Frequency of exams, write-ups, papers, etc...

[distracted]

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I'm an MS2 and med school is really starting to wear me down. The problem isn't the material. I don't mind studying and I actually enjoy ~75% of what we're learning (okay, that's a lie -- maybe 50%). The problem is the frequency of tests and other assignments we have.

In our current course, we have a test on everything we learned the week before on Monday morning. Now, not only does this piss all over my weekend, but it just maintains such a high level of stress over such a long period. This alone would be fine, but in addition, we have to do PBL presentations twice a week, write papers (for public health/health systems), interview patients and do huge write-ups (10-15 pages) once a week, have journal club once a week, and have scheduled physical diagnosis sessions a few evenings each week. It's just hard to find the time to study when I have to spend most of my week doing all of this extra crap.

I was just wondering how much of this is particular to my school or if it's just med school in general. Most of the time I regret not going to a school with a "traditional" curriculum. Is it true that some schools only have lecture the first two years and only give tests at the end of each course? I know the studying would still be painful in such a system, but it seems like you would be treated more like an adult and less like a high school student and would be able to focus on laying the foundation for your clinical years. I'd love to hear what sort of assignments other med schools make their students do and the frequency of their exams.

Also, do most med schools teach following a a fairly standard curriculum. For example, in physiology, would a lot of schools focus on what is contained in a standard physiology text (like Costanzo)? I feel like my school is out of the mainstream with their curriculum too. We have different lecturers for almost every lecture who are researchers in whatever field we are learning about. For instance, if we're supposed to be learning about memory and the related neuroanatomy,instead of giving a lecture providing the basic information that we should know (for the boards and beyond), they get a PhD who studies memory to come in and give us a talk about the latest publications and what they're doing in their lab, etc.... They then test us on the specifics of their lecture -- even if the info has no bearing on the practice of medicine and will never come up on the wards or on the boards.

Anyway, I'm rambling, but I was just wondering if there are students at other schools who are going through this same thing.

 

[Non-TradTulsa]

Yuck, I feel for you. I'm an MS-II - we had to do write-ups in Principles of Clinical Medicine last year, but that was only once a month. We have one or two Problem-Based Learning Sessions each block where you can do a write-up if you want to be prepared, but we follow a traditional curriculum - we have one week of exams following a "block" of five weeks of lecture.

On the other hand, we do have different instructors who lecture in their field of expertise. It's a strain at times, but I know I'm learning from someone who is truly an expert in the field. In Physiology last year, I used Costanzo (great book) and studied it a lot, but it wouldn't cover the "extra material" that each lecturer had - you couldn't use it as your only study material.

Hope that helps.

 

[PeepshowJohnny]

Dude I feel for you. That's too much busy work. PBL is a huge waste of time and why are they having you burn so much time on public health/health systems? I know you're going to get a lot of people saying "I'm an M3/M4/Resident and I work harder than that" and it's true, but that's still a ton to ask a second year when your MAIN focus should be on learning stuff for the boards and rotations.

And believe me, I feel you about the "groundbreaking researcher" BS for a lecturer. Nothing thrilled me more than to have some "world reknowned researcher" favor our med school with his presence and bore us out of our mind talking for an hour about some transcription factor he studies and how's it'sg oing to be the silver bullet to cure cancer...no really. Thankfully this was mostly first year and second year we got a good group of pathologists who taught most everything and were grounded into what we REALLY needed to know.

 

[shreypete]

hey man, i completely understand what you're going through. we also have tests almost every week and we have to pass no matter what (if we fail, then have to make up for it during the dissection course which is at the end of the semester). we also have something similar to th PBL seminars (once a week) where we're supposed to present our seminar topic. in addition, we have to write 2 lab reports every week for biophysics and have to do a slide write-up for histology every week. as if this doesn't suck already, we also have medical latin and greek (which is getting worse by the day as there are so many damn declensions to memorise and apply in the medical field.)......but i do feel for you man...it's quite ridiculous that they make you work so hard in a time that's so crucial for "learning and understanding" the material.....

