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I was just curious, is it necessary to take a Kaplan or Princeton course to do well on the USMLE, or will studying on your own with the necessary books and Qbank suffice? Thanks!
Kaplan/USMLE course?
- Thread starter asm028400
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from what i know, princeton doesn't have a review course (correct me if i'm wrong)
it's all based on your learning style. if you do great in lectures, then go for it. for me personally, i learn the best when i'm reading a book on my own, so that's the route i chose. either way will prepare you equally well, if you choose the way that fits your learning style the best.
it's all based on your learning style. if you do great in lectures, then go for it. for me personally, i learn the best when i'm reading a book on my own, so that's the route i chose. either way will prepare you equally well, if you choose the way that fits your learning style the best.
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If you want to take the kaplan course. I would just get the books and nothing else. My school had us watch the videos, which I found to be the same as the books. The videos pretty much read them to you.asm028400 said:
If you are talking about going to a live course.. I'm absolutely sure it's not worth the money they charge for that. THere is nothing they can tell you in person that you can't read yourself in a review book.
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asm028400 said:
I decided against a class - which hopefully I wont regret. I took classes for the SAT and MCAT and they really helped, but it seems like the boards are a different animal. Here are some of my thoughts which might help you:
1. Anyone can teach the SAT or MCAT material. How many folks can teach path and physio? Much, much fewer and finding them to teach is much, much harder.
2. Time. I have a very limited amount of study time and taking a class first off doesnt really line up with my summer "vacation" (can we really call it that!!!) and secondly eats up so much of my study time that if I went, I would have very little time to study on my own.
3. There are lots of good resources available to you: QBank and NBME exams provide you with all the Q's you need. And there are tons of books.
4. No one at my school has done it - or at least no one that I know of. (I am sure there is someone out there, but....) And my school tends to have really good scores. So I figured I would follow the tried and true approach.
5. Money. Actually, this is really low on my list. Given how much I am paying for med school and how in debt I will be, it is such a small percent.
6. They dont really seem geared towards middle-upper students. They seem more focused on passing. Maybe I am completely off on this because I havent really looked into specifics too much.
If you do decide to take a class: ask who teaches it. What the schedule is like, etc.
And finally, cut your losses. If the class is putting you to sleep and you arent learning from the lectures, stop going!!! Once you have paid for it, it is a sunk cost - you will never see your money again regardless of whether or not you go. Your time, however, is still yours! Use it wisely and dont feel that because you paid for a class you have to go if it isnt helping you and you can study better on your own. Dwell on your mistake to sign up for it after you have taken the exam.
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Llenroc said:
This is true, but remember some learn best on their own. I find that I learn best with either constant repitition or a unique learning circumstance such as a profound proffessor, a good group, picturesque flash cards or something creative. For me and probably others these items help to make the info stick.
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asm028400 said:
No personal experience with Kaplan stuff besides Qbank, but I've heard a LOT of testimonies on this forum of people having a LOT of success with self-studying vs any prep courses. Search around and you'll find a lot of threads with info like "How I studied for Step 1" etc...
My personal opinion: there's no need for a prep course because there are so many good review books and there is so much study material available. I think that in some cases a prep class might actually slow you down.
Then again I haven't taken step 1 yet, but that's my opinion.
A last point - keep in mind that many/majority of people on here (although I am an exception to this rule) are very bright and the rest of us will have to put in a lot of extra work to get the same results. Nevertheless, a lot of people around here seem to know what material you need get your hands on in order to do well on the exam.
Good luck studying!
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I personally prefer for all of my books to be from the same company and that way in the same format and style, which I think helps my efficiency. I'd much prefer to rely on the kaplan books, the study questions, and Qbank.
But, I've read and read and have seen a few comments against certain subjects done by Kaplan. Has anyone or does anyone know someone who tried to rely on only Kaplan? Has anyone tried and then come across a real reason not to do so and to instead substitute a book from another publisher/author?
But, I've read and read and have seen a few comments against certain subjects done by Kaplan. Has anyone or does anyone know someone who tried to rely on only Kaplan? Has anyone tried and then come across a real reason not to do so and to instead substitute a book from another publisher/author?
