Kaplan / Pass program - LIVE lectures

[nprp]

Hey guys, needed an opinion from people who have done the 14 week or 12 week program from Kaplan or Pass.

Kaplan 14 weeks starts October 2019
Pass program 12 weeks starts September 15th 2019

How good was it?
Do you recommend or not recommend it? & why?
Do you think it's a waste of time compared to studying yourself at the library?
Any information would be great!


Thanks!

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[ASGD1983]

Hey guys, needed an opinion from people who have done the 14 week or 12 week program from Kaplan or Pass.

Kaplan 14 weeks starts October 2019
Pass program 12 weeks starts September 15th 2019

How good was it?
Do you recommend or not recommend it? & why?
Do you think it's a waste of time compared to studying yourself at the library?
Any information would be great!


Thanks!

I know my school used Pass program before, but this year they decided to switch to some other program (not Kaplan). The reason was that statistically it had almost no correlation to passing board. People still failed it left and right - enough to decide to switch to something else. That been said I think all those programs are somewhat similar - they help, but they can't study instead of you, they can't put knowledge into your head, they can't force you to memorize things. You will have to have motivation, willingness etc.
Studying is essentially 2 things:
1. Understanding concepts and memorizing details (hardest part as you need time for that and several passes over material to put it to long term memory)
2. Doing enough questions to learn how to apply knowledge and to improve your deduction skills (ability to recognize syndrome or disease from hints/bits of symptoms/info given in history and patient presentation)
For #1 you need time mainly, for #2 you need to do enough questions to up your skills (like in RPG lol).

If you are having issues with daily regime or you procrastinate a lot and/or you like to work in groups - those programs might be helpful. However, they are not guarantee to pass, take what they are advertising with healthy grain of salt.

 

[nprp]

I know my school used Pass program before, but this year they decided to switch to some other program (not Kaplan). The reason was that statistically it had almost no correlation to passing board. People still failed it left and right - enough to decide to switch to something else. That been said I think all those programs are somewhat similar - they help, but they can't study instead of you, they can't put knowledge into your head, they can't force you to memorize things. You will have to have motivation, willingness etc.
Studying is essentially 2 things:
1. Understanding concepts and memorizing details (hardest part as you need time for that and several passes over material to put it to long term memory)
2. Doing enough questions to learn how to apply knowledge and to improve your deduction skills (ability to recognize syndrome or disease from hints/bits of symptoms/info given in history and patient presentation)
For #1 you need time mainly, for #2 you need to do enough questions to up your skills (like in RPG lol).

If you are having issues with daily regime or you procrastinate a lot and/or you like to work in groups - those programs might be helpful. However, they are not guarantee to pass, take what they are advertising with healthy grain of salt.

Makes sense. Thanks for that information.

I personally study better alone however I do admit I procrastinate only b/c I don't like studying (honesty is the best way to go at it haha). I don't procrastinate due to distractions, I do it because I just HATE studying at times my problem. I also lack friends where I live because I recently moved here, it's a small 6,000 population area and because I never went to school here which makes it tough to freshen up my mind or take my mind off studying when it's needed.

This is why I was thinking about taking this course, mostly to be around other's who are studying for something similar and to gain motivation seeing other's studying around me. However is that worth $9,000USD? I don't know hence the question.

 

[ASGD1983]

Makes sense. Thanks for that information.

I personally study better alone however I do admit I procrastinate only b/c I don't like studying (honesty is the best way to go at it haha). I don't procrastinate due to distractions, I do it because I just HATE studying at times my problem. I also lack friends where I live because I recently moved here, it's a small 6,000 population area and because I never went to school here which makes it tough to freshen up my mind or take my mind off studying when it's needed.

This is why I was thinking about taking this course, mostly to be around other's who are studying for something similar and to gain motivation seeing other's studying around me. However is that worth $9,000USD? I don't know hence the question.

$9k is a lot, but if it will force you to study and get the job done to pass - then no doubt it's worth it. I mean we already pay a lot of money for tuition, so what's extra $9k compared to total cost of hundreds of thousands? It's even less if you compare it to your potential life time income over decades of work as a doctor vs failing. So money is not a key factor here. Do whatever it takes to pass imho.
However, I think that no such program can compare to just UFAPS + Anki method. There is no other way (program or not) to pass boards, other than doing UW, then reading FA and Pathoma and adding to it Anki/Sketchy. I don't want to sound like a douchbag, but really biggest advise on sdn (at least for step 1 and level 1 boards) can be compressed into UFAPS. As simple as that.