Hi,

Sorry for the delay in response - I haven't been here in a while.

Bratislava has changed A LOT since we moved here. So now it is a modern city with all amenities you would want. Groceries are no longer a problem (they were when we first moved here). There are at least 3 major shopping malls with tons of shops. The old town is pretty but smaller compared with Prague. Most people who've lived in both countries find that the Slovaks are friendlier than the Czechs who sometimes (ok often) come off as arrogant somehow.

Rent has really gone up. It used to be cheap but you will need 15-18,000 sk to get a decent place. That is for a single apartment that is quite nice. i.e. the really pooh poohty places go for 10,000 sk per month and likely your standard of living is higher than that. They are really dirty and dingy for that price. Some students here (the rich ones) pay 800 EUR per month for a really gorgeous place. I never lived like that as a student.

Gas is about twice the price of North America if you have a car. Groceries are also more than in Canada.

The first year student body was about 60 students this year and yes, they are broken down into groups of max. 10 - it might even be 8 per group. The students are a realy mix of Scandanavians, Germans, Arabs, Greeks and a handful of North Americans. Some are keen to learn and others... well... they leave a lot to be desired.

You will be accepted and will pass the courses if you put in any effort at all. The exams are 100% oral final exams with the credit system where you have to do things throughout the year to earn your 'credit' before you can sit for the final. You have 3 chances to pass the finals and can choose your dates. If you fail, you can write again. Some courses have a written exam first.

I found the education to be quite high quality but totally self directed. If you just want to cruise by, you can do that. But if you want to assist with surgeries and make your wishes known, you can do that too. I'm just starting to study for my step 2 which will be the first step I do because it goes along with my studies in the final year for surgery and internal medicine. I've already finished my state exams for ob/gyn and paediatrics and then looked at the step 2 materials - there is nothing there that I haven't seen before. The format is different so I plan to do lots and lots of questions. My husband is starting to do step 1 now and again, there is no 'new' material there that we didn't do here but he must do lots of questions to be on top.

You will find the teaching here very traditional - i.e. not 'problem based' but we memorize tons of (in my opinion) stupid details and thus often forgoe a general understanding that would last long after the details have faded - i.e. biochem. We had to memorize every equation for every pathway and had to spit that out for the exam. Now, I don't remember the chemical structures or which hydoxyl moved here or there and my knowledge of practical biochem is weak.

Re: wards. The Scandanavians did surgery rotations and Internal rotations in their own country for 6th year. For North America, the schools I enquired at wanted Comenius to pay for medical insurance. Our school doesn't do that so for me, it wasn't possible, but I didn't try very hard because we choose to stay here to keep the kids in their same school as long as possible before moving back - it wouldn't have meant that they started at a new school mid-year.

I'll try to check back again for more questions.

We have had a couple of guys transfer here from Prague and some from Hungary.

Any more specific questions and I'll try to assist.

S-