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I think the thing that worked best for me was using Kaplan Step I prep and First Aid in conjunction, along with a lot of practice questions.
First Aid is a definite must and you should know the book by heart by board time. I would definitely suggest even incoming students buy it to get the mnemonics down-- I wish I at least had it on the back-burner my first 2 years.
As for Kaplan here is my opinion:
The Lectures are good if you can stand 8 hours a day 3 days in a row. I cannot. THE SINGLE BEST parts of Kaplan are the Lecture Notes (7 Book series + QBook) and QBank. I really wish I had the ability to sell my books to an up and coming student-- because in all honest they all one needs-- I do not believe I had a single question that was not covered by Kaplan, and in some instances Kaplan had only 3-4 notes about a disease/syndrome/drug and that was almost word for word the question/answer on the board. Of course, a solid understanding of 1st and 2nd year with attention to detail makes life a lot nicer come test-time, but in the realm of USMLE review-- Kaplan Lecture Notes are essentially all you need.
First Aid is a definite must and you should know the book by heart by board time. I would definitely suggest even incoming students buy it to get the mnemonics down-- I wish I at least had it on the back-burner my first 2 years.
As for Kaplan here is my opinion:
The Lectures are good if you can stand 8 hours a day 3 days in a row. I cannot. THE SINGLE BEST parts of Kaplan are the Lecture Notes (7 Book series + QBook) and QBank. I really wish I had the ability to sell my books to an up and coming student-- because in all honest they all one needs-- I do not believe I had a single question that was not covered by Kaplan, and in some instances Kaplan had only 3-4 notes about a disease/syndrome/drug and that was almost word for word the question/answer on the board. Of course, a solid understanding of 1st and 2nd year with attention to detail makes life a lot nicer come test-time, but in the realm of USMLE review-- Kaplan Lecture Notes are essentially all you need.
M. Platini said:
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Just get the web prep on MP3 and list to that over and over again, then get goljan path and listen to that over and over and over again. This can be done while working out, driving home, cycling on the beach etc. Don't waste your time sitting threw more lectures, you've already done that the first 2 years of med school. Just look at some of those who have done really well on step 1on this forum, I don't ever recall anyone who had over 250+ use the kaplan course.
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Long Dong said:
Hi LD,
I'd just like to ask you where I can get hold of the web prep and the goljan path? Are they available commercially? over the internet? I don't know cuz i'm not from the US
Thanks!
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I actually took the Kaplan Intense Prep course (last three weeks of May), which is different from Kaplan's regular (longer & more expensive) Live Prep course. The Intense Prep course (w/ Webprep) along with QReview (QBank+IV QBank) cost me $1200. I decided to take it because for my learning style, attending lectures helps me get a basic idea of what is what and such. Afterwards, I study on my own to get down the little details. If I were to study books on my own, I usually get bogged down on little details and it takes me forever to get through topics. Again, that's my learning style.
The thing about the Intense Prep course is that the prof's only talk about high yield topics and skip the rest of the text in the lecture notes. Reading the rest is up to you. I took the exam yesterday and I can say that the Intense Prep did help me get a few tricky questions (~5) that I wouldn't have gotten unless I knew stupid nitty gritty details. However, for someone who learns well from books, they probably would've got it from the books. The Intense Prep only covered biochem, immunology, microbiology, physiology, pharm, and path. I learned a great deal from all the lectures except immuno and micro. The profs in those two went more by book. Then again, those subjects are a bit more boring for some people. I truly loved the profs for biochem, physio, pharm, and path. They were excellent teachers that truly wanted you to understand the material. Now the problem with me is that during the first two years of med school, I spent too much time memorizing instead of actually understanding. It could've been me or the professors at my school, but the Kaplan prof's truly helped me understand.
Now, as regards to me, I've been mediocre throughout the first two years with second year being easier to get through than first year (being a CompSci major in undergrad, I wrote code for days on end w/o a problem instead of studying for days on end) as the latter took me time to adjust on how to effectively study w/o falling asleep or goofing off. As previously stated, I liked attending lectures in my first two years and probably attended close to 80% of the lectures.
