Western curriculum

[Orchid]

Hey all,

 

Could someone tell me a bit about the curriculum style at Western?

 

I've heard about TO, queens, mac and ottawa, but can't seem to say that I'm aware of western...

 

i.e. didactic, PBL, ... midterms / blocks, big exam at end?

 

thanks

[mrgreek]

theres lots of threads on it, do a search

[Orchid]

so after each block is there a big exam?

 

or do you do the blocks then have a big exam at the end of the year?

 

 

also given the system when you get to clerkship, some stuff you have done and be rid of in 1st year... so some material you wont have seen for 1-2 years... is this correct reasoning?

[mrgreek]

from what ive read in other threads....theres a test after each block and u r tested on the material on that block at the end of the semester (im not in the school, i have no idea, but i would guess that its either in a big exam or lots of 'small' ones). ur second concern i think 'gob' adressed in one of the threads that u may have searched, and thats the only consequence of the curriculum.

[Jectin]

In a nutshell,

 

didactic lectures 5 days a week in the morning hours (usually 3-4 hrs). The lectures are based on a theme (eg. cardio, resp) which we call a block.

 

In the afternoons on Mondays you have community health which is an exploration of ecosystem health, public health and ethics.

 

Then on two of the afternoons you are off, and two of the afternoons you have PCCIA (discussing issues related to the block but outside the realm of medicine and looking into more of the social, psychosocial, political and economical sides of certain things) or PCCM (clinical skills, technical skills of some of the stuff you will be doing when you start out on the wards). These are in small groups.

 

There are exams at the end of the block and end of exam. There is one assignment per block and your PCCIA mark is incorporated into that block.

 

It is true that some of the stuff we learn in first year will not be reviewed until third year. But they won't throw you into the shark tank just like that, there will obviously be direction about what to review before and during the block.

 

And in fourth year, there is half a year of electives and half a year of lectures where we come back to the classroom to relearn everything just in time for the MCCQE exam.

 

Hope that helps, come to Western, it rocks. I'm not biased at all.

 

J

[Gob]

While it may be true that you don't formally have a lecture on some stuff from first year until you see it in third year, you have to constantly review the material since most of medicine is interlinked. For example we learnt about SLE last year and then this year we've had to discuss it a few times since it's affects are so widespread.

[ploughboy]

Hey,

 

I was in the last year of the "old" curriculum, where we went through each body system twice. I was a little worried about what you've been talking about.

 

Based on clerkship to date, I don't think it will be a big deal. Even having gone through each organ system twice in preclinical, I've had more than my share of "gosh, tonight I'd better review those things I got pimped on today" moments in clerkship. You're going to have to read around you cases no matter what.

 

But then again, I can barely remember what I had for lunch most days.

 

pb

[webshy]

In a nutshell, didactic lectures 5 days a week in the morning hours (usually 3-4 hrs). The lectures are based on a theme (eg. cardio, resp) which we call a block.

 

Do you find that there are too many or just the right number of hours of lectures? I've been comparing Western, Queen's and Dalhousie, and the number of hours of lectures appears to be significantly higher at Western (ie: 9-12 hrs/week at UWO vs 3 hrs/week at Dal). That said, Dal does have an additional 6 hours of tutorials each week.

 

The Independent Learning Modules are a big part of the first year curriculum. Since next September is when the satellite school in Windsor opens and the intent is to ensure the same education at both schools, there is going to be even more independent learning. The modules can be pretty quick to work through or very dense depending on your background and the material. So far they're all do-able.

 

How many hours per week do you spend on the independent modules? What do these include? Can you provide some examples?

 

And in fourth year, there is half a year of electives and half a year of lectures where we come back to the classroom to relearn everything just in time for the MCCQE exam.

 

How many weeks of electives does Western have? How many weeks is the Back to the Basics program?

 

Thank you for your help.

Elaine

[blinknoodle]

 

How many weeks of electives does Western have? How many weeks is the Back to the Basics program?

 

 

Hey Elaine,

 

I will leave the questions about pre-clerkship curriculum to those that are experiencing the designed curriculum.

 

Wrt clinical elements, we have 50 weeks of core clerkship rotations and 16 weeks of electives, beginning Sept of your 4th year. All 16 weeks are pre-CaRMS interviews, and roughly 14 weeks are pre-reference letter deadline. A real perk of the UWO curriculum is its elective layout, because you have experienced your core rotations so you are more likely to set up in electives that you actually want to do after experiencing it in clerkship.

 

Back-to-basics, or the transitional period, is 12 weeks where you have to take at least 240 hours of classes (lectures/small group). I listed the courses available this year in another thread. You have 3 weeks of protected time off for CaRMS interviews in the middle of these 12 weeks.

[mezzamorra]

your question re: is 3-4 hrs/day of lecture too much is entirely dependent on your own learning style. some people like having direction, so the 4hrs/day is not bad, as you feel you are covering everything that the school seems to think you need to know. some days 4 hrs is awful, because you are exhausted, or the lecturer is bad, or the material is dreadful. i know some people go to every lecture, some people go to NO lectures, and others that pick and choose based on the content/lecturer.

 

4 hours isn't as bad as it sounds though. plus there's a tim horton's nearby for easy caffeine refills. it does feel like we have a lot of free time on some days. you have two afternoons off a week, which is pretty cool, so you can study/work out/do extracurriculars/observerships/learn to play guitar/whatever. if you think four hours is too much, it's likely that u of t isn't the place for you, as i hear they're in class from 8-5 every day!

 

questions re: independent learning. this is also quite variable from block to block. in the immunology block, we were given 60 pages of anti-infectious agents to read and learn about, mostly on our own. the first, introductory, block had a decent amount of independent learning-- things like basic embryology, some biochemistry, some physiology. most of our blocks so far have had very little independent learning, but i hear this is changing somewhat for next year.

 

again, given that mac can essentially run a med school as an independent learning exercise, you should be able to get by without any trouble. also, you can do the independent learning modules in groups, in case you have any trouble, or if you have special expertise in an area that you can share with others.