Unsure about PBL at LECOM-B

[Anicetus]

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Hi,

I am creating this thread because I want to know what the pros and cons are to PBL at LECOM-B or just some more facts about PBL in general from some students. When I interviewed at LECOM I felt the student ambassador did a horrible job of depicting PBL and made it sound terrible.

I ask this because PBL sounds too daunting for me. I was a total PowerPoint/lecture junkie in undergrad and yet the only thing that keeps me hanging into LECOM is the cost. But what's most important is how well I think I will do with 100% PBL learning. I don't really enjoy reading from the textbook to learn and basically what turned me off from PBL is the whole "if your reading comprehension isn't top notch then do not come here" idea that they kept throwing at us. Also, the student ambassador basically said if the topic of a case is a certain disease, we are expected to go back through all of our books and read up on the disease or topic, which could be several hundred pages even. I asked her if we are expected to know everything in those pages including random genes/proteins etc and she said absolutely, which seems like an utter waste of time to me.

I just don't want my medical school learning to be me reading and guessing what I have to know and what I don't have to know with no lecture structure or more organized format.

Is this PBL thing really not for me or did I completely get the wrong idea of what PBL really is?

Thanks to anyone that can throw in some input.

 

[DE15C]

I've been creeping this thread all evening, I have concerns about PBL too. I only worry because PBL is foreign to me, I have never had a course taught that way. It's a big unknown to commit to.

 

[NuttyEngDude]

It seems effective but stressful and tiring. I concluded it wasn't what I wanted halfway during my interview with LECOM-B.

Some enjoy it though, or so they say 😉

 

[darklabel]

It seems effective but stressful and tiring. I concluded it wasn't what I wanted halfway during my interview with LECOM-B.

Some enjoy it though, or so they say 😉

Same, I was accepted, but ultimately did not send an deposit because the curriculum ism't what I wanted. I prefered being told what to learn and what is expected on the boards Not exactly into the whole "learning the useless details".

 

[Anicetus]

Same, I was accepted, but ultimately did not send an deposit because the curriculum ism't what I wanted. I prefered being told what to learn and what is expected on the boards Not exactly into the whole "learning the useless details".

Not that I like being "spoon fed", but this is exactly my thought process because I feel like I would be wasting time asking myself "should I read this and memorize these genes too?... may as well...." for every topic in PBL.

 

[NuttyEngDude]

I hope some Pro-PBL people join the thread so it's not just a big bash-a-thon lol

 

[verynice]

I hope some Pro-PBL people join the thread so it's not just a big bash-a-thon lol

The fact that there haven't been any is a concern.

 

[Cartoons]

I've never seen it done in the context of med school, but I'm strongly pro-PBL. Before you say "Now hold there you happy fool, you don't know what you're talking about," here's my reasoning:

First, I've been working in a pharmacy for a while, and there are two kinds of techs we get -- ones who are right off the street, and ones who have been through school for it. The latter gets education in a classroom, the former gets training on the job. I've never met a school-trained tech who performs better than one trained on the job. Experience is a good teacher, and while that's nowhere near the scale of med school course work, it's a principle that goes a heck of a long way in terms of practical skills.

Second, it's a learning method that makes me more comfortable. I can't stand courses that have you scouring powerpoints for hours and regurgitating what I've been staring at on a screen. Most of my classes don't involve a lot of that, thankfully, and the majority of what we produce in terms of work stems from what we discuss as groups. We start learning to refer to academic material outside the classroom, and that knowledge helps us as we go through later classes. I would think the same idea can be applied to medical study. Maybe I'm wrong, but the couple of LECOM students I've met loved it.

 

[buccsmf1]

Not that I like being "spoon fed", but this is exactly my thought process because I feel like I would be wasting time asking myself "should I read this and memorize these genes too?... may as well...." for every topic in PBL.

4th year LECOM-B student here. Not really sure what you mean by this statement. Regardless of what type of curriculum you attend, nobody is going to spoon feed you the material.

