Need advice asap !Phloston or anyone

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MaryAnn1

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Hi everyone,
I need an advice on what to purchase kaplan high yield course or kaplan center prep.
Please I need pros and cons for both !
A little about myself:I am a US citizen and Foreign medical grad , working part time .I'm lacking that "Am I ready for the test?"and i need the motivation needed to study for this test.Which one would be better in my situation kaplan step 1 high yield or kaplan center prep .

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I actually would advise against using Kaplan for Step1 prep apart from their QBank and anatomy lecture notes neuro-only sections.

Some people have found their videos to be of utility, but I never used them.

Their QBank is worth a cursory pass, but your annotations should be minimal.

If time is a factor, USMLE Rx >>> Kaplan QBank.

-------

Bottom line: It was only after I had sat the real USMLE and all of the NBME exams that I realized how off-target Kaplan material is. I annotated my FA with Kaplan in orange ink, and today, when I make USMLE lecture slides for the MS2s at my school, I almost never address anything written in orange.
 
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I actually would advise against using Kaplan for Step1 prep apart from their QBank and anatomy lecture notes neuro-only sections.

Some people have found their videos to be of utility, but I never used them.

Their QBank is worth a cursory pass, but your annotations should be minimal.

If time is a factor, USMLE Rx >>> Kaplan QBank.

-------

Bottom line: It was only after I had sat the real USMLE and all of the NBME exams that I realized how off-target Kaplan material is. I annotated my FA with Kaplan in orange ink, and today, when I make USMLE lecture slides for the MS2s at my school, I almost never address anything written in orange.

Kaplan material is off-target in what way? And is it specific sections or just in general? Thanks.
 
Kaplan material is off-target in what way? And is it specific sections or just in general? Thanks.

If you need to know points A through E for Step1, Kaplan will teach you A through M and then give excessive detail in the process. The result is you panic and scramble to learn every tiny detail (bc you want that 270) only to realize after the fact that none of it would be tested in a million years. I have resentment for Kaplan. They might be fine for the SATs and MCAT, but not for the Step1.

Kaplan is fine for learning to be a better physician, but in terms of concise Step1 prep, I felt its resources were at the bottom of the barrel.
 
If you need to know points A through E for Step1, Kaplan will teach you A through M and then give excessive detail in the process. The result is you panic and scramble to learn every tiny detail (bc you want that 270) only to realize after the fact that none of it would be tested in a million years. I have resentment for Kaplan. They might be fine for the SATs and MCAT, but not for the Step1.

Kaplan is fine for learning to be a better physician, but in terms of concise Step1 prep, I felt its resources were at the bottom of the barrel.

Only comparing to the NBMEs so far, I'd have to agree 100%.

Kaplan will probably lower your score due to the fact it makes you feel like you know nothing.
 
If you need to know points A through E for Step1, Kaplan will teach you A through M and then give excessive detail in the process. The result is you panic and scramble to learn every tiny detail (bc you want that 270) only to realize after the fact that none of it would be tested in a million years. I have resentment for Kaplan. They might be fine for the SATs and MCAT, but not for the Step1.

Kaplan is fine for learning to be a better physician, but in terms of concise Step1 prep, I felt its resources were at the bottom of the barrel.

You mean FA+Usmlerx+Kqbank+ Uw is the answer in that order? What else besides this?
 
I will say that Kaplan Qbank does have strengths. Their micro and cell bio were more robust than world's and their biochem was good too. Some of their esoteric micro did end up on my exam and, so I'm told, on my classmates' exams too. It's relatively low yield compared to other material, but if you're scoring highly already it can be a nice place to pick up a point or two.

That said, I did use Kaplan throughout M2 and found it much better than World for classes. I started World in December and was able to get a lot of questions right simply from test-taking skills rather than specific knowledge. Kaplan questions aren't quite as good and many require you to know one small detail to answer the question. World will throw you a few bones in each stem just like the real deal, so you can generally figure out what's going on. My Kaplan percent correct was ~10-15% lower than my World%.
 
You mean FA+Usmlerx+Kqbank+ Uw is the answer in that order? What else besides this?

If you've done all 3 qbanks and understood it all, you're either sitting at a 265+ or you haven't actually learned from the qbanks.
 
Ifu've done all 3 qbanks and understood it all, you're either sitting at a 265+ or you haven't actually learned from the qbanks.