Finally, for those that care, I'll give a short review of the Kaplan prof's I had:
Biochem - Dr. Lane - This guy sounds like a mix b/w Nick Nolte and Al Pacino. He speaks loudly and clearly and does his lectures by using the overhead projector. He uses pictures of the pathways from the book and actually writes the notes along with you. Reminds me of the style that I loved back in high school. I liked this as I didn't really have to read the pages thoroughly and had all the big points written down on the pathway pics from lecture. Overall, he was great and I wish I had him teach me biochem the first time around (although I did like my school's biochem teacher, too).
Immunology - Dr. Lint - This guy went with Powerpoint slides as mainly pictures with some text. He covered a good part of the day lecture on the basic things and I would have preferred him spending more time on the clinical diagnostic things. He started off a bit boring, but got better as the day went on as he added some corny jokes. Overall, I'd say he was good.
Microbio - Dr. Fairhurst - This guy had a Powerpoint that was more of a copy of the book's bullets with some highlighting on certain details. He went sequentially and I think probably reading the book would've been the same if not better use of the time. Overall, he was okay.
Physio - Dr. Kudrath - He used a tablet PC to go through the notes (via PDFs) and used a scribbling program to make flow charts. In the flow charts, he would describe the big picture and the HY items. He would also highlight from the lecture notes any important lines to know. Also, the best thing about him was that he was mad funny. He made the room laugh sooo much with his anecdotes and stories to illustrate the physiological points. He was a pleasant surprise and I would rate him as excellent.
Pharm - Dr. Davis - This guy used a powerpoint only outlining the important details from the notes. I would say he gave the best powerpoint lecture I've ever seen from a prof (ie. walking around the room while speaking and moving the powerpoint along via a remote, but in synchrony). I liked him a lot beause he would relate all the side effects to understanding how the drug worked physiologically. This way I didn't have to memorize the side effects as much, which definitely helped me out. Also, he gave out the major patterns on naming conventions for drugs such as how to recognize a non-select beta blocker vs beta1 blocker, etc. This guy actually did his PhD work on PDE5 back in the early 70s and consulted with Pfizer on the development of Viagra, which I thought was kind of neat. Overall, I'd rate him as excellent.
Path - Dr. Barone - Ah yes, Dr. Barone. He used a slide projector for pictures and would talk along with the notes. He covered only HY stuff and told us how the exam would ask us certain questions (and for me yesterday, a few questions were exactly as he said...similar to how Goljan does in his lecture set). The unique thing about him was that he gave like 2-3 different mnemonics to memorize details about certain diseases. Also he had a cool way to relate the intrinsic and extrinisic, PTT vs PT vs BT, etc. And the best thing was his jokes. I would say that he has some of the most hilarious jokes and a lot of them dealt with sex, which I loved and found easy to remember. I would rate him as excellent.
Anyway, that's a summary of my experience with the Kaplan course. The bottom line is if you learn well from lectures and have ~6+ weeks to study then I would recommend the Intense Prep course, otherwise books may be the better route. My optimistic goal is 220 and realistic goal being 210ish. If any first year is reading this, I urge you to learn by understanding and memorizing the least possible. I think doing the opposite was my biggest mistake for the first two years. The reason I say this is because memorizing to do good on the school's block exam then forgetting is ok, but counter-productive in studying for the Step1 (short-term benefit vs long-term benefit).
The thing about the Intense Prep course is that the prof's only talk about high yield topics and skip the rest of the text in the lecture notes. Reading the rest is up to you. I took the exam yesterday and I can say that the Intense Prep did help me get a few tricky questions (~5) that I wouldn't have gotten unless I knew stupid nitty gritty details. However, for someone who learns well from books, they probably would've got it from the books. The Intense Prep only covered biochem, immunology, microbiology, physiology, pharm, and path. I learned a great deal from all the lectures except immuno and micro. The profs in those two went more by book. Then again, those subjects are a bit more boring for some people. I truly loved the profs for biochem, physio, pharm, and path. They were excellent teachers that truly wanted you to understand the material. Now the problem with me is that during the first two years of med school, I spent too much time memorizing instead of actually understanding. It could've been me or the professors at my school, but the Kaplan prof's truly helped me understand.
