The 8 worst people you could be in PBL

By James Stoker

PBL can be a great way to meet new people and make new friends on your course. A good group dynamic can make for some really entertaining sessions and with the right set of people, the learning can feel effortless.

Unfortunately, there is a flipside to this, and you will be exposed to some people who at best, you won’t get along with and at worst, will have you questioning the future of the medical profession. So, here are the 8 worst people you could be in a PBL session with (and why they might not be that bad)

The Textbook

As the name suggests, they will only open their mouth in a PBL session to quote directly from a lecture slide or textbook. “The Textbook” just doesn’t seem to be able to distinguish between learning something verbatim and actually understanding it. You can spot a “Textbook” when you’re not sure whether to be impressed or horrified by someone’s ability to memorise an entire page of Gray’s Anatomy in less than 5 seconds.

While they might sound well informed, they’re not fooling anyone. Everyone will have already read the exact passage they’re spewing out several times that week and hearing it one more time won’t exactly help.