<p>Son’s exams every 2 weeks. First module over, now he is in anatomy and loving every minute. He has an assigned group for lab and said they work well together, really well. </p>
<p>He does not study with a group however. Easier for him he says, did not during UG either so I am not surprised. He did also very much enjoy his week away for clinicals. Great mentor, neat trauma center and lots of patients.</p>
<p>He has managed to squeak in a few visits to Manhattan to visit friends, UG buddies and his girlfriend(i-bankers)…so he can’t be too overwhelmed. His best friend at Harvard law meets up with him there as well, so he obviously isn’t too overwhelmed with law school either.</p>
<p>I keep telling him he is extremely fortunate with his advisor, mentor and preceptors. He had a feeling it would be like this if he chose this particular school versus some others. Them have made him feel very welcome (best financial package) and have told him they expect much of him. He found what he was looking for, it just so happens to be so close to HOME! (yes that is me being so very happy!!!)</p>
<p>of course there is that saying…money talks…</p>
<p>Our curriculum is arranged into blocks (=quarters) which are 10 weeks long: 8 weeks instruction, 1 week exams, 1 week vacation. We’re currently in the 2nd week of the 2nd block.</p>
<p>Also, we’re almost entirely problem-based learning (PBL), with about 7-10h of lectures a week, 10h of working through cases in small groups (PBL), 5-6h of anatomy, and 4-6h of “learning how to be a doctor” (so far we’ve covered interviews and most of the physical exam). We also spend a few days each block in clinic (I’m currently in a family medicine clinic).</p>
<p>So for exams, we have two 8h exams where we basically work through a new case, one 8h exam that’s structured like the USMLE (which also includes anatomy and histo), one 5h essay exam about patient care, and two encounters with standardized patients (actors). Each exam is pass/fail (70%=pass), and you must pass each exam to proceed to the next block. I passed them all! (I believe 98/104 passed all exams)</p>
<p>As for studying environment, have never seen a group of people that work together and collaborate as much as my classmates do. It’s overwhelmingly collaborative (rather than competitive) and while stressful, it’s definitely manageable. Overall, I’m very impressed with my school so far!</p>
<p>^That sounds very very hard, Kristin. Congrats on passing all exams! I do not know about exams structure at D’s school. They are at the end of each block, no breaks after though, only weekend. D. usually plans trips on a weekends after exams. But she has whole week off for Thanksgiving, which she did not have in UG.
She loves to study in groups, she always did in UG. So far, her most favorable activity seems to be dissections, although I heard about it only one time.</p>
<p>It is nice that I could learn from you what MS1 life is like. I even do not know whether DS’s school is PBL or not. I do know how expensive it is to attend a medical school – like DS said to us: “I am in debt now.” His perception about going to a school seems to be influenced by this (likely because we do not, and are not able to, pay the full cost for him any more after UG.)</p>
<p>Regarding the exam, I heard that the only one that counts (counts in the sense of P/F) is the one he will take in December.</p>
<p>Kat, DS seems to have never studied in a study group while he was an UG. I do not know this is “bad” or “good” and do not know whether he studies with some buddies now.</p>
<p>D1’s school and kristin’s run on very much the same curriculum. (PBL and 10 week blocks.)</p>
<p>D1’s study buddies include a 32 year old former truck driver from Cameroon (seriously, he arrived here at age 24 on a work visa, spoke almost no English and had never finished high school. Talk about someone who has worked his a$$ off to get where he is. He drove a long haul truck full time thru most of his undergrad to support his wife and kids.) and a MD/PhD student who graduated from U Alaska with an ag science degree who used to be a wilderness guide and Forest Service firefighter/paramedic near Denali National Park.</p>
<p>D1 says both are among the smartest people she’s ever met.</p>
<p>^The oldest in D’s class is in mid. 40’s, the highest educated is Phd from Harvard, I forgot if it is the same person or 2 different people. There are several lawyers and MS’s. Maybe these are the reasons for mere 22 years olds with BS to freak out for exams. We had the booklet with various stats and UG college names for white coat ceremony. Very, very impressive list overall.</p>
<p>Neat stuff WOWM. D interviewed at Wake Forest a few days ago and said most students she met were non traditional types. She was in awe of their stories and the different paths they took to get to med school. I had to LOL when she told me that they told her that somebody there told her that Wake had the highest % of MS2"s that were married or engaged of all med schools!</p>
<p>OTOH, D withdrew from 2 pending interviews. Scary stuff to actually turn them down when a month ago the shoe was on the other foot and she was crossing her fingers hoping they would contact her. Jeez this stuff is stressful.</p>
<p>^Yes, make sure that final decision is yours, do not listen to anybody. My D. had very hard time deciding between her 2 finalists, her preference flipped after Second Look events at both, but we live relatively close to both, so it was driving again.</p>
<p>Well, my “candidate” this year had her second interview. She said it went well. I sure am hoping she still gets a couple more. Pinning your hopes on 2 …will make for nervous times.</p>
<p>(while I’m not an applicant or a parent, I enjoy periodically contributing to this topic!)</p>
<p>Passed all my exams. Selected to be in charge of community outreach/patient education/health literacy for our student-run free clinic. Having a blast at school, including giving tours to kids who are here interviewing and hopefully calming some of their nerves. Will be featured on my school’s website med student bios section. Headed home this weekend to hang out with the fam. Yep, I found the perfect school for me!</p>
<p>Glad that you and Mizzou are such a wonderful fit. kristin!. Your remarks sounds like D1’s, who she likes her school so much that even if she said she had been accepted at a more prestigious school, she would have gone here anyway. She likes the weather, the people, the lifestyle–everything. Very happy if insanely busy.</p>
<p>BTW, D1’s doggy is being tested to see if she will make a good avalanche rescue dog. If doggy passes her screening tests this winter/spring, she will be trained free of charge by state Search & Rescue. S&R are thrilled at the idea of potentially having a doctor-dog team to do winter rescue. (It take 3 years to train a search & rescue dog so D1 and Doggy will finished their training around the same time.)</p>
<p>D1 would eventually like to do international earthquake search & rescue if the dog can qualify for advanced training.</p>
<p>We have finally some insights into exams. the first block was only 1 months, so we did not count the first set of exams. At the end of second block, D. had 4 hours of multiple choice on Tuesday, she used 3 of them, but said that it was very hard. Then she had 5 hrs of essays on Thursday. Said that it was much easier than she anticipated, but she is very strong writer and as long as she does not write too much, she has been OK with any kind of writing. then, she had 2 hrs of practice step1 on Friday, I did not even ask about any comments on this one.
I believe that it is much less than Kristin had, correct?
Right after exams, D. was off to her UG, she misses it a lot, has visited several times. She will know results pass/fail in a month.<br>
Curm, do you have another one applying? Or your MS2 has some interviews? I feel like I missed something.
Good luck to everyone!!!</p>