Help! how would you (i.e. how should I) respond to this?

[Camillekc]

In relation to your anticipated study & practice of medicine, describe one area from your background that shows your ability for self-directed learning.

I hate secondaries. What do you think? I don't think I've ever done any self-directed learning. Well, either it was so self-directed (like reading) that it's completely undocumentable, or it's not self-directed at all.

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[N1DERL&]

ooh, that's a toughie!

Have you done any independent study classes? Or have you taught yourself how to do something like play the guitar, learn a computer program, teach a class without curriculum, etc? Do you have any hobbies because that could be like self-directed learning.

Secondaries suck! Hope this helped you out, if not, sorry! By the way, what school is this for?

 

[pseudoknot]

I'm not sure what you mean by undocumentable. Does the secondary say you need to provide proof as well? I think if you've learned something by reading, that's self-directed learning and would be a fine topic. Have you ever had a job where you didn't know exactly how to do something and had to look it up or seek the information on your own? Even in classes, have there been ones that were project-based? Since the prompt only asks for you to show your ability, I think you have some room for making your argument.

 

[Camillekc]

Thanks for the help. It's for Queen's, in Canada.

 

[Camillekc]

Another one:

4. What is your understanding of self-directed learning? Provide evidence that you have the skills to study medicine at McMaster.

What the f**k am I supposed to do with this? Do you think there are diabolical people sitting in a room thinking up these things and laughing?

 

[Hoberto]

Why don't you talk about how learning is more than just sitting in class and soaking up lecture. To really succeed a student needs to read the text and maybe go to the library to cover all the material required for the class and to learn more about a particular interest.

If you've done any lab work you can talk about how reading peer-reviewed articles is vastly different from the typical textbook. Learning to understand and think critically about this type of writing is self-directed and not exactly something you can learn how to do effectively in the classroom.

Also one could talk about how medicine, biology, technology etc are always changing and moving forward...and to really stay abreast of the current state of the field one must always strive to learn and understand all new developments. An example of this might be how MATLAB (sorry, I have it on the brain) is not back-compatible, so, if your school moves to the newest version you must work to understand and learn the changes in the new version and the new coding required. There is no class when most software goes through an upgrade. So, this would also be self-directed.

Good luck.

 

[riceman04]

ooh, that's a toughie!

Have you done any independent study classes? Or have you taught yourself how to do something like play the guitar, learn a computer program, teach a class without curriculum, etc? Do you have any hobbies because that could be like self-directed learning.

Secondaries suck! Hope this helped you out, if not, sorry! By the way, what school is this for?

So normally I would not do this but that is a pretty tough question.....
Like N1DERL& asked: Have you ever taken any independent study or advanced level seminar classes?
If so you could talk about those.....

For example, I took an advanced topics in health psychology class at my alma mater....and since it was independent study everything was self-guided, including the research......

 

[riceman04]

In relation to your anticipated study & practice of medicine, describe one area from your background that shows your ability for self-directed learning.

I hate secondaries. What do you think? I don't think I've ever done any self-directed learning. Well, either it was so self-directed (like reading) that it's completely undocumentable, or it's not self-directed at all.

Can you think of an extracurricular activity that required you to demonstrate your ability for self-directed learning?...