- Joined
- Mar 1, 2018
- Messages
- 16
- Reaction score
- 6
Well Im from the class of 2022
I can say that your frustrations are really justified specially since many of the problems with the school could be solved if the faculty and administration wouldn't be so lazy.
The main problem I found with this school is the way it “teaches” and they way it evaluates the students let me break it down:
About 1/4 of my class are students that previously studied a masters degree in medical science (MSMS)at PHSU. This degree is basically the first year of medicine but with a few twirks that makes it easier that the first year of the regular MD class. Let me explain. The MSMS students take the majority of the clases that the md class but they don't take Problem Based Learning(PBL) ,Community,Behavioral science, less ethics sessions. This amounts to more time available for studying. The greatest example was the last exam of Biochemistry. We (MD2022) had to the behavioral and community exams on monday, neuroscience exam on friday and biochemistry exam the next monday. A MSMS student had two weeks to study for the biochemistry exam. The MD class only had 2/3 days.
Shelf Exams
This seems unfair but when it really gets unfair its when I have to compete with a 1/4 who are taking the same courses and exams for a second time for the class for class ranking and to get a decent grade on the shelf.
The school does not prepare you for the shelf exams but they are mandatory and are 20% or you grade. The school curves the grade of yhe shelf based on the highest grade. This is really unfair since 1/4 of my class had already taken the shelf the year before. The curve for the shelf is not really generous 8 point at most.
Examples of the schools laziness
The school has small group discussions (SGD) for various courses. I cant remember a single SGD that consist of a topic that was going to be tested on the next exam. Let me explain We had SGD of neuroscience when the next upcoming exam was about microbiology and didnt have any thing in common with the SGD. This is extremly annoying since we have to prepare 1 week before the exam since we have a traditional course curriculum and studying for another not even remotely related topic takes time away off studying for the Monday exam. This can easily be fixed if the administration and faculty get off their asses.
The exams
The exams will have typos. I remember that on the lst micro exam there was a typo that completely changed the answer. You absolutely have to learn from older exams because the school is famous for asking really low yield questions that appear on old exams. You preparation for the exams will have a really low contribution for your preparation for Step since the school asks really low yield questions. On one micro exam they asked us about chicken soup .
One last example of all of the things that frustrates a lot of my classmates
54% of the class dint pass the second micro exam. Take into consideration that 1/4 of the class (previous MSMS) is taking the same course for the second time. To be honest that exam was really unfair because the answers were really obscure sometimes and the powerpoint and the video lectures where really awful (they consisted of the professor reading the awful powerpoint). The response of the director of the micro department (a infectious disease doctor) was that she couldn't do nothing because she didn't make any questions for that exam. One of the counselors met with the entire class and said quoted: “ You cant cry and say the school doesn't prepare you for the step” After reading about the laziness of the school you can see why the school doesn't prepare you. You can also see that the school doesn't care about the student complaints.
A friend told me that this year match was the lowest in the school’s history.
Overall
After my first year PHSU I cant recommend this school at all.
I can say that your frustrations are really justified specially since many of the problems with the school could be solved if the faculty and administration wouldn't be so lazy.
The main problem I found with this school is the way it “teaches” and they way it evaluates the students let me break it down:
About 1/4 of my class are students that previously studied a masters degree in medical science (MSMS)at PHSU. This degree is basically the first year of medicine but with a few twirks that makes it easier that the first year of the regular MD class. Let me explain. The MSMS students take the majority of the clases that the md class but they don't take Problem Based Learning(PBL) ,Community,Behavioral science, less ethics sessions. This amounts to more time available for studying. The greatest example was the last exam of Biochemistry. We (MD2022) had to the behavioral and community exams on monday, neuroscience exam on friday and biochemistry exam the next monday. A MSMS student had two weeks to study for the biochemistry exam. The MD class only had 2/3 days.
Shelf Exams
This seems unfair but when it really gets unfair its when I have to compete with a 1/4 who are taking the same courses and exams for a second time for the class for class ranking and to get a decent grade on the shelf.
The school does not prepare you for the shelf exams but they are mandatory and are 20% or you grade. The school curves the grade of yhe shelf based on the highest grade. This is really unfair since 1/4 of my class had already taken the shelf the year before. The curve for the shelf is not really generous 8 point at most.
Examples of the schools laziness
The school has small group discussions (SGD) for various courses. I cant remember a single SGD that consist of a topic that was going to be tested on the next exam. Let me explain We had SGD of neuroscience when the next upcoming exam was about microbiology and didnt have any thing in common with the SGD. This is extremly annoying since we have to prepare 1 week before the exam since we have a traditional course curriculum and studying for another not even remotely related topic takes time away off studying for the Monday exam. This can easily be fixed if the administration and faculty get off their asses.
The exams
The exams will have typos. I remember that on the lst micro exam there was a typo that completely changed the answer. You absolutely have to learn from older exams because the school is famous for asking really low yield questions that appear on old exams. You preparation for the exams will have a really low contribution for your preparation for Step since the school asks really low yield questions. On one micro exam they asked us about chicken soup .
One last example of all of the things that frustrates a lot of my classmates
54% of the class dint pass the second micro exam. Take into consideration that 1/4 of the class (previous MSMS) is taking the same course for the second time. To be honest that exam was really unfair because the answers were really obscure sometimes and the powerpoint and the video lectures where really awful (they consisted of the professor reading the awful powerpoint). The response of the director of the micro department (a infectious disease doctor) was that she couldn't do nothing because she didn't make any questions for that exam. One of the counselors met with the entire class and said quoted: “ You cant cry and say the school doesn't prepare you for the step” After reading about the laziness of the school you can see why the school doesn't prepare you. You can also see that the school doesn't care about the student complaints.
A friend told me that this year match was the lowest in the school’s history.
Overall
After my first year PHSU I cant recommend this school at all.
