Curriculum

[Guest lululime]

I've been reading info on the dal website about the curriculum and I'm just wondering when the students learn most of the info. Looking at the schedule, it appears that there are only 3 hours of lecture in an entire week and lots of small group work. My question to any current students is: do you find that there isn't enough lecture and is it alot of independent studying or are you provided with enough info/an outline as to what to tackle.

[Guest JewelLeigh]

All of the small group work is case-based. That is, there are specific cases to work through, with guiding questions and end-of-case objectives. The lectures and lab compliment the more difficult information for the unit and usually go along with the case material as well. Thus, there is still a fair amount of guidance to indicate what we should and need to be learning. I personally find for most units we are provided with sufficient guidance to channel my studying in the right direction

[Guest namcln]

I believe that this is very much an independent taste sort of question. Not all units have three lectures/week, as was first intended with COPS. In the later courses, they really pack it in there, sometimes up to six lectures. The tutorial time is always steady. There is never a problem with understanding the objectives for the week because they are laid out at the end of the case and are covered sufficiently in lecture.

 

Yes, you usually have sufficient time to learn everything. My personal gripe (which is not necessarily a reflection of others) is, if you are going to have more lectures, cut down on the tutorial time. I was a few years out of school when I came back to class and found it deadly boring. I am better stimulated in the clinical setting (which we get a LOT of) and in a group where people are putting their heads together to solve problems (like in real life). I think in the true spirit of COPS, 3 lectures and 3 tutorials is the best system.

 

The caveat: understand at the end of the day, you are tested comprehensively when you are not necessarily taught in the same way. Tutorial focus shifts significantly before an exam to become more focused. It's really the only way to cover the material in a way that will be useful for testing. So, COPS at the beginning of the unit (designed for problem solving and comprehension) does not always look the same by the end of the unit (designed for performance). Keeping the independent study time available is key.

[Guest lululime]

Is tutorial just another name for lecture then? Are you also provided with a huge package of notes the first day of lecture or is it that you print them off as they get posted? I'm deciding what kind of printer I need to buy, ie. a laser or just a cheap ink jet. I guess I'm most concerned about how much guidance we get with our learning. I like the traditional method of teaching with didactic lectures so maybe Dal isn't the right school for me.

[Guest Night Moves]

Hey lululime,

Not to be nosy (except that it is being nosy), but where are you sitting on the OOP waitlist? Work is slow, so I have plenty of time to come up with a model for predicting waitlist movement. In the last two weeks I've learned that a) my model is terrible, and I should stop. Anyway, your input would be helpful.

 

Merci in advance.

[Guest peachy]

I'm deciding what kind of printer I need to buy, ie. a laser or just a cheap ink jet.

I know nothing about Dal, but I just bought a cheap laser printer and I highly recommend this route unless you need color for some reason. Given the relative cost of toner vs ink I think it's probably cheaper in the long run. I suggest watching the forums on redflagdeals.com to find a good deal, or waiting until the next Dell's Days of Deals promotion. I bought a $250 laser on sale for $100 during the Dell's Days of Deals, and have been incredibly happy with it. I forgot how nice it is not to wait an hour for stuff to print, to be able to highlight on printouts, etc...

[Guest lululime]

Hi Night Moves,

 

I was within the first five on the OOP waitlist. I'm still contemplating whether I should stay at a hometown school because of the enormous debt I would be in. I'll try to decide quick.

[Guest JewelLeigh]

Lulu: Tutorial and lecture are totally different things. Tutorial is small group learning (8 students max), based around a case that is presented to us as a patient's story, page by page. Each page gives more information about the patient (history, physical, lab work, etc.) and has associated guiding questions (Eg. "What is the differential diagnosis of abdominal pain?" for a patient presenting with that symptom or "How do you interpret liver function tests?" for a patient who has just had these tests done). Lecture is typical and as you likely had in undergrad.

 

Again, I have not had trouble with knowing what to study. The COPS approach is more clinical and as a result, in my opinion, easier to remember, than a didactic approach. It sounds like you are imagining the tutorial approach to be so wide open that all you know are the general topics to study, but no specifics within those topics. This is not the case at Dalhousie...the objectives are generally very clear and combined with the lectures and tutorial guiding questions, it is obvious which areas need to be studied in detail...at least to me (haven't heard any complaints from my classmates either).

 

With respect to lecture notes...for some units we get a package at the beginning and for the rest we almost always get the notes right at the beginning of the lecture or in our mailboxes a few days before. Once in awhile, notes are available online only...but this is generally rare (perhaps 1 lecture in 6 if I had to guess). As such, printing is minimal in my opinion

[Guest Night Moves]

lulu,

No rush, I'm just playing with numbers. Thanks for the post.

[Guest BCgirl]

Hey Lulu -- I'm a 3rd year clerk at Dal. I was a bit skeptical of cops before starting med school... but, I liked it a lot. I think I would have gone crazy if I was stuck in lectures all the time. There are definitely enough lectures... tutorial helps to solidify stuff or flesh out stuff that was brought up in lecture. Sometimes groups get off topic with some learning issues, which can be a little bit frustrating when you're coming up to an exam, but I think the cops system works very well. You also might have some labs depending on the unit. Then there's all the clinical stuff and sessions at the LRC as well. I know I got a bit sick of tutorial by the time 2nd year rolled around, but it would have been worse if it were all lectures. It's a more realistic way of learning anyway... that's what you're going to be doing as a doc: start off with your H+P, generate a DDx, order/review labs/investigations, etc.

