Biochem is smallgroup based. You have your reading assignments, then take an individual MC quiz. IMMEDIATELY afterward, you take a MC group quiz (which hopefully you all do better on). You then work on an assigned problem with a simple short-answer question at the end. You then discuss the problem and what goes into solving it. I'm pretty sure there will be other lectures in there, but we JUST started biochem and the first week was a little crazy (mainly because the bookstore screwed up and didn't order enough books- thus the assignments, reading, and quizzes all got pushed back). It's a new approach and the kinks are still being worked out. I'm hopeful it will allow us all to quit worrying about the grade so much and focus on learning biochem in the context of medicine.
EOM. This is lecture and small group based. The lectures focus on the ethical dilemmas and non-procedure based stuff you need to think about, such as hospice, incurable disease care, healthcare reform, malpractice, admitting fault, religion in practice (whether you do or don't and what your patients think of that), sexual exams, etc. The small group stuff is learning how to do the physical exams, including eye exams, ENT, derm, neurological, etc. You also learn how to do your charting here. and the preceptorships are done through EOM classes. As for other stuff, the EM Club and SOSA generally do sutures, IV lines, intubations, that kind of stuff. Those extra labs fill up quickly, so be sure to look for them and sign up FAST.
The curriculum got revamped to more of a "semi-block" schedule starting this year. Currently our schedule has: immunology, histology, biochemistry, parasitology, physiology, OMM and EOM.
I don't know anything about couples matching for year 3. As far as I know (which is VERY VERY limited), you sign up for the areas you want to be based in. If that area overflows with requests, it goes to lottery. So if you want to be based in an area with few requests, you have it made. If, however, you want to go to an area that is overflowing with requests (generally southern Maine ALWAYS overflows), it goes to lottery. Your number comes up first, you get to choose to stay or go somewhere else. If your number comes up last, you go somewhere else. This is my rudimentary understanding. I heard something about how 2nd years decide on the rules for rotation matching and the first years run the lottery for them, but we haven't done that yet. Perhaps a 3rd year can chime in here?? (Wook??)
