The amount of stationary you need for first year depends on how much notetaking you do. I generally prefer writing on lecture slides while I know friends who write their own notes/transfer information from slides to paper.

For me, 4 years down, I am still using the very same testpad I bought in year 1. No need to mention the untouched box of Pilot G2 pen refills.

Looks like the increasing fees for med courses in Oz and the appreciating currency will make more Malaysians to look elsewhere for their medical studies. The graduate admission requirement has also limited the choices available.

Other than UK which is currently cheaper than what Oz charges, I think US will most probably be the next best choice. The not so good prospects of both these economies will to a certain extent wont result in much increases in fees in the near future due to the relative weakness of their currencies but this does not discount any hike in fees.

As pointed out by limeuu on the impending tie-ups of IMU with Jeffersons and Miami, further discussions on medical studies in the US will be much appreciated.

Trust me, if you can't write properly in a forum, you can't write properly when it matters the most. I've seen many a fresh graduate who say "I know I "simply anyhow" write on the internet, but when working I write properly one", until I read their reports which are littered with grammatical mistakes with the odd SMS language. The sad thing is they don't even realise their errors.

Any we wonder why we have unemployed graduates.

In any case, if you want to receive help, you need to be understandable to the other party who you ask for the assistance. I've seen too many people barge in, ask for help, but are unable to articulate their issues, then wonder why they're met with silence.

Its very hard to help someone when you don't understand them.

CUCMS is dominated by one ethnic group in both students enrolment and lecturers and the recent issue of students quota are factors to consider while Taylors is still new.

the sentence is still completely structurally wrong........even with renewed effort....and certainly not ielts band 8 standard.....

recognition of med schools is a completely political decision.....but some more political than others......nobody can beat msia's.....

smc are not fools......you may want to look at the admission policy of the med schools before making accusations.....if i were to make decisions about recognitions, i would put that top in requirements.....over syllabus and quality of teachers and teaching hospitals........

i am referring to already recognised med schools with additional programmes based partly or wholly outside the home country......bottom line: clinical years must be in the home country.......

Anyway, since you people are so keen on Singapore, I thought I'd share some information regarding post-graduate options in Singapore. I recently attended a recruitment event organised by the MOHHoldings Singapore (I think they ran it in every capital city in Australia; and they'll be doing the same thing in the UK next month).

Health care in Singapore has undergone a major restructuring programme - basically public health care is now split among 5 health clusters, namely the National Healthcare Group (NHG), the National University Health System (NUHS), Singhealth and 2 other hospitals (Khoo Teck Puat and Jurong) - residency training will only be provided in the former three but more on that later.

The traditional system in Singapore goes something like this:

For specialists: medical graduate - house officer - medical officer - medical officer (basic specialist trainee) - registrar (advanced specialist trainee) - associate consultant- consultant - senior consultant (the whole process takes up more or less 8 to 10 years depending on the specialty choice)

And then of course you have the family physician/GP track which is considerably shorter in addition to a clinical research track.

Such a long training period would invariably mean a shorter career for full-fledged physicians, hence Singapore's decision to introduce the residency programme which is modeled after its namesake in the US. The new system will be implemented under the guidance from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) - now before you start salivating about the prospects of working in America after your stint in Singapore, the residency programme will NOT qualify you as a physician in America nor does the Singapore government want you to leave its system - "we don't need a brain drain in Singapore" as the recruiter puts it nicely. You will only be able to work in Singapore, and that is despite taking the same board exams that US residents take - a board-certificed physician who cannot work in the US.

The biggest advantage of this residency system is the ability to enter the programme straight out of medical school - straight into R1. Now, say if your first attempt at matching is unsuccessful, you can still be a house officer (PGY1) and then apply the following year as a PGY2 - of course your chances will naturally increase as you get better at what you're doing and you know more people in the system.

There's a lot more detail behind the whole application process - apparently they have to accommodate graduates from three different time frames (Yong Loo Lin, UK and Aus)

Oh and not forgetting remuneration ; while not as good as Australia, it is still much better than what you get in Malaysia. (Btw, the pay is dependent on your seniority, it doesn't mean that a PGY1 resident will earn more than a PGY1 houseman, so you won't actually see much earning potential until at least you're through with your residency)

House officers get a base salary of 3.000 SGD per month, locals get CPF while foreigners (mostly Malaysians anyway) get an additional 850 SGD housing allowance. House officers are expected to work 60-65 hours per week (surgical residents 80 hours +) and you'll probably get six or seven night calls per month (110 SGD per call). And of course you have bonuses, either group or personal and not forgetting ...................lunch money !!!!!!! (8 SGD weekdays, 12 SGD weekends)

PGY2s get a slight bump in their salary package, basic pay is around 4,000 SGD and you get 220 SGD per call.

Well, that's basically how the new system looks like in Singapore, it's definitely attracting attention among international students in Australia (Singapore may soon end its reliance on Malaysian graduates as it's looking to woo its own students back) Malaysia on the other hand..........

people with b and c grades get into med school....and they wonder why their degrees are not recognised by advanced countries......

and btw, clinical is generally 3 years, or 3 years equivalence.....

how do local grads perform in comparison to UK/Oz?
ive heard stories bout russian grads but there have been no significant complaints bout local grads, so local grads cant be that bad right?

Talking about arrogance
I met a few Malaysian local graduate(UM,UKM) that are very hard to interact with,yes I am talking about those that migrated to Singapore to work.
These people don't have a high regard towards people from other institution.
my 2 cents

all information asked is in the public domain, but as usual, people are too incompetent/lazy to find it....

it appears a grades academically nowadays doesn't say much......

there are alternate pathways for registration with smc......

since people expect to be spoon fed.....nah:

http://www.smc.gov.sg/html/1153709452985.html

the quality of a med student, and the quality of any new medical programme should NOT be even a question mark at all, in a well managed health care system......

nobody questions the quality of brighton-sussex, east anglia, cardiff, warick etc in uk......and nobody questions the quality of jcu, wollongong or uws in oz....

the fact that there is so much debate and concerns about msian's many new med schools speaks volume about how this issue has been handled by the msian authorities.....

Relentless, u working in sg alrdy? so far, do the aforementioned UM/UKM students struggle compared to their NUS/Oz/UK counterparts. lol let's change the direction of this thread , kinda bored with the trivial squabbles already

Oh it certainly helps.

During my attachment before i started my course, there's this banana houseman who asked me to translate a patients disease for him in chinese/cantonese.

You have to remember, at least for the first 10 years of your career, you will be most likely working in a public hospital where the main language would be Malay and followed by Chinese. Those who seek treatment at public hospitals won't be well funded and are unlikely to be well educated in English as well. English will only be important during your conversations between your peers and supervisors, otherwise it's malay and malay all the way.