SpicyNoodles Posted October 17, 2009 Report Share Posted October 17, 2009 Hi there, I'm applying to U of A and was wondering how the med students are finding the program so far. Anyone finding the program to be better than they expected, or the opposite? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted October 17, 2009 Report Share Posted October 17, 2009 Well, U of A was my first choice (out of 4 schools which also included U of C, Queen's, and UWO), and I'm very happy so far. They are very receptive to student feedback and I feel that they care a lot about what the students want - an example would be the fact that they podcast all the lectures, so you are not clueless if you can't come for whatever reason. I'm not really sure what exactly you are hoping to hear....I'm enjoying the experience, we have a good mix of lecture and small group stuff. Most lecturers are great, some so-so, some are no good (even though they might be experts in their field)....small groups are pretty fun, our facilitators make things very interactive but also know when to step back and let us discuss things on our own.... There's a TON of EC opportunities, I'd say you have to make a conscious effort NOT to get involved in stuff. I play intramurals, run with a "bad runners" group, sit on an administrative committee as a student rep, do high school/post-secondary outreach as part of another committee, and I'm in like 10 different medicine-related clubs (clubs dedicated to specialties, etc). Every week there's 2-3 talks that I go to. E.g. on Monday I went to a psychiatry club talk, and on Thursday we had a "How to succeed in clerkship" talk where some 4th year med students came out to give us some tips. Social life is pretty good, we seem to have an official full-class party every weekend and of course there are also smaller unofficial events. E.g. last night I went to a house party, tonight I'm going out for dinner for someone's birthday, and then after I'm heading to a bar on campus for a full-class party. If you have any specific questions, fire away, it's hard to say much in general terms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apache Posted October 17, 2009 Report Share Posted October 17, 2009 u of a ****ing rocks, im having so much fun, great profs, great support, great stuff to do outside of school... i was hesitant in applying after undergrad here but right now there's nowhere else i'd rather be Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newbie_01 Posted October 17, 2009 Report Share Posted October 17, 2009 have you had your first set of exams? how were they? If you don't mind sharing the results too. Also, how's the workload in medical school? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted October 17, 2009 Report Share Posted October 17, 2009 have you had your first set of exams? how were they? If you don't mind sharing the results too. Yeah, our first block ended 1.5 weeks ago, so we've already had our 1st block final. The Intro Block at U of A is kind of a joke, it's mostly aimed at getting everyone on the same level (although considering our extensive list of pre-reqs, I'm not sure as to how different our backgrounds really are) and at giving us an opportunity to get to know each other. I'd say it was about 1/2 science and 1/2 touchy-feely public health stuff. The pass for Intro Block has historically been something like 65%, however, pass marks are set based on how the class does. I've heard rumors that no one fails the intro block because they will always set the lowest grade as the passing grade, but I don't know if it's true. I spoke with a few people after the exam, and there were some who scored in the low 90s as well as some who scored in the low 60s, so there is definitely a lot of variation. This is all assuming none of the questions get revised/dropped (they look at questions that most students got wrong, and if like 80% of us picked B when they think the correct answer should be A, they will just drop the question). Our final grades are not up yet - the calculations I mentioned are just based on what we calculated for ourselves from the exam reviews (where they post the correct answers for every question). Our next block (Infection, Immunity, and Inflammation) has a midterm about 3 weeks from now and a final at the end of November, if I remember correctly. The material is quite a bit more advanced now, and I was told that the pass mark tends to be around the low 70s, which is quite high. I definitely feel like I have to do a lot more work now. Triple I is basically everything about immunity, inflammation, and infection (duh) - fungal and bacterial infections, medications used to treat them, immune processes involved, etc. I will answer the 2nd part of your question after I review our parasites lecture...lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted October 17, 2009 Report Share Posted October 17, 2009 Ok, so coming back to the workload issue....how about I just tell you how next week is going to go for me. Monday: 8 to 10 I have DL (PBL) - some others have it 3 to 5 Lecture 10 to noon Lab 1 to 3 I have to be on campus til 5 for a meeting, so I will likely do some research for Wednesday's DL between 3 and 5. Tuesday: 8 to 10 I have clinical skills (not everyone has them that day - some people have time off) 11 to noon there's a career development talk 1 to 2 we have a lecture 2 to 3 we have small groups Wednesday: 8 to 10 I have DL (others have it 3 to 5), 10 to 12 I have lecture, and then 1 to 3 I have lecture I will study for DL for about 2 hours that day. Thursday: 8 to noon we have lectures (*shudder*), then 1 to 5 we have TOSCE (no idea whether we have to actually be present there the entire time, they haven't given us much info about that). Friday: we all have DL 8 to 9, 9 to 11 we have lecture, and 11 to noon we have wrap-up. Friday afternoon is off for most of us, but some people have clinical skills for 2 hours (which I have Tuesday mornings). On the weekend, I will probably review for 10 hours or so. So I guess the workload for Monday is 8 hours, Tuesday is 5 hours, Wednesday is 8 hours, Thursday is 8 hours, Friday is 4 hours, and weekend is 10. So total for the week is 43 hours? So 40-45 hours a week on average, I guess. This doesn't include any of my ECs or shadowing, obviously - sometimes I have to skip lectures for those, so I end up having to review during the week or more on the weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wut? Posted October 17, 2009 Report Share Posted October 17, 2009 Failing is an illusion. For the TOSCE, it spans about a half hour to fourty five minutes...maybe less considering you guys are being tested on histories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newbie_01 Posted October 18, 2009 Report Share Posted October 18, 2009 thanks so much Jochi!