I can't really add tons more to MissBey's very thorough and awesome answer (thanks, MissBey!), but I'll try to address a couple of issues you brought up a bit more, chinny.
1) To the students: do you see any major differences between how PBL is run at CCLCM and how it is run at other schools your friends may go to?
I wrote
a post about PBL once last year in my blog if you're interested. It's tough for us to compare what PBL is like here versus at other med schools, because we've never attended other med schools. Pretty much I think that a lot of people at other med schools don't like PBL because it takes away from time they have for studying for their tests, and because they get actual GRADES for totally subjective things like participation. I would probably not like PBL very much either if I had to do it under those circumstances. But I love the way we do it here. Like MissBey said, we don't like our tutors to talk very much, either, unless we ask them a question. I don't even like it when the tutor sits at the table with us. They're not supposed to be a major contributor to the discussion!
clinical experience in years 1 and 2 is a waste of time as well
Some of my classmates would probably argue that we have too much clinic time, especially this year. Personally, I think it's going to pay off big time come this summer (or next summer) when we all start rotations. I look at it this way: I didn't come to medical school to learn how to read books or go to lectures. I've been doing those things all my life, and I'm pretty good at them by now. I came here to learn how to be a doctor. Second year is busy, and there are plenty of days when I wish I didn't have to go to clinic. But once I get there, I'm always glad that I went. Even in the fall of my first year, I already felt like I was starting to become a "real" doctor.
Since CCLCM is meant to train physician investigators, do they help you find research residencies in your area of interest? I guess this is premature but I have no idea of how I would go about finding these, especially if the majority of my clinical work has been at Cleveland Clinic. Can we do some rotations at some of these outside places?
There ARE residencies meant just for physician scientists, but I don't know how easy it would be for you to get one if you don't have a PhD. I think most of the people who go into those are MD/PhDs. You might try asking about that in the internal medicine or physician scientist forums. Also, check out the
APSA research residency website. You can see for yourself what programs are available and what requirements they have.
How well prepared are you all for the boards? I mean I know that the last several years there have been 100% pass rates for step I, but that is both a function of the school's preparation and the students themselves. More so, I was wondering when you review/study for step I, how often do you come across material that you haven't covered or haven't covered substantially in school that you need to learn for step I? How fresh in your mind is the material that you have covered?
Right now, I'm not prepared to the point where I want to be. There are still a lot of things on the two practice tests I've taken that I haven't seen yet, but we still have three months of classes to go. Based on my last practice test though, if someone told me that I had to take Step 1 tomorrow, I could probably already pass it. This is with no Step 1-specific review and still missing a big chunk of second year. I'm not taking Step 1 until July 1, and I do plan to study for it before I take it. So hopefully I'll learn a thing or two between now and then, and I will do better than just passing.
😉
Are you coming to second look, chinny? Especially if you're seriously weighing pros and cons of coming to CCLCM, you really should try to make it. Plus it's just fun.
🙂