In pbl we assign chapters based on a case. so if you patient in the case goes into renal failure. youre going to read the renal phys and path. its not that complicated.

when step 1 rolls around, you aren't going to have professors making powerpoints for all the material you need to cover. youre going to be a self guided learner. our students seem to do extremely well on the steps.

the only thing you need to ask yourself is do you like going to lecture. if you do, go that pathway. if you hate lecture, choose pbl. but the thought of sitting in lecture for 8 hours a day sounds like hell to me.

 

[Mehd School]

but the thought of sitting in lecture for 8 hours a day sounds like hell to me.

Amen. Besides location and cost, this is a large reason why I applied to LECOM-B. I applied to schools that have mandatory attendance, but they are at the bottom of my barrel. I would rather go to a newer school without mandatory attendance than an established one that keep their eyes on you at all times. I'll just do better if give the choice to attend lecture or not.

 

[Jjkwest1]

For the chapters being assigned, do we assign chapters as a group during the end of every PBL session or do we first read chapters that we ourselves pick individually and then assign them as a group at the completion of the case?

Also, I guess what Anicetus meant when being "spoon fed" the info was that in lectures you are told what is important and what is not. For PBL, how do you guys deal with this? do you just try to remember everything in the chapters or do you also use other supplements like review books to highlight the high yield stuff?

 

[joeDO2]

For the chapters being assigned, do we assign chapters as a group during the end of every PBL session or do we first read chapters that we ourselves pick individually and then assign them as a group at the completion of the case?

Also, I guess what Anicetus meant when being "spoon fed" the info was that in lectures you are told what is important and what is not. For PBL, how do you guys deal with this? do you just try to remember everything in the chapters or do you also use other supplements like review books to highlight the high yield stuff?

I think the process has been described in other places but here is a brief review of a PBL case...

-get chief complaint in group
-list differential diagnosis
-get H&P and order lab tests/ imaging one by one and adjust differential based on that
-at the end of each day the group decides on "learning issues"
-go home and read learning issues. at this point you will think of other things of interest and probably read some other things on your own.
-get more patient info, assign more learning issues at next session
-at the end of the case decide which of the many learning issues the group feels were essential to understanding the case. these are submitted to be test topics on your next exam

as far as knowing what is important.... i guess this is something that you naturally learn along the way and will probably help you later on. you will hit the review books hard before your step 1 exam.

i guess it seems more confusing than it really is. the way i look at it is you learn to be a doctor in clinical rotations and residency. the main purpose of years 1-2 is getting a bit of foundation in basic science and also getting the best possible board score. the class average for comlex is always very high. i believe it was 547 for our class with several people scoring into the 700s. the nice thing is that statistically the correlation of PBL grade to comlex score is very strong. you can predict what you will get before you take the test with high accuracy.

 

[Jjkwest1]

I think the process has been described in other places but here is a brief review of a PBL case...

-get chief complaint in group
-list differential diagnosis
-get H&P and order lab tests/ imaging one by one and adjust differential based on that
-at the end of each day the group decides on "learning issues"
-go home and read learning issues. at this point you will think of other things of interest and probably read some other things on your own.
-get more patient info, assign more learning issues at next session
-at the end of the case decide which of the many learning issues the group feels were essential to understanding the case. these are submitted to be test topics on your next exam

as far as knowing what is important.... i guess this is something that you naturally learn along the way and will probably help you later on. you will hit the review books hard before your step 1 exam.

i guess it seems more confusing than it really is. the way i look at it is you learn to be a doctor in clinical rotations and residency. the main purpose of years 1-2 is getting a bit of foundation in basic science and also getting the best possible board score. the class average for comlex is always very high. i believe it was 547 for our class with several people scoring into the 700s. the nice thing is that statistically the correlation of PBL grade to comlex score is very strong. you can predict what you will get before you take the test with high accuracy.

Thanks for the info.....Also, I know that for some schools that are PBL heavy, they have students do a power point presentation on their learning issues. Was this also the case in Bradenton or was it just reading the learning issues and discussing them during the next session?

 

[psquared22]

Early in the cycle I was looking at older class threads to get an idea of what to expect other than just relying on the experience presented at the interview. Found this to be helpful but as with anything different things work for different people. A "typical" week rundown is about a third of the way down the page. Also keep in mind this is a 2011-2012 class thread and the poster went through first and second year even earlier than that, so change may or may not have occurred since his experience.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=11760060&highlight=pathology#post11760060

 

[HopefulReapp]

4th year LECOM-B student here. Not really sure what you mean by this statement. Regardless of what type of curriculum you attend, nobody is going to spoon feed you the material.

