Below Average Med Student: Kaplan or Non-Traditional Review. Please Advise

[MedStudent1985]

Hi all,

I represent the substantial minority of people who read this forum but rarely post. A few details about me and on to my step 1 question: I currently attend a state school in the midwest. As I graduated as an economics major with little science background, I am substantially below the mean of my class yet have failed no courses. In fact, my performance increased linearly throughout my first year which I just completed. (BTW 30 MCAT)

That being said, I would like to do the best I possibly can on Step I. I recently bought the following books:

First Aid
Rapid Review Pathology and Biochemistry
BRS Physiology
High Yield Embryo, Immunology
Microbiology made ridiculously easy

That being said, I hear many things about the Kaplan Home Study and Lectures being better while I originally purchased the above books due to advice I received on this forum. My main question is : What is more beneficial and user friendly to me as a student who struggled, kaplan or reviews mentioned above?

I appreciate greatly the advice that I get from the bright future doctors that post on this forum, I hope you will help me out, and I wish you the best.

-E

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[Law2Doc]

Hi all,

I represent the substantial minority of people who read this forum but rarely post. A few details about me and on to my step 1 question: I currently attend a state school in the midwest. As I graduated as an economics major with little science background, I am substantially below the mean of my class yet have failed no courses. In fact, my performance increased linearly throughout my first year which I just completed. (BTW 30 MCAT)

That being said, I would like to do the best I possibly can on Step I. I recently bought the following books:

First Aid
Rapid Review Pathology and Biochemistry
BRS Physiology
High Yield Embryo, Immunology
Microbiology made ridiculously easy

That being said, I hear many things about the Kaplan Home Study and Lectures being better while I originally purchased the above books due to advice I received on this forum. My main question is : What is more beneficial and user friendly to me as a student who struggled, kaplan or reviews mentioned above?

I appreciate greatly the advice that I get from the bright future doctors that post on this forum, I hope you will help me out, and I wish you the best.

-E

According to many med schools, unlike MCAT courses, there is no statistical evidence that board review courses provide any advantage over self study. Thus a lot of schools have students design a study plan and stick to it, doing a certain amount of reading and problems each day/week. Of course, if you are the kind of person who is not good without classroom structure, or are an auditory rather than visual (reading) learner, the courses might be more helpful.

 

[marr]

I I thought coming out of the exam was that it stressed alot of things from just knowing it during class. That review books really didn't help me that much it was designed for a review not necessearily teach you anything indepth about a subject. More than anythings, instead of picking up review books and reading them use questions book. I did ton of questions and it helped me tremendously picking up concept and understanding how to think for the exam.

1) BSS-by far a grueling five series book with alot of good answers. If you know it inside and out you would do just fine. Very hard questions though but same concept tested.

2)Robbins-do it and review it again and again. A worthwhile book to know thoroughly.

3)HY neuro=best Hy series, just know it. Easy pts could be earned if you know tracts such.

4)USMLEworld=cheap and if you run out of questions, just do it. Good explanations bad questions.

5)Qbank-of last resort. This sucks and is very expensive.

Do tons of questions, use nbme 2 and 3 to guage your weak areas and work on it.

 

[Roy7]

Hi all,

I represent the substantial minority of people who read this forum but rarely post. A few details about me and on to my step 1 question: I currently attend a state school in the midwest. As I graduated as an economics major with little science background, I am substantially below the mean of my class yet have failed no courses. In fact, my performance increased linearly throughout my first year which I just completed. (BTW 30 MCAT)

That being said, I would like to do the best I possibly can on Step I. I recently bought the following books:

First Aid
Rapid Review Pathology and Biochemistry
BRS Physiology
High Yield Embryo, Immunology
Microbiology made ridiculously easy

That being said, I hear many things about the Kaplan Home Study and Lectures being better while I originally purchased the above books due to advice I received on this forum. My main question is : What is more beneficial and user friendly to me as a student who struggled, kaplan or reviews mentioned above?

I appreciate greatly the advice that I get from the bright future doctors that post on this forum, I hope you will help me out, and I wish you the best.

-E

I kinda felt the opposite of the above poster. I felt that questions were stellar for subjects that I knew well because it really helped iron out differences and refresh foggy stuff, but for subjects that I didnt learn well in class reading, I found that re-learning concepts that I had forgotten were most useful prior to questions.

