Guest Ticket Posted May 14, 2004 Report Share Posted May 14, 2004 Gosh, I feel like I'm the only posting questions these days... I know you probably answered this in the forum before, but I couldn't find it. When do you guys get tested? How often? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 17 Posted May 14, 2004 Report Share Posted May 14, 2004 Ticket-- As far as academic testing goes, during first and second year we write an exam at the end of every unit. Units range in length from 5 weeks to 10 weeks, so it's slightly variable. Exams are on Fridays and you get Thursday off. This year we will have written 6 exams come June: Anatomy (8 wks, exam at the end of October), Metabolism and Function (10 wks, early Jan), Pathology, Immunology, Microbiology (6 wks, late March), Pharmacology (5 wks, late April) and Genetics, Embryology, Reproduction (5 wks, late May). M+F is about 2 weeks after Christmas holiday (2 wks) and PIM comes about two weeks after spring break (1 wk). Evaluation for year-long units is a little different--we had a small ethics exam in November, a take-home exam on "life cycles" and a project write-up as part of our Patient-Doctor Unit; we wrote a 4-page paper for Clinical Epidemiology and final elective projects range from 20 page research papers to final presentations, etc. Exam format varies with the unit--they're trying to increase the amount of multiple choice questions in order to prepare us for our LMCCs at the end of fourth year. 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ticket Posted May 14, 2004 Report Share Posted May 14, 2004 Hey 17, Thanks. That sounds sensible, rather than having the exams all at the end of the year! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest CaesarCornelius Posted May 14, 2004 Report Share Posted May 14, 2004 Gosh 17, did I really write all those tests? It sure seems like a lot when you put it all in one paragraph like that. CC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webshy Posted March 21, 2008 Report Share Posted March 21, 2008 Ticket-- As far as academic testing goes, during first and second year we write an exam at the end of every unit. Units range in length from 5 weeks to 10 weeks, so it's slightly variable. Exams are on Fridays and you get Thursday off. This year we will have written 6 exams come June: Anatomy (8 wks, exam at the end of October), Metabolism and Function (10 wks, early Jan), Pathology, Immunology, Microbiology (6 wks, late March), Pharmacology (5 wks, late April) and Genetics, Embryology, Reproduction (5 wks, late May). M+F is about 2 weeks after Christmas holiday (2 wks) and PIM comes about two weeks after spring break (1 wk). Evaluation for year-long units is a little different--we had a small ethics exam in November, a take-home exam on "life cycles" and a project write-up as part of our Patient-Doctor Unit; we wrote a 4-page paper for Clinical Epidemiology and final elective projects range from 20 page research papers to final presentations, etc. Exam format varies with the unit--they're trying to increase the amount of multiple choice questions in order to prepare us for our LMCCs at the end of fourth year. 17 Are there any other tests, exams or assignments through the year? Or does your mark (or pass vs fail) depend entirely on the end of unit exam? Thanks, Elaine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madz25 Posted March 21, 2008 Report Share Posted March 21, 2008 Are there any other tests, exams or assignments through the year? Or does your mark (or pass vs fail) depend entirely on the end of unit exam? Thanks, Elaine Pass/fail depends on the end of unit exam and your performance in tutorials. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobey Posted April 4, 2008 Report Share Posted April 4, 2008 Hey, here are some questions for Dal med students if you are out there: Since you have exams every 5 to 10 weeks, as well as essays/research/take-home test, do you feel like you are always working? Do you always have something to worry about? I know that med school is a huge committment that involves a lot of work, but is there ever a week (or even a few days) when you feel like you can relax a bit? I'm the type of person who feels guilty if I have schoolwork to do but am not sitting at my desk studying. I want to be able to have a balanced lifestyle while in med school (exercise, have some fun, keep in touch with friends), so I don't think it would be good for me if I always have a test/exam/essay on the back burner. Any comments? I have not been accepted (here's to hoping!), but I'm just thinking about this. Thanks for the help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zakiyaa Posted April 4, 2008 Report Share Posted April 4, 2008 Hi, I will try to answer your questions as best as I can. However, please keep in mind that my interpretation of being "busy" is quite likely very different from that of some of my