This thread certainly needed to happen. I certainly think that the learning curve in medicine can be quite steep for some people and if you don't happen to immediately take to it then I think it's reasonable to try it out for a short while (or even up to a year is reasonable since offers for courses tend to only come once per year). Most of Australia's medical school attrition (i.e. students stopping studying medicine) is during or right after the first year of study, and that's okay - as stated above, it's perfectly sane to do this and choose a different career pathway if you feel like you aren't heading where you want to. I do think the best time to decide that you don't want to do medicine is during the first year, owing very much to the committment you make to medicine if you do decide to follow down that pathway - provided you have a good idea of what kind of decision you are making by speaking to those who have been in medicine many years.
That said, PBL isn't exactly everyone's piece of cake either, nor are hospital tutes, and even between different medical schools things can be very different (speaking from personal experience). People find their strengths and weaknesses and comfort zones in medical school. It's the same kind of transition as going from not being at school to starting school - a big change.
My thoughts are - give it a while; you're making a judgment based on ONE DAY of PBL (I did SIX YEARS of PBL). It might very well grow on you, or you might find some part that really grows on you, and you might find a good reason to stay as a result. Good luck!
Thanks for the response, I've also been thinking about if PBL is the best learning style for me, we'll see I guess. Also thank you to everyone else who made a response today. I've been reading everything!
Another day of medical school done. Started with some SP (standardised patient) work. Was all about making small talk with the SP. Didn't do that well, I'm not too great at small talk in my personal life anyway. It seems like the SP scenarios that they set up were a bit plastic, the SPs were always wearing something interesting, or have something interesting by their bedside, in order to make it easy to make small talk. I noticed what happened were my group members started scanning for all the "items of interest" and using them one after another to prolong the conversation. Small talk is probably one area I'll have to work on if I want to continue down this path.
Did some study for PBL after. Heart physiology is quite interesting after it makes sense to you. Kind of like maths. But much much much more info to absorb before it makes sense. Would probably still prefer maths but this ain't too bad..
The school made us do an exam in the afternoon. The exam was at a graduate level. It was basically to determine our baseline knowledge and measure our progression. Obviously I knew nothing and was out in less than an hour, lol.
Didn't feel too bad today, lets see what happens tomorrow!