Also a first year and thought I would respond to each section here. Its good to get multiple viewpoints and though I can empathize with what some of middle meningeal said, I have a different take on much of it
Hi! first year UQ-O student here. I wanted to put myself out there to answer any questions and provide y'all with some info about the program that I have not encountered elsewhere on the internet!
disclaimer- Some of my opinions are negative and I just want to be clear I am not here to bash this program for my own benefit. I am really just trying to help future/prospective students by telling the truth. I wish I had known a lot of this earlier so that I could be more prepared. Please feel free to reach out/message me directly with any other questions!!
-Lectures: UQ uses a lot of guest lecturers. Because of this, the quality of lecture is inconsistent and all over the place. Overall for me this is not a huge problem but do note that you will need to use these to study for UQ exams as they like to include minutia from lectures. They are available online which is super convenient and it's up to you to decide if you benefit from attending them in person. Keep in mind there are about 500 first year med students so it's very impersonal; if you're not there no one will miss you 😉
I dont go to lectures and hardly know anyone who does. Its an outdated way of learning medicine and the knowledge you acquire will come from heavily studying the plethora of resources available for Step 1. I scroll through lecture powerpoints to pick out the minutia that I think might be tested, and I dont know anyone whos learning solely from lecture.
-CBL/CCE: These are the classes you are obligated to attend and you will be with the same CBL group of ~10 students the whole year. This is about 7 hours total per week. All tutors and coaches are not created equal and this can severely impact your experience. For CBL the only thing a bad tutor will impact is your sanity but for CCE a bad tutor can make it difficult to learn the clinical examinations properly (these are graded). My personal experience with this has been unfortunately pretty bad but I have friends who have been blessed with great CBL members/tutors so it's kind of the luck of the draw!
Agree with you about CBL. A good tutor can make it a great learning experience but a bad tutor will make you feel like you are just wasting 2.5 hours twice a week because you are obligated to be there. I think CBL is a good thing overall and can be really helpful in trying to understand the thought process of a physician, but yeah it really is luck of the draw with who you get. For CCE, I don't really understand how you could have such a bad experience. We have basically one graded physical exam for each module (e.g. a cardio exam, pulmonary, neuro, gastro, etc.) and its not like they're hard to pass at all. You have CC once a week and in the ensuing weeks before your exam, your tutor is supposed to show you how to perform it. Honestly being there for 2 hours at a time for multiple weeks before the examination just feels like a waste of time because it doesnt take long to learn. We usually go over everything for like the first half hour and then are just BSing the rest of the time (depends on how cool your tutor is though I guess). But to act like this has been such a bad experience for you, I mean dude they post videos online showing you exactly how to perform the exam god forbid you have a useless tutor. I always have my exams at 1pm, I wake up that morning and review it all for the first time and pass everytime. Im sorry but there really isnt much to complain about regarding CC
-All other "tutes": These are practicals (labs) that are built into your schedule. Pretty sure none of them are mandatory and again the tutors for these vary so unless you luck out with good tutors, most students have concluded that these are a waste of time and therefore don't attend. Some people still go and you will be able to determine for yourself if you will learn better by reading through the notes as home. Most people will recommend going to "GAF" which is anatomy lab but YMMV because these are very crowded and they are unguided unless you are lucky enough to find a tutor to go through things with you. Teach yourself everything beforehand so that you are not a lost puppy in the lab!!
Ok regarding the tutes, I generally feel like they are a waste. I dont think this is a bad thing though because theyre not mandatory and based on what you decide to do you can have a TON of free time. You can utilize that free time to study your ass off and be in a postion where youre basically just spending 2 years studying for step. The fact of the matter is, all we have to show up to is CBL twice a week for 2.5 hours each, and CC once a week for 2 hours. Thats literally it. All the other space in your schedule is yours to do what you want with and that leaves so much time to study and be beyond adequately prepared for Step. Idk how much free time students get at other med schools, but this is one thing I would have to imagine plays to our advantage regarding that test. I honestly dont go to anatomy (GAF). I dont think UQ runs it well and its kind of a waste. You have an anatomy spotter and the end of each semester, and theres a huge set of flashcards on the Drive that will cover everything youll need to pass the spotter just fine. So its not like not going to GAF is going to be detrimental
-Exams: The way UQ exam questions are written will make you want to bang your head against a wall. Often they include several questions that should be thrown out for being vague or having multiple answers but they always keep them in there. This is one of those things that everyone just finds a way to accept and deal with. I think this is a really common sentiment in medical school so I don't know how much worse UQ is than average.
This I definitely agree with. I think the exams can be pretty ridiculous. They throw in some just nonsensical questions and I feel like for the most part, the exams just are not a fair assessment of the material covered. With only two exams a semester (50 and 90 questions for the midsem and final respectively), I feel like no matter what score you get, its probably not a good indicator of the knowledge you've accumulated up to taking them. That being said, its not like you shouldnt be passing these exams. If you put in the work, you will pass (they are not THAT unfair). Its just frustrating with how much you study and how much you know, to feel like youre not accurately being assessed. It'd be nice if they did a better job predominantly testing fundamental medical principles, opposed to mixing in some trivial nonsense that end up making too large a percentage of your grade in a 50 or 90 question test. Its annoying but ultimately, you shouldnt be failing if you put the work in.
