Kaplan live lecture program worth it?

[gclax30]

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I realize this might be more appropriate for the "boards" forum but I'm hoping that since most of you are on rotations already, you'll have more advice and experiences to share.

I'm considering sinking the majority of what's left of my financial aid on one of those 4 week Kaplan courses with live lectures in preparation for step 1, but I've never used Kaplan before and I've heard mixed reviews. What are your thoughts? I realize anyone can have a bad experience, but please share your honest thoughts about the quality of instruction and how it prepared you for boards. Any input is much appreciated. Thank you!

 

[jmdeer]

YES!

I wish i had done this for step 1. I did the Kaplan Live Lecture for step 2 and improved 41 points!

Best of luck

 

[Dr Alo]

These lectures are useful. I don't know if I'd pay the thousands for it, but they definetly bring it all together. I wish I had watched these earlier. They help you consolidate all your medical info and put it all together.

 

[supercut]

Depends.

My med school's preclincal years were mediocre at best, so the majority of my class took the program (our school was a host, so we got a bit of a discount)

Some of the letures were great, some not so much. Kaplan did send us a different instructor to do an additional couple lectures on one topic in which the original lecturer was particualary bad (people complained and they made good). Keep in mind these are med school professors who do this on the side... and so the quality can vary just as your med school lectures do. If enough people are dissatisfied, Kaplan will try to compensate.

The biggest value, I thought was in having a defined set of materials to study. You might consider one of their packages with materials but no live lecture (unless you are an auditory learner!). Plus you have to be willing to devote a chunk of time to nothing but this test. I took the course, and studied for a couple hours daily each day the course was going on, plus several weeks of about 10 hours daily with just the Kaplan materials afterward. I didn't want my step 1 score to hold me back from matching in anything I wanted (even the most crazy competitive specialty if I wanted) I was rewarded with a >240 score.