We were given very comprehensive syllabi at the start of every semester. In addition, most professors had handouts with updated material and even better a list of resources if we wanted more information. The ppts were useless for us because our syllabi and handouts contained what we actually needed to know. In addition, we had a note service (student run) where the folks who took notes were excellent organizers of the material. It worked great for us.
As a professor, I can tell you that ppt slides are a basic outline at best. Most of my slides contain a photo of some pathology with no writing. When ppt slides are crammed with material, the audience has a tendency to try to read the slide rather than listen to the "meat" that you need to know. Since my students know that they have far more material than they need, they tend to sit back, relax and listen to the lecture or participate in discussion.
My lectures are taped complete with slides. The handouts are available online for my students complete with references which is the standard for most schools. Students are free to supplement with text reading but most folks don't find this necessary.
Learning in medical school is an active process. Rather than focusing on trying to get every note and word of every lecture, it is better to prepare by looking at the lecture objectives before the lecture, skimming the text/syllabus as needed before the lecture and sitting back so that you can listen actively. You may need to take a random note here and there but you don't need to try to get every word.
As for spoon feeding, if you go for complete mastery of the material rather than memorization of a ppt slide handout, you are likely going to do much better than those folks who are rote memorizers. In the end, if you know the material, you can answer any question in any manner rather than regurgitate what is on a slide (definitely not enough detail).
As a medical student, I let the detail of the lecturer determine the detail of how I approached the material. Some things needed more detail and some things needed less. I was also one of the note service folks who helped to organize the material (made me very efficient in learning). In the end, my system worked well.
You don't need every word that a professor utters in class but you need a thorough understanding of the subject matter. How you approach this is largely a function of your learning style. Some folks are visual learners and some folks are aural learners and many of us are a combination of both learning styles. I try to present my lecture material so that both types of learning styles can be accommodated. After all, to educate means "to lead out" not "to stuff to regurgitation".
There is far more material to be mastered than can be presented in a lectures (even if you sat there from sunrise to sunset). What you (as a student) have to get over, is the belief that it's the professor's job to pare down the material to "all you need to know is this". This approach "cheats you" and sets you up for not doing well on Step I. Most of the "real learning" takes place when you go home or to the library and start grinding through the volumes of information yourself to meet your learning needs and style.
