Kaplan High Yield & Internal Medicine Review

[WonderBoy]

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Anyone have any experience with using the high yield or Internal Medicine review done by Fischer?

I am about six months away from my test. Just recently took step 1, i am an avg student.
I am confused if I should use the regular Kaplan videos, high yield or DIT?

I have been doing uworld before shelfs and getting about average scores, not really that great.

Appreciate any input.

 

[USMLE0423]

I think the high-yield vids are good but they pretty much just read you MTB-2 verbatim. not much added. I havent done DIT or Kaplan vids so cant speak for them. Did DIT help you for step 1? if so, i guess you can try to do that. I didnt do DIT for step 1 bc I found him boring and going too fast for me. I've heard that DIT for step 2 is not that great.

Hope that helps

 

[Transposony]

I think the high-yield vids are good but they pretty much just read you MTB-2 verbatim. not much added. I havent done DIT or Kaplan vids so cant speak for them. Did DIT help you for step 1? if so, i guess you can try to do that. I didnt do DIT for step 1 bc I found him boring and going too fast for me. I've heard that DIT for step 2 is not that great.

Hope that helps

I agree.

My ratings Regular Kaplan videos>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>DIT> Kaplan high yield

 

[katarina90]

I'm using Kaplan High Yield for the Step 2 (I used the High Yield course for Step 1 as well). So far I haven't hit the questions because I'm finishing off a previous subscription to USMLE Rx, but I've been watching the videos.

For me, I'm happy with the content. The videos are much better than their Step 1 videos in my opinion (relevant info if you didn't like the Step 1 course) because they're taught mostly by Dr. Fischer, at least so far. I've done about half of it and I'm impressed. Of course they're still fairly dry and the presentation is spartan (ie you see the powerpoint slides, few pictures, nothing super interesting) but they do a good job of hitting the important details on what to do for a certain condition.

The thing I've benefited most from is learning what diagnostic tests to do and in what order, because I've had a hard time finding good explanations (Cecil's has good charts and algorithms, but it's very time consuming and will likely not be feasible to get through the relevant sections in time).

I'm using this course along with FA for the Step 2 because I actually prefer the format to the one in MTB (still possible to annotate and follow along, but takes a little more effort).

Downsides: a little pricey (I did use the AMA member discount though), brushes over some topics like EKG interpretation, some sections are weak on pathophysiology (not sure if this is intentional as it's not as important in Step 2, or if it's an oversight). For example in the section of anemia of chronic disease nothing was said about the TIBC or hepcidin levels. Again, minor things. Overall I'm content with it because the main thing I want to get out of it is a good grasp of the fundamentals, so I can build upon it with UWorld, COMbank, and reading up on my weak subjects in textbooks.

 

[RedSoxSuck]

I'm using Kaplan High Yield for the Step 2 (I used the High Yield course for Step 1 as well). So far I haven't hit the questions because I'm finishing off a previous subscription to USMLE Rx, but I've been watching the videos.

For me, I'm happy with the content. The videos are much better than their Step 1 videos in my opinion (relevant info if you didn't like the Step 1 course) because they're taught mostly by Dr. Fischer, at least so far. I've done about half of it and I'm impressed. Of course they're still fairly dry and the presentation is spartan (ie you see the powerpoint slides, few pictures, nothing super interesting) but they do a good job of hitting the important details on what to do for a certain condition.

The thing I've benefited most from is learning what diagnostic tests to do and in what order, because I've had a hard time finding good explanations (Cecil's has good charts and algorithms, but it's very time consuming and will likely not be feasible to get through the relevant sections in time).

I'm using this course along with FA for the Step 2 because I actually prefer the format to the one in MTB (still possible to annotate and follow along, but takes a little more effort).

Downsides: a little pricey (I did use the AMA member discount though), brushes over some topics like EKG interpretation, some sections are weak on pathophysiology (not sure if this is intentional as it's not as important in Step 2, or if it's an oversight). For example in the section of anemia of chronic disease nothing was said about the TIBC or hepcidin levels. Again, minor things. Overall I'm content with it because the main thing I want to get out of it is a good grasp of the fundamentals, so I can build upon it with UWorld, COMbank, and reading up on my weak subjects in textbooks.

What is your opinion regarding USMLErx qbank? Is it worth buying? What about kaplan q bank?


I was just thinking about starting off with kaplan HY with a qbank and annotating everything into Step up to step 2 or into FA and then using uworld for last few months?

If i use usmlerx qbank, then is it possible to annotate it in Step up to step 2 since DIT uses step up to step 2 instead of fa? Anyone encountered that issue?

Thanks!

 

[katarina90]

I haven't started Kaplan Q bank so I can't comment on them yet.

However, I'm about 65% through with USMLE Rx and I'd say its ok. There's far less low-yield questions than I experienced when I did the Kaplan Step 1 qbank. The main downside with Rx is that it lacks a mobile app, and the website is nowhere near as user-friendly as Kaplan's or USMLE World's. I was curious about Rx because I didn't use it for Step 1, and I'd say it's solidly "OK" in my book but I wouldn't do at the expense of USMLE World which is far better.

I'm a proponent of using more than 1 qbank as opposed to doing World multiple times--it worked for me on Step 1 and it's what I plan to do for the Step 2. I don't know much about Step Up for the Step 2 but from flipping through most of these review books I think they're all relatively equal content-wise and that it is really a matter of preference on which format you prefer.

 

[USMLE0423]

I've been using Kaplan qbank so far and it's very very picky and focuses on little details. according to most people kaplan qbank is not a good representation of the real exam. However, I'm doing it because it helps me learn the topics and I think knowing details is important if you're shooting for an above average score. I'm going to be doing UW later in my prep.