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All the other threads are super old. Anyone use this recently and can comment on if it is good or not?
Apollo Gold Standard Audio for Step 2
- Thread starter sylvanthus
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I tried the CS one for two hours (was trying to use it during my work out instead of reading FA) and it was kinda useless. All I remember was you ain't supposed to do pelvic and rectal exam (they repeat that every 5min).
Can't comment on the CK though.
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I've seen some of their content. Its weak. I listened to the sample audio a ways back, and was dissapointed. There were some videos posted on FMG websites with some pirated videos I took a look at this year. It was a powerpoint slide that went along with the crappy audio. I didn't realize it was them until half way through.
I don't dig it. I'm big into finding resources for medical students. Its cheaper, but not nearly as good as some of the others.
Honestly, I'd stay away from it. Cool idea. Poor execution.
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Drat, I am trying to find som egood audio lectures and having no luck. Kaplan is way too fukin expensive.
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I actually ended up buying a discounted copy a while back and I have fairly mixed feelings about the lectures (these are the "full" step 2 lecs, not the streamlined ones).
Pros:
The lectures are really in-depth. The Q&A structure helps you prep for pimping qs if you're listening to the lecs as you go through 3rd year. I've gotten a lot of pimping qs right based on things I've heard in these lectures.
Cons:
The full set of lectures is really long (something like 88 hours, or more than 2x the length of the Goljan step 1 lectures). Some of the material is outdated (i.e., when discussing MIs they talk about troponin assays as "becoming more widespread in the future"; diabetes management lecs don't talk about newer insulins like Lantus and focus mostly on 70/30 and 50/50, Seldane is discussed as being the "treatment of choice for allergic symptoms when drowsiness is not desired", etc - in fact judging from the content I'd probably say that these lectures were recorded sometime in the mid-1990s). There are occasional weird discursions where the lecturers present their views that, for instance, the Atkins diet will be found to reverse diabetes in the future (not quite). It's also not clear if the info presented is really tailored to step 2 - the arrythmia lectures, for instance, seemed to go into waaay too much detail as if you were actually studying for cardiology boards or something. The "production value" of the lectures is also pretty sloppy; it's clear that somebody was dictating these lectures into a tape recorder, and there are all sorts of odd starts/stops, tape squeal, etc because of this. They suggest that you "pause the tape and summarize" the last points they covered quite frequently, and if you really did this it would take even longer to get through all the lectures.
Is it worth paying full price? I donno, probably not. But the lectures are actually more useful than they sound from the way I've described them....I'm reasonably happy with how they've fleshed out my knowledge on several subjects already. The length issue is addressed in that they have both a shorter lecture set available and an included set of "fast" lectures played at 1.5x.
Pros:
The lectures are really in-depth. The Q&A structure helps you prep for pimping qs if you're listening to the lecs as you go through 3rd year. I've gotten a lot of pimping qs right based on things I've heard in these lectures.
Cons:
The full set of lectures is really long (something like 88 hours, or more than 2x the length of the Goljan step 1 lectures). Some of the material is outdated (i.e., when discussing MIs they talk about troponin assays as "becoming more widespread in the future"; diabetes management lecs don't talk about newer insulins like Lantus and focus mostly on 70/30 and 50/50, Seldane is discussed as being the "treatment of choice for allergic symptoms when drowsiness is not desired", etc - in fact judging from the content I'd probably say that these lectures were recorded sometime in the mid-1990s). There are occasional weird discursions where the lecturers present their views that, for instance, the Atkins diet will be found to reverse diabetes in the future (not quite). It's also not clear if the info presented is really tailored to step 2 - the arrythmia lectures, for instance, seemed to go into waaay too much detail as if you were actually studying for cardiology boards or something. The "production value" of the lectures is also pretty sloppy; it's clear that somebody was dictating these lectures into a tape recorder, and there are all sorts of odd starts/stops, tape squeal, etc because of this. They suggest that you "pause the tape and summarize" the last points they covered quite frequently, and if you really did this it would take even longer to get through all the lectures.
Is it worth paying full price? I donno, probably not. But the lectures are actually more useful than they sound from the way I've described them....I'm reasonably happy with how they've fleshed out my knowledge on several subjects already. The length issue is addressed in that they have both a shorter lecture set available and an included set of "fast" lectures played at 1.5x.
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