1st Year Student.
From what I heard from previous USC students, they really changed the PBL learning process. There is a real good reason why we take 2 whole years to learn the basic sciences. The structure of PBL is awesome right now. You have to look at the bigger picture. Our finals are coming up, and if your not slacking off, you should know inflammation, coagulation, blood, basic immunology, liver, cranial nerves, basic clinic stuff pretty well by now. Each of our cases are building upon one another. For example, we learned inflammation in our first few weeks, then we learned about cranial nerves, which is important because we are dentists. Now we are learning about coagulation and the liver, which if you think about it, all revolves around inflammation. So why is inflammation important? Gingivitis, periodontitis, -itis in the mouth or anywhere involves the same inflammation mechanism.
Honestly, if I had to take the Part I of the Boards I can easily study for it in two month period and pass it, but hey that's not the purpose of dental school. It's not just to pass the boards. We pay good money, therefore we should learn.
Well, now your wondering, well if we are paying 100k a year at USC and there are no teachers teaching us, where the hell is all the money going to. CLINIC!!! We start start drilling on our first day. You want to start drilling during orientation week or you want to listen to your dean talk about how great your school is?
What's the difference between traditional lectures vs PBL. They have professors that teach the topic and we have professors/dentists that facilitate us to learn about a specific topic. Honestly, these facilitators become useless as you begin to pick up the PBL process. IN THE END, you have to read everything about the case anyways, so these PBL sessions that we have are just to make sure that everyone is doing what they are suppose to be doing. After experiencing PBL, having lectures is like being spoon fed, telling you what you should read or not read. F-that. For me, just read every damn thing.
So, it comes down to this.
PBL - no lectures, no BS, just study what you need to study, but be very thorough.
Lecture - kills time when you should be reading, what you study you will forget easily because once you take the class, you pass it, your done with it. Perfect for pre-clinic classes, because you know everything in the lecture you will need to know for your future as a dentist.
I prefer lecture anytime of the day, simple because I just DL a book off of the pirate bay and just read about a topic for an hour, and i'm done for the day. Next day, refresh my memory or move to a new topic. Spends as much time as you can understanding rather than just passing..... Passing is easy, understanding is hard.
For future classmates, our tests are based on board questions, so passing is super easy, just memorize board questions. But, the purpose of PBL is to understand the material, remember that.
From what I heard from previous USC students, they really changed the PBL learning process. There is a real good reason why we take 2 whole years to learn the basic sciences. The structure of PBL is awesome right now. You have to look at the bigger picture. Our finals are coming up, and if your not slacking off, you should know inflammation, coagulation, blood, basic immunology, liver, cranial nerves, basic clinic stuff pretty well by now. Each of our cases are building upon one another. For example, we learned inflammation in our first few weeks, then we learned about cranial nerves, which is important because we are dentists. Now we are learning about coagulation and the liver, which if you think about it, all revolves around inflammation. So why is inflammation important? Gingivitis, periodontitis, -itis in the mouth or anywhere involves the same inflammation mechanism.
Honestly, if I had to take the Part I of the Boards I can easily study for it in two month period and pass it, but hey that's not the purpose of dental school. It's not just to pass the boards. We pay good money, therefore we should learn.
Well, now your wondering, well if we are paying 100k a year at USC and there are no teachers teaching us, where the hell is all the money going to. CLINIC!!! We start start drilling on our first day. You want to start drilling during orientation week or you want to listen to your dean talk about how great your school is?
What's the difference between traditional lectures vs PBL. They have professors that teach the topic and we have professors/dentists that facilitate us to learn about a specific topic. Honestly, these facilitators become useless as you begin to pick up the PBL process. IN THE END, you have to read everything about the case anyways, so these PBL sessions that we have are just to make sure that everyone is doing what they are suppose to be doing. After experiencing PBL, having lectures is like being spoon fed, telling you what you should read or not read. F-that. For me, just read every damn thing.
So, it comes down to this.
PBL - no lectures, no BS, just study what you need to study, but be very thorough.
Lecture - kills time when you should be reading, what you study you will forget easily because once you take the class, you pass it, your done with it. Perfect for pre-clinic classes, because you know everything in the lecture you will need to know for your future as a dentist.
I prefer lecture anytime of the day, simple because I just DL a book off of the pirate bay and just read about a topic for an hour, and i'm done for the day. Next day, refresh my memory or move to a new topic. Spends as much time as you can understanding rather than just passing..... Passing is easy, understanding is hard.
For future classmates, our tests are based on board questions, so passing is super easy, just memorize board questions. But, the purpose of PBL is to understand the material, remember that.
