Objective To explore the effect and potential problems of the traditional teaching mode on epidemiology English course for Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery students and attempt to propose the targeted recommendations and solutions. Methods To comprehend the satisfaction and recognition of the students about new teaching methods and the teaching effect based on the traditional teaching mode during the teaching practice of Epidemiology in English among MBBS students in Tongji University. Results As much as 16.7% of the students were not satisfied with the traditional teaching method, and thought the classroom atmosphere was monotonous. About 10.0% of the MBBS students were not satisfied with the teachers, and they thought that the teachers usually paid attention to their own lectures and ignored the students' responses in the class. Meanwhile,93.3% of the students had interest in problem-based learning (PBL) teaching method compared to the traditional teaching method.Although about 43.0% of the students mastered epidemiology knowledge well,30.4% of the students did not fully grasp the basic concepts of epidemiology. Conclusions The traditional teaching mode is not completely applicable to epidemiology teaching for MBBS students. A more reasonable course structure and new teaching methods play important roles in making up the deficiencies of traditional teaching.