Hey guys
I’ve my medicine interview scheduled at the end of sept and I’ll like to know if anyone could share some experiences of how studying med in UOA is like? What’s the curriculum like? How are most of the classes held? Could anyone tell me more about CBL? I would really appreciate ANY kind & as much info I can get regarding med. it’s been kinda hard to prepare for my interview because I feel the admission guide doesn’t really provide me with much information and I unfortunately do not know any med students I could consult personally so i would really appreciate any form of relevant information. Thanks in advance!
Hey
zzzyou that's a great question and there's probably enough that I could write a whole post on it alone but I'll keep it short sharp shiny for now. MD's post is very comprehensive to when it comes to covering the general experience so I'll make this more specific to your questions. Take this with a grain of salt.
The curriculum does it's best to be integrated, you have 3 streams which tie into one:
- case based learning (CBL)
- clinical practice
- Medical professional and personal development (MPPD)
Then you also have fundamentals of biomedical science (FBS) which is its own stream.
All your anatomy, histology, physiological, pharmacology etc. are all based around the clinical cases that you cover in CBL. Clinical practice where you learn your clinical skills will relate to the current case you are doing. I.e. you start with cardio cases so the first thing after general history taking that you learn is how to take a cardiovascular history + perform a cardiovascular examination. MPPD ties in as well, however, much more in second semester where you learn how to counsel patients and deal with different situations (first sem is more medical ethics, confidentiality etc.). The idea with CBL is that whatever you learn you revisit again in the later years and that you will build upon that later knowledge.
For CBL you normally have 4x 90 minute sessions per case (monday, wed, friday), and in each of those sessions you get handouts which tell you more about the patient. Before the case there is pre-reading to do, which means you have to study up beforehand to be able to cover what comes up in the session. It's all very self directed learning and you basically teach yourself. The lectures are there to consolidate what you go through in the sessions, and are timed so that they deal with content AFTER you have covered it in CBL. This can be a bit annoying but its good for consolidating the content. Normally first sess is anatomy, second sess is phys related to case, third is pathophys mayb, 4th session is mega mech + management. The workload is a fair amount and you're expected to cover the content and learning issues in your own time.
That's just a rough overview but if you've any other questions feel free to message me!
I gotchu
Crow