In my scenario I can basically say that I forgot all year one (biochem, micro, physio, anatomy), so for those subjects I really had to just hit the review books as doing tons of questions would only give me a partial understanding of the subjects compared to just learning everything at once. After reviewing the subjects I got far more from those questions.

So I guess for you - I'd think it'd be very important to know stuff w/a modicum of proficiency using your review books prior to hammering the questions. If you have no idea what a question says because you havent reviewed the subject - you're not getting the most from the question. The course work is good if you learn in a classroom environment, but I learn 2x as fast just reading.

That being said - my NBME scores are far from stellar, I havent gotten my official scores (damn july 18th), and NBMEs were: 220 (2.5 months out) 244 (3 weeks out) 251 (1 week out). I did finish all World, Qbank, and Robbins and felt that Robbins and World were great, Qbank was good only for subjects where world ran out and I was still weak (didnt use BSS). HY Neuro was fantastic and one of my favorite review books although I'm still bitter at memorizing all the CN pathways and never having anywhere near as difficult a question on anything.

G'luck.

 

[Taus]

That being said - my NBME scores are far from stellar, I havent gotten my official scores (damn july 18th), and NBMEs were: 220 (2.5 months out) 244 (3 weeks out) 251 (1 week out).

I'd hate to hear what you consider stellar...

 

[Roy7]

I'd hate to hear what you consider stellar...

Maaan, half the posters here get like 250's on their first NBME before even starting studying. I can think of like 3-4 posters that got 265+ on all their NBME's. I'd say those are stellar. Besides, I'm still terrified my actual score is gonna come out 210 so I'm not jinxing anything.

 

[gouda]

It sounds like you just purchased HY/BRS for the first time. If you're just going into your second year give them a try while you study for classes and see if you feel like you understand the material. IMO, scoring below average is of some value in measuring how much you know, but very little at that. Too many factors need to be taken into account when looking at class averages (ie - what experiences your peers have that have exposed them to that material already). If reviewing with multiple books doesn't feel like it is improving your comprehension then succumb to Kaplan. However, judging by your MCAT score you probably don't need to use Kaplan. If you want a way to measure your improvement buy a Q&A book, like Robbins, and see if you feel anymore comfortable with the material.

 

[treasurefull2]

Hi all,

I represent the substantial minority of people who read this forum but rarely post. A few details about me and on to my step 1 question: I currently attend a state school in the midwest. As I graduated as an economics major with little science background, I am substantially below the mean of my class yet have failed no courses. In fact, my performance increased linearly throughout my first year which I just completed. (BTW 30 MCAT)

That being said, I would like to do the best I possibly can on Step I. I recently bought the following books:

First Aid
Rapid Review Pathology and Biochemistry
BRS Physiology
High Yield Embryo, Immunology
Microbiology made ridiculously easy

That being said, I hear many things about the Kaplan Home Study and Lectures being better while I originally purchased the above books due to advice I received on this forum. My main question is : What is more beneficial and user friendly to me as a student who struggled, kaplan or reviews mentioned above?

I appreciate greatly the advice that I get from the bright future doctors that post on this forum, I hope you will help me out, and I wish you the best.

-E

I am rarely arrogant enough or firm enough in what I say to the point where I can actually tell you: Listen to what I am telling you and ignore the rest...

But, don't waste your freakin time trying to find all these BS review books for each subject on step 1! Do yourself a damn favor and get the Kaplan Self Study book set!!!!!!!!

These books are absolutely stellar and will give you all the information you need to destroy step 1!

If you bother yourself with trying to acquire all the review books, first off, you are wasting valuable time that you could be using to study. SECOND, and more importantly, most of the review books are OVERKILL and provide you with tons of excess information, and information that is not as directed for or is much more than is necessary for Step 1. Third off, by using a SINGLE source for all the subject allows for the books to complement each other so that every corner is covered somewhere in the set... whereas if you used different review books, you would get redundant information that is repeated in the different review books which would be inefficient, or you may not get a key piece of information at all....

The only deviation from this that I could see is using Goljan's RR Pathology or BRS Pathology, just because they are just such great books.

SUPPLEMENTATION:

To be even more affective, you MUST listen to Goljan's audio... they are absolutely amazing.... And if you want to add sugar on top, review his High Yield 100pages...

