Before you believe your interview score, inspect your answer

Your mock interview gives you 72. After another attempt, it gives you 84. You feel better for a moment. Then you try to work out what changed.

Was the second answer more relevant? Did you explain your decision more clearly? Or did you speak for longer, use a phrase the system preferred, or answer a different question? You need to know which of those changed before deciding what to practise next.

Keep the question and your actual answer beside the feedback. Look for an explanation of what needs attention.

Check what the tool heard

If there is a transcript, read the relevant passage first. Did it capture a negative correctly? Did it miss a technical term? Did it attribute the interviewer’s words to you?

Check both the words the tool analyzed and the criterion it applied.

If there is no transcript, write the passage as accurately as you can immediately afterward. Mark it as a recollection. What you intended to say can easily slip into that version, hiding the omission you wanted to examine.

Then read the original question. An answer can be articulate and detailed while answering something else. “Tell me about a decision you made with incomplete information” calls for a decision and its reasoning. A polished account of the project’s eventual success might leave both missing.

Find the passage behind the criticism

Imagine this fictional answer: “We changed suppliers because the first option wasn’t good enough. The new supplier worked much better.” The feedback says, “Your decision-making needs more depth.”

The feedback needs to explain what it means. What did “not good enough” mean? What information did the candidate have? Which constraint made a change necessary? Those questions identify information the listener still needs.

Compare that with “You lack confidence.” The phrase might reflect a long pause, a quiet recording or an unsupported impression. It does not explain whether the decision made sense. Ask which passage or behavior prompted the comment and how it affected understanding.

Van der Kleij and colleagues’ meta-analysis of computer-based learning found larger average effects for elaborated feedback than for giving the correct answer or indicating correctness. Ask for an explanation that helps you decide what to change in your answer. (Van der Kleij and colleagues, 2015)

For the supplier question, you might ask whether the answer names the decision, explains the criterion and distinguishes the result from the candidate’s expectation. Use those questions to assess the critique and check whether the requested detail belongs in this answer.

Questions to put to any feedback

Check	Question to ask
The transcript	Did it capture negatives, technical terms and who said what?
The question	Does my answer address what was asked?
The criticism	Which passage or behavior prompted it?
The missing piece	What information does the listener still need?
The rewrite	Does it add a cost saving, motive or result I never gave?

Investigate disagreement before changing the answer

A critique may identify a real omission, overlook something you said or use an unclear standard.

Check which applies. Add missing information when it is true and relevant. Keep an accurate passage when a critique misreads it. Ask a practice partner to read the question and answer when you cannot resolve the disagreement yourself.

If you ask the AI to reconsider, read its reason for changing or retaining the critique. Check that reason against your answer, especially if it reverses its verdict as soon as you object.

Be especially careful with suggested rewrites. A cost saving, motive or result you never supplied is a new claim. Check it before it enters your preparation. Keep new claims out of the answer until you have verified them.

Role fit matters as well. A language correction that improves comprehension can help. An unexplained demand to erase every trace of an accent is a different standard. Ask how the suggested change would help a listener understand you in this role.

Choose one change you can check

Useful feedback should leave you with manageable work. Shute’s review of formative feedback recommends specific, task-focused guidance that helps a learner correct an attempt. Ask for one change you can try in the next answer. (Shute, 2008)

Keep the question stable for your next attempt. If the missing information was the supplier criterion, clarify that criterion and answer again without reading a rewrite. Can someone now locate the reason for your choice? Have you kept the outcome within what you actually know?

The answer may improve in one respect while another still needs attention. That is a useful finding, even if the overall score stays where it was. If the grade rises but you cannot identify a clearer explanation, you still need to investigate.

Before the next session, note the passage you want to change and the information you will add. Keep that note with the original question.