 

[Instatewaiter]

I feel ya. It seems like 2nd year we have all sorts of BS extra commitments: We have afternoon TBLs every week or so, H&P write ups, Visits to Long term care facilities, house calls to make, Mandatory Ethics sessions, Careers in Medicine Lectures and it all seems to be at the least opportune times. While I thought I would love our Foundations of Clinical Medicine course when I was a pre-med, it has really become a pain in the butt. I'm sure I will be happy when I get to the wards but right now the last thing I want to do is stay in class until 4 when I have an exam in the next day or so.

Oh and I hate Monday tests. A few weeks ago we had an exam on the Tuesday after memorial day. Talk about a crappy holiday weekend. Plus after a monday exam I dont get recoup time so cant get my butt in gear on tuesday. I end up getting way behind. Talk about a pain.

My school is a traditional curriculum w/ basic sciences first year and organ systems second. We have exams every 2-3 weeks which gets tedious but makes you keep up with the material. I cant imagine having 1 cumulative exam for a class like anatomy.

We have syllabi so we dont use text books per se but we did follow the Costanzo book pretty closely since Dr Costanzo teaches our physiology course, haha, But of course we get the requisite 'throw away lectures' from the PhDs that you know have no bearing on what you need to know for the boards or wards, take up an hour of your time and keep you from getting a higher grade on the test.

 

[WiscDoc]

I think during the entire first semester, the only HW that we have/had were:

1- One history write up (maybe one more at the end, not sure).
2- 2-3 Anatomy case presentations/ semester (3-5 people on a 15 min presentation).
3- that's all I can think of in terms of take home assignments. The rest is just studying the material.

 

[distracted]

Thanks for the replies guys. It's nice to know that other schools have it just as bad or worse (I guess misery likes company).

Also, it's put it in perspective a little bit. Next time I'm sitting through the most boring PBL session ever, I can just think about how grateful I am that I don't have to take medical latin and greek! Seriously, I had to read shreypete's entry a few times to make sure it wasn't a joke.

 

[shreypete]

don't have to take medical latin and greek! Seriously, I had to read shreypete's entry a few times to make sure it wasn't a joke.

oh i would love to be in your shoes right now....i'm already having the worst time remebering the 3rd latin declension (2 more to go and then starts the 3 greek declensions)....believe it's such a horrible language that one just regrets doing medicine.....each declension has a possiblity of 8 endings you see---so that's 40 different ending's in latin and 24 different endings for greek declensions...and you have to know when you use them, how to use them in medical cases etc.....frustrating to the core!!!.........but don't worry i guess things will settle with time....or may be you'll just get used to the whole scenario!!!

 

[Blade28]

I loved Latin and Greek...and was a Latin minor in collage! Ah, the memories...

 

[pballa24]

dude, i feel ya. MS-II here. We're on renal (we do organ based learning) and how bout the past 3 weeks we've had like 2 quizzes and a test every week!! 😱 We do clinical skills all throught the first two years so now we've got quizzes and tests in renal alongside quizzes/tests/physical exam/write ups for skills. It's terrible. And on top of that, they have us in these small group discussions like every other day where we normally have to turn in a graded assignment at the end! I've forfeited...I pass the test/quizzes (most of the quizzes anyhow) but don't come to class regardless of our ridiculous in-class assignments. I've passed all the classes so far, so let's hope I don't get burned the rest of the semester or next!

 

[shreypete]

I loved Latin and Greek...and was a Latin minor in collage! Ah, the memories...

well that explains why you loved it so much....but it sure ain't fun when learning it from the beginning (and it's also quite de-motivating to learn a language that's been dead for ages.....)

 

[45408]

Yeah, at my school, we have typically have two major courses, a minor course, and then what I consider fluff. Of course, it's almost always the fluff that has the most homework and write-ups. We have one course that has SO MANY COMPONENTS that I just can't even understand why they think it's a good idea. Lectures, quizzes, small groups, independent study, physical diagnosis workshops (with write-ups and small groups), practical exams, and then actual exams. WHY????

 

[shreypete]

WHY????

coz they wanna make students miserable....i mean that's what med school is about...rght?