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted October 18, 2009 Report Share Posted October 18, 2009 Failing is an illusion. For the TOSCE, it spans about a half hour to fourty five minutes...maybe less considering you guys are being tested on histories. Hmmm, I've heard conflicting statements re: failing after asking a few people in 2nd year - 2 people in your class said that a few folks failed block exams, and 1 person said no one failed. However, I think it might come down to the definition of failing - it sounds like a few people failed block finals, but they passed the rewrites. That's good re: TOSCE, I was hoping it would only take a short while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wut? Posted October 18, 2009 Report Share Posted October 18, 2009 Hmmm, I've heard conflicting statements re: failing after asking a few people in 2nd year - 2 people in your class said that a few folks failed block exams, and 1 person said no one failed. However, I think it might come down to the definition of failing - it sounds like a few people failed block finals, but they passed the rewrites. That's good re: TOSCE, I was hoping it would only take a short while. Re, failing - nobody in our class has 'failed' a block. Individual evaluations, yes, but in the end, everyone has had the mind to get their stuff together to pass the block as a whole Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted October 18, 2009 Report Share Posted October 18, 2009 Re, failing - nobody in our class has 'failed' a block. Individual evaluations, yes, but in the end, everyone has had the mind to get their stuff together to pass the block as a whole That's good to know. I'm curious to see how our Intro block final grades turn out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newbie_01 Posted October 19, 2009 Report Share Posted October 19, 2009 Have you met Dr. Alim from the interview video posted on youtube? :D how's he in person? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted October 19, 2009 Report Share Posted October 19, 2009 Have you met Dr. Alim from the interview video posted on youtube? :D how's he in person? Yeah, I've met him a few times, he's pretty cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BurgerKing Posted May 25, 2010 Report Share Posted May 25, 2010 bump bump bump Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medjunkie Posted May 25, 2010 Report Share Posted May 25, 2010 how is the hands-on experience in the hospital? Is it more watching what the residents and fellows are doing, or is it hands-on with responsibility? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wut? Posted May 25, 2010 Report Share Posted May 25, 2010 how is the hands-on experience in the hospital? Is it more watching what the residents and fellows are doing, or is it hands-on with responsibility? Very little 'responsibility' until you hit clerkship, and even then you have plenty of checks and balances in place since you are still green around the ears. Hands on experience in first two years is in the form of mandatory Gilbert's Scholars sessions where students are in groups of around 5 and are paired with an attending physician, and you learn basic physical exams such as cardio, pulm, msk, etc. The other form of hands on experience can be through student-organized electives and shadowing, where you follow around an attending or resident on a particular service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boodog Posted May 25, 2010 Report Share Posted May 25, 2010 how is the hands-on experience in the hospital? Is it more watching what the residents and fellows are doing, or is it hands-on with responsibility? hands on experience usually depends on what you are doing/who you are shadowing. I shadowed one time in the ER and got to suture and do chest tubes, another time i basically followed them around and it was like i didn't exist. On 12 hour electives, sometimes for example in surgery there can be a lot of people in there so you won't get to do much or even scrub in. another time it was me and the surgeon--pretty exciting stuff. you don't have any responsibility, you just have to be interested and polite. cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lactic Folly Posted May 25, 2010 Report Share Posted May 25, 2010 I thought there was a fair amount of responsibility during clerkship (better educationally). Of course, backup was available if you needed it, and there was a lot of variation depending on the site and service. A few years back, on surgery at the Misericordia (community type hospital), only the student was required to be in-house for call, and would get orders cosigned over the phone by the surgical resident who was on home call. And on medicine at the Royal Alex, the junior residents and clerks took care of all the ward issues and emerg admissions (no senior medicine after 11 pm).. things might have changed since then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wut? Posted May 26, 2010 Report Share Posted May 26, 2010 I thought there was a fair amount of responsibility during clerkship (better educationally). Of course, backup was available if you needed it, and there was a lot of variation depending on the site and service. A few years back, on surgery at the Misericordia (community type hospital), only the student was required to be in-house for call, and would get orders cosigned over the phone by the surgical resident who was on home call. And on medicine at the Royal Alex, the junior residents and clerks took care of all the ward issues and emerg admissions (no senior medicine after 11 pm).. things might have changed since then. Things have changed now since the issue of only the student being in-house for call was brought up for accreditation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsci Posted May 27, 2010 Report Share Posted May 27, 2010 is there a holiday for labour day? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tearless Posted May 27, 2010 Report Share Posted May 27, 2010 no more holiday for you!! welcome to med actually I think labour day is stat holiday.. I also think you start O-week before labour day so double check when the calendar comes. It's ironic that Jochi mentioned how responsive UofA is to student feedback as of 2009. Let's hope that doesn't change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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