Now, as regards to me, I've been mediocre throughout the first two years with second year being easier to get through than first year (being a CompSci major in undergrad, I wrote code for days on end w/o a problem instead of studying for days on end) as the latter took me time to adjust on how to effectively study w/o falling asleep or goofing off. As previously stated, I liked attending lectures in my first two years and probably attended close to 80% of the lectures.
Finally, for those that care, I'll give a short review of the Kaplan prof's I had:
Biochem - Dr. Lane - This guy sounds like a mix b/w Nick Nolte and Al Pacino. He speaks loudly and clearly and does his lectures by using the overhead projector. He uses pictures of the pathways from the book and actually writes the notes along with you. Reminds me of the style that I loved back in high school. I liked this as I didn't really have to read the pages thoroughly and had all the big points written down on the pathway pics from lecture. Overall, he was great and I wish I had him teach me biochem the first time around (although I did like my school's biochem teacher, too).
Immunology - Dr. Lint - This guy went with Powerpoint slides as mainly pictures with some text. He covered a good part of the day lecture on the basic things and I would have preferred him spending more time on the clinical diagnostic things. He started off a bit boring, but got better as the day went on as he added some corny jokes. Overall, I'd say he was good.
Microbio - Dr. Fairhurst - This guy had a Powerpoint that was more of a copy of the book's bullets with some highlighting on certain details. He went sequentially and I think probably reading the book would've been the same if not better use of the time. Overall, he was okay.
Physio - Dr. Kudrath - He used a tablet PC to go through the notes (via PDFs) and used a scribbling program to make flow charts. In the flow charts, he would describe the big picture and the HY items. He would also highlight from the lecture notes any important lines to know. Also, the best thing about him was that he was mad funny. He made the room laugh sooo much with his anecdotes and stories to illustrate the physiological points. He was a pleasant surprise and I would rate him as excellent.
Pharm - Dr. Davis - This guy used a powerpoint only outlining the important details from the notes. I would say he gave the best powerpoint lecture I've ever seen from a prof (ie. walking around the room while speaking and moving the powerpoint along via a remote, but in synchrony). I liked him a lot beause he would relate all the side effects to understanding how the drug worked physiologically. This way I didn't have to memorize the side effects as much, which definitely helped me out. Also, he gave out the major patterns on naming conventions for drugs such as how to recognize a non-select beta blocker vs beta1 blocker, etc. This guy actually did his PhD work on PDE5 back in the early 70s and consulted with Pfizer on the development of Viagra, which I thought was kind of neat. Overall, I'd rate him as excellent.
Path - Dr. Barone - Ah yes, Dr. Barone. He used a slide projector for pictures and would talk along with the notes. He covered only HY stuff and told us how the exam would ask us certain questions (and for me yesterday, a few questions were exactly as he said...similar to how Goljan does in his lecture set). The unique thing about him was that he gave like 2-3 different mnemonics to memorize details about certain diseases. Also he had a cool way to relate the intrinsic and extrinisic, PTT vs PT vs BT, etc. And the best thing was his jokes. I would say that he has some of the most hilarious jokes and a lot of them dealt with sex, which I loved and found easy to remember. I would rate him as excellent.
Anyway, that's a summary of my experience with the Kaplan course. The bottom line is if you learn well from lectures and have ~6+ weeks to study then I would recommend the Intense Prep course, otherwise books may be the better route. My optimistic goal is 220 and realistic goal being 210ish. If any first year is reading this, I urge you to learn by understanding and memorizing the least possible. I think doing the opposite was my biggest mistake for the first two years. The reason I say this is because memorizing to do good on the school's block exam then forgetting is ok, but counter-productive in studying for the Step1 (short-term benefit vs long-term benefit).