classmates, etc. Exams do happen to come around at weird intervals. There are 4 in the Med 2 year compared to the 5 in Med 1. Research, for some, is always ongoing and there are various essays, assignments, etc. that are due. The nature of these assignments can vary from person to person if they are for electives. Some people write 20 page literature reviews for an elective. This is highly involved and can take a large chunk of time. Other people may elect to keep clinical diaries, which involves smaller amounts of time devoted each week or every other week to one's elective. Last year, I did 2 1/2 year electives and I had two very large projects to complete. This year, I did a 1 year project with a slide show presentation that I gave to a local high school. The time input was concentrated around 1 weekend and I was done with my requirements for my Med 2 elective unit project after that weekend. Now, I've realized that this may seem like I'm rambling on and on and on, but I thought I would give an example of what I've done. To answer your questions more succintly, there were weekends and even weeks during my Med 1 year in which I felt I had a good deal of free time. This amount of "free time" is significantly curtailed in Med 2 for a variety of reasons most often related to increased difficulty of material, more time needed for studying, 20 hours of mandatory community volunteering, individual research projects that I am pursuing, etc. This year, I am working, more often than not, a good deal of the "work week" during normal "9 to 5 hours" with other hours scattered here and there. Most weekends are busy. The "super-busy" periods come approximately 2-3 weeks before an exam. I then find myself very immersed in reviewing old material, keeping up with new learning issues, and generally trying to not go crazy. My time input during those weeks is often above 65 hours and close to 70 hours a week, but that is not the standard for every week of Med 2. In Med 3, you will find that your schedule is even more signficantly curtailed. You will have call often 1 in 4 nights, especially on the Internal Medicine rotations and you will be up sometimes for over 24 hours. You will be working a lot of overnights, weekends, holidays, etc. You do get off 2 weeks for the December break and there is a March break of one week, but that is the only time you get off between the start of Med 3 in Sept. until the end of Med 3 in Oct of the following year. Clerkship, the 3 and 4th clinical years of medical training, are difficult, time-involved, and there will be many times when you feel tired beyond all belief. However, most of my friends who have gone through clerkship value the training, just not the long hours that sometimes seem to drag on forever! So, after my overly long-winded response, yes, there are times to relax in med school. Med 1 isn't really all that bad, Med 2 is more time consuming, Med 3 is crazy, and Med 4 is somewhere in between crazy and a yet to be discovered state of mind. The huge time commitment is a part of medicine. You really can't escape from it, believe me, I've tried and I'm the queen of procrastinating! In the end, I more often than not love what I do at the end of the day. 'Sides, nothing I've been through yet can come close to paralleling what I went through during my last year of graduate studies. That was craziness! I hope I didn't rant too much and that I answered your question. Best of luck, Zakiyaa Dal Med 2010 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobey Posted April 4, 2008 Report Share Posted April 4, 2008 Hey Zakiyaa, That is REALLY helpful. I appreciate your time in answering my questions. Its good to know that you are happy with your education, even with the (sometimes) crazy time commitments. I like hearing about your personal elective choices...very informative. Thanks!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zakiyaa Posted April 4, 2008 Report Share Posted April 4, 2008 No problem, if you have any other questions, PM me so that I don't clutter up the board with my inane ramblings. Glad that I could be of help! Cheers, Zakiyaa, Dal Med 2010:p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
007 Posted April 4, 2008 Report Share Posted April 4, 2008 Just to add my 2 cents to Zakiyaa's response, I'm currently in Med 3 and I'm actually finding I have more free time now than in Med 2. Sure, I do more hours at the hospital, but I generally spend an hour a day on studying on the nights I'm not on call/post call and a few hours on weekends and we don't have any of those nasty essays or projects or learning issues etc like in Med 2 (except some minor ones for some rotations) so you really only have to prepare for your exams/OSCEs every 12 weeks. I find it much more relaxed and I'm much more sane than I was in Med 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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