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- Jan 1, 2015
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PBL works a little differently in each Block, but you have some lectures and labs and the number varies between blocks; Block I (anatomy, histology, radiology, embryology, and a little bit of neuro) basically only has lectures for embryology and neuro and everything else is labs or through tutor group. Then you have tutor group sessions where you read a case together with a group of peers under the supervision - but not necessarily direction - of a faculty tutor. You'll read the first page and it'll say "Betsy is a 6 year old spayed female golden retriever dog whose owner brought her in because she stopped eating 24 hours ago and has seemed disinterested in moving." And then you'll say okay, what are our facts, what are our problems, what are some questions we would ask the owner, what hypotheses do we have, and what is our plan (ie. what tests do we want to do)? Then you turn the page and it gives you more information and you keep revising these different categories until you go through a certain number of pages, then you'll be done for the day. Throughout the tutor group session you'll also make a column for "Learning Issues" which is basically anything you can't come up with an answer for during tutor group - for example, what are the functions of the liver, what does elevated ALP mean on serum chemistry, what muscles extend the hip joint... and often when it comes to anatomy, these are phrased like "trace a drop of (whatever) from (here) to (there)". These are questions you need to prepare answers to for the next tutor group session.
Finding a group dynamic, especially when some people are quieter, and some people know more than others through experience in clinics etc, can be difficult at first.
I think the hardest thing about PBL is how to write a good learning issue, how to investigate your learning issues at home so that you really gain a good understanding without spending too much time investigating tangents, and what you need to be prepared to do in tutor group the next time when you go over them. Knowing what learning issues are relevant and what depth to go into when you're trying to answer your questions can be hard. Ultimately I love PBL but some people really did not at first, and some people still do not like it. It isn't the kind of curriculum where they tell you everything you need to know in a lecture and then you just study that.
I think the biggest adjustment in general is the amount of material and also the fact that other schools have separate courses - and thus separate grades - for anatomy, radiology, histology... but it's all integrated for us. So it's nice because everything lines up when you're doing a certain body region (I would talk to friends at other schools who had already covered, for instance, the liver in anatomy but not yet in histology) but it feels like higher stakes because whatever grade you get on the single final exam is essentially your course grade and the one course is worth 12 credits.
