Key Staff Profile( continued)
How do students come to you? By referral? Of their own volition? Is there a typical amount of time in weeks / months, even years, that you work with a student?
Sometimes students are referred by faculty or Dr. Calmes to come meet with me, although ultimately it is voluntary whether they follow through with it or not. Students are also able to request appointments at-will. When we were in person, I would have office hours at UCLA two days per week to help facilitate meeting with students, since our first- and secondyear students are primarily on the UCLA campus the first two years. Currently everything is being done via Zoom now though! It really depends on the student how often, or for how long I will work with them. For some students, we meet once in response to a specific need, such as wanting to set up a study plan for Step 1 for example. Other students, they like to meet at the start of a new block / rotation to set up a plan, and some students prefer to meet weekly to check in. I also correspond frequently with students via email, phone and text, so even if we don’ t have a formal meeting, I am still meeting with them!
What percentage of students have fallen into academic danger by the time that they come to you? How many students come to you prior to possible probation as part of their planning process?
The most typical reason that a student comes to meet with me is they have not passed something. It may be a weekly self-assessment( which doesn’ t actually count towards their final grade), it may be a practice test, or they may have actually failed an exam. One of the benefits of working in a small program like this one is that I have met individually with every student when they first start, and I meet with them again at various points during the first two years.
I think it helps when students do run into difficulty to reach out, so that the first time we are meeting is not when they are already having difficulty. Usually when students get to the point of being placed on probation, both Dr. Calmes and I are in frequent contact with them.
What assessment tools do you use? As part of our Pre-Matriculation Program, we administer all students a study skills assessment, as well as an advising survey. I use the results of both of these in my initial meetings with students, to discuss anything that I might see, or that they might see as being a potential area of difficulty. Once students begin their coursework, I more primarily use their actual question banks / practice tests / self-assessments and use more of a dynamic assessment process.
Typically, this involves having a student go through a set of questions and talk through their thought process and reasoning as they answer the question, which allows me to see where the breakdowns may be happening and address them, rather than giving a new assessment. We also have some students that either come in with, or have psycho-educational evaluations completed during medical school, due to a suspected learning disability or ADHD. When students share those reports with me, I am also able to utilize that information as well, as well as their exam results from their block or shelf exams.
What are some example areas of a person’ s skills profile that you work with? Do you have a specialty such as math, reasoning, or critical thinking?
It really varies on the student, which is part of what I think makes my job interesting! For some students, they may have time management issues, so they just are not having enough time to study. For others, it may be difficulty with synthesizing information, and given the volume of material students are exposed to, that can lead to problems very quickly! For other students, it is working at a much faster pace than they are used to, and having to help them adapt their study habits to be more efficient. My background is in literacy development, which I often draw upon when working with students in terms of test taking skills, or even note-taking.
How do you measure students’ proficiency improvements once you work with them? Do you continue to monitor students’ progress once they leave your training?
Ultimately, I think both the student and myself look at their curricular performance as the ultimate measure of success, in terms of seeing an improvement in their performance. However, I always love when a student emails or texts me and tells me how something we discussed has improved, or they send me a screen shot of a practice test score they are happy about! I am constantly monitoring all the students in our program in terms of academic performance, whether I have been meeting with them or not.
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 8