do is browse through some of those caribbean forums and you will find literally thousands of "stovertys". All of these schools have the same "problems" and the same kind of "people" posting for and against the schools that offered us "substandard" students the opportunity to redeem ourselves and become doctors. I truly believe that what you see in this forum is very small in proportion and comparison to the whining and complaining that you will see at Ross, AUC and St. George forums. The only forum that I dont see much complaining is the SABA forum and maybe because they are a very small school with not that many students admitted per semester.

clarifying the "source" of the information. I truly believe stoverty should be banned form this forum for posting misleading information and damaging the school's reputation based on false documentation. I wonder if the school can really "backslash" somebody that deliberately tried to damage the schools reputation by providing "phony" documents in order to generate lesser enrollment and misinform prospective students. Let see what stoverty has to say about this laloblum!!! thanks

So nice to see you again Stoverty! Interesting that you should mention the gender distinction. One of the theories is that you were the wife of Hexokinase. Maybe that person guessed correctly.

Everyone knows who I am, including the teachers and director at UAG. It is no big secret. Of course, we still do not know who you are, so you can rest easy that I will not be able to make any "...personal attacks on your dog."

I agree that some classes do not prepare a student for much, including the USMLE. These are only a few of the many classes in my opinion. UAG has one complete semester of KaplanUSMLE review before taking the USMLE. Doe this not help prepare a student for the USMLE? If you "... truly feel that UAG is not preparing students for the USMLE in many ways and for many reasons," then tell us what you think UAG is doing inadequately, and what do you propose to resolve the issue.

If you have the hindsight of the USMLE and UAG, as you claim, then tell us what they do wrong. What do you think needs to change? UAG is not perfect; we all know that. However, I want to hear or read specific suggestions to improve the school, not general disapproval. I could make a list of things that I hate about UAG. We all can. However, if you know something I do not know about how UAG prepares students for the USMLE, then we should address the issue. Has anyone gone to a director or dean with any recommendations?

If you have specific observations of inadequacy at UAG, and have practicable recommendations, I want to hear them.

__________________
"You do not truly understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother." Albert Einstein

you are actually asking this "person" ( we dont really know if she, he, or dog ) to put something coherent and intelligent together? . uagmed.com and stoverty's solution is to tranfer to Ross. They are not interested in making UAG better. I havent seen one post from "it" that would indicate any constructive criticism about UAG. You are knocking on an empty head acgt...come on man!

Actually I have a great reason for going to UAG.

In between posts tonight, I actually had to fight my way out of the apartment of two fairly cute puerto rican girls to go study.

Try and find two puerto ricans girls to wrestle with at ROSS.

Sorry, cabrillo, no polaroids.

__________________

I've spent the last few days reading as many of postings as possible, trying to get an overall impression of UAG. I know that every school has its good points and its bad points. Every school has awesome teachers and sucky teachers. From what I gather, it's an open door into medicine. Furthermore, if you don't party and you study your butt off and do the reading, go to class, do the Kaplan prep course for USMLE 1, etc, etc and are basically committed 100%, UAG is a good option for you.
In my case, I'm American, my husband is Latino. So for me, since half of my family now speaks Spanish almost exclusively, UAG is a good thing, besides also being able to treat Latino patients in the US later on (I'm dragging my Spanish books everywhere and talking with my relatives as much as possible to prepare for UAG). I grew up around the world in many countries, 1st and 3rd world so I don't think culture shock would be an issue. I'm particularly interested in UAG as an opportunity to learn about tropical medicine. I've considered becoming an ER physician with interest in possibly becoming a flying doctor to remote areas in the world. From what I've read, it seems to me UAG would offer me the unique opportunities to practice the 'bush/outback medicine' that I'm looking for.
I have a 2.95 GPA overall and a pre-med GPA of about the same. I took the MCAT a few years ago and got a 24. My GPA is lower due to family stuff that happened at the time. From what I've read it sounds like UAG could work for me, given I put my nose to the grindstone. I'm planning on applying for the Aug. 2007 class and I'm talking with the school to learn more but I'd rather hear back from students and alumni about UAG, instead of admission counselors paid to promote the school-- getting my financial aid together has been my roadblock so far. Everything else (class-wise) is lined up-- I'm ready to apply.
I'm extremely interested in continuing living abroad and gaining more international experiences. Students of UAG and its alumni, my question is, given this little biography, am I correct in thinking UAG would be a good match for me?

