Goljan 100pg HY notes, Worth it?

[persianbbq4u]

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Are Goljan's 100/36 page high yeild notes as good as advertised? In his first step 2 audio lecture he states that they are absolutely essential to a great step 1 score.

 

[Cards21aceking]

pretty sure that the material is not copyrighted, so discussion in this forum may not be the best place to talk about it.

Though not a moderator myself, I have a feeling that that's what they'd say.

 

[lord_jeebus]

No resource is absolutely essential for a great Step I score.

If you want the content of those notes legitimately, his Rapid Review Pathology book contains pretty much the same info. There's nothing magical about their content.

 

[persianbbq4u]

is this from personal experience or word of mouth?

 

[lankysudanese]

Are Goljan's 100/36 page high yeild notes as good as advertised? In his first step 2 audio lecture he states that they are absolutely essential to a great step 1 score.

Goljan is such a conceited/pompous bastard...and advice from conceited people should be taken with BIG grain of salt.

...lots of people neither used Goljan audio nor RR and somehow managed to do very well in Step 1.

 

[MadameLULU]

Goljan is such a conceited/pompous bastard...and advice from conceited people should be taken with BIG grain of salt.

I feel like you may need some context in which he said such things. Goljan taught a KAPLAN course in which many of the students were FMGs and were not straight out of basic sciences like many of us here today. For THOSE students, perhaps his high yields were an integral part of the Step one preparation, so it might be wise to hold off on the name-calling.

 

[2cr8tive]

Goljan is such a conceited/pompous bastard...and advice from conceited people should be taken with BIG grain of salt.

...lots of people neither used Goljan audio nor RR and somehow managed to do very well in Step 1.

lol but it seems to be the best resource for path. kaplan path too simplified and brs path to me at least doesnt make enough connections.

 

[bgreet]

Goljan is such a conceited/pompous bastard...and advice from conceited people should be taken with BIG grain of salt.

...lots of people neither used Goljan audio nor RR and somehow managed to do very well in Step 1.

Wow, guess your not a fan of the man?

 

[lankysudanese]

I feel like you may need some context in which he said such things. Goljan taught a KAPLAN course in which many of the students were FMGs and were not straight out of basic sciences like many of us here today. For THOSE students, perhaps his high yields were an integral part of the Step one preparation, so it might be wise to hold off on the name-calling.

thanks for the context, but that is exactly my point - "absolutely essential" and "perhaps...an integral part" are hardly synonymous phrases. and yet he failed to manage to expand as to why, and to whom, his publication was absolutely essential. and what really gets to me is how the Goljan supporters at my school continue to reverberate this particular statement.

 

[SoCuteMD]

thanks for the context, but that is exactly my point - "absolutely essential" and "perhaps...an integral part" are hardly synonymous phrases. and yet he failed to manage to expand as to why, and to whom, his publication was absolutely essential. and what really gets to me is how the Goljan supporters at my school continue to reverberate this particular statement.

Well, you know, it's possible that they are right and you aren't.

Just a thought.

 

[MadameLULU]

Okay, I'm going to respectfully disagree with you.

thanks for the context, but that is exactly my point - "absolutely essential" and "perhaps...an integral part" are hardly synonymous phrases. and yet he failed to manage to expand as to why, and to whom, his publication was absolutely essential. and what really gets to me is how the Goljan supporters at my school continue to reverberate this particular statement.

"He failed to expand as to why and to whom" Not true at all. That comment was specifically targeted at his KAPLAN audience, not the majority of people on SDN who managed to get hold of his audio lectures. For his TARGETED audience, many who have taken the USMLE more than once or have been out of the preclinical curriculum for a while, it probably was an essential part of their step one prep or else they would not have taken such a class. Again, I think context is key here.

 

[lankysudanese]

Okay, I'm going to respectfully disagree with you.


"He failed to expand as to why and to whom" Not true at all. That comment was specifically targeted at his KAPLAN audienc, not the majority of people on SDN who managed to get hold of his audio lectures. For his TARGETED audience, many who have taken the USMLE more than once or have been out of the preclinical curriculum, it probably was an essential part of their step one prep or else they would not have taken such a class. Again, I think context is key here.

point well-taken. i agree with you that context is always key, and that things shouldn't be taken out of context.
and thanks for keeping the discussion respectful/civil.

Well, you know, it's possible that they are right and you aren't.

Just a thought.

huh? this is not a "matter of opinion" type of discussion. Goljan might have helped a bunch of people excel in Step 1, but his material is by no means "absolutely essential to a great score". the last time I checked, absolutely essential meant something along the lines of "can not do without" something. there are several posts (both within SDN and other forums) by people who have performed extremely well without ever using Goljan's material.

like lordjeebus said "No resource is absolutely essential for a great Step 1 score". Not Goljan, not Kaplan, not UW and not even the Holy FA itself.

 

[SoCuteMD]

huh? this is not a "matter of opinion" type of discussion. Goljan might have helped a bunch of people excel in Step 1, but his material is by no means "absolutely essential to a great score". the last time I checked, absolutely essential meant something along the lines of "can not do without" something. there are several posts (both within SDN and other forums) by people who have performed extremely well without ever using Goljan's material.

like lordjeebus said "No resource is absolutely essential for a great Step 1 score". Not Goljan, not Kaplan, not UW and not even the Holy FA itself.

Goljan was absolutely essential to my Step 1 score. That doesn't mean it's true for everyone, but since we all speak from our own experience then I can see how that statement could be true for some and not for others.

I hated First Aid, though!

 

[DrFraud]

like lordjeebus said "No resource is absolutely essential for a great Step 1 score". Not Goljan, not Kaplan, not UW and not even the Holy FA itself.

