docmemi said:
arginine. thanks for helping out. i have some questions about studying...i think we asked you before. do you find it hard to be self-disciplined to study, especially taking into consideration the pbl format...like you have lots of free time? do you find lecture helpful/do you have to go or can you just study on your own? lastly, do you have enough free time to go out and see friends...like how often or how much? how about the gym? guess im just trying to figure out your daily or weekly lives. i heard ucla isnt that hordcore on the students??
thanks again.
Here's a typical week from the first 8-week block we had last August...
Monday: 8-10 am attend small group PBL, read through and discuss case of the week. Generate differential diagnoses, action plan, list of learning issues. Everyone picks a learning issue to write a brief 1 to 2 page paper about (should be posted online by 12 midnight Wednesday).
10 am -12 noon: 2 lectures in a row (10 minute break in between)
Afternoon: free time
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday : 10 am-12 noon, 2 lectures
Afternoon: some kind of lab or small group activity that runs from 1 pm to 3, 4, or 5 pm (these are all required and they make us sign in)
Friday: 8-10 am attend small group PBL, find out the conclusion of the case, discuss everyone's learning issues, wrap up any loose ends regarding essential learning issues.
10am - 12 noon: 2 lectures
Afternoon: free time
Weekend: sometime between 5 pm Friday and 8 am Monday, take the online self-assessment quiz of the week (accessible from any computer with an internet connection, so you can take it even if you're out of town)
Lots of students use the free early mornings or afternoons to go to the gym or hang out with friends. If you are really disciplined, you can get a lot of your studying done during the week, so your weekends are free. This is especially true during Block 1 if you were a hardcore science major in undergrad and already have a good understanding of genetics, cell bio, immunology. Some of my classmates who were science undergrads at UCLA felt they had a lot of free time. You do, however, get less free time as the year progresses (more time spent in labs, small groups in the afternoon)--Block 3 (January to March) felt especially busy.
Even though it's PBL, many of the lectures are covering the same material, only in a more abbreviated fashion. Teaching quality varies from fabulous to mediocre; lecture attendance is not required, but my class seems to have a very high attendance rate. I end up going to class about 80% of the time; we have access to powerpoint slides used by professors. We've been advocating for more detailed lecture outlines from professors (apparently they used to give out extremely detailed notes so that some students didn't even bother to buy textbooks, but they've been instructed to cut down their notes for the new curriculum). The weekly online quizzes actually help me stay on track with the material--you get immediate feedback and you can compare your results with the class average on a bar graph. "grades" for the quiz don't count--you just have to take the quiz.
I've learned this year that it's important to filter through the huge volume of material and figure out the basic essentials to focus on, rather than trying to memorize every little detail. Students from previous years have advised getting review books during first year to keep track of what's important for the boards. With an organ-based curriculum, the level of integration is great for clinical learning, but it's hard to know which material will be emphasized if you get a different prof for each lecture, rather than one prof teaching an entire course.
Hope this answers your questions!
), but I wanna know what to expect!
