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Medschool lingo
Started by Gpan
Typically this means the exam that comes after a coordinated block of classes, such as in preclinical years in a systems-based curriculum. So if you do a neuro block, your neuro block exam would cover physio/anatomy/biochem/etc topics for neuro in one exam, instead of a bunch of separate exams for the neuro topics within physio/anatomy/biochem/etc.
By contrast, in a traditional curriculum where you take biochem all by itself, physio/histo/anatomy all by themselves etc., you aren't doing blocks. So your biochem exam covers everything your school is going to teach you in biochem across all systems.
Typically this means a "stock" exam, such as those published by NBME, which tests you on a single subject where the material is well-established and standardized. Your school might use the biochem shelf, for example, but I think this is fairly rare.
Most likely a "shelf exam" means an exam given by your school during 3rd/4th year rotations, such as the IM shelf, the psych shelf, etc.
These are the classes you take to prepare/emphasize clinical subjects such as patient exam, taking vitals, etc. "Clinical" usually refers to what you do when there's a patient involved. Non-clinical classes are things like biochem, physio etc. Jurisprudence and ethics are non-science classes, usually taught in pre-clinical years, that don't fall neatly into clinical or non-clinical.
Which brings us to the term "didactic" which means anything that is taught by an instructor. If your school does not have didactics during 3rd/4th year, thus leaving you on your own to learn what's on the boards, that's not good.
Google, while always friendly, in this case is indeed useless.
"block" exams could also mean where you take classes for 9 weeks with NO exams during that time, but you pay for it in the "exam week" where you get slammed with exams and only exams during that week. UNE had that heinous schedule (and during that week we were at school for 8-12 hours a day three days in a row with ONE study day before the exams commenced); we convinced them to go to ONE day of 8 hours of exams that day. So at least the MSIs got two or three study days rather than ONE study day and THREE exam days. Your OMM exams were also during that week, and your physical exam skills exams (but those were only a couple hours each).
Basically, block exams = weeks where you have NO exams, followed by one week of pure craptacular stress.
Basically, block exams = weeks where you have NO exams, followed by one week of pure craptacular stress.
Those terms should be added here: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=523703
haha, apparently you missed my first post where I said " and No, google is not my friend. it disappointed me in this department."
yeah I met Google, and I punched him in the face when he failed me😀.
thank you ShyRem and DrMidlife.
Oh yeah! Block exams were "indirectly" one of the things that lead me toward DO school. One of my two "in-state" MD schools had block exams like that-- and the idea of it totally turned me off. They had "block" exams once per semester. OK for some people. Not me!!!!
Block exams are the heart of pure evil. We have them here, but there isn't much time between them in most courses. Typical time between block exams is 3-4 weeks... longest case so far has been 5. I hear that in GI it is 6 weeks before the first exam. In general, the exams with more material often have more "fluff" lecture hours in which stuff is repeated. Shorter durations between exams means they cover a LOT in that time period with little repetition.
ok. and seriously embarassing.. what is an "attending" physician.. i should know this.. i work in a hospital.. but all I notice from the regular docs is that they wear grey instead of white coats!!!
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i think they are the one who is finished with residency or in their last year of residency (some times called senior resident). Someone, please correct me if I'm wrong.
For DO schools, didactic is depended on the rotation sites, right? So DO students should stay away from those sites that don't offer didactic style?
definitely not senior residents... but maybe when they are done.. but then id assume there would be a lot more attendings than there are at the hospital.. which is why im questioning it..
Wikipedia's description of "attending physician" is good.
^^great thanks!! 🙂
