PBL questions....

[Guest bcdentalgirl]

I have some q's about the PBL format.

1) are students assigned to the same group for the whole year and does this group consist of a random mix of dent and med students?

2) How is the work graded? I heard a rumour that you are graded as a group? T or F?

3) Is it well received by students? ie. do students find it complements their other course work or gets in the way of it?

4) In a couple of my undergrad classes, we have had assignments such as reading two papers and comparing and contrasting the findings based on the context of the course...is this similar to PBL?

Thanks for the info in advance...

[Guest Bruno11]

Hope these answers are what you are looking for.. if not let me know...

 

1) are students assigned to the same group for the whole year and does this group consist of a random mix of dent and med students?

 

nope, we get re-assigned to new groups about every five weeks. it usually corresponds with changing to another body system. (ie five weeks in one group doing the respiratory system and then five weeks with another group doing the cardiovascular system). the group usually consists of 6 med students and 2 dent students.

 

2) How is the work graded? I heard a rumour that you are graded as a group? T or F?

 

each student in given a grade, it is either pass or fail this year.. there is no grade for the group.

 

3) Is it well received by students? ie. do students find it complements their other course work or gets in the way of it?

 

You hear all kinda of things. some love it, some not so much. I generally like it. I sometimes feel totally lost and clueless, but it forces me to go off and learn around the topics we are discussing so i can contribute.

 

4) In a couple of my undergrad classes, we have had assignments such as reading two papers and comparing and contrasting the findings based on the context of the course...is this similar to PBL?

 

not really.. PBL is like stepping through a real life scenario over the course of a week.. On monday you get presented with a scenario and questions related to the info provided. the group spends the PBL time discussing and after the session the group generates some topics to learn about. We meet again on wednesday to discuss and learn more about the case. the cylcle goes again on friday. the following monday we begin a new case.

 

hope this helps

[Guest bcdentalgirl]

Thanks Bruno.

One more totally trivial question...

where are the majority of the lectures/pbl tutorials held? Just curious.

[Guest Ian Wong]

First year tutorials are held on the UBC campus, mostly in the Woodward/IRC building. Second year tutorials are all down at VGH in one of the medical buildings. This is the same for both the medical and dental students, who are mixed into the same PBL groups (6 med students + 2 dental students per group).

 

Ian

UBC, Med 4

[Guest Cramguy]

Some other stuff about PBL you might like to know:

 

- People usually bring food to share with others, at least once a week. Some groups do it for every single session. (You don't have to worry about missing breakfast)

 

- Personally I find that whether the group jives or not depends on two things:

1) Most importantly is how the tutor is - some tutors are overly critical or unhelpful or sarcastic, which may make it difficult for students to learn; other tutors are fantastic and you will miss him/her when the group changes again

2) If there are any dominating people in your group - it will be difficult to participate. I guess it is in some people's personality that they just like to talk, and so they talk talk talk ..... you get the idea. What generally happens then is that the conversation of the gropu will end up being carried by2-3 people, with the rest of the people just watching.

 

- PBL starts at 8:00am. Your group can set a 5-minute rule so that you can end up being 5 mins late and still not be penalized.

 

- Whether you will enjoy PBL that week (the way I find it) may depend on how good the case is. Some cases are really bad (they simply feed you the answer), whereas other cases are very good (the things we docs live for). Some cases are also very sad as we learned this week!

 

Just some more thoughts,

Cramguy

UBC, Med 1

[Guest kellyl20]

Cramguy: Thanks for your honesty (of your impression re PBL) What % of PBL do med 1 students have at UBC?

[Guest Cramguy]

I suppose you mean how much PBL we have. We have it 3 times a week, every week.

[Guest Ian Wong]

Here's an old portion of my website that I never got around to converting to the Premed101.com website. There's a description of PBL with a sample case, and a schedule of a typical week showing the proportion of PBL compared with lectures and labs.

 

UBC PBL info and sample week's schedule

 

Ian

UBC, Med 4

[Guest kellyl20]

Cramguy: Thanks for info, 60% is PBL in a week; a bit much for my liking but it can be fun I guess

[Guest Bruno11]

KellyI20,

 

we don't have PBL all day on mon, wed and fri. We have a single 2 hours session on each mon, wed and fri. The rest of those days is taken up by lectures, labs etc...

 

so in the end we have PBL sessions 6 hrs per week..