by Grace HsuThe fact that medical students need to study tons of books is a worldwide phenomenon and Taiwan is no exception. However, medical students here have long used a system that allows them to survive so much studying: the common notes system. Before I go into detail of exactly how the common notes system works, picture this: the final exam is a week away and you haven’t even opened your textbook. That’s when you find a group of friends who are in the same situation and each of them reads and organizes notes for one chapter. Soon you have thorough notes for the whole book while only reading a portion of the material. And best of all, you pass the exam. Well, basically that’s how things work here in the medical department.
There are three roles in the system—the chairperson, the examiners, and the writers. Before the start of the semester, the chairperson will distribute the content of the whole semester to everyone in class. Unlike the aforementioned example, the load isn’t assigned according to chapters of textbooks but is instead distributed by lecture. In other words, you need to attend class at an allotted time with your partner. The two of you will be responsible for taking notes of what the professor says and read reference books or listen to lecture recordings if necessary. After each class, the note-writers will organize the content of the lecture and type it in a fixed format by the Friday of that week. The notes will then be sent to an examiner and he or she will read them through to check for mistakes. By the end of the week, the well organized and reviewed notes will be printed out for over a hundred students. This system has been carried out for decades, which brings out a tricky part of the common notes. Considering the fact that the content of what medical students need to learn varies slightly from one year to the next, most professors deliver a similar lecture each year and only modify their course a bit. As a result, common notes written in previous years hold true for at least 80% of the content. Therefore, the note-writers actually revise notes instead of writing them from scratch. Occasionally, note-writers will encounter a big problem when a new teacher does something totally different. That means that they don’t have any reference notes from previous years. But the good news is that these issues occur rather rarely. To ensure everyone carefully finishes their work, every writer and examiner needs to sign his or her name on the notes they are responsible for. This way, when others read their notes they know who to turn to when they find a mistake. Also, others can tell whether you spent effort writing your notes and this affects how they feel about you. Those who organize notes sloppily will leave a bad impression on the class, or worse, on the whole department. With the common notes system, medical students save lots and lots of time. However, because the notes are extremely well written (often even better than textbooks or lecture slides) many students find it unnecessary to attend classes since the notes cover everything. Some professors dislike the idea since students no longer need to pay attention in class or even to attend lectures at all. Also, they point out that these notes deprive the opportunity for self-learning. In addition, they find it unfair for the students from different departments who take the course as well. However, still some professors find it a praiseworthy system, for there is much more beyond books and studying for students to explore and learn. They state that as long as the students still learn the materials it doesn’t really matter what they read. By relying on the common notes system, students can have more time to take part in extracurricular activities and learn materials beyond textbooks. As for students, using the common notes as a means to pass exams has been integrated into our medical education process. Whether the professors like it or not, it has been an ongoing system that, I believe, will continue to thrive in the future. a
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May 2024
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