Prep course at beginng of prep or after first run through material?

[WarriorMD]

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Hi guys, I am in need of some desperate and urgent advice on how to go about my prep.


I am an IMG and I have a very very weak foundation and need to start from scratch since I took some time off after basic sciences (leave of absence). I can take my time to give the exam, but I obviously want to be efficient with my studying.

I know exactly what sources I will be using for my final review (FA+UW+Pathoma+UsmleRX), but I need to know the best way to go about bulding a solid foundation (since that is what I lack).


HELP ME PICK A PLAN

PLAN A: Take Falcon Review starting next week and learn my basic sciences in 7 weeks and then come home and review the books again to get a better grasp.
My Thoughts: I can cover everything very fast in 7 weeks and use this program to help get into a routine, but I am worried about not being able to keep up and being a bit lost due to the fact that I won't be reviewing, but I will be learning a lot of the info. Also worried that since this is a review I may be review high yield concpts instead of learning the full details I need to understand the material (although my friends who took the course say this won't be the case).

PLAN B: Take 4 months to review the Kaplan books and Videos in FULL DETAIL to understand my concepts and have a foundation before attending the Falcon reviews
My Thoughts: This will allows me to have a VERY solid foundation before attending Falcon Lectures, but it is also very time consuming and will delay my exam by a lot and also the Falcon lectures may seem redundant after Kaplan lectures.



Extra info:
Why I want to do Falcon?
1) My friends who took it can't stop raving about how it taught them everything they need to know and helped them pick out all the high yield concepts from each course
2) One review of the Kaplan books won't be enough for me, I'll need one run through to graps the concepts and then a second run through to fill in the details and do the bits of memorization required.
- Doing a second run of the kaplan books will be way too time consuming because the books are in detailed paragraph format and it's hard to pickout high yield points whereas the Falcon books are in bullet form and are a lot easier and faster to go through as you don't have to dig through paragraphs to get high yield info since the infos presented in bullet form right infront of you.

Any advice or input would be greatly appreciated, I have a couple more days to sign up for Falcon or to delay it and this decision will be a BIG determing factor as to how I perform on the USMLE.

No one? Lol?

 

[WarriorMD]

loooks like my post was too long lol

 

[1badvette]

I would build a good base before i jump into a live falcon prep that cost a lot of $$$ ... get a hold of falcon, sign up for whatever live program they have few months from now.. have them mail you the books early , go over the books , keep track of what you really need help on so once you attend the live program ,most of your time there would be working on the topics that you are really weak in ..

 

[MrBeauregard]

Hi guys, I am in need of some desperate and urgent advice on how to go about my prep.


I am an IMG and I have a very very weak foundation and need to start from scratch since I took some time off after basic sciences (leave of absence). I can take my time to give the exam, but I obviously want to be efficient with my studying.

I know exactly what sources I will be using for my final review (FA+UW+Pathoma+UsmleRX), but I need to know the best way to go about bulding a solid foundation (since that is what I lack).


HELP ME PICK A PLAN

PLAN A: Take Falcon Review starting next week and learn my basic sciences in 7 weeks and then come home and review the books again to get a better grasp.
My Thoughts: I can cover everything very fast in 7 weeks and use this program to help get into a routine, but I am worried about not being able to keep up and being a bit lost due to the fact that I won't be reviewing, but I will be learning a lot of the info. Also worried that since this is a review I may be review high yield concpts instead of learning the full details I need to understand the material (although my friends who took the course say this won't be the case).

PLAN B: Take 4 months to review the Kaplan books and Videos in FULL DETAIL to understand my concepts and have a foundation before attending the Falcon reviews
My Thoughts: This will allows me to have a VERY solid foundation before attending Falcon Lectures, but it is also very time consuming and will delay my exam by a lot and also the Falcon lectures may seem redundant after Kaplan lectures.



Extra info:
Why I want to do Falcon?
1) My friends who took it can't stop raving about how it taught them everything they need to know and helped them pick out all the high yield concepts from each course
2) One review of the Kaplan books won't be enough for me, I'll need one run through to graps the concepts and then a second run through to fill in the details and do the bits of memorization required.
- Doing a second run of the kaplan books will be way too time consuming because the books are in detailed paragraph format and it's hard to pickout high yield points whereas the Falcon books are in bullet form and are a lot easier and faster to go through as you don't have to dig through paragraphs to get high yield info since the infos presented in bullet form right infront of you.

Any advice or input would be greatly appreciated, I have a couple more days to sign up for Falcon or to delay it and this decision will be a BIG determing factor as to how I perform on the USMLE.

No one? Lol?

Warrior,

I have yet to take the USMLE but I am currently in the process of studying for it. I can tell you that, without a doubt, having a strong foundation is the key to overall success on Step 1. Thus, my suggestion to you would be to take the 4 months and review all of the Kaplan books in full. After reading numerous posts here on SDN, it has repeatedly been said that understanding concepts and working through the pathophysiology of various diseases is quite possibly the most important skill to have while taking the USMLE. You may see an easy concept wrapped up in fancy wording and cloaked in such a way that you may become totally disoriented and have no idea what the question is asking when, in reality, if you know the basic concept, you can pick it out of the question and at least have a good shot at a correct answer. Herein lies the need for the strong foundation.

It seems as if Plan B is what you really want to do anyways because you realize your lack of basic understanding and you realize how important that understanding is. In my opinion, you have already made the first (and quite possibly most important) step of many that will bring you success on the USMLE: recognizing your weaknesses and correcting them. My recommendation for you is to learn from the Kaplan books, then do Falcon Review, and then do your own highly focused review based upon what you are still struggling with after those two courses.

As for resources, you've pretty much got the Golden Triad of FA, UW and Pathoma (although Goljan RR Pathology is widely considered, at least in SDN-land, as the gold standard for pathology/pathophysiology). USMLERx, from what I've read, is also a solid question bank and can help to get you through FA. From a personal standpoint, if I were you, I would attempt to add in Goljan audio because he is simply the master of integrating material. He connects concepts together like no one else can. If anything, at least get the Goljan audio transcripts so that you can read over it.

I hope this helps you make the right decision for yourself. We all know how important Step 1 is in the career of a future physician, and we all want to do as well as we can. I wish you the best of luck in your studies and, as a final note: if you truly believe that you can do something, and you want it bad enough, you can achieve any goal you set for yourself. I can attest (from studying now) that Step 1 is a beast, and for those of us who want to crush it, it can be a daunting task to take in and understand the massive amount of material on this test. Just take it one day at a time, one hour at a time, one question at a time, and you can do it.

If you have any other questions, feel free to PM me.

MrB