Advantages of Curriculum

[NCF145]

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I was just accepted to UT Houston and UTMB. UT Houston uses a disciplines based curriculum, while UTMB uses an organ/systems base approach. What are the pro's and con's of each, and does either of the two different teaching methods put students at a disadvantage for the Step 1?

 

[Law2Doc]

I was just accepted to UT Houston and UTMB. UT Houston uses a disciplines based curriculum, while UTMB uses an organ/systems base approach. What are the pro's and con's of each, and does either of the two different teaching methods put students at a disadvantage for the Step 1?

Most of the schools that have switched to the systems base approach have done so on the theory that this provides a benefit to students when they try to integrate concepts, in life and on the boards. I don't know that anyone has demonstrated this actually provides an advantage. But it represents a newer school of thought.

 

[Droopy Snoopy]

My class was the guinea pig for systems-based learning last year, and our overall class performance dropped in just about every measurable way compared to preceeding classes. This wasn't necessarily the fault of the approach; scheduling issues and organizational problems (getting all the departments on the same page) were a big factor. Plus old professors who've been using the same exam questions for years that are readily available on the underground test bank market may have to write new questions. Anyway, if they've been at the PBL/systems-based thing for awhile that's good, but if you're going to be the first or second class with it then be wary.

 

[yellowcat322]

I think that it'll be difficult for you to get an idea of how the two compare since people on this forum have experiences with either one or the other. I go to a school with a sytem-based approach and personally I am very happy with this curriculum. It makes much more sense to me to learn everything about one organ system at a time: usually in the first week we learn normal physio and anatomy and then go on to study microbiology, path, and pharm. That way it's all organized in your head together. A big advantage of this is that second year in our school is actually pretty chill because we don't have to go through the hell of mind-numbing memorization of endless path, micro and pharm. Sure we still have to learn it but we get it in manageable doses with each system.

As for the boards, I think more depends on your own study habits than on the curriculum, but having said that, our school has switched from disciplines to systems five years ago and the average board score for our school has gone up 5 points EACH year ever since.