The didactic years? Mostly self learning?

[MBigD011]

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I have read some scary stories(on SDN) about the first 2 years of shoool. Students saying professors do not provide notes or follow any book. Some students saying the lecturers they got were volunteers who talked about stuff not even relevant to the boards or ones who contradict another lecturer from a previous time.

Are the didactic years supposed to be a lot of learning on your own or should you be able to get a good portion of your education in lecture or PBL sessions. Is it important to go to a school that provides a notes service or powerpoints? Or has some kind of board prep, how do you know if a professor is teaching things relevant to the boards?

Thanks for any help

Note, I understand that its a lot of studying(5+ hrs/day) and huge amount of information but is it guided learning or self taught? or does it depend on the school?

 

[Vita]

I think it varies not only by school, but also from one professor to the next. Heck, even the same professor may be great at teaching one concept and terrible at explaining the next.

For some lectures/ subjects, I learn just by sitting in lecture because they are pretty straight forward. For the more complicated subjects, I tend to reteach myself a lot of the material. Even if the professor is great at explaining it, I hear so much throughout the day that I probably won't remember most of it.

I find that attending lectures is particularly helpful for getting exam hints. Sometimes professors will point out important information that rewards those who went to class (even just listening to pod casts may not be enough for this - one of my professors has red stars on the slides in his copy of the presentation that are test-question material, which are not on the student copy we download before class).

Don't be scared, though. Everyone teaches themselves to some extent.

ETA: As far as the professors following books - I'm not sure about that. There aren't too many people at my school who actually read the textbooks. Most just use board prep books to study (which is nice because you get to see what will be important on the boards that the prof. might not have spent much time on).

 

[AMEHigh]

That's definitely not the case at my school (PCOM).

All lectures have powerpoints and some also have outlines. The professors are very open to answering questions and are available throughout the day.

Yes you have to do a lot of studying and putting the pieces together on your own, but the professors give us adequate amount of info to do this on our own and are open to questions.

 

[Buckeye(OH)]

I went to CCOM. I never went to class....ever. I learned 98% on my own and I matched into my first choice in a very difficult specialty.

Board scores + grades + effort on rotations > everything else

 

[MBigD011]

I went to CCOM. I never went to class....ever. I learned 98% on my own and I matched into my first choice in a very difficult specialty.

Board scores + grades + effort on rotations > everything else

Wow it does seem like every school is different. I was way behind the 8ball when getting ready for medical school and wish I started studying for things like the MCAT sooner so I want to correct that with the boards.

When you say you didnt go to class & studied on your own , what did you study from? and when/how did you start preping for the boards.

And Vita, when you say people just studied board prep books does that material always correlate with the professors exams? or just sometimes.

Thanks for the replies

 

[Flushot]

To the OP: I think it not only varies by school but by person and even then, by subject and situation. If you were an anatomy TA in undergrad for 2 years going into med school, you might not need to sit in for lecture.

As for me, I go to every class because I'm certain I wouldn't be productive otherwise. The professors here at AZCOM have this supposed open door policy but it's pretty easy to get in touch with them. Every now and then I skip a lecture for personal or tactical reasons, i.e., some evaluation coming up the next day. It's all common sense.

I do have a friend at Touro-NV right now that likes going to class, but wishes, like many other students, that there was no attendance policy.

As for following books, some professors do, but for our biochem, the book is a mere reference. I have purchased 2 books so far, and I only use 1. The rest I check out from reference now and then.

If you really want something to review/learn on your own, I'd suggest BRS or Rapid Review, in addition to the popular denser books like Robbins and Lippincott.

 

[Vita]

As far as the BRS books - They include most of the important info. Sometimes professors will want you to know something specific that isn't considered as important by the board writers.

I find the BRS helpful for emphasizing the parts I really need to know that the professors might have glossed over. This way, I will be better prepared when I start studying for boards.