Doctors in Training Step 1 Course?

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Acire

Acire
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Has anyone heard about the Doctors in Training Step 1 Course (previously "What you need to know" progam). It is a live series, but also offers those lectures over the web. It is $550 and says that it uses First Aid as it's textbook. Just thought it might structure the 50 days that I have to prepare for Step 1. It also claims that the majority of the students are from Texas Med Schools, avg 226-236, and pass rate of 99.5%. Don't want to waste the limited time that I have to do my studying, but wanted to know if anyone has in any insight??!?!? Would love to hear from you!
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I heard some M2s talking about it recently. Apparently you have to spend 2 weeks in Texas to take the course. I think they said the average from students who had taken the course was 236, and that the price was around $500.
 
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he talked to my class about his WYTNK course. the actual course is at galveston and houston over the summer for 3 weeks (may 19-june 6) but there is now an online version which I guess is going national. the online videos are from the course that he just did at southwestern in march/april. i've talked to quite a few people from the different schools and the general consensus is that the class is definately recommended (even helpful for clinical clerkships). a significant percentage of people at UTMB take his course and they have a reputation in texas for doing quite well on the step. hope that helps.
 
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Thanks for your replies! I think that I am going to purchase the online version...just wanted to see if anyone had any experience with it. He boasts of averages in the 230s...thought it couldn't hurt, but didn't want to waste 13 days of studies on a mediocre program. Would love hear from anyone else with any knowledge of Doctor's in Training (the new What you need to know) program by Dr. Jenkins!
 
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Acire said:
Has anyone heard about the Doctors in Training Step 1 Course (previously "What you need to know" progam). It is a live series, but also offers those lectures over the web. It is $550 and says that it uses First Aid as it's textbook. Just thought it might structure the 50 days that I have to prepare for Step 1. It also claims that the majority of the students are from Texas Med Schools, avg 226-236, and pass rate of 99.5%. Don't want to waste the limited time that I have to do my studying, but wanted to know if anyone has in any insight??!?!? Would love to hear from you!
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Also realize that this course is strictly Recall. You will not learn much concept, but it will be good at getting you to go through FA. Furthermore, go through FA once before you do the course.
 
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haemoncodoc said:
Also realize that this course is strictly Recall. You will not learn much concept, but it will be good at getting you to go through FA. Furthermore, go through FA once before you do the course.
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Does it matter which version of First Aid you have?
 
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Im thinking about it... but it does seem like a lot of money for just going thru FA
 
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i'm currently in the class. there are positives and negatives to the class. he pretty much reads from first aid but we stop after we do certain sections to do quizzes and answer questions which is good for repetition and drives in key points. he adds in some things and we have handouts that are useful for clarifying certain things. it gets kinda tiring sitting in class for 4 hrs with him blazing through first aid though.
 
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I just purchased the online course last night. The materials will be shipped FedEx Next Day, and the online lectures are the same ones used in the live classroom lecture from a couple of months ago. Looking forward to using this over the next couple of weeks. :thumbup:
 
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For those in the class or are using it online, I am just wondering what the notes contain? Are they mostly questions or also notes that explain the concepts in FA in more details? Also did he spot all the mistakes in FA?

Also, if he just reads from FA, what would be the major benefit of the program?

Thanks.
 
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Anaphylactic said:
For those in the class or are using it online, I am just wondering what the notes contain? Are they mostly questions or also notes that explain the concepts in FA in more details? Also did he spot all the mistakes in FA?

Also, if he just reads from FA, what would be the major benefit of the program?

Thanks.
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I haven't received the materials yet (that should be Tuesday due to Memorial Day being on Monday), but I assume that the shipped materials contain important information not found in First Aid. Otherwise, I don't see how he could just read from First Aid and have a course with such impressive results (230+ average score, with 99.5% of his students passing on the first attempt).

I'll be sure to post more when I receive the materials. In the meantime, if anyone else has any info on this please share with the rest of us! :D
 
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Clemson Doc said:
I haven't received the materials yet (that should be Tuesday due to Memorial Day being on Monday), but I assume that the shipped materials contain important information not found in First Aid. Otherwise, I don't see how he could just read from First Aid and have a course with such impressive results (230+ average score, with 99.5% of his students passing on the first attempt).

I'll be sure to post more when I receive the materials. In the meantime, if anyone else has any info on this please share with the rest of us! :D
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the notes that we get in class are questions that cover stuff that we just went over in FA. there are also outlines that organize some of the material in FA. he also adds in supplementary stuff like EKG info and Netter images where we fill in the blank anatomy.
 
