Which med schools have block schedules and how does it work exactly? One class per block or two or what?
-
CycleTrack and SDN are teaming up to make medical school admissions more transparent and accessible! Read the announcement to learn how we’re supporting the future of CycleTrack’s free application-tracking tools .
Schools and Block schedules
Started by MedStudentWanna
Get help with your application
Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.
Loyola and Vermont have block schedules with one class at a time. I believe Mayo does as well.
Can you tell us more? What's the schedule like? How many weeks is Gross for instance and how many hours a day?
I haven't interviewed at Mayo yet, but here is their curriculum map for each year:
http://www.mayo.edu/mms/md-curriculum-map.html
Here is Loyola's schedule (I remember them mentioning that all of gross anatomy is done in 2 months):
http://www.meddean.luc.edu/templates/edueff/index.cfm
UVM (1st & 2nd year classes compressed into one and a half years):
http://www.med.uvm.edu/ome/TB1+RL+I.asp?SiteAreaID=515
http://www.med.uvm.edu/ome/TB2+RL+3I.asp?SiteAreaID=550
http://www.med.uvm.edu/ome/TB2+RL+3I.asp?SiteAreaID=551
http://www.med.uvm.edu/ome/downloads/06VIC_curriculumDiag.pdf
Texas Tech and UTMB are both block
SUNY Upstate has a block schedule for the first year, and then a systems based schedule the second year.
For example, during the first year Anatomy runs for 10-11 weeks and we spend 3 hours in the lab every day and 1-2 hours in lecture for anatomy every day. We do have two smaller classes that run the entire first year.. but they only meet once or twice a week every week. So for the most part its a block schedule.
For example, during the first year Anatomy runs for 10-11 weeks and we spend 3 hours in the lab every day and 1-2 hours in lecture for anatomy every day. We do have two smaller classes that run the entire first year.. but they only meet once or twice a week every week. So for the most part its a block schedule.
Pitt has a block schedule for the sciences. We started with 7 straight weeks of anatomy, then switched to Cell and Tissue Physiology, and now we are doing Genetics. Once the basics are out of the way (the end of our first year) we switch to organ based blocks. We do have some smaller classes that meet once a week as well (ethics, biostats, and interviewing/physical exam for this semester), but we focus more on the science class as what we have.
I love the block schedule for being able to focus on one subject matter and only have one test every 2-3 weeks.
I love the block schedule for being able to focus on one subject matter and only have one test every 2-3 weeks.
Good stuff! Anyone else care to add to this list?
I thought in a block schedule exams are every 6 or 10 weeks?
I am a little confused actually. Could someone please explain the difference between a block schedule, a systems schedule and whatever else exists?
All a block schedule means is that you only take that class at the time, and so the amount of tests varies. I personally would hate having a test every 6 or 10 weeks since that's a lot of information to cover in one test. Anatomy was 7 weeks and we had 3 tests in that time. I couldn't imagine only having one test for that at the end of the course.
Organ systems scheduling is when you do all your normal physiology, pathology, pharmacology, etc. at the same time for a particular organ system.
Wake Forest is on Block schedule.