 

Best of luck!

[Guest JewelLeigh]

Amen to being a bit sick of tutorial by the end of med II! Lol.

[webshy]

Lulu: Tutorial and lecture are totally different things. Tutorial is small group learning (8 students max), based around a case that is presented to us as a patient's story, page by page. Each page gives more information about the patient (history, physical, lab work, etc.) and has associated guiding questions (Eg. "What is the differential diagnosis of abdominal pain?" for a patient presenting with that symptom or "How do you interpret liver function tests?" for a patient who has just had these tests done). Lecture is typical and as you likely had in undergrad.

 

Again, I have not had trouble with knowing what to study. The COPS approach is more clinical and as a result, in my opinion, easier to remember, than a didactic approach. It sounds like you are imagining the tutorial approach to be so wide open that all you know are the general topics to study, but no specifics within those topics. This is not the case at Dalhousie...the objectives are generally very clear and combined with the lectures and tutorial guiding questions, it is obvious which areas need to be studied in detail...at least to me (haven't heard any complaints from my classmates either).

 

How many hours per week did you need to devote to preparing for tutorials? Were most topics touched on in the lectures, or were some things only discussed in tutorials?

 

I'm trying to compare the curriculum at Dal to that at Queen's and Western (which appear quite similar, with the exception of the scheduling - 3-4 hrs of lecture each moring, plus 3 afternoons a week of clinical skills/PBL/community health).

 

Thanks for your help.

Elaine

[Madz25]

How many hours per week did you need to devote to preparing for tutorials? Were most topics touched on in the lectures, or were some things only discussed in tutorials?

 

I'm trying to compare the curriculum at Dal to that at Queen's and Western (which appear quite similar, with the exception of the scheduling - 3-4 hrs of lecture each moring, plus 3 afternoons a week of clinical skills/PBL/community health).

 

Thanks for your help.

Elaine

 

Some topics are covered in lectures and are reinforced in tutorials. Some you have to learn on your own in tutorials. Preparation for tutorials depends on you and how your group functions. In each tutorial, groups come up with "learning issues" - topics that need to be better understood/learned etc. Some groups go with individual learning issues where each person is assigned 1 or 2 issues. Other groups have global learning issues where each member of the group is responsible for ALL issues. Sometimes learning issues can be really quick (half hour tops) and other times they can take quite long (several hours). It all comes down to how your group functions and how much effort you want to put into it. You certainly dont need to use all your free time preparing for tutorials.

 

Hope this helps.

[007]

By the end of Med I I learned to never spend more than 30min on my learning issue for tutorial.

[DrDo]

Bump

 

 

I am wondering how is Dal's current curriculum, current student's opinions?

 

Also, does anyone know how Dal's student fair on the LMCC/MCCQE compared to the rest of the schools in canada?

 

Lecture time is stated to be three hours per week, does that vary significantly depending on the unit, or is it a set condition?

 

Are the lectures enough to comprehend all of the information? How significant of a role does PBL play?

 

How many hours per day do students spend preparing for the PBL session every other day of the week?

 

How would Dal curriculum compare to that of alberta, where they offer the same amount of PBL time per week, but have more lecture hours (i.e. alberta offers 5-10hours of lectures on top of PBL, where dal only offers 3hours)?

[doc2B]

I like our curriculum, we do have some lecture time and a lot of tutorial (case-based learning) time. I don't have any stats on our scores on the LMCC/MCCQE but as far as I've been told its quite competitive.

 

There is definitely variation in lecture time. In our current unit we have a lot more lecture time than we did in some other units, for example this week coming up we have about 12 hours of lecture (a few hours are unrelated to the unit however). But some of the other units would be more close to 3 hrs/week.

 

There is definitely an onus on the individual students to do a lot of learning on their own time. Some lecturers cover most or all you will need to know in lecture (for exams) but there is a lot of extra material that you will need in the future that you learn on your own or in tutorial. Tutorial is a big part of the curriculum its definitely not side-lined compared to lectures in most units.

 

How much time you spend preparing for tutorial will differ depending on the unit, the person the topic, etc. I've had days where I prepared for a maximum of 30 minutes and others when I've spent a few hours. I'm sure there are other people that work harder/longer than I do on average and others that work even fewer hours than I do.

 

I can't compare it to Alberta because I don't have any experience with their curriculum, but if you have any other questions I'd be happy to try to answer them.

 

Cheers!

[patrick83]

Hey Doc2B- I sent you a private (albeit unrelated) message. Thanks!

[007]

Hi,

I just graduated from Dal last week and when preparing for the MCCQE we were told that last year Dal ranked in the top 5. HOWEVER, all schools across the country are very very close statistically. You shouldn't worry about the exam when choosing where to go to school.

 

Lectures do provide a significant bulk of the information you need to know in the first 1-2 years. Some of this is reinforced in tutorial, but tutorials also cover additional information you need to know. When I was in Med I early in the year I would spend considerable amounts of time preparing for learning issues. By later in the year I realized it was in my best interest to spend 30min max preparing for my topic to present. If I couldn't find the information within that time, it meant it was a pretty tough learning issue and something that we should maybe revisit as a group (i.e. break the topic down more or it wasn't significant enough for our learning (i.e. too obscure)). Heh, I just scrolled down the topic and found I mentioned that about a year ago in this same thread.