One thing that I love about this school is the willingness of professors to help you. From what I've gathered around here is that this is a huge advantage when compared to American medical schools. The majority of med school classes in the states are taught by numerous professors who come in to talk about one particular topic. So in one class during the semester you may have anywhere between 5 and 10 people giving lectures. This makes it very difficult for the student to easily follow the content of the course. You have multiple people with different teaching styles as well as huge unknown as to what the testing style will be like. On top of this, lecturers are chosen based on their background. So if you are taking anatomy and you have a professors who's job it is to teach embryology, it is very likely that the lecture will be heavily based on their research. My experience from Carleton is that when professors give lectures based on their research it's horrible. They have such a deep understanding of that specific topic that a general understanding of certain topics (which is what is needed) is not given. In addition, getting help from professors is made all the more difficult when the primary focus of the professors is research. One of the current professors at UMHS told me that a doctor in the states gets nowhere by teaching at a medical school. The only way you advance your career is to do research.
At UMHS, the only job of the professors is to teach the material and get us to a level where we can score really high on the board exams. They are not (currently at least) involved in any research. They have chosen to come here with the sole responsibility to teach, which means that they are here 100% for us. If you need help they are always there. We are assigned an academic advisor at the beginning of the semester that we are encouraged to talk too at least twice per semester. The advisors are made up of our professors. Between email and in person meetings, I have had the chance to see some of the professors and they are very welcoming and helpful. So use this to your advantage while you are here. Its much better that you get the help you need while the professors are available then is it 1.5 years down the road when you are studying for your USMLE step one with nobody to help you and you realize you have no idea what your doing...
As for this weekend, it was really just study filled. We took a break Saturday night for some frozen yoghurt, then at around 11pm we were looking for a bit of a change in scenery so me and my roommate went to study with a friend at the Marriott. It was a good late night study session. Today was the most exciting part I would say. Me and Tyson (roommate) staggered our way down to the ocean front near the school and went snorkelling! The school has snorkelling equipment that you can borrow, but unfortunately when we went Friday they only had one pair. So yesterday I ran downtown to try and find a mask and Snorkel. (If you want to snorkel while you're here, bring the stuff from home). I couldn't find a mask and snorkel anywhere in the local areas, so I had to go into the tourist area to buy one. It wasn't too expensive in the end. When we got to the ocean today we were the only ones around. The beach looked to be okay, but we weren't sure how good the snorkelling would be. When we first started out the water was a little murky until we got a little further out. When we broke through the silt it was amazing! Blue water and clear ocean floor! There was lots of coral, fish, even stingrays. At one point we came across what looked like a burrow where another stingray was and it must have been 5 feet wide! The ray wasn't there at the time, but it clearly wasn't too long since it had left. It was very relaxing and I'm looking forward to going back! While we were in the water we were able to score out a few more places where it looked like you could pick a path down to the ocean, so Im sure we will explore other areas too. I have a camera that I use for SCUBA diving but I forgot to bring it.. Next time I will and ill post some pictures:)
As for the rest of the day, I need to run to the store, make some food, and keep studying.. So ill get back to it. Cya all later!
Things I learned this weekend
-Don't ask a cab how much it costs to go somewhere, tell them how much you have to give them and hope for the best
-The internet at my house is not reliable at all
-Sometimes you have to put down the books
-I hate wearing sandals (I already knew this, just reinforced it)
Cheers,
Mike