You must use TWO QBanks, NO MORE, NO LESS: You should use USMLEWORLD and KAPLAN OR USMLERx

I think using these resources is a good foundation for studying... and a KEY POINT HERE: You must be efficient in your studying, which means LIMITING your resources, and mastering the resources that you do have. Anything that may be missed in the kaplan notes (which would be rare) would be addressed in Goljan Audio or through doing TONS and TONS of questions.......

Like I said, I rarely tell people that what I'm saying is the BEST way and the rest should be ignored, but after having studying myself for Step 1, and using a variety of resources, I can tell you that using KAPLAN Notes is KEY!!!

While other strategies and books have been used with great success, this is a much better way of destroying step 1....

My opinion, take it as you wish....

 

[treasurefull2]

Oh yeah, and of course, you gotta use First Aid.....

 

[SoCuteMD]

I debated using the Kaplan books, but I really wanted to be able to go through whatever source I chose very thoroughly. The length of the Kaplan books seemed a bit prohibitive, as I didn't want to start studying for Step I until my classes ended - leaving me 5 weeks. The way I saw it, all the studying I was doing for pathology and pharm was valuable for the boards, and trying to cram in boards studying at the same time was "Robbing Peter to pay Paul."

It sounds like you are starting to get the hang of med school after first year, and that's the way I was. My grades increased (almost linearly) throughout first year and second year. The good news is, the most important classes for the boards are during 2nd year. As a result, even if you had a difficult first year you are still in a position to do a lot for your board scores during 2nd year.

Boards studying is a personal choice. I would encourage you to enjoy your summer, work hard next year, and take stock of where you are during Christmas or spring break. If you've done really well during 2nd year to that point then that will certainly take away some of you concerns. As a side note, a lot of people say that the Kaplan Pathology book isn't worth the time - so substitute RR Path by Goljan.

I wouldn't worry about "missing something" if you pull together your own list of sources as the poster above mentioned. Step I really isn't about the "little details" - it focuses much more on big concepts and reasoning ability. On any 350 question test there's always going to be SOMETHING you've never heard of. There were a number of concepts on my Step 1 that I didn't see anywhere but on USMLEWorld. Tell yourself it's experimental and move on.

So, in summary:
1. Kaplan/Your own book list - up to you. Kaplan is VERY long, so you'll need to keep that in mind when making your study schedule
2. Regardless of which you choose, you can't go wrong with RR Pathology.
3. I agree with the above poster about limiting your resources - this is a MUST. Pick something and stick with it (but you've got time before you have to decide).

 

[lord_jeebus]

you MUST listen to Goljan's audio

Not really

And if you want to add sugar on top, review his High Yield 100pages...

I thought it was worthless

You must use TWO QBanks, NO MORE, NO LESS

Good God what is USMLE prep coming to? Every year the new generation finds a way to take things one step further, and it's getting pretty crazy. I suppose if you must break 250 this is a good strategy...

 

[SoCuteMD]

Not really



I thought it was worthless



Good God what is USMLE prep coming to? Every year the new generation finds a way to take things one step further, and it's getting pretty crazy. I suppose if you must break 250 this is a good strategy...

I agree. I think we're getting a little dogmatic here.

2 test banks is a LOT of questions and LOT of money. And I'm not even sure this method would help you break 250!!

 

[treasurefull2]

I agree. I think we're getting a little dogmatic here.

2 test banks is a LOT of questions and LOT of money. And I'm not even sure this method would help you break 250!!

It's not necessary to do ALL the question from BOTH question banks, but rather to get a feel for TWO different styles of question formats.

I feel that if you just do one, for example, USMLEW, you would get an obscure and unrealistic feel for the test. Their questions are exhaustive, long and very difficult. However, they are great to learn from.

But, Kaplan has a different question style that is more fact based that complements USMLEW very well.

 

[treasurefull2]

and, yeah, I suppose trying to score above 250 ain't a bad goal......

 

[PeepshowJohnny]

I think what people are saying is just be careful on how you phase things. I agree with you that two question banks is a good idea. But don't be so dogmatic. Some people get great scores without using ANY question banks. Some people don't read Goljan or use his audio. Some re-read classroom textbooks and do well.

Certainly suggesting some of the more popular "high yield" studying tips is great, but I don't want people to feel pressured to study a way that's awkward for them.