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obiwan said:
the notes that we get in class are questions that cover stuff that we just went over in FA. there are also outlines that organize some of the material in FA. he also adds in supplementary stuff like EKG info and Netter images where we fill in the blank anatomy.
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Thanks for the info! That makes sense. The key has to be in the supplemental materials, and in the way he teaches the concepts in First Aid.

So are the 13 days of lecture (plus study time) full days? I ask because I am planning on finishing USMLEWorld before starting this course, and assume it will occupy most of my time each day.
 
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Hey Clemsondoc: have you started watching the video lectures yet? Also do you think that only having 3 chances to watch the lecture in a 1 month period is enough?
 
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i'm doing the online course right now... it will be helpful if you've already gone thru first aid once (dont even try it if you've not been thru fa yet). he goes thru everything REALLY quickly but will reinforce the materials throughout the day/ course.

i'm a little skeptical with the 230+ and 99.5% or whatever he has posted since he based those entirely off utmb stats (utmb students also go thru a kaplan course before they take the exam) so for what it's worth, buy it if you'd like to go thru FA another time to solidify your game
 
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Anaphylactic said:
Hey Clemsondoc: have you started watching the video lectures yet? Also do you think that only having 3 chances to watch the lecture in a 1 month period is enough?
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I haven't started with any of it yet. My materials should arrive Tuesday, so I'm waiting until then to start everything. Plus, I haven't heard anything from them about video access. All I've received is payment confirmation via email (I purchased it last night).

I think the 3 views per lecture is fair. I'm not planning on having time to watch each one more than once anyway. What is your opinion of it? Have you started yet?
 
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I actually just looked at the website b/c of what you said so I have not bought it yet. According to bvmajik, he seems to go pretty fast so I'm not sure if watching it 3x is enough to retain all the info. I was hoping for unlimited viewing just for the sake of repetition.

Also, I agree with bvmajik about his results. It's not a "randomly controlled trial" so we should take his claims with a grain of salt but please post if you find his notes are useful.
 
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I'm taking the one in Houston right now and I really like it, primarily because it is forcing me to go thru First Aid again. (I go to UT-Houston, and it seems like >50% of my class is taking it.) It is about 4 hours of lecture a day during the live course, which includes the self-assessment quizzes and worksheets. The notes don't really add too much to First Aid (aside from his high yield neuro and anatomy, which review some first year stuff not in First Aid- very good) but some of the small details he adds have shown up in the Q Bank questions I've been doing.

This course isn't going to teach you any new material, but it is going to get you through the entirety of First Aid and provide a structure for studying during the last few weeks before the exam. (My friends and I have been going to the class; studying the material reviewed that day and doing QBank questions over it until the next session; and then doing NBME tests/ additional review on the weekends.) I think it is worth the money, but I'm a person that needs lots of structure to study and to hear someone say the info to remember it.

One thing to keep in mind- he goes FAST, and you definitely need to have made it through most of First Aid before you start doing it.

For comments from people who took the course last year, look at UT-Houston's 2007 Step 1 Survey (its on page 4): http://med.uth.tmc.edu/students-current/SCAIP/USMLEStep1survey07.pdf
 
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Hey stressmonkey: thanks for the post. I'm just wondering when he lectures, does he also use slides to accompany the concepts that he talks about (i.e pictures of path specimen or histology)? Also, going to class, do you feel you were able to follow what he said? I'm just afraid he may go too fast for me as I have not gone through FA yet. Thanks.
 
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Anaphylactic said:
Hey stressmonkey: thanks for the post. I'm just wondering when he lectures, does he also use slides to accompany the concepts that he talks about (i.e pictures of path specimen or histology)? Also, going to class, do you feel you were able to follow what he said? I'm just afraid he may go too fast for me as I have not gone through FA yet. Thanks.
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Hi Anaphylactic,
He uses slides for some of the histo/path stuff (ash leaf spots of tuberous sclerosis; oral pigmentation in Peutz-Jeghers, etc.) I feel like I can follow what he says; if you haven't done FA yet, just pre-read or skim the stuff he is going to go over that day before watching/going to class so there isn't anything completely new to you that he's saying. (He gives you a schedule that he roughly follows so you know what is going to be covered each day.) Hope that helps :)
 
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stressmonkey said:
Hi Anaphylactic,
He uses slides for some of the histo/path stuff (ash leaf spots of tuberous sclerosis; oral pigmentation in Peutz-Jeghers, etc.) I feel like I can follow what he says; if you haven't done FA yet, just pre-read or skim the stuff he is going to go over that day before watching/going to class so there isn't anything completely new to you that he's saying. (He gives you a schedule that he roughly follows so you know what is going to be covered each day.) Hope that helps :)
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I'll be taking his class in Dallas beginning June 9th to June 21st. Test is on 27th. I hope 5 days are enough to go thru FA once more and take a practice test after the course.
 
