Three Blocks Deep

Hello Lovelies!

It is now July and that means I have officially finished two blocks (Foundations and Anatomy) and currently am in the last few weeks of my third block (Respiratory). I know I have been behind on posting and keeping everyone updated on how each block is and what we can all be doing to improve our scores and GET THAT BREAD! I will be working on that but in the meantime, I thought it would be worthwhile to sit down and describe the system that my medical school is currently under.

Now, the school that I currently go to is a four year MD program. The first two years is very knowledge-heavy where it is the quintessential 'study until you die' mentality where 3 out of 5 days, we are given lectures (an average of 5 lectures) and practicals (an average of 2 practicals). On 1 out of the 5 days, we have clinical days where we go to the hospital and we are given tutorials and learn about examinations in each block. These are the days I look forward to as they teach us how to use our stethoscopes, spirometers, etc. The remaining day is given to us as a study day as they need to rotate the amount of students on a clinical day so some are on Mondays and some are on Wednesdays. In the last two years, we have our clinical years where we spend most of our time in our allocated hospitals and do rotations.

Currently, in the first two years, our "semesters" are broken up into blocks (1-2 months) where each block is equivalent to a body system. After each block, we have required summative assessments that come in forms of multiple choice exams, identification (on prosections, microscope slides, or both), or OSCEs (which is a few stations with actors that we do our clinical examinations on). The first multiple choice and the first Anatomy identification was not a barrier- which meant that failing would not equate us having to repeat a year. Instead, it would be counted into our overall grade at the end of the year, but a passing mark at the end would let us continue into our second year. After each block, we get a 1-2 week break where we recuperate and some of us go home. While we have no summers anymore, we still have a very, very long winter break where most IMGs are able to actually go home and not feel like a 2000$ plane ticket is a waste.

Let me know what you think down below and if you have any questions shoot off. xx Follow my blog with Bloglovin