2016-2017 The Commonwealth Medical College Application Thread
Started by WedgeDawg
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Congrays to both! Any chance urs is around jan?
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Congrats guys! I really liked the atmosphere and vibe I got from this school!
Anyone from Nov. II hear back? Had mine 11/21 and it's at the 4 week mark now
At 5 weeks and nothing. Hopefully we hear back this week and not in the new year ha.
I found this great info about TCMC's exams and block system. Hopefully, some of us will benefit from this wisdom. Also if any current med student could confirm that this info still applies, it would be greatly appreciated.
https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/2013-2014-the-commonwealth-medical-college.1004703/page-13
Thanks @plasmamorris for the info
"Exams: The exams generally are about 3 hours and the number of questions really changes from class to class and even test to test. CMBL (the first course in M1) has 3 hour exams and they're generally about 90 questions or so. HSF (the second course in M1) is the outlier - these exams pretty much run the entire day. Thankfully there are only 4 exams over the 16 weeks but there's a morning portion that is 3 hours and about 150-180 questions, the afternoon is the histology imaging and anatomy practical portion. This answers your second question, yes lab practicals are a part of the regular exam. The histology and anatomy practical combine for about 85 questions. From here on out I believe the exams are limited to the mornings and are 3 hours.
Quizzes: Courses have TBLs (Team Based Learning) which are weekly quizzes that are a marginal portion of your overall grade in a course. It's nice because it gets you to keep up with the material and it's a great way to learn through group discussion on the group portion. TBL is split into an IRAT (individual section) and GRAT (group section). Both sections have identical questions. You take the IRAT first, then proceed to go into your group and answer the same questions again but this time you have to come to a consensus. Answers are revealed after the GRAT and the class discusses each question.
NBME shelf exams: not required during the pre-clinical years (it wouldn't make any sense since you don't go through any rotations). They do administer them in the 3rd year though. Practice Step 1 exams are administered during the M2 year.
Remediation policy: well fortunately I haven't been through it and don't foresee going through it. My general understanding is an overall avg of below a 70 is failing. Any test in which you have below a 60 must be retaken during the remediation period. I think if it's severe enough where you're failing multiple courses or don't attend mandatory events, you may have to remediate the entire year.
Block System: Personally, I love the block system. I have friends in other systems and it seems really brutal on them. Exam weeks can be a little stressful, but you're studying all the time so it's actually not that bad. It's a little weird only having one course to study for coming out of undergrad, but after a while I really like not having to sacrifice one class for another. Also I think in terms of future boards - it's nice having large exams to prep for where there's just a lot of material at once. It's more analogous to Step where you may not know everything but you have to know enough and reason through the rest."
https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/2013-2014-the-commonwealth-medical-college.1004703/page-13
Thanks @plasmamorris for the info
"Exams: The exams generally are about 3 hours and the number of questions really changes from class to class and even test to test. CMBL (the first course in M1) has 3 hour exams and they're generally about 90 questions or so. HSF (the second course in M1) is the outlier - these exams pretty much run the entire day. Thankfully there are only 4 exams over the 16 weeks but there's a morning portion that is 3 hours and about 150-180 questions, the afternoon is the histology imaging and anatomy practical portion. This answers your second question, yes lab practicals are a part of the regular exam. The histology and anatomy practical combine for about 85 questions. From here on out I believe the exams are limited to the mornings and are 3 hours.
Quizzes: Courses have TBLs (Team Based Learning) which are weekly quizzes that are a marginal portion of your overall grade in a course. It's nice because it gets you to keep up with the material and it's a great way to learn through group discussion on the group portion. TBL is split into an IRAT (individual section) and GRAT (group section). Both sections have identical questions. You take the IRAT first, then proceed to go into your group and answer the same questions again but this time you have to come to a consensus. Answers are revealed after the GRAT and the class discusses each question.
NBME shelf exams: not required during the pre-clinical years (it wouldn't make any sense since you don't go through any rotations). They do administer them in the 3rd year though. Practice Step 1 exams are administered during the M2 year.
Remediation policy: well fortunately I haven't been through it and don't foresee going through it. My general understanding is an overall avg of below a 70 is failing. Any test in which you have below a 60 must be retaken during the remediation period. I think if it's severe enough where you're failing multiple courses or don't attend mandatory events, you may have to remediate the entire year.
Block System: Personally, I love the block system. I have friends in other systems and it seems really brutal on them. Exam weeks can be a little stressful, but you're studying all the time so it's actually not that bad. It's a little weird only having one course to study for coming out of undergrad, but after a while I really like not having to sacrifice one class for another. Also I think in terms of future boards - it's nice having large exams to prep for where there's just a lot of material at once. It's more analogous to Step where you may not know everything but you have to know enough and reason through the rest."
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I don't think you should assume silent rejection. I know some of my friends submitted their secondary later than you and they recieved rejections. Keep up hope! Are you IS or OOS?
Hey guys, do you know if they allow for adding additional letters of recommendations? Im got deferred last month, and was gonna update them and give them another letter I just got from a physician whom I volunteered with.
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Student Interview has access to Secondary
Faculty Interview has access to Personal Statement + Secondary. Can't remember if she had access to activities
Definitely no access to stats though
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Did anyone else notice that sneaky name change? TCMC has now become GCSOM
Have you still not heard either? I guess they're not exactly sticking with the 6-8 weeks post-interview decision time frame. 8 weeks today for me today
Interviewed mid November and still haven't heard anything either 🙁 I have a feeling that they might send mass acceptance or rejections to all interviewees from October/November at once lolHave you still not heard either? I guess they're not exactly sticking with the 6-8 weeks post-interview decision time frame. 8 weeks today for me today
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Sorry to hear, but don't feel so terrible man, this school is really focused on people that match their values and mission. I have seen some people with stellar stats getting pre-II rejections. Hope you hear good news from other places soon!
What kind of financial aid does Commonwealth give ? And when do they send the packages out ?
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Application has been deferred for a later committee meeting. Got the email today.
Interviewed 11/28.
Interviewed 11/28.
Aw man!! That's still good news though !! Now I'm anxious to see if I hear too since we interviewed together
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I am sure they just didn't have time to go over your app and next committee will say yes!
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If the pattern follows then acceptances will be given tomorrow. Crossing my fingers!
Ahh you just boosted my morale!!! Praying
I too would like an answer to this question. Can any other fellow-rejectees respond?
Congrats you guys loving the OOS power!
Sorry for the delay, I was taking the holiday off from stalking this thread so as not to go crazy... I'm an OOS applicant.
Accepted today!!! OOS and interviewed 11/21
Post-interview waitlist, interviewed 11/19
I don't think we did anything wrong, they're still considering us!!
My guess is that they might possibly want to accept us, but they have more people to look at so we're like kinda waitlisted, but not really lol.
fingers crossed for you!! & Regardless, being wait listed isn't a bad thing either! 🙂
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Deferred yesterday... anyone know the type of movement on such a thing? seems like a lot of people were deferred...
wondering the same thing
