My medical school does 4 things that just make sense

As challenging as medical school is, there are several things my school does to help reinforce the learning. Here are some things offered at my medical school that just make sense.

My medical school has…

1. Weekly quizzes

Every weekend, we had a timed quiz based on that week’s lectures. Usually, the quiz was available Saturday morning and we had until Sunday night to complete it. Although the quizzes were a little harder than the exam and we got the completion mark regardless of our performance, I used the quiz mark to assess how well I understood the material. Once the results were released, we could access the solved quiz with explanations for each question. They were a good resource for exam prep become some questions were came right from the quizzes.

2. IMCQs (interactive multiple choice questions)

During every block, we had a few interactive multiple choice question (IMCQ) sessions. Unlike the quizzes, we had to score at least 50% to get the marks. These sessions were led by our professors, either during lecture or tutorial. A question was posted and we had 72 seconds to answer on TurningPoint. After each question, the professor talked us through the question. They pointed out the pertinent information in the stem and explained both the correct and incorrect answer choices.

The answers were posted by the end of the day but they didn’t include the explanations. So it was important to pay attention during the live sessions. Afterwards, re-doing the IMCQs were excellent practice for the exam. I usually left these for the weekend before the exam. Enough time had passed so I didn’t remember the answers and could gauge if I understood the important topics. Like the quizzes, I noticed some IMCQ questions showed up on the exams.

3. Interactive tutorials

Although I usually disliked tutorials, especially the histology ones, I begrudgingly admit they were helpful. The tutorials were based on recent lecture topics and led by a different facilitator each time.

Histology Tutorials

For histology tutorials, everyone took turns presenting. So if we had 30 slides and 10 group members present, each person presented 3 consecutive slides. We were expected to be prepared to present all of the slides but that wasn’t doable with our limited time. As a group, we tried to find solved resources from upper term students and if we couldn’t, we divided the work. Then during tutorial, we’d volunteer to present the slides we knew. Most facilitators let us volunteer. The occasional facilitator would call on us for specific parts, which was stressful. But by the end of the term, I was very comfortable with my group and with admitting when I didn’t know something. Which was freeing.

Physiology Tutorials

In physiology tutorials, the facilitator led us through the cases and questions. I really enjoyed these sessions because they required an understanding of the concepts. Rather than trying to distinguish between structures that all look the same. During these sessions, there was no requirement to present a certain number of questions, but participation was mandatory. So we took turns contributing when we knew the answers.

Regardless of whether the session was histology or physiology based, it was helpful when the facilitators asked us questions and talked us through the key takeaways. This improved both my understanding and retention of the material.

4. Flipped classrooms

Every so often, we had a flipped classroom lectures which were interactive and question based. We came prepared by reading the assigned material/lecture slides. The prof asked multiple choice questions from the reading material and we responded through TurningPoint. We were only assessed for our participation, not if we get the correct answer. I enjoyed the flipped classrooms because I was always engaged during these lectures. And the interactive questions helped drive home the key concepts. Which meant less time I had to spend after class learning the material on my own.

Takeaways

Although medical school is challenging, my school has the infrastructure and resources in place to help our learning.

What resources are available at your school?

-M

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