=a651315c) to calibrate your technology. *If you are experiencing an error message instead, please take a screenshot and send that to [career@ucf.edu](mailto:career@ucf.edu) for assistance.*

Calibrating your Tech

You've built your interview, now it's time to practice! The next section will walk you through how to calibrate your webcam and mic.

The VMock system will now walk you through how to calibrate your webcam and microphone in order to get the best feedback on your interview responses. 1. Maintain proper distance from the camera by sitting at an arm's length to make sure your head and torso are properly visible in the camera frame during the calibration process. *Click "Next" when ready*. 2. Adjust your lighting accordingly so that you are sitting in a well-lit environment and the light source is in front of you so that there is proper illumination on your face. *Click "Next" when ready.* 3. Ensure that you are the only one in your camera's view and no one else is around during your interview experience to minimize external movement and audio distractions. *Click "Next" when ready.* 4. Be sure to sit in a quiet place. Minor background noise usually does not interfere with the interview feedback, it can decrease the accuracy of the speech recognition systems. *Click "Next" when ready.* Lastly, consider using earphones for better speech recognition, particularly if you are in a noisy environment. **Click "Proceed" to begin the calibration process.**

In your camera view, follow the prompt to position your face inside the section above the blue line visible on your screen. Hold still and click "Start Calibration" to begin.

If you need support in calibrating your video, you can view support articles on the left vertical menu.

Almost there! Once calibration is complete, VMock will begin your interview experience. It will let you know of any difficulties in calibrating your webcam and mic. You can click "Check Hardware" or "Modify Details" to make adjustments. If you are still experiencing difficulty, click on the blue "?" icon on the bottom right to access support resources or initiate a help request.

Complete Your Mock Interview

VMock will typically begin your mock interview as soon as your calibration is complete. You will hear the first question being read out to you. After the question is read, a timer will appear over the middle of your video screen. On the right vertical pane, you will see the list of questions you selected for this experience. To begin your response to the question, you can wait on the timer to finish and recording will automatically begin. Or you can click "Start Now" located below the timer.

Once you have finished your answer, click "Save Answer" at the bottom of your video. If you are not satisfied with your response, you will have an opportunity to Re-Record before proceeding to the next question. When you are ready, click "Next Question" to keep moving through your practice interview.

Once you complete your final question, you should be prompted to end the interview by VMock. However, after you have completed your practice interview, you can click on the red "End Interview" button on the top right. It will ask if you are sure you want to end and from there you can hit "cancel" to return and answer missed questions or re-cord responses, or click "end" to move on.

A pop-up screen will appear on the bottom of your screen sharing VMock's progress in analyzing your interview on various criteria such as eye contact, verb choice, response strength and relevance, etc. Do not click on anything, it will automatically bring you to your feedback report once it has finished processing.

If you would like to try for a better score, you can click the blue "Re-attempt Interview" button on the top right to practice your interview question set again. Return to [Step 2](https://scribehow.com/viewer/GPS_Prep_Creating_a_Custom_Practice_Interview_for_Graduate_School_or_Professional_Programs__Lc1KoNoOQZeUrQLi_NRdWw?scrollToActionId=574e123a) if you need support on setting up and completing your mock interview and start over.

Congratulations! You have completed a mock interview for a graduate program or professional school. You will be shown a quick snapshot of your scores and can click "Q1", "Q2", etc. to see scores for each question. Your entire interview will be given an overall score on a scale of 1 to 5 and this score will display above the "Content Strength" area.

View Detailed Feedback and Manage Your Interview

To view more comprehensive analysis of your mock interview, click the blue "View Detailed Feedback" button on the right. Or you can click on the "Detailed Feedback" tab above your summary snapshot.

In "Detailed Feedback," you can navigate and interact with the different elements evaluated for your interview for each question. Click on the horizontal menu to review feedback on "Non Verbals," "Delivery of Speech," and "Content Strength." For each of those domains, there are a variety of factors listed in the far left vertical menu pane. On the far right, you will see your video and and can review your response along with the feedback.

For your assignment, you will need to share your interview with your program lead via a Public URL. Click the blue "Link" icon button on the top right. A pop-up will appear detailing terms regarding consent to making your video public. Review and if you wish to proceed, click the blue "Agree" button. Now click on the blue stacked rectangle icon to "Copy" your interview URL. Share that URL as needed with your coach, advisor, counselor, instructor, mentor, or anyone else you would like to view and provide feedback. If you are satisfied with your interview performance, you can also share this URL on your LinkedIn Profile as a virtual introduction to recruiters viewing your profile.

