AFP Interview Questions and Answers (Solved)

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AFP Interview Questions and Answers (Solved) Question:-What experience of research have you had? {{Ans- For the past 3 years, I have been heavily involved in research at the MRC Centre for Neuropsy... chiatric Genetics and Genomics. My work has centred on discovering and analysing genomic risk factors for neuropsychiatric pathologies such as schizophrenia and autism. In particular, the research project I am most proud of, must be my analysis of the World's largest cohort of 1q21.1 CNV carriers. Essentially these are a risk factor for numerous psychopathologies. I am most of this particular work due to the experience and skills I have gained along the way. It started out a very small preliminary phenotypic analysis of carriers recruited in Cardiff as an SSC project in third year. However, my supervisor was so impressed by my work that he allowed me to continue this as an intercalated BSc and later as a paid research assistant in the centre. Personally, I conducted face to face neuropsychiatric assessments on the carriers and I presented findings to international collaborators in Canada and France, enabling us to pool our data to add to the cohort. This created the worlds largest cohort and enabled me to conduct a high level of statistical analysis on the cohort in the programme R. The results showed that carriers of duplication in particular were at a massively increased risk of mood and anxiety disorders. Implications:This research enabled me to win the Richard Arnold Prize at Cardiff University for the best project in the neurosciences and furthermore enabled me to be selected for a prestigious pathfinder fellowship from the royal college of psychiatrists after a highly competitive interview and application process, i will have funding to continue this work in larger datasets in Toronto next spring. My reflections on the process would be ... This project, taking a research idea from conception to eventual presentation afforded me valuable experience of the rigours of academic work in medicine and the realistic expectations necessary in this field. I hope to flourish on the academic foundation programme and seek opportunities for further collaboration and development of my skills and experience. I am also currently involved in another study in which myself and others are running the first PheWAS in Cardiff on a known genomic risk facto for neuropsychiatric disease. Question:-Give an example where you have worked as part of a team. {{Ans- I would say that teamwork is one of the most pervasive skills I have demonstrated throughout my life thus far, whether that is in playing rugby internationally, or founding a charity to tackle suicide in students, however the example that comes to mind would be my experience as co-president a of CSPS. S/T: As co-president I took a leading role in a successfully winning a bid to host the National Student Psychiatry Conference in Wales. Key to this was working in a positive collaboration with our neighbouring psych soc in Swansea. I chaired meetings of the organising committee, listening to my peers and working to overcome differences of opinion and reconcile the team's aspirations with practical opportunities. A: I developed skills in transformational leadership, empowering other team members to develop their own abilities through co-ordinating sub-committees for different sections of the conference. I also recognised the value of trusting others when delegating work. As a senior member of the organising committee I calmly settled conflicts within the team and made sure we remained on task and within deadlines.R: These experiences highlighted the need to balance clinical commitments with additional project work. I developed my time management skills and awareness of my own limitations, namely seeking appropriate help from previous organisers when necessary. I also recognised the need for a positive attitude in the face of difficulty and of being flexible in approach. These are, in my opinion, pre-requisite skills for the academic foundation programme. [Show More]

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