I think the statement came from one of the faculty during the interview day-- I remember hearing the same "we don't spoon feed you here" quote as well.

It's definitely a different type of learning than the traditional medical school. Personally I loved the PBL groups and that style of learning, but I would be lying if I said that I wasn't worried about the hugely independent aspects of the model. This was the only school that admitted to having student "failures" during the interview. I might just be naive about other schools, but this was really one of the only offputting aspects about lecom bradenton.

 

[Anicetus]

Early in the cycle I was looking at older class threads to get an idea of what to expect other than just relying on the experience presented at the interview. Found this to be helpful but as with anything different things work for different people. A "typical" week rundown is about a third of the way down the page. Also keep in mind this is a 2011-2012 class thread and the poster went through first and second year even earlier than that, so change may or may not have occurred since his experience.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=11760060&highlight=pathology#post11760060

Wow ok thanks psquared. That post was very helpful. Unfortunately though, it hammered the last nail in the coffin for me, personally. Hugely due to the fact that you are doing your primary learning from just reading textbook chapters. In college, I put WAYYY more faith into lecture power points breaking down the readings than from just reading the textbooks only because of the extra time spent on extraneous material in the chapters. Personally, I am not very good at picking which paragraphs in a textbook chapter are less important than others because all the material in the chapters seems fairly relavent. So in my personal opinion, the people that could succeed in PBL would be the people that like learning from reading and figuring out the important points to focus on for exams instead of having the readings broken down into power points which then the textbook material is "spooned" to you.

 

[joeDO2]

Thanks for the info.....Also, I know that for some schools that are PBL heavy, they have students do a power point presentation on their learning issues. Was this also the case in Bradenton or was it just reading the learning issues and discussing them during the next session?

no powerpoint presentations. the didactic "lecture style" type stuff that you do get is the first 12 weeks of anatomy, and then various clinical exam and omm throughout the year

 

[darklabel]

Not that I like being "spoon fed", but this is exactly my thought process because I feel like I would be wasting time asking myself "should I read this and memorize these genes too?... may as well...." for every topic in PBL.

I wouldn't consider it spoon feeding since regardless of where you go, you're going to have to learn a ton of material.

It just seemed daunting and during my interview they stressed that nit picky stuff should be memorized as well during PBL sessions. Maybe thats not the case, but I just wasn't impressed by the school.

Not trying to start any flame wars and hopefully everyone realizes we have our own opinions. As said, some people love PBL and got great board scores because of it.

 

[Cartoons]

I wouldn't consider it spoon feeding since regardless of where you go, you're going to have to learn a ton of material.

It just seemed daunting and during my interview they stressed that nit picky stuff should be memorized as well during PBL sessions. Maybe thats not the case, but I just wasn't impressed by the school.

Not trying to start any flame wars and hopefully everyone realizes we have our own opinions. As said, some people love PBL and got great board scores because of it.

Yeah, education's a super variable thing that can't (or shouldn't) really be universally standardized in terms of how it's best delivered. Most good tutors I know schedule appointments carefully to make sure they don't have conflicting learning types in a group. I don't doubt that the liberty to find the right fit in terms of curriculum is just as important as getting an acceptance to begin with.

I've been to a couple of LECOM-B presentations, and at both times the style of learning appealed to me greatly, while highly desirable programs like the one at UF really didn't. I also got the distinct impression that the DO representatives felt the need to 'sell' themselves more than the allopathic schools, doubly so for PBL curricula, but I think that idea will fade out in the next decade or so (at the latest).

 

[Sosleepy]

For those who are in PBL, how long does it take you to get through a chapter......The only thing I'm concerned about is that when I'm reading the textbook to teach myself, I find that it takes me a while just to finish a chapter since I'm trying to absorb the information. Plus, I'm a VERY slow reader!

 

[Anicetus]

For those who are in PBL, how long does it take you to get through a chapter......The only thing I'm concerned about is that when I'm reading the textbook to teach myself, I find that it takes me a while just to finish a chapter since I'm trying to absorb the information. Plus, I'm a VERY slow reader!