To view your feedback overlayed on your video, or to download your completed interview videos, click on the blue triangle icon for "Video Feedback." A pop-up will appear. To download the video, click on the blue arrow icon on the bottom right below the video. This will download an .mp4 file locally to your computer. Note, this will only download the video for the question selected. To download the entire interview, you will need to follow this step for each question. You can view the next question from the list on the left. To view your feedback overlaid on your video, toggle the "SMART Video" button on. On the bottom right and top left corners of your video, you can watch the color-coded feedback change as the video progresses to identify where exactly improvements can be made. To return to your detailed feedback report, click the "X" on the top right of the pop-up screen.

Viewing Completed Mock Interviews

From your VMock dashboard, click on the "Interview" tab from the top horizontal navigation menu to access the Interview Suite. In the Interview Suite, you can click on the "Previously Recorded" tab to view all prior practice interviews. Then click on either "Community Interviews" or "Custom Interviews" to find previously recorded interviews you completed from GPS Prep's interview or question libraries.

Here you will see a list showing snapshot summary reports and action steps for previously recorded community or custom interviews, ordered most recent at the top and oldest at the bottom. Scroll down until you find the one you want to manage or edit. Click the blue link icon to create/copy the Public Share URL (see [Step 28](https://scribehow.com/viewer/GPS_Prep_Creating_a_Custom_Practice_Interview_for_Graduate_School_or_Professional_Programs__Lc1KoNoOQZeUrQLi_NRdWw?scrollToActionId=b38cf16a)). Click the "View Detailed Feedback" button to open up your feedback report (see [Step 29](https://scribehow.com/viewer/GPS_Prep_Creating_a_Custom_Practice_Interview_for_Graduate_School_or_Professional_Programs__Lc1KoNoOQZeUrQLi_NRdWw?scrollToActionId=b3aaf009)). Click on the "Play" icon button to rewatch your interview and view your set of questions or to download videos (see [Step 30](https://scribehow.com/viewer/GPS_Prep_Creating_a_Custom_Practice_Interview_for_Graduate_School_or_Professional_Programs__Lc1KoNoOQZeUrQLi_NRdWw?scrollToActionId=b92a5f84)) or to update your answer script (see [Step 34](https://scribehow.com/viewer/GPS_Prep_Creating_a_Custom_Practice_Interview_for_Graduate_School_or_Professional_Programs__Lc1KoNoOQZeUrQLi_NRdWw?scrollToActionId=860c59ae)).

A great way to organize your interviews before submitting to your professor is to rename them according to your class assignment. Click the vertical ellipses icon to edit the name of your interview. A drop-down will appear. Click "Rename" to edit the name of this interview. You can also click "Delete" to remove it from your dashboard (note: it can not be recovered, be careful if you choose this step to remove interviews you do not want to store/share). A pop-up will appear. Click on the default title for your interview (usually "Interview" followed by a number) to edit this text entry field. Enter the name you would like to give this interview and then click the blue "OK" button. Select "cancel" to return to the dashboard.

If you would like to view the voice-to-text script of your interview response, and possibly correct it for errors, you need to first open your VMock feedback report. Open your mock interview dashboard (see [Step 31](https://scribehow.com/viewer/GPS_Prep_Creating_a_Custom_Practice_Interview_for_Graduate_School_or_Professional_Programs__Lc1KoNoOQZeUrQLi_NRdWw?scrollToActionId=91519c7e)). Review the list of attempted/completed interviews and find the one you would like to review. Click the "View Feedback" button in that interview's section. The summary snapshot of your score and overall analysis will appear. Click the blue "View Detailed Feedback" on the right. Identify the question(s) you want to review your response for. Click "Content Strength" in the middle of the screen. In place of your video, a "Script" box will appear displaying a voice-to-text transcription of your interview response. If you notice any errors in the transcription, you may click anywhere on the text displayed and make edits to your script. Then click the blue "Update Script" button on the bottom to prompt VMock to adjust your score.

Visit <https://career.ucf.edu/vmock/> for additional VMock support. Questions? Contact career@ucf.edu.