Kaplen USMLE review and SMU

[rapunzel]

Hey everyone,

i was reading on the SMU website somewhere how Kaplen USMLE review is part of the cirriculum at SMU. Do students sign up for this when they start attending classes in their 1st semester? or are students automatically enrolled in the program? also, is the program part of the school's tuition rate or are we billed separetly?

How helpful is the Kaplan program? Is it worth the money? It is a good study guide for higher USMLE scores?

thanks so much.

[MD999]

I'm not sure when the students are given the Kaplan Books. Basically the Kaplan program (books and videos) are to supplement the basic science course you're already enrolled in.

The books are awesome. They really can help you digest the material. Theyre full of Board relevant material in a format that's easy to read.


We also get our own Qbank.
But its not the good Qbank, it's Kaplan's IV Qbank (Integrated Vignettes).
That is probably the biggest rip-off SMU students are ever getting. The original Qbank questions, which are the MUCH more Board Style and comparable questions, are the SAME PRICE, but apparently the administration or whomever set up the Kaplan Deal had no clue whatsoever on the major differences between Qbanks in preparing you for your boards.

We get a 9 month access to the IV Qbank, but I havent touched mine. It's really not worth the time. I plan on purchasing the regular Kaplan Medical Qbank with my own money.
Tried contacting the administration about it numerous times, but the issue has been blown off by them.

[Knight007]

md999 ..

i'm curious..whats the difference between IV QBank and other Qbank ?

[Bedazzled]

How do most students prepare for step 1????

I understand that Kaplan is available to students with the IV QBank and books, but....

when do most students start preparing for the step 1 exam?
I've heard of some people saying they study for it from day one -- is this common? what type of study schedule?
what do most students use to study with besides the kaplan materials?
do most students take the National Board Review semester off to prepare for the exam?
Thanks in advance for your help and any information you can provide.

Christen

[Bedazzled]

One more thing... this may sound really dumb, but I'd rather ask than assume the wrong thing. What exactly does the step 1 exam cover?

Thanks again,
Christen

[Nimmuk]

I am first semester student and received my books around the second week of class.

SMU will subtract the $900 from my Fianacial Aid for the fall semester. Overall, I think the books are great for review.

[HeyMcfly]

If you were lucky you got Kaplan books. Some 3rd and 4th semester students still haven't gotten them because SMU "ran out until the next batch comes". We've been waiting a long time now and are still told they don't have them. This is garbage.

[cubmd]

HeyMcfly,

If you didn't get your books is because you are so lazy to get your butt to the office and pick up the box, so don't complain now and keep waiting.:p

[Bedazzled]

I just wanted to bump this up, so maybe someone will see it and answer some of the questions in this thread. :)

Thanks!
Christen

[MD999]

md999 ..

i'm curious..whats the difference between IV QBank and other Qbank ?


IV Qbank shoots out questions according to chief complaint.
Regular Qbank does it according to subject. The good thing about the regular Qbank is that you can set up mini exams with mixed random questions from different subjects, it gives you a better assessment of how your studying for Step 1 is really coming along.

Regular Qbank has 2100 Questions
IV Qbank has 1200.

Same price roughly....

[MD999]

One more thing... this may sound really dumb, but I'd rather ask than assume the wrong thing. What exactly does the step 1 exam cover?

Thanks again,
Christen


It covers all the material you learned in the Basic Sciences (your 5 semesters or 2 years of medical school). All the subjects anatomy, biochem, genetics, pathology, pharmacology, microbiology....and whatever else there is that im missing.

The exam is 350 Questions. Check out www.nbme.org (http://www.nbme.org) for more info.

[tamstu66]

The books are really helpful for your classes. The books may not be as detailed as you may need for your classes but the questions they have at the end of each section are very good.

I recommend using the books to supplement your text books and of course use the Kaplan (Kapl@n) videos in the library.

[ES21]

Read...read ... read...

Study...study ...study


And you will be just fine (easier said than done)

[Mehrdad1]

I just want to thank you MD999 for bringing up the rip-off situation that for some reason has flown underneath most students' radar. This is really disturbing, especially since we were forced to buy the Kaplan books for fear of being penalized financially later on in our basic sciences term. Seriously, they owe us an apology and someone should be fired for screwing over so many students.

