Doc_with_no_country,

Did you ever stop to think that maybe the reason you have no country is because your attitude sucks. What must a PD think when a canidate comes for an interview and just sits there complaining about the med school they attended, blaming it for all of their own shortcomings? The PD is likely thinking there is no way I would want to work with an individual who takes so little responsibilty for their own actions. Grow up man and get on with your life.

Let's be honest. USyd, UMelb, UQ, Flinders any Aussie school for that matter does not teach to get students past the USMLE. Why would they? They are there to educate Australian students in a manner that, that country deems acceptable. The Carribbean schools are totally different. They are in existence to provide an alternative to US/Canadian schools for those who cannot or may choose not to attend school in North America/Europe/Australia. They stay in business by landing students residnecies and respectable USMLE scores. However it is important to note that not all residencies are created equal and matching is not the problem people make it out to be. It's matching into a program where you are happy and can move forward with your career that takes hard work.

Regardless where you go however you have to study on your own. Every US grad that has a good score studied intensively on their own. Medicine is medicine. Each school presents the material in a different way but in the end it is up to the student to take what they have been given and utilize it. If you need someone to hold your hand all the way through then get outta medicine right now cause you're going to be lost. I'll agree that PBL formats for learning with no science knowledge are tough and PBL is frustrating at the beginning, but I think it is the best way to teach students to become independent decision-makers. Rote memory can only take you so far.

And as far as doc_with_no_county's claim that USyd is obsessed with evidence based medicine he is right. But go to any school's grand rounds or literature review session or resident meeting and you will quickly see that decisions for treatment, procedures, instumentation use etc. are based on one thing....EVIDENCE. So I would be skeptical of a school that refuses to see that medicine is constantly changing and lacks the foresight to adapt it's program along with the medical environment. That's one thing USyd does very well.