Mandatory classes

[dabernet]

I'm curious to find out from other schools about mandatory classes. My school seems to have quite a few (at least one or two a week) and you have to sign in when you attend. Do most schools do this??? And what happens if you don't attend? I cannot understand this concept...we are paying money to attend a professional school, yet we often don't have the freedom to choose which learning opportunities best make use of our time?

Most of the mandatory classes are those that have a visiting professor talking about something that is way above our heads. It's ridiculous.

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[njbmd]

I'm curious to find out from other schools about mandatory classes. My school seems to have quite a few (at least one or two a week) and you have to sign in when you attend. Do most schools do this??? And what happens if you don't attend? I cannot understand this concept...we are paying money to attend a professional school, yet we often don't have the freedom to choose which learning opportunities best make use of our time?

Most of the mandatory classes are those that have a visiting professor talking about something that is way above our heads. It's ridiculous.

Hi there,
Most schools do not have mandatory classes. It is important to attend visiting professors even if you perceive the material is above your head. If you are alive, you can get something out of the lecture and you never know. When you are interviewing for resident, that visiting professor might be one of the faculty that interviews you. It would be a shame if you didn't remember that the person gave a lecture at your school.

One or two mandatory classes a week is certainly not "a lot". Nothing happens if you do not attend but it speaks volume about your interest in medicine. Lot's of things in medicine are very political.

njbmd

 

[dynx]

On the flip side of that. My school had quite a few. You knew which classes were crap because they made them mandatory. Lectures suck the life out of your day. There is a reason people get paid to write books, its because they are good at presenting material in a concise and compelling manner, typically, people lack this ability, so unless you're so stellar you have a widely used book out Im not going to listen to you babble on and several of the slower kids in class ask idiotic questions and drive my blood pressure up even higher. Sorry, got side tracked. I agree with your post, you're paying for schooling, it should be your decision. I have found that if you perform well enough people don't ask questions when you don't show up, if you're failing and not in lecture you better have a good reason.

 

[emack]

My school has some mandatory lectures, maybe one every couple of weeks. They are invariably in non-exam-based courses (ex. humanities, clinical skills), for which participation is the main criteria for passing.

But all of our tutorials (for PBL) are mandatory (which makes sense; no one would go if they didn't have to), and that comprises a HUGE chunk of our time-- maybe 10-15 hours/week. Does anyone here take a PBL-centred curriculum for which attendance is not mandatory? How does that work-- do people go, do they participate?

 

[dabernet]

Hi there,
Most schools do not have mandatory classes. It is important to attend visiting professors even if you perceive the material is above your head. If you are alive, you can get something out of the lecture and you never know. When you are interviewing for resident, that visiting professor might be one of the faculty that interviews you. It would be a shame if you didn't remember that the person gave a lecture at your school.

One or two mandatory classes a week is certainly not "a lot". Nothing happens if you do not attend but it speaks volume about your interest in medicine. Lot's of things in medicine are very political.

njbmd

I disagree that student attendance "speaks volumes" about your interest in medicine. Your logic is backwards. My true interest in medicine is represented by the things I do that are NOT mandatory. I also don't believe that lectures are the sole way of learning medicine; that would be a very narrow-minded approach. Rather, we learn from practical experience, books, patients, clinicians, personal experience, etc. I don't believe that I need to attend a visiting professor to toot their horn or to impress them in the rare likelihood that I would be applying for a residency they are supervising. Rather, your overall grades, scores, experiences, compassion and personality are the most important. Yes, I can probably get something out of any lecture, but I would rather be spending my time learning about the most pertinent information I need to know at this stage in my career.