This probably varies per person.

I'm sure if you got a 14+ on VR on the MCAT, you have a high chance of success with this style haha.

 

[cliquesh]

This probably varies per person.

I'm sure if you got a 14+ on VR on the MCAT, you have a high chance of success with this style haha.

You're making it way harder than it has to be. There are review books for everything in medicine. These books are short, they trim all nonessential information, and they are usually written in a bullet point fashion (sounds like powerpoints, right?). So all you have to do if you wanted to learn about kidney diseases, for instance, would be to open your physiology review book and read the kidney/electrolyte chapter, open up your pathology review book and the kidney chapter, then read First Aids kidney chapter, then open up a question bank, like Kaplan, and do all of the kidney questions. You could do this all in a week, and if you're good you should be able to learn all of adult medicine in 3 or 4 months.

 

[Blowflu]

2nd year LECOM-B checking in

I'm in the thick of PBL right now, so I hope I can give the OP some answers and steer you towards a more informed decision.

PBL is not as unstructured as most people would believe. Each exam we have deals with a "block" of medicine. We're doing the gastrointestinal block right now, and we've had cases on stomach issues (i.e. stomach ulcers), intestinal issues, liver issues, pancreatic issues ect.

Let's use the stomach case as our example. You and your group (8 people total) will start off the case with the person's name and chief complaint. From there, the group will control the pace of the case, what tests to ask for, what the diagnosis is, and what the likely treatment is. So, John Smith is a 40 year old male coming to your GI practice with complaints of vomiting after eating, weight loss, and burning sensations around his chest and abdomen. Most groups here will start a differential and discuss possible causes for the complaint. Next comes the history and physical which give you more hints (family history of stomach ulcers, surgery in the past to patch a stomach ulcer, drinks a ton). Then you think of tests to order, and as you get the results see if you can explain what is going on. Diagnose and treat, and you're done.

A facilitator is there in the room with you (a PhD/MD/DO) to help ask questions if the group is missing something, to answer tough questions if absolutely needed, and to provide pacing and guidance so the class stays at an even pace. In a perfect group, that facilitator should say almost nothing.

As you're working through the case, you'll have to look up why certain tests end up the way they do, why pieces of clinical data fit or don't fit your differential list. When you do that, you'll reference certain pages or chapters that your group will go home and read. Using the stomach case: you'll probably want to look into some stomach path on ulcers, what H. Pylori does in micro, how stomach acid is made in Physio, what drugs to use in Pharm and so on. Once the case is finished, you have until you start the next case or the next session (around 2 days) to assign chapters for your test.

Each PBL test is made up of the following: questions related to the Case, questions on the chapters you assign, and for some exams they'll give the class required readings that everyone will be tested on. There is very little guessing that goes on when it comes to assigning what to read - assign what was most helpful to understanding the case. Did you not know what certain signs were in the physical? Then look into that too to prepare for the case question part of the exam.

I hope that explains the process. Now, as to how this is better/worse than regular lecture...

PROS
-Schedule flexibility. You'll still study 6-8 hours a day but that can be spread out more evenly than just having to do everything at the end of a long day of lectures
-Independence/Clinical Prep. Every case is presented similar to what goes on in the clinic. You'll order tons of common tests, understand values, know how to interpret X-rays/EKGs and so on. This is an every-day thing; other schools do a good job of preparing students for clinical years too...but with PBL you get a constant exposure for 2 years. Also, you'll have to look everything up on your own as a 3rd/4th year and a resident...why not start now?
-Everything at once. You're using all the subjects to break down a case. So instead of doing physiology for a few months, you'll do it for two years (along with all the other subjects)

CONS
-Variability. Every group is different, and some groups might not assign that amount of chapters you want or could assign a little too much. This isn't a huge problem for 80-90% of the class, just for the very top and bottom.
-Info overload. I'm not the greatest at glistening critical info from reading, and I have to do a ton of highlighting and note-making to keep up. Every medical school involves lots of reading...ours is just not as specific as PowerPoints we all know and love.

 

[psquared22]

Thanks so much for that! I figured they wouldn't leave you out to flounder too badly, but nice to know that thought is confirmed.

