cbennett said:
Vtucci, if you dont mind i would greatly appreciate a more detailed opinion from you on courses and course load durring first two years because i'm really interested in USF. Its def my top choice so far
POM is a transition for three weeks. It is an interesting part of the curriculum. There are skills sessions in physical diagnosis, lectures, EBM and there are also a lot of planned social activities to help you get to know your classmates. We also have a big sib-little sib program that kicks off here. All the M2 get assigned an M1 little sib and are there to help them.
Biochem- At the time, it seemed tough since I never had cell bio or molecular genetics in college but I am now nostaglic about it. Dr. eichler is great and he is the course director. He has an open door policy and I recommend anyone take advantage of it. I would recommend you polish up on the metabolic pathways. We never covered that in my biochem classes and it is heavy on memorization. However, Dr. Eichler does a very good job of making sure there are clinical correlations in biochem and that made it very interesting to me. I did not have as many moments of the "and why do I care"?
Ethics and Humanities- this should be very easy if you put any effort into it. We get the book on doctoring at our White Coat ceremony that ends POM. Although a number of people we annoyed when we had to read things like Ode to My Uterus.
Anatomy (including histo, embryo)- very memorization heavy. We had two weeks to learn the pelvis, perineum and the legs (over 500 structures). We had six weeks for the chest, upper arm and back. 4 weeks for stomach and related structures and about 4 weeks for the head and neck. The leg unit was ridiculous in my opinion since it was weighted more heavily than stomach (it is based on question number not time spent in class) but the faculty does really listen to the students and I do not think this will be the same schedule this year or subsequent ones. So for me, this course was a bear. I suck at memorizing. In addition, there was very little clinical correlation in this class because it is saved mainly for pathology in the second year (which I love).
Physio- this is an excellent course. Our renal and endocrine professors are amazing. The heart and lung physio are not as good and they come first. The only problem I had with this course was that it was at the same time as anatomy and I did not manage my time effectively so my grade ended up being lower in this class than anatomy.
Imaging- it is a pass/fail course but well done in my opinion and very important to learn for the real world. I enjoyed this class and your grade in this class on practicals is included in the anatomy class grade. It saved me but there are people who blow it off and are in danger of failing it every year.
Physical Diagnosis- during Block 1 (biochem, ethics), it is classroom lectures. At Block 2, it goes to an online format with skills sessions. I do not love the format but the class is interesting. Once again, in Block B2 (anatomy, physio) and B3 (neuro and behavioral) many people blow this off to concentrate on anatomy.
Neuroanatomy- this class is not so much bad as it comes at the end of the year and we are burnt out. Dr. Nolan is the person who mainly teaches this class. Our class split on how they liked Dr. Nolan. I think he is a great guy but his teaching style was not conducive for my learning style and this made learning neuro a chore.
Behavioral- without a doubt the best class of the year, Dr. Catalano is a riot. The lectures are 80% about pathology (the other 20% involves developmental stages by Dr. Fernandez and he is amazing).
Longitudinal Clinical Experience- we are assigned a clinical experience with a physician in the community. You do not get to pick or choose among the docs or specialties so this can lead to a variable experience. Some people loved it and others not so much.