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stressmonkey said:
Hi Anaphylactic,
He uses slides for some of the histo/path stuff (ash leaf spots of tuberous sclerosis; oral pigmentation in Peutz-Jeghers, etc.) I feel like I can follow what he says; if you haven't done FA yet, just pre-read or skim the stuff he is going to go over that day before watching/going to class so there isn't anything completely new to you that he's saying. (He gives you a schedule that he roughly follows so you know what is going to be covered each day.) Hope that helps :)
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Thanks!

Also, how good are his quizzes? Would you say they are UW style or are they just high-yield info that he got from people who took the exams?
 
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Was wondering if there were any feedbacks on the course .. for those who took the course and the boards, did it help?
 
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almd2011 said:
Was wondering if there were any feedbacks on the course .. for those who took the course and the boards, did it help?
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I actually ended up taking his course online. I only got through the first 2 days and it got so boring that I stopped watching it. He basically just read from FA and although he added a few details to FA here and there, it was nothing new to me. His handouts on anatomy are basically diagrams from Netter on the brachial plexus and some skull-based anatomy. His questions are one-lined sentences such as: "what does this drug do?" etc... It was a big waste of $500 for me. If you want to go through FA, your money is more well-spent on getting USMLE Rx for a much cheaper price.
 
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almd2011 said:
Was wondering if there were any feedbacks on the course .. for those who took the course and the boards, did it help?
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Bear in mind I don't have my step scores yet (took it June 14)....
I think that this course was worth it. It helped me get thru the entirety of First Aid within 2 wks before Step. I would have gotten hung up studying some stuff otherwise. The high yield questions were truly high yield (I had a few of them or similar ones on my exam). JUST GO THRU EVERYTHING (sorry to shout but really do it).
[As a side note, Dr. Jenkins said that micro and heme/onc weren't very high yield for a majority of people's exams; unfortunately on my test, they were extremely important (2 or 3 questions per section!?!?! what the frack?!?!?)]
Good luck!
 
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just to add my two cents: i too signed up for the online course and returned it after one day.. it was atrocious. while i'm sure that having someone read out of a book is helpful on some level... i just couldn't bring myself to killing five hours a day having someone dictate to me. it's like goljan minus integrations... which means its not one bit like goljan.
 
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stressmonkey said:
Bear in mind I don't have my step scores yet (took it June 14)....
I think that this course was worth it. It helped me get thru the entirety of First Aid within 2 wks before Step. I would have gotten hung up studying some stuff otherwise. The high yield questions were truly high yield (I had a few of them or similar ones on my exam). JUST GO THRU EVERYTHING (sorry to shout but really do it).
[As a side note, Dr. Jenkins said that micro and heme/onc weren't very high yield for a majority of people's exams; unfortunately on my test, they were extremely important (2 or 3 questions per section!?!?! what the frack?!?!?)]
Good luck!
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I signed up for the online course and quit as soon as I heard him say: "there will only be 2-5 questions on micro on the test!"
 
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I forgot to mention but his other favorite saying is: "this was not in the 2007 edition, so because it is in this new 2008 edition, it must be important." Just not worth it.
 
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I maintain that if you're lucky enough to live near his live courses, it's money well spent. There's something to be said for attending a live class that runs through FA in about 2-3 weeks (depending on where you took it).

While it's true that there's nothing especially profound about his content, he is rather organized and lays out what you need to know for the exam. Personally, after I took Step 1, I found very few surprises, so he does seem to update the course based on feedback from previous years.

That said, I'm not sure I could listen to him go on and on via streaming video...
 
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bvmajik said:
i'm doing the online course right now... it will be helpful if you've already gone thru first aid once (dont even try it if you've not been thru fa yet). he goes thru everything REALLY quickly but will reinforce the materials throughout the day/ course.

i'm a little skeptical with the 230+ and 99.5% or whatever he has posted since he based those entirely off utmb stats (utmb students also go thru a kaplan course before they take the exam) so for what it's worth, buy it if you'd like to go thru FA another time to solidify your game
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For the record, I am a MS-III UTMB student and we do not take a Kaplan course before we take the exam. We do however, get Qbank for free (courtesy of our fabulous alumni :)), maybe that's what you're thinking of? Just thought I should clear up yet another false rumor about our school.
 
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I took the Doctors in Training course via the internet, and was extremely pleased. It was the single best purchase I made for Step 1. I went from a practice exam score of 192 just before starting the course to a 219 after finishing the course three weeks later. Dr. Jenkins' course was all I did during that time - no additional reading, and no additional practice questions from a question bank.