 

[EMDO2018]

So maybe I am misinterpreting this, but lecom-b students only have 3 pbl exams a semester? What happens if you fail an exam?

 

[Blowflu]

So maybe I am misinterpreting this, but lecom-b students only have 3 pbl exams a semester? What happens if you fail an exam?

Depending on the semester, yes. Since the first semester of OMSI starts off with 12 weeks of anatomy, there are 2 PBL exams. All other semesters have 3 exams. You can fail one exam, but your total exam average has to be higher than a 70 to pass a semester (aka you can get a 66 on your first exam, just do much better on the other one/two).

 

[Jjkwest1]

Depending on the semester, yes. Since the first semester of OMSI starts off with 12 weeks of anatomy, there are 2 PBL exams. All other semesters have 3 exams. You can fail one exam, but your total exam average has to be higher than a 70 to pass a semester (aka you can get a 66 on your first exam, just do much better on the other one/two).

How are the exams in general? Did you find them to be fair as long as you did the work or were they trying to trick you and throw curve balls? Also do they generally curve the exam?

 

[Blowflu]

How are the exams in general? Did you find them to be fair as long as you did the work or were they trying to trick you and throw curve balls? Also do they generally curve the exam?

They're tough, but fair. A good bit of our professors have written board questions for both COMLEX and USMLE, so I've never felt like we were "getting tricked" on purpose. Since we get all sorts of subjects in one exam, some parts are harder than others (especially Pharm, but when is that ever easy). Digging in my memory, I can't recall times where they asked completely obscure things...like if you're reading a Path section - "blah blah blah....a mega-rare form of Small Cell Lung Carcinoma is caused 50 mutations, including the herp mutation on the (derp:2lol) locus on the herpaderpaderp chromosome..." You get a feel for when you can ignore that stuff pretty quick.

Curves do happen, but they're in the form of a few questions getting thrown out. The person with a 94 as the highest grade does not get a 100 along with the rest of the class getting a 6% curve. I don't depend on a curve to boost my grade in PBL or Anatomy, and it will only help a few points in the smaller courses that do the same question tossing.

 

[EMDO2018]

Depending on the semester, yes. Since the first semester of OMSI starts off with 12 weeks of anatomy, there are 2 PBL exams. All other semesters have 3 exams. You can fail one exam, but your total exam average has to be higher than a 70 to pass a semester (aka you can get a 66 on your first exam, just do much better on the other one/two).

so i suppose if you fail a semester, you fail that year and you're out? Does the school offer the chance to repeat? Or if my some dire circumstance you miss an exam, can you make it up?

 

[cal1516]

so i suppose if you fail a semester, you fail that year and you're out? Does the school offer the chance to repeat? Or if my some dire circumstance you miss an exam, can you make it up?

You can repeat...they obviously want you to succeed and will work with you. As far as missing an exam goes, they have a very short list of excused absences and if you don't get it excused ahead of time you're probably out of luck. Bottom line is if you put in the time and get help if you need it, you won't have to worry about failing out.

 

[mikesachon]

Hey everyone. I am new to the SDN community. I have had some similar concerns regarding the PBL curriculum. I did some digging and found this white paper regarding the reason for the change and an outline of the idea behind the theory and application of PBL for the student and faculty. While PBL seemed to be overwhelming, this paper set my mind at ease. We use a more simple style of PBL in my undergrad and grad classes with greater success than traditional learning methods.

Take a read and let me know what you think. Try to read the paper in its entirety before casting a judgement on it. There are some graphical statistics at the end to wrap it all up.

http://www.mutualgravity.com/dld/xtjkjxzb/PBL_Model_MedEd9-13-11.pdf

 

[Jdubbss21]

Thanks for all the information you current and past PBL students are sharing. This thread has really solidified my desire to go the PBL route as I just got accepted to LECOM-B yesterday. Combined with the tuition and the fact that it's only an hour from my home LECOM-B is at the top of my list. I can't wait for my letter in the mail and to put down the deposit. Unless something drastic changes I will be in Bradenton next Fall.

 

[psquared22]

Join the Facebook group when you can!