-Observership: I want to be really, really clear with something that was not obvious to me beforehand. UQ does not help you with securing your observerships besides offering the possibility to place you for 4 of the 8 weeks (you do not get to choose location or specialty if you apply for this, and nothing is guaranteed). You will need to cold call random doctors and pray that someone will be willing to sign a placement agreement. Flashback to undergrad when you were reaching out to doctors and asking if you could shadow them once a week; except this time they have to commit to doing extra work and being responsible for your education. Some people luck out with this and don't have much problem. For others this process has been an absolute nightmare. UQ prohibits you from reaching out to any public health facility across the entire state as well as any practitioner that is affiliated with UQ or any UQ clinical sites. There is so much I could say about how unreasonable and unprofessional this is on UQs part but I will save you the rant and get to the point- worst case scenario, expect to have to pay tuition to other institutions for observership placement ($1000+ per placement) that is not included in your loans so budget accordingly. Because of how limited we are in where we can observe in Brisbane the other option is to do an observership out of state which will be at an added cost regardless. If by some miracle you are able to secure a full 8 weeks in Brisbane without paying extra tuition fees it will be with a GP in an outer suburb; so contact these people first.
I'll agree here that the observership process is a pretty annoying one. UQ will give you one for 4 weeks but it is your responsibility to find another one. I have heard its been difficult for people, I guess I got a little lucky. I mean, I denied UQs automatic placement cause I didnt like what they offered and I found placement on my own with two different private physicians (both are specialists within a mile of my apartment in brisbane, Not a GP in an outer suburb). Just relax a little with the "you need to pray someone will be willing to sign a placement agreement," I mean yeah dude its a ****ty process, but at the same time I dont know one second year who was SOL on placement last summer. Ive heard other people have contacted a ton of docs to no avail and settled on paying $1000 to get placed somewhere. That to me just sounded crazy and I thought it was a matter of them just not wanting to deal with finding someone on their own anymore. I didnt get why people resorted to that, but I guess I was just fortunate in the process. I emailed like a total of 8 doctors and two of them got back to me and I worked it out with them. I think if you put enough effort in, you're not going to have to worry about paying a grand to fullfill your requirement. But I do agree, the process sucks and is just an annoying one. I believe that in the coming years, there will be a bonafide database with a list of physicians that took people on, and this should make it easier in the future.
-Ochsner: At the beginning of the year you will get a really good explanation of Step resources and recommendations from other students. For the rest of year 1 there is not really a ton of added support or anything specific to Ochsnser besides the student association so for all intents and purposes you are just like any other UQ med student (except that your tuition is way more lol). You will have minimal communication with Ochsner admin. (For example: still no one has really told us about how the program is changing or anything because of the MedEd contract ending)
Nothing to add here as we are not in years 3 or 4. If prospective applicants are reading these posts trying to get an objective opinion on the school and want to make an informed decision if they are accepted, then I hope some 3rd and 4th year students can elaborate on what things are like in phase 2. I've heard this is where we get a really good education and that Ochsner prepares you exceedingly well for your intern year wherever you may end up.
-UQ Med: No medical school is perfect, and I really have nothing to compare this to since I have obviously never attended any other med school. I think this is a common consensus; and many programs are plagued by the similar problems, so I probably would not use this as a deciding factor. But I will say... the lack of respect and support that the UQ faculty of medicine has for their students is seriously shocking. Don't expect them to listen or care to anything you have to say. If they make any kind of mistake, do not expect them to take responsibility for it or try to fix it. There are some admin staff that are nice and seem like they almost want to help but in the end they will not do anything for you, whether it's because they just don't want to or because their hands are tied. My experience with this administration has been so awful that it has made me regret turning down other schools to come here. There is so much that happens that is blatantly unfair and you can certainly just "suck it up and get through it" but it is a significant added layer of stress that is unecessary and important to take into account.
I have no idea what you are talking about here and instead of just creating hysteria about how bad things are, why dont you give everyone the courtesy of explaining what your experiences were. Im not gonna act like I think the faculty of medicine is any good and I dont believe what you're saying isnt true, I just dont think that their lack of student support is all that consequential. Like honestly, whats the big issue? The first two years here are basically just: study, take a test, move on to next semester. After those two years were at Ochsner where weve been told this is where our school really shines. I mean the first two years of medical school anywhere is really just studying for Step 1. Then you start clinicals where you learn how to actually be a physician, and our school is fantastic in that regard. So I dont know what youre so upest about that you regret coming here when it shouldnt even make a difference, just study for step man and then you'll move on to the next phase. Theres literally nothing else to be that focused on. Like I said before, we have a pretty open schedule and I think its a benefit of coming here that you will have an enourmous amount of time to prepare for that test. If anything UQ does well, its the fact that they sprinkle in enough clinical exposure in the first 2 years that will you give you a nice leg up when you start 3rd year. Listen I get it, the FOM doesnt communicate well and it could be frustrating, I personally never had to deal with them cause I dont know what I would even bring up as an issue. I just study for the tests, take them, and move on. What else is there to be all wrapped up in?
-Brisbane: Some people love it and others don't, but I have been pleasantly surprised with this city. It's really affordable and the transport is better than in most of the US, plus it's relatively safe. I highly recommend living along the busway because it is reliable and bypasses traffic. Specifically I'd recommend looking at places in walking distance of Wollongabba station, South Bank station, Mater Hill station, or Cultural Center station. However, there are plenty of students living in other places (Toowong, Milton, CBD) that are very happy there. I did not find the process of finding a place/signing a lease/moving in as quick as some other people suggested, so I recommend getting to Brisbane a good 2-3 weeks before orientation to sort this out.
Good advice here, I agree. I like it here in brisbane, wouldnt say love, but I dont dislike it at all. Its a nice place with a decent amount to do. You kind of see everything the city has to offer pretty quickly and you get used to is fast. Its somewhat quiet here I would say, and ultimately not a bad place to be studying medicine. Theres stuff to do when you want to do stuff, but Its also a good place to just kick back and chill