[charger5001]

They didnt screw anyone over. What are you talking about?

You get all the Kaplan books, unlimited kaplan video access and 8 months of Q bank !!!

The Q bank may not be what you are looking for but it is what I and so many others are happy with.

[sbturner]

I love St. Matthew's, but I hate this CRAPLAN bull. We were not given a choice! I will never need CRAPLAN! I will NEVER use CRAPLAN, or anything similar to it! It limits your thinking as far as I am concerned. Be passionate about learning medicine! Learn as much as you possibly can; learn as quickly as you can, and learn as thoroughly as you can. I hate the idea of seeing questions early. If I study properly, I can answer any question. To be a great doctor, you absolutely must be able to think on your feet. When a situation arises, ANY situation, you must be able to address it immediately and correctly. You simply are not always going to know what to expect. The more you work at developing your critical thinking skills in a dynamic environment, the better you are going to become at it. Having the ability to adapt to any situation effectively is going to help make you a great physician. You develop the skills you practice! Best wishes!

[Mehrdad1]

Hey Charger, it's great that you and "so many others" are happy to get something subpar. Unfortunately, the rest of us who have higher standards feel let down that the school didn't do their homework, and that us students got burned for it in the end. I cannot believe I'm even having this conversation, but that's the problem with the SMU board these days, heaven forbid you say something that even hints of negativity towards the school, and you'll get some glassy-eyed robotic SMU cheerleader to try to negate what you just said. Either way, there's no point in crying over spilled milk, but this situation needs to be fixed for future students. If they're both the same price, why not just get the better of the two? By the way, NO ONE I talked to at the Maine campus was happy about the situation, so let's not try to make it sound like it's a only a few whiners spoiling your "and so many others" parade of love and happiness for the almighty Qbank.

[microphage]

Hey Charger, it's great that you and "so many others" are happy to get something subpar. Unfortunately, the rest of us who have higher standards feel let down that the school didn't do their homework, and that us students got burned for it in the end. I cannot believe I'm even having this conversation, but that's the problem with the SMU board these days, heaven forbid you say something that even hints of negativity towards the school, and you'll get some glassy-eyed robotic SMU cheerleader to try to negate what you just said. Either way, there's no point in crying over spilled milk, but this situation needs to be fixed for future students. If they're both the same price, why not just get the better of the two? By the way, NO ONE I talked to at the Maine campus was happy about the situation, so let's not try to make it sound like it's a only a few whiners spoiling your "and so many others" parade of love and happiness for the almighty Qbank.

Qbank IV and Qbank aren't the same price... but close though. Kaplan raised the prices of Qbank IV recently as it was only 99 dollars for 1 month half a year ago.


Step 1 Qbank

Tuition
http://www.kaptest.com/images/redesign04/nav/content-bullet2.gif3 months: $279

http://www.kaptest.com/images/redesign04/nav/content-bullet2.gif1 month: $199


----
Step 1 Integrated Vignettes Qbank

Tuition
http://www.kaptest.com/images/redesign04/nav/content-bullet2.gif3 months: $249

http://www.kaptest.com/images/redesign04/nav/content-bullet2.gif1 month: $149

[bchamp1281]

I dont think there is such a big difference. I dont see why you guys need to nit-pick over every little small thing.

Be glad your attending the 1st school that offers such associations from the 1st day you start school.

We have all the books, all the videos and 80% of the questions at a great rate I dont see what the bickering is all about.

[MD999]

Are you serious?

Id rather do questions from the Umich website day and night than touch the IV Qbank. Do you even have the IV Qbank? If you even looked at it once, you would retract that ridiculous comment. ANYBODY who is studying for boards seriously, would NOT even touch the IV Qbank unless they ran out of thousands of questions.
Please, check out the questions before making any kind of positive statement about them.

Also, I dont think we should be bragging about getting ripped off for a crappy set of questions, when the administration made the wrong move and got the WRONG QBANK!

