USMLE review, the Pay, the Free and the inbetween

USMLE preparing:

I took pass program right after basic sciences in summer of 06.
The biggest mistake of my LIFE.
My views are based on the program at the time, dont know if things have changed overall I have heard it is the same.

1. The area that the students lived in was not next to the center, therefore you had to rent a car or depend on someone else.

2. the class room was sooooooo small everyone is very crammed.

3. he does NOT have any books, he has this binder that a student wrote which is very disorganized. The book that he does have is pointless no one ever used it.

4. he offers all these so called breaks in btw class, but its just his way of being able to teach step 2 students.

5. he does not teach you anything, all he does his give you these so called clues on how to answer the questions, you can't answer the questions if you have no idea about the topic.

6. he constantly tells stupid sexual jokes all the time.

Kaplan Retreat.
I am currently taking the kaplan retreat program, it has only been 3 weeks and I already feel a 100 times better. The books, questions and teachers are out standing.

I understand that it is very expensive but its worth every single penny.

Let me begin with this I have taken four review courses and failed several times.

First course was Princeton Review - absolutely horrible.

Second was the old Falcon Review before he hired all of the review book authors. Don't give any money to this guy worst review ever.

Third was 2 months with the PASS Program - Dr. Francis was great but as Jordan said not too much organization. He relies on tricks and buzz words not good for the boards. I did a month of private tutoring there - this will only falsely inflate your Q-Bank score and give you unreliable info as to your progress. Do the Q-bank (Kaplan, Rx, World) on your own.

The fourth and final course was a Kaplan Retreat - best one!!! I recommend this it is where you will learn what to do on the test.

Final revisions underway and will sit soon and this time I will pass!!!

So As you can see Kaplan is considered the Gold here.

For pay

expect to spend 3 to 6 thousand dollars and 2 weeks to 3 months ( Kaplan has a 6 month course too) , yes you read it. This is the average, some schools offer mini courses of 1 week for free to 1000 dollars.

The longer courses are your life and review, they make you do everything, study everyday and practice tests, the shorter courses are lectures and you do the rest.


For pay but not 100% legit:

Pay on Ebay or some website an amount of 150 to 300 USD and you can get the Kaplan Videos and notes. Then pay for the Q banks.

For less

You can download the 2004 and 2007 Kaplan video collections off Torrents for free
Pay for Q banks

For free 100% is not recommended since you have to pay for Q banks to use them and Q banks have become essential in preparing.

What I have done

Kaplan Videos
USMLE World Q Bank 3 months
First Aid
Kaplan Notes for some things
Goljan

I did watch the PASS videos and found them useful but as above I think maybe its better to stick with Kaplan.


How long?

US students study a couple of months
US Caribbean students a couple of months to 3 and 6 months
International students or MD's usuall 6 to 12 months

Biggest mistake some make is that the USMLE is a standardized test, not really this will be the hardest test you will ever take.

You have to understand the WHY something is not just the WHAT it is.

everyone is different.

Take home points for study:

1. 90% Know the stuff thats 90% of the exam, like the Diseases and TX that show up 90% of the time in the practice Q's on Kaplan or UW, the real thing is like this. Murmers that are the most common on the boards and drugs that are the most Common, you can do very well not knowing the 10%.

2. Know the why and the what, so If you know the treatment know what makes it work, if it Blocks tubulin then know Paxitaxel is Brest/ovarian, Binds Tubulin ( no anaphase), myelosupressive so if you know these things about Paxitaxel then you can answer a lot of Questions, but you must exercise this Knowledge through twisted Q's like Kaplan and UW, they twist it so much that I about cry sometimes but it takes that to get you ready for the real thing.

3. The answer that pops into your mind is right 80% of the time.



4. You have to limit what you know or you will forget too much, keep reviewing the info, so make study cards organized with the 90%, put the 10% in another pile and look at it but do not fuss too much.


I hope this helps, be very careful with new review courses I would put my money and time into what works and proven.