Originally posted by Barca
thanks for the input! let me know about the house if it comes up bc i'm definitely interested. I've got another question to ask: what's something that ya'll would change about UTMB or something in which the school could do better?
I'll ask my friend if he can either post on this forum or if he will email me the details. WELL, what I would change... hehe, we students complain a lot so bear with me. I do understand that sometimes, what is best for me isnt best for everyone. Also, somethings are easier said than done, but here are my thoughts...
1. I think the Honors, High Pass, Pass system is no different from A,B,C. What I didn't like is the fact that there is a limit of 15% (I think) of the class which can score Honors. I heard this grading system was designed to reduce competitiveness. It seems to make things more competitive in my mind. There definitely are not any competitve issues at UTMB. People make great review sheets and email them to the class and things like that. I thought that if you made a 90 or whatever they want to set as the limit before the class begins (like in college and high school), then you should receive an A. If they want to curve and help more people make A's, then thats great also. In anatomy, the cut of was 98 (there were bonus points for the exams and other activities). So the 40% of my class making a 92-97 got High Pass (don't quote me on the exact numbers, but I don't think I am exaggerating too much and also the circumstances are different with each class). I guess it rewards the top 15% by giving them the highest grade so maybe I am wrong. Still, if everyone does really well, I think maybe everyone should get a good grade (and they will argue High Pass is a good grade, but whatever).
2.PBL's are a nice break from lectures. I feel bad for the other schools who have tons of lecture. That's why none of their students show up. I think our attendance is pretty good since we have less lecture hours and certain days, everyone has to come to come for PBL anyway. Because of PBL, we get less lecture time and lots of independent study time which I love. If you need to be spoon fed, it will be tougher. I think if you use that time wisely, you can do great and be well prepared for boards. My beef with PBL is similar to the one I have with the OSCE's. Subjective grading is frustrating if you get the grader who gives everyone a Pass or High Pass because they don't bother to think about it or think that those are good grades when some classmates get an Honors when they get a grader who gives everyone Honors because they are nice or they think that is a good grade. I guess with our system, we must continue to have PBLs and OSCEs. They are definitely good for learning, but frustrating if you get short-changed (in your mind). My ideas (which may never be feasible) would be to change the grading to Pass or Fail for PBLs and OSCEs. That does seem to take the incentive away from doing better than the minimum and so it is not perfect either. I also thought it would be great if instead of having a facilitator who just read off the answer sheet, just have the students meet with the answer sheet. I guess this required students group studying would be nice as far as exchanging info and "teamwork" as they desire, but students could just read the answers so that they could bail out early and not go through the steps of learning and thinking it out. Some like that and others dont so this idea has flaws too. Plus some facilitators are experts in the field so that is great, but you may get stuck with a facilitator that doesnt know anything about that field.
3.I would also remove the requirement for senior surgery. Well, lets expand that. I heard A&M and some other schools around the country don't have any required senior courses. I think it is great to be able to choose what you want. If you want to learn about something, sign up for it. If you want to slack, sign up for those easy rotations. If you want a letter of rec from someone, then you have those options. Of courese the current situation is fine. You get plenty of elective time/choices and some flexibility of what you get to do on each required rotation: like which Neuro rotation (pedi vs adult clinic, wards, consults, neuropath) or which Acting Internship (I heard UTSW requires everyone to do an Interna Medicine AI which would stink for those going into peds). I think this may be a power struggle between departments or just tradition so the curriculum remains this way. It's not that bad at all. I have learned lots. I am going into Emergency Medicine so almost every rotation is helpful for me. I just figure people going into Derm might want more derm and less Neuro. I do understand that 3rd year is required to include medicine, surg, ob/gyn, psych, inpt/outpt, family, and peds since they are the basis of medicine (traditionally) and they are on step2 and 3 of the boards.
I must say that there are lots of things I wouldnt change. Having classes predominantly in the AM for year 1 and mostly in the afternoon for 2nd year is great! The organ based curriculum is nice, and I love taking one class at a time. when you finish a test, you have a weekend off. If you go to other schools, they take 3 or4 at a time like in college. so when they finish a test, then they have to worry about the next one. i did more traveling in med school than college i think because of these free weekends.
I complain, but I learned a lot and did fine despite those things that frustrated me. I didnt get honors in every course and usually it was not because of the system (but if they hadnt... or if they would have... whatever). i studied my hardest and got plenty of good grades, but sometimes you still dont get honors and thats okay. the system can never be perfect and i accept that (but easy for me to say that now that i am almost done!). but if you do your best, you will be in great shape and you will know what you need to know.