[XLNC]

The Funny Thing Is This:-

We Were Given Kaplan, However The Dean Recomends Students To Take The Pass Program. Weird Right????

[Mehrdad1]

Guess what? It gets even worse. Those of us who already paid the $900 for our Kaplan books may have to pay an extra $600 more! Apparently, the whole Kaplan course costs $1500, and the school had originally planned it to be paid in installments. So not only did we get the subpar Qbank, but we will be charged an extra $600 for it. This news was handed to me by the Niceville office today when I called about a completely different student account matter. I was told that they may or may not have the 5th semesters next semester shell out the extra money. I hope to God, our SGA reps can fight this increase.

[charger5001]

Relax- all along the dean told us that unless you were getting the kapln program in 3rd semester there would be a higher charge for 1st and 2nd semesters.

You will see soon that the books and videos willl be very valuable in your studies. You will be spending about $200,000 to get your M.D what effect will the $1000 or so have? at the very worst it helps you do well on your boards !!!

So enough complaining about how no-one told you b/c it was clearly explained to all of us.

[ES21]

I can vouch for charger that the numbers were explicitlly given to us. We all at 1st cringed but then we realized how much this will help us.

And true to the schools word we were given and billed exactly what they told us. It has been a love connection ever since [Kaplan and me that is]

[tamstu66]

I heard the Dean say it as well.

Quit whining and focus on doing well with all the resources you have. Take advantage of it b/c no other school offers it to you.

[ES21]

Couldnt have said it better myself.

[MD999]

Im usually an advocate against people who whine.

But in this case, where the student's loan checks are getting scammed out of thousands of dollars for a subpar "review" question set and whatever else theyre supposedly doing, I would push for the students to stand up against that.

If youre going to get the Qbank, make sure its NOT IVQbank.

The Dean of the Cayman campus was asked in front of the Windham students last semester about why SMU erred and got the wrong Qbank. He repeatedly dodged the question. So I tend to believe a lot of students are complaining about it, and rightfully so.

Tamstu66, when you say "quit whining" and take advantage of the resources you've been given....think first. SMU students are being given "resources" but the quality of the "resources" are far subpar for what they are paying for.
When you get to your 5th semester, eventually one day (hopefully still with SMU ;) ), and start board reviewing hard core, you'll know what I mean.

[rapunzel]

actually, i picked up my Kaplan books a few days back and looking through them. they looked to be very helpful. and the they gave us Qbank questions, not IVQbank.

[MD999]

actually, i picked up my Kaplan books a few days back and looking through them. they looked to be very helpful. and the they gave us Qbank questions, not IVQbank.

Actually, you recieved the kaplan QBOOK with your kaplan books. That's NOT the same as Qbank. Somewhat similar style. The IVQbank you'll get once youre in 4th semester, and thats ONLINE (as is the Qbank, which we wont get through SMU, purchase on our own for $199/month).

[mog]

so if we (1st sems) choose to get it in the 3rd sem instead of now, then how much will the cost be? I would much prefer to get it later than now and pay $900, since I already have another set of Kaplan. They really shouldn't have made it mandatory... I did hear lots of complaints about this.

[Mehrdad1]

So, what is the status of getting the new versions of the Kaplan books? I was told that I had to call Kaplan's 800 # to get the new versions, but Kaplan denies this and says that they will have to "bulk ship" them to the Maine campus, and that it is the school's responsibility to ship them to our respective home addresses. Since myself and the rest of the 5th semesters won't be in Maine after Dec. 10th, how will the school be able to afford to ship all these books out? I'm confused, does anyone else know what the protocol is? Thanks in advance for your help, as I need these books before January 9th, since that's when my Kaplan Live Lecture review course begins in P****ena, California.

[Junito]

I spoke to D from the office here in Maine and she said she will get to the bottom of this. She stated that it is Kaplan's responsibility to send the books to students, not the school. Will keep you posted on the situation.

[jguru2]

I spoke to a kaplan rep this afternoon....they said they will ship to my address the middle of this month...

[charger5001]

I along with a few others have already recieved our books !!

It took about 10 days. Just be patient they are comming.