UAG sounds like a great match for you. It sounds better for you than most of us here.

You do get lots of exposure to culture without the fear of being forced in a spanish speaking class the first day.

As far as tropical medicine, we don't see much. We live in a large city and I think public health saves most of our patients.

I really enjoy tropical medicine and was a little down about that. But if I ever want to go to the middle of nowhere and check feces I am sure they will let me.

__________________

Cabrillo spends more time talking about ME than UAG, and then says I should be banned. Whatever.
You read it correctly, I love seeing you get your feathers ruffled, but how on earth is that a threat. Sounded to me like your comments were VERY threatening,”you will lose", and "I will proceed the best way I can". That is a threat. Watch yourself cabrillo. It is frustrating to me when you rip apart every bit of useful information on here.
I NEVER said that report about the USMLE was truth, I just post it for ALL to see, if it is true, Everyone should see it.
If it is not true, the true source will come out soon enough, and EVERYONE will see it being proven wrong. Can you no see how this is in EVERYONES best interest?

OK, You want constructive criticism....
The Following is my opinion, which I am FREE to express. Take it as you wish.
Here are some short points about what UAG can improve... (no special order)
- Recycled test bank - This is a problem. Students every semester for years have had access to old exams. Thanks to uagmed.com ALL students can get them, instead of copying them like I did every single class. Because of this recycled test bank, many of or most of the students each exam, ALREADY had the exam, and ace the test. This causes problems in the class rank system, for starters, which determines your PMC lottery. Also, the curve of scores on the exam appears to be good, since many students ace it. This leaves out the students who did not have access to the lucky exam, and they fail or receive a D grade. Because of this, teachers continue to use the same questions, whether good or bad, because students appear to get them right a lot.
(Ex. The 1st semester Anatomy Head and Neck exam, has been the SAME exam for about 3 or more years now, every semester.) I understand it is an extremely difficult exam, and yet many receive a 10 (A) score because they memorized answers or whatever. This kind of studying to get by, which you really do need to do to pass many of UAG exams, does not prepare you for the USMLE. It prepares you to memorize answers from a test and regurge them on the exam. (I could talk for days about this one, since it is the main point... USMLE prep)
- Another - Students pass rate of UAG classes alone, not even the USMLE, but UAG classes alone is probably around 50% for first time takers. This does not apply to every class, there are many classes where almost everyone passes. BUT, if you compare class pass rates to US medical schools, which I have, Most of the studying students are passing just fine. My associates at US schools study LESS than I ever did, and are tested on things they were told to study. Many schools give most of their students A's. I know MANY doctors in the US, old and young, who have given me a personal view of their education, and MY OPINION based on this is that the US schools help you prepare and pass. UAG helps you learn and trys to do better than the US, but fails in that there is no Directed study, and focus on what is important, like mentioned in another forum here between Sam and Dr Rosas...You cannon memorize EVERYTHING, tell the students what to memorize, and they will do it. (once again, I could go on and on)
- PMC - This should be a noble experience for students to learn and practice practical medicine. There are many diversions to this though, where students have to do MOUNTAINS of paperwork, which is useless in US medicine. Clinical histories which are completely different from anything you will do in the US. SOAP reports, which are a waste of time. And huge mounds of paperwork that is just BUSY work. This also distracts students from studying classes like Pathology. Many of the clinics where PMC is done do not allow students to studying the clinic. You waste 8 hours a day, or 4 hours a week (depending on your lottery) in this clinic without study time. Many of these clinics have WAY too many students in them. One year I was in a clinic with 6 other International students and 8 Latin students, and there was maybe 4 patients a day in the clinic. We sat on our Duff for 60 hours that semester wasting time. It was a great clinic with a great doctor, so I was happy not to have a bad one, but I wished my time was valued more, and spent studying more. Even though you are allowed to study in some, like that one, you are not in an environment akin to quality reading and remembering. All this clinical experience everyone claims you get at UAG does not happen in most clinics. My friend who recently finished his OB rotation at the HAL, tells me he WATCHED the delivery of like 5 babies (he is already a father and has seen this) but NEVER touched a baby himself. So many people claiming to have delivered 150 babies or whatever from being at UAG… they are either exaggerating, or lucky ones who went to some crazy hospital delivering babies. In most clinics, they are not letting us students touch patients like they led us to believe they would.
