Al Ain // Three Emirati students from UAE University will test their knowledge in an international physiology competition in Malaysia on Wednesday.
The 13th Intermedical School Physiology Quiz will be held at the University of Malaya and includes the brightest medical students from around the globe.
The two-day event includes written and oral tests.
“My understanding is they have a written test on the first day, then the ones who do best in this test will participate on the quiz the following day,” said Prof Chris Howarth, chairman of physiology at UAEU.
“There are four rounds to the quiz – first, second, semi-finals and then the finals.
“So all the teams will do the test on the first day then the best will go on to the second day to participate in the quiz. Then we will see what happens.”
More than 70 teams are taking part in the competition, with three to five students in each team. The UAE had entered five students but two dropped out.
“We were told three to five students per team and we have three students in our team,” Prof Howarth said.
“Are five brains better than three brains? I don’t know. It depends on how they structure the quiz.”
He hoped that the questions would be targeted to the group and not individuals.
“If the quiz goes to the group and all in the group can answer, of course there’s a better chance for five than three people. However, if the quiz goes to individuals in the group, then it doesn’t matter.
“We don’t know how it will be because it’s our first time taking part in the competition.”
The UAE team comprises fourth-year students Mouza Al Kuwaiti, Abdulla Al Hashmi and Abdulla Bahaeddin.
“I feel very proud to be representing UAEU and my country,” said Ms Al Kuwaiti, 20. “I am very excited and kind of nervous at the same time, because it’s a first time for all of us.”
Prof Howarth has high hopes for their first competition. “We are sending the best team we can. They’re very good students, they’re excellent.”
The winning team will receive a trophy named after the first Malaysian professor of physiology at the University of Malaya – A Raman, who died in 1998.
“I hope we come back with the trophy,” Ms Al Kuwaiti said. “It would mean a lot to our department and university.”
She said she “owed the privilege of participating in such a competition” to Prof Adeeba Kamarulzaman, from the faculty of medicine at University of Malaya.
“She was one of the keynote speakers at the ninth international scientific conference for medical students in the GCC, which was held at UAEU in December 2014,” Ms Al Kuwaiti said. “She was the one who suggested the idea. If it wasn’t for her we wouldn’t be here.”
ealdhaheri@thenational.ae