He does much more than read from First Aid. His handouts were very effective in filling in the gaps from First Aid, and his practice questions reinforce the important points you have to know. I just wish I could've started his course in February with the twice weekly email questions, because I would have been way ahead of the game. That is what I plan on doing for Step 2 (he has a Step 2 review also). Whatever it costs, it's worth it because he knows what he is talking about.

With that said, his course isn't for everyone. Some people automatically shun any review course because they think they are a "waste of money." Others feel like an effective study plan for Step 1 requires 20 different books and 15 hours of studying each day. But for me, I wanted a course that taught me what I needed to know in order to get a good score. And Doctors in Training did just that.
 
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This is off topic, but I'm a MS IV at UT-houston that took his class 2 years ago. Almost all of the UTH and UTMB students took the course, and UT san antonio kids were taking it too. During that one month of teaching we calculated the instructor was making more than double the usual annual FP salary.

Teaching step 1 is the way to go.

Oh, his class was effective. Not a magic bullet but good way to study. He is no Goljan and he's quite robotic, but his system of repetition and constant quizzing worked for me.
 
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Random thought: I wonder if simply using USMLERx or the First Aid question book would be a more effective (or at least cheaper) way to learn First Aid, since both are questions from the people who write First Aid. I have not taken the course, nor have a used the USMLERx question bank (although I'm thinking about it), but it seems like it could be equally as helpful. I do learn best from doing questions though; I suppose if you learn best from lectures than the course might be more worthwhile.
 
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I thought I'd move this thread back up to the top to see if there are any new opinions/experiences with the course. I've always thought prep courses were silly, but my wife is due the day after my last final so I'm thinking the structure of a course might help me stay on track. Plus, since it's so much cheaper than other review courses it might just be worth a shot just to get any extra help it might give.
 
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I have just started the online course (which still uses the 2008 First Aid) a week ago and I like it. As UT_mikie said, it is not a magic bullet but the constant quizzing and repetion works also very well for me. The lectures make it easier to get through FirstAid with the right mixture of repetition and also - more importantly - emphasis on specific points I did previously not pay enough attention to. It is probably to early to say but for the last couple of days I have also been much better in scoring - particularly questions in some areas for which I just cannot memorize the little details I need to solve the question. Several of those are now much clearer because I now memorized the key tables. If you follow the star rating of Brian Jenkins, there are not too many tables and facts you really, really have to know in all detail - it is much easier than try to memorize everything in First Aid. Another point that enforces memorization for me is to hear and read the same stuff = FirstAid (you can probably have that cheaper by reading FA on tape for yourself or with Goljan lectures which I do not have). Two other goodies are that following the course gives me a little more structure and I do not procrastinate subjects or areas I simply do not like: if it comes in the lecture, I will do it.

Taken together, it looks that it is working great for me as review or repetitorium. From what I see, it will help with reviewing and memorizing but cannot help catching up if you lack understanding of complex subjects. Brian Jenkins himself recommends that you should go through FirstAid BEFORE you start the review.

As a disclaimer, I am a foreign medical graduate and have been out of Medical School for research for the last 3 years. I had solid knowledge and scored well on my foreign board exams, it is just rusty.
 
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Thank you! I thought I had searched enough but apparently I hadn't caught that! Can an admin delete my original thread or something? Thanks again.
 
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you're welcome. I was also wondering about this course awhile back, and this thread helped me make the decision not to go with it. I hope that this feedback is what you're looking for to help you make a decision either way.
 
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After reading the thread, I was actually going to go for it. Do you have any specific reasons not to do ahead with the course?
Thanks!
 
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mikkey said:
After reading the thread, I was actually going to go for it. Do you have any specific reasons not to do ahead with the course?
Thanks!
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I am going with the DIT course as well. I have a friend currently doing it and he likes it. I was the one who first introduced him to it. He says it is a good way to get through FA and that the guy does a good job of repetition, asking questions, giving hints and HY topics. He gave it a 8.5/10 so far (after 5-6 days). I think DIT is a good way to organize a schedule around and offer something different than reading 8-10 hrs a day by yourself. But to each his own.
 
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DocYuki said:
Thank you! I thought I had searched enough but apparently I hadn't caught that! Can an admin delete my original thread or something? Thanks again.
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I would advise against that. There was some good information and opinions posted in your thread. There isn't a lot of info out there on DIT, so all the info we can get the better.
 
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HarveyCushing said:
I would advise against that. There was some good information and opinions posted in your thread. There isn't a lot of info out there on DIT, so all the info we can get the better.
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Yeah, now that there have been a number of replies, I can see that the thread has taken on a life of its own! Awesome...I'm actually going to go ahead and use DIT to supplement my studies this May.
 
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