 

[YNWA777]

You can repeat...they obviously want you to succeed and will work with you. As far as missing an exam goes, they have a very short list of excused absences and if you don't get it excused ahead of time you're probably out of luck. Bottom line is if you put in the time and get help if you need it, you won't have to worry about failing out.

What kind of help is provided? What are your options? If you are doing the reading and are unable to understand or integrate the material with other subjects?

 

[YNWA777]

They're tough, but fair. A good bit of our professors have written board questions for both COMLEX and USMLE, so I've never felt like we were "getting tricked" on purpose. Since we get all sorts of subjects in one exam, some parts are harder than others (especially Pharm, but when is that ever easy). Digging in my memory, I can't recall times where they asked completely obscure things...like if you're reading a Path section - "blah blah blah....a mega-rare form of Small Cell Lung Carcinoma is caused 50 mutations, including the herp mutation on the (derp:2lol) locus on the herpaderpaderp chromosome..." You get a feel for when you can ignore that stuff pretty quick.

Curves do happen, but they're in the form of a few questions getting thrown out. The person with a 94 as the highest grade does not get a 100 along with the rest of the class getting a 6% curve. I don't depend on a curve to boost my grade in PBL or Anatomy, and it will only help a few points in the smaller courses that do the same question tossing.

What kind of help is provided? What are your options? If you are doing the reading and are unable to understand or integrate the material with other subjects?

 

[cal1516]

What kind of help is provided? What are your options? If you are doing the reading and are unable to understand or integrate the material with other subjects?

They'll tell you over and over to have a study partner so you hold each other accountable and can make sure you're understanding the material. I know some people who were struggling went to talk to one of the psychologists at our school who helped them form a better study plan. Some of the PBL facilitators will tell you their door is open and will talk your ear off about a subject, so if you're struggling with a concept I'm sure you can find the right professor and they will help. Everyone has a tough time at first finding out what works for them but the best advice is to start off with a study partner so you can be proactive and realize what you do and don't get, and then go from there. By second year a lot of people study on their own and I find that studying all of the different subjects at once actually makes things make more sense because you're getting a bigger picture.

 

[darkmb101]

I was accepted to LECOM Seton Hill this year, but I decided to withdraw my application for several reasons. The PBL model sounds tempting, especially if independent study is no big deal. I just didn't like the campus vibe and facilities. I'm more a laid back person. For the tuition costs, it could be cheaper considering the amount of time we're actually expected to be on campus. PBL will give you the flexibility for things like work or raising a family, but I didn't feel the attraction toward PBL.

 

[EMDO2018]

They'll tell you over and over to have a study partner so you hold each other accountable and can make sure you're understanding the material. I know some people who were struggling went to talk to one of the psychologists at our school who helped them form a better study plan. Some of the PBL facilitators will tell you their door is open and will talk your ear off about a subject, so if you're struggling with a concept I'm sure you can find the right professor and they will help. Everyone has a tough time at first finding out what works for them but the best advice is to start off with a study partner so you can be proactive and realize what you do and don't get, and then go from there. By second year a lot of people study on their own and I find that studying all of the different subjects at once actually makes things make more sense because you're getting a bigger picture.

How many hours do you guys study a day? A week? I can handle about 5-6 hours a day of studying. I look at some sample comlex/usmle board questions and they sorta scare me.

 

[cal1516]

How many hours do you guys study a day? A week? I can handle about 5-6 hours a day of studying. I look at some sample comlex/usmle board questions and they sorta scare me.

The generic answer is 8 hours a day, it's like a full time job. I don't think anyone actually keeps track of the hours they study, they just know what reading needs to get done and however long it takes, it takes. Right after a test is over the workload is a bit lighter, but when a test is coming up it's probably more like 10-12 hours but you have to remember you're barely in class. The reality is you can either choose to go to a school where you're stuck in lecture for up to 8 hours and then come home and study more, or have class a few hours a week and the rest of the time is how you want to use it

 

[hemlocktree]

I am trying to understand the real differences between PBL and Lecture based curriculum. It seems that in PBL, you are actually reading from textbooks, whereas at other schools, students study from lecture slides and review books and rarely crack open a textbook. Would this be accurate?

 

[Anicetus]

I am trying to understand the real differences between PBL and Lecture based curriculum. It seems that in PBL, you are actually reading from textbooks, whereas at other schools, students study from lecture slides and review books and rarely crack open a textbook. Would this be accurate?