Maybe so, but just because you can not speak in absolute terms (because in the end you will always find people who learn differently) doesn't mean that you should give up in ranking what the best resources are for 95% of the students out there. I would say if 95% of the people who took the step say a resource is essential, that's good enough of a standard for most students.

No one is saying that if you don't use one of the essentials, you will be doomed to a poor score. Its just that if you are intelligently planning on doing a comprehenive review, your better off going with the 95%.

 

[lankysudanese]

SoCuteMD: I think that everybody should follow your lead and give advice according to what helped them (for e.g. Goljan in your case) without making generalizations b/c people have differing strengths and weakness. I just get frustrated when somebody extrapolates from their own personal experience and deems a resource absolutely essential or, on the contrary, absolutely useless. thanks for agreeing to disagree.

DrFraud: your last statement makes perfect sense, and i wish that people would use that kind of rhetoric when giving advice - so as to show that Step 1 prep is more of an art, than it is an absolute science.

 

[HIJay]

Maybe so, but just because you can not speak in absolute terms (because in the end you will always find people who learn differently) doesn't mean that you should give up in ranking what the best resources are for 95% of the students out there. I would say if 95% of the people who took the step say a resource is essential, that's good enough of a standard for most students.

No one is saying that if you don't use one of the essentials, you will be doomed to a poor score. Its just that if you are intelligently planning on doing a comprehenive review, your better off going with the 95%.

good analysis and reasoning. i would stick with the 95% also if they have success in what they are using

 

[medstu2006]

Can someone please tell me about the 100/36pgs. What's different about them? How should I study them?

 

[Terpskins99]

Can someone please tell me about the 100/36pgs. What's different about them? How should I study them?

I think most people just read through them once (maybe twice if you have the time).

I glanced at it, and couldn't avoid getting distracted at how crooked the PDF's were (and I didn't want to waste the paper printing it out). So I just dumped it and went straight for RR Path. Totally happy with my decision.

One slightly annoying aspect about RR Path... sometimes Goljan adds so much information into the book (particularly the tables), that it gets a little difficult to filter out what is higher yield than another. I read through everything anyhow, but I'd tire out pretty quickly in chapters that were heavy on tables.

 

[persianbbq4u]

I apologize for the choice of words. The point I was trying to make can be best communicated by paraphrasing what he said in his step 2 audio, track 1: 'a student went through the high yields soon after taking step 1 and checked off 300 facts from the high yields that were on her exam'

Too good to be true?!

 

[TrustDrDice]

thanks for the context, but that is exactly my point - "absolutely essential" and "perhaps...an integral part" are hardly synonymous phrases. and yet he failed to manage to expand as to why, and to whom, his publication was absolutely essential. and what really gets to me is how the Goljan supporters at my school continue to reverberate this particular statement.

how about i reverberate my ball sack off your forehead you prick? quit calling out Goljan

 

[lankysudanese]

how about i reverberate my ball sack off your forehead you prick? quit calling out Goljan

yet another "highly useful" post by TDD, ladies and gentlemen. It somewhat amazing how you manage to incorporate profanity in each and every one of your posts. i bet ur glad that u come off as a real tough bully - in a web-based forum, that is.

 

[Jamers]

yet another "highly useful" post by TDD, ladies and gentlemen. It somewhat amazing how you manage to incorporate profanity in each and every one of your posts. i bet ur glad that u come off as a real tough bully - in a web-based forum, that is.

Although crude, dice was correct; who the heck calls out one of the top rated pathology review professors ever? Honestly, who are you and why should we care? People support Goljan because he boils a tough subject down into only the most important information. Again, who are you?

 

[lankysudanese]

Although crude, dice was correct; who the heck calls out one of the top rated pathology review professors ever? Honestly, who are you and why should we care? People support Goljan because he boils a tough subject down into only the most important information. Again, who are you?

I certainly don't expect anybody to care. I just give my honest opinion, and in this case I didn't want people to get the sense that Goljan is all you needed for path, or that it is essential for a great step 1 score (which was how this whole thread started). I have several classmates who scored 260+ without having used Goljan, and have several classmates who solely relied on Goljan for path and scored around the average. I know that "several" doesn't make a representative sample, but it at least shows that a great score can be obtained without having to use Goljan (which was the point of my first post).

there have been several threads discussing the utility of BRS path, Kaplan qbank, USMLEasy etc...and people have voiced their opinions on these issues. Why does it matter "who I am" in order to question the utility of Goljan?

 

[indo]

Although crude, dice was correct; who the heck calls out one of the top rated pathology review professors ever? Honestly, who are you and why should we care? People support Goljan because he boils a tough subject down into only the most important information. Again, who are you?

Gojan is good but relative to what?

 

[persianbbq4u]

my motivation to start this tread was to find out from those who invested time into learning Goljan’s high yield 100/36pg notes to whether a majority of its content reappeared on the actual exam? Not calling out anyone, Goljan is the man, just wanted to verify what he said with someone's personal experience

 

[lord_jeebus]

my motivation to start this tread was to find out from those who invested time into learning Goljan’s high yield 100/36pg notes to whether a majority of its content reappeared on the actual exam? Not calling out anyone, Goljan is the man, just wanted to verify what he said with someone's personal experience

I thought that the material that was in these notes but not in Goljan's Rapid Review book was very low yield.

 

[indo]

I've just been emailed this document and it is just a long list of stuff to know. I guess it'd be good to read while going to bathroom or something.

 

[BAM!]

What about the questions at the end of Goljan's book. Are those worth doing? I started doing a few, and they seemed kina weird...

thx