- IPM – Thankfully, I understand Spanish…enough. However, many students DON’T, and yet they are thrown into this ALL SPANISH clinical procedures class from day 1 in First semester. They either rotate teachers every day, or keep one per class. Either way, each teacher has their own agenda, and own ideas of how to do an exploraccion de abdomen the right way. So, when students go into the exams, they fail in many parts because they were taught by one teacher, or MANY teachers who had their own ideas, and they were never taught all the “right” procedures. Many of these procedures can be useful in practice, but many are not really used. UAG could use a nice overhaul to the IPM/DHC system. When a patient comes in with a headache, you don’t need to give them a FULL 1.5 hour physical exam
- 2 hour classes and ATTENDANCE – UAG claims that students are required by some dude in the US to be at 85% of all classes to pass the exams, or to take them even. This has been admitted to us by (admin) that this is just a tactic to get students to go to class. It works, and students are freaked out to miss classes. Most of these classes are not very helpful anyhow, the teachers are hard to understand, or are lecturing on way too easy topics, or something way off. Either way, I never (hardly) saw correlation to what was actually ON the exam. The exam would contain detailed info that should have been touched in class. However, it was not. 2 hours of some classes is needed. But in other classes it is Way too much. Requiring students to be in class makes you feel like a kindergartner, running to your seat when the attendance lady comes in. Never mind if you were in the bathroom, you get marked absent, and in some classes 1 or 2 is all you get. So, sick or bathroom, or slacker, you are all rolled into one category…people who cannot take the final. You have to stay an extra week into your Christmas break or summer break to take Segundas or Extras even another week more…
Honesty – Dr Laloblum is fast to blame everyone about being in Breach of codes or breaking some sort of confidence. I am sorry, but a USMLE pass rate of ANY school is not confidential. It is usually published by each school themselves. WHAT DOES UAG HAVE TO HIDE?? Anyway, UAG has a policy CD or Packet they give every new student when entering UAG. This packet contains guidelines for students and faculty. There are many enforced and many NONenforced policies on both sides. One of the most painful is the ADMIN policy to have exams scores posted within 72 hours of the exam. There are VERY few classes that actually do this. The ones who don’t claim there is so much to do. Umm…. What? The exams are scantron exams? They could at least provide RAW unedited scores. Especially at the end of semesters, when students want to go home., instead of waiting days and days for results. Once again. Why does 50% of the class fail???? Did UAG fail in the enrollment process and enroll some idiots? I don’t think so. They offer the door to anyone, so naturally some will fail. But being a doctor does not require you to be profoundly amazing, it just requires you to work hard, and learn. UAG students as a whole are capable of this, and work well hard enough to succeed. However, Failing exams, or having a bell curve that PEAKS at 60% (D) is not a way to build confidence in students. When you get to Kaplan, you will not be confident in your information, because you don’t know what the 40% you missed was.
- more tests – Exams are a way to reinforce your good students, showing them they earned good grades by studying hard. When someone loses ALL sleep for a few days reviewing what they have been reading all semester, and does understand more about s subject than most Practicing doctors do,, and yet gets a D or fails an exam, it drops your confidence, and makes you doubt yourself. This is only compounded and more problematic in that many or most of the teachers do Not let students as a whole review their exams. You can review your scantron many times, without the exam, ADMIN is scared to show it to you, incase you steal it, because they will likely reuse the same exam next semester. Very rarely are new exams written. When they are, they are usually just stolen from some online PHD course or something. SORRY, we are here to be doctors, not PHD in every subject we take.