That SeEms Waaay Too High.
From the 2012 Step 1 Thread, The Posts I Saw Where People Did All Three Ranged From ~240+.

If You're Banking On The "Understood It All", You Could Make That SamE Post With Just UW+FA.
 
You're better off avoiding Kaplan QBank and instead mastering First Aid/USMLERx, Pathoma, and UWorld.

Even the subjects people say Kaplan is strong in can be learned from just the above resources.
 
That SeEms Waaay Too High.
From the 2012 Step 1 Thread, The Posts I Saw Where People Did All Three Ranged From ~240+.

If You're Banking On The "Understood It All", You Could Make That SamE Post With Just UW+FA.

Sure, that's really all you need.

I did have questions that I think I was able to answer solely due to Rx, but I could have easily just missed it in FA or UWorld.
 
You mean FA+Usmlerx+Kqbank+ Uw is the answer in that order? What else besides this?

That's solid, really.


If you've done all 3 qbanks and understood it all, you're either sitting at a 265+ or you haven't actually learned from the qbanks.

I did Rx, Kaplan QBank, UWorld, GT QBank, FA Q&A, Kaplan QBook, Webpath and Robbin's Review of Path and only got a 262. And I absorbed it all.

Maxing out the QBanks will get you to around the 260-barrier. Getting points above that is bound to getting minutiae questions that you coincidentally know (this really is important), not making errors (i.e. not over-thinking things) and pure intuition (e.g. bizarre behavioral science question that you can't prepare for).
 
Thanks all.But what i really need advice on is I am working part time and there's no institution to study for this test and I need to work on the step 1 as a job .I can't find anything but kaplan course out there.
Qbanks will help i know but how can they give me motivation to sit and study.Please help me out here !
 
Thanks all.But what i really need advice on is I am working part time and there's no institution to study for this test and I need to work on the step 1 as a job .I can't find anything but kaplan course out there.
Qbanks will help i know but how can they give me motivation to sit and study.Please help me out here !

On a forum full of some the most self-motivated students in the world ... :corny:


My input: You should think about your goals and the harsh consequences if you don't reach them, and that should be enough motivation there.
- If not, then get a motivated study buddy going thru the process who can keep you motivated.
- If not, then fine, pay for a much much much more expensive study course, BUT you'll STILL have to be self-motivated to actually go thru all the required readings and questions anyways.
 
That SeEms Waaay Too High.
From the 2012 Step 1 Thread, The Posts I Saw Where People Did All Three Ranged From ~240+.

If You're Banking On The "Understood It All", You Could Make That SamE Post With Just UW+FA.

Not sure what happened to the shift key on your keyboard, but the capitalization in that post makes me want to donkey punch my monitor.

Agree with the content.
 
Thanks all.But what i really need advice on is I am working part time and there's no institution to study for this test and I need to work on the step 1 as a job .I can't find anything but kaplan course out there.
Qbanks will help i know but how can they give me motivation to sit and study.Please help me out here !

I can imagine having a job is difficult, but what you're looking for doesn't exist. You can't passively learn this stuff. I did DIT in a week and it was torture and it took everything I had to focus, do the questions, annotate, and pay attention. The same about watching Pathoma for the umpteenth time. I can't get through the Kaplan videos because they are just too boring. All that aside, you can't use those sources if you're not paying attention.

Q banks require you to focus. Hopefully you focus enough on the review to get something out of them too. Having done all 3, UW > Kaplan > Rx. YMMV

You need to hit pause on that job for at least 2 weeks. However much you're losing in $, write it off as an investment in your future. Get creative if you're desperate for the money, but stop asking for a program you can passively do while working and still get a good grade with. It doesn't exist.
 
Not sure what happened to the shift key on your keyboard, but the capitalization in that post makes me want to donkey punch my monitor.

Agree with the content.

Hahaha! That junk happens for some weird reason whenever I use SDN on my phone.
 
I am using Kaplan high yield and its helping. Definitely better than Kaplan videos. My friends are suggesting you do Kaplan hy and dit in the last month. Especially if you are working it will keep you motivated and unlike others on this forum working people like myself will greatly benefit from it Hopefully this will answer the qs.
Also supplement with qbanks as pholoston suggested. But doing banks alone is not a good idea for step 1.
 
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