Is the curriculum that intense that you don't get free time?
It’s med school. You will find it intense wherever you go. I appreciate the curriculum, but some blocks are more intense than others. Usually we have an exam every two weeks. During the middle of the semester when public health and ecos (our clinical lab) exams start stacking up, we sometimes have multiple exams per week. The only time we get a weekend free is when we have a Friday exam and no new content until Monday.
That said, you can have as much free time as you want. You just also have to live with the consequences. I have been doing well and I am grateful for that but I have had some friends fail a block. If you fail a block you have to remediate, and then if you fail the remediation you have to repeat the whole year because classes are only offered once per year with your cohort. One friend failed a block and failed the remediation and was dismissed. They have the option to retake the year next year.
I do love that we have multiple exams per block because your grade doesn’t hinge on just one exam day that you may or may not be on your game for. Multiple paths to success are really nice. That said, there is virtually never a time you aren’t preparing for an upcoming exam. So there are trade offs. I wish we could get a long weekend between blocks but it’s fine.
The worst was because of Thanksgiving break- we had an exam in the morning and then four hours of lecture immediately after to get started on the new material. And then we had Thanksgiving break, where we had public health assignments to submit and new content to study for.
Usually when we have a Friday exam and it’s in the morning, the new content isn’t available to us and so it’s a half day, plus Saturday and Sunday. I theoretically could use those to go do stuff in town but a person also has to do laundry, go grocery shopping, meal prep, etc. so every week I give myself time to do those things because I’m human and have to live.
It’s busy and it’s stressful, but that’s med school. On the whole, I’m happy with the curriculum and now it’s structured. But if you want to do well and pass without relying on the curve, you will probably be studying virtually every waking moment and you will dream about studying.
I am still enjoying the process though because I love learning and growing and challenging myself. If you do not love hard work, or love the learning process, do not do this. Stop before the student loans hit and there is no turning back. 😂
TLDR
Yes