- The highest ranking Dr M (not the notorious one) comes into every class every year and listens to complaints from students. Believe me, he hears MANY. He and an assistant sit and either 1. argue or talk for most of the time, or 2. Say they will “solve the problem”, and either never solve it, or come back with more problems. Your second semester Pathology exam being cancelled after the fact and retested is one example of this. UAG looks more to sweep under the rug, or even BACKLASH, rather than just fix the problems.
- Many students claim… ‘oh, UAG IS making improvements… they fixed some bathrooms. Etc etc. What?? I don’t care if I have to squat in a bathroom with cheap Mexican tile or nice marble floors, I want to get a quality education I paid for. Topical improvements to not (directly I guess (for your word rippers)) help students pass the USMLE.
- Problems at the HAL – most of these are not as big as your first 2 years, but they exist, in many different ways. This is not something I want to focus on here, but I would constructively criticized that students need more time in the clinic working, and less time in a classroom. You got more than enough class time in the first 2 years.
- Communication. – There is NO central communication place , site, or channel for UAG. Almost EVERYTHING you find out, or overhear from another student through the grape vine….. for example. You show up to school one day, and all of a sudden you are supposed to have some paper with you from the registrar or something. In order to get this paper, you were supposed to bring your tuition receipt (like they don’t know already you paid tuition) and if you don’t have this paper, you cannot take the exam. Another example. You show up, and you are lucky enough to hear the class announcement at the end of class telling everyone they changed the exam time or class time to early the next morning. If you were not there or not listening, or home sick or studying, you miss out on this VERY important info. Changes happen every day, and you have to keep fresh on them, but there is NO channel besides yelling to everyone as they leave class.
- information transfer – The UAG could benefit from a web site of their own, like uagmed that offers class slides and info to all the students. The tradition has always been a mad rush every day to the front with your Memory stick to try and grab the days lecture from the PowerPoint slides. (unless of course you are in Dr M class, where there are no slides, just old overheads stacked 5 high on top of each other projecting altogether on the screen.
- Security. Before you enter ICB or even Main campus, you have to show bonefied ID. If you forget it, or don’t have it. You are sent home. This would be good… if Attendance weren’t taken in class. Main campus is usually nicer. Sometimes they stop the car and ask for everyone’s ID IN the car. I mean, come on… I am wearing ALL white, I am international, I am obviously a student. No one wants to Bomb UAG, why is security so overboard? If I was (I am not) a terrorist I would not target little ICB, and even if a terrorist did want to, he could just get a UAG ID from someone and he is in the gates to the parking lot in no time. Don’t send students away, they HAVE to be in 85% of classes.
I am getting tired of writing now , and I am sure you will just say I am whining.
Don’t forget…. YOU ASKED me to write something constructive and specific about what UAG can improve on. I stepped up to the task. You may agree or disagree. This is my opinion. Take it as so. I am not whining, I am answering your request.
Will anything here ever change? I doubt it. But I would like to be happy to say I am a Teco.

I have to give it to you stoverty . This is the most coherent post you have ever made!!! it doesnt mean that I agree with everything you say but at least you are making sense if all these problems caused you to be upset at UAG. I cannot attest to them since I am not currently at UAG so I will let others comment on your opinions. Now, let me make something clear; you dont bug me dude, you entertain me that is different . I dont get upset or my "feathers ruffled". I really dont care . I mean you are the one that is unhappy, confused and ready to run to Ross . So, thank you for clarifying what you meant. This is just a forum but if you want to take it a step further I will be more than willing to go for it. You have more to lose than me so relax ok . Good luck and please keep making sense, you are in a roll "CC"....