From what I have gathered, the bulk of your learning is essentially from reading textbooks and using your gut to pick out what is important or not. So the answer to your question yes.

The upside is you don't waste time in lecture.

 

[hemlocktree]

then non-mandatory lecture based seems the way to go.... thanks

 

[Jdubbss21]

The important thing to remember is that no one way is best. It's all about what fits best. I personally am putting my deposit at LECOM-B tomorrow. I have always been a lecture learner. Originally I was hesitant about PBL; however, sitting in on the session made me fall in love with it. Am I nervous about it and my abilities? Of course, but that'll happen anytime you try something new. To me, it seems like the way I'll learn best, actually learn, not just regurgitate what the professor wants. As such I feel it'll make me the best physician I can be, which is what med school is all about. Some will learn best through lecture and attendance, some through watching recorded lectures in bed, and even others through PBL. To each their own. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Pisiform]

I am trying to understand the real differences between PBL and Lecture based curriculum. It seems that in PBL, you are actually reading from textbooks, whereas at other schools, students study from lecture slides and review books and rarely crack open a textbook. Would this be accurate?

Yes pretty much and I think it's a good thing. In power points there are often lots of mistake or professors try to write weird notes and comments which makes it hard to understand and so you eventually sometimes look at textbook. In PBL u are studying from textbooks so nothing could go wrong.

 

[guylewis]

Yes pretty much and I think it's a good thing. In power points there are often lots of mistake or professors try to write weird notes and comments which makes it hard to understand and so you eventually sometimes look at textbook. In PBL u are studying from textbooks so nothing could go wrong.

You're seriously telling me you've never come across giant factual errors in text books?

 

[Pisiform]

You're seriously telling me you've never come across giant factual errors in text books?

I am saying I have come across errors more often in ppt than in textbooks

 

[Anicetus]

I am saying I have come across errors more often in ppt than in textbooks

At least it takes less time to memorize power points than it does hundreds of pages of wordy textbooks so I don't think the error thing holds a candle to that unless the professor is totally incomepetent and messes up veins from arteries etc.

 

[hallowmann]

At least it takes less time to memorize power points than it does hundreds of pages of wordy textbooks so I don't think the error thing holds a candle to that unless the professor is totally incomepetent and messes up veins from arteries etc.

Med school textbooks are surprisingly well written. They have relatively little extraneous info or "fluff". Personally, I'm actually very surprised by this. And I gotta be honest with you, whether you read for your classes or you read 100s of pages through review books to learn the material for boards or shelfs, you will be doing a ton of reading in med school and for the rest of your medical career. I recommend you get more comfortable with that idea.

 

[Pisiform]

Med school textbooks are surprisingly well written. They have relatively little extraneous info or "fluff". Personally, I'm actually very surprised by this. And I gotta be honest with you, whether you read for your classes or you read 100s of pages through review books to learn the material for boards or shelfs, you will be doing a ton of reading in med school and for the rest of your medical career. I recommend you get more comfortable with that idea.

Also, for myself reading is much better than sitting in lecture hall for 7hr because nothing gets through my head after first 1/2 hr lol

 

[Anicetus]

Med school textbooks are surprisingly well written. They have relatively little extraneous info or "fluff". Personally, I'm actually very surprised by this. And I gotta be honest with you, whether you read for your classes or you read 100s of pages through review books to learn the material for boards or shelfs, you will be doing a ton of reading in med school and for the rest of your medical career. I recommend you get more comfortable with that idea.

To each their own. I read hundreds of pages for the Mcat sciences but not the same way I would read a textbook. I would skim for important things instead of legitimately try to absorb every word from a textbook, which is what the lecom-b students told my group.

Each time a post is made on this thread it just reassures me that that pbl is just not for me. I just don't want people to be misled because I see a difference between the advocaters on SDN and people from LECOM-B I contact personally. Everyone is different with their learning styles and I personally just don't do well with reading mass pages while wondering in the back of my mind if I'm wasting my time reading a section about specific enzymes in a Random bacteria. The same could be said for a PBL lover who hates wasting time sitting in a lecture hall.