condyloma said:
Can anyone tell me the difference in the transistional vs the preliminary year?
i.e. If I apply for the unfilled positions in the scramble for the transistional year , what department am I posted it in?
While the specifics of Transitional Years (TY) will vary from program to program, they generally are similar to the US 3rd year of medical school, with rotations in medicine, surgery, ER, perhaps Ob/Gyn, etc. A Preliminary year will generally be "straight up" Medicine or Surgery.
Be careful with TY; if you are using it as a springboard to getting into another specialty, make sure that the field will accept a TY as an intern year, otherwise you may be required to repeat your first year. For example, if you are interested in a surgical specialty, doing a TY will not replace doing a first year of internship, whereas a prelim surgical year would (in most cases, although if a 2nd year position is not available you may have to repeat the 1st year anyway). The same is generally true for Prelim medicine.
If you're not sure what you want to do, or know for a fact that your future field will accept a TY as your first year, then it might be a reasonable option; otherwise go for the prelim year if you cannot obtain a categorical position.
