Only lovely OPM’ers - I am not dead, just barely finishing up my first year.
And, now I get the joy of deciding about board prep. First, the DO school I’m attending is providing us with Boards Boot Camp in either December or January. Has OMM in it, questions are supposed to be in COMLEX style.
But, I’m nowhere close to choosing a speciality, and considering some competitive ones like Emergency Med. Thinking I have to prep for USMLE as well (supposedly our class is going to be part of the combined, single match, but last few speakers on the subject have hinted that the date is likely to be postponed). So, is it advisable to start Doctors In Training (or another program) earlier in the year to prep for USMLE as well?
ADVICE from those who’ve taken both exams - or used either prep company - would be IMMENSELY appreciated. 
IMHO, starting DIT for USMLE earlier WOULD be a good idea - but I can tell you better in a few weeks after I take step 2 post using DIT to study for it. I FEEL like I’m getting a lot more out of my time. Abandoned BBC and self-studied but did not do enough prep for Step 1 to get a stellar score. You will want to do better. Those in my class who did DIT tended to do better, although we did have some high scorers who used BBC.
Licia
I was wondering about this too. My school bought us Kaplan to use with our systems, and I have Pathoma too. Do I just need to use Uworld, or Combank with what I already have? I plan on taking both USMLE and COMLEX. I don’t want to get confused with too many resources, but I’ve heard that Kaplan isn’t as high yield as some of the other programs. Anyone with any experience with it?
I have no personal experience. My school bought Kaplan for the class before us (not stellar scorers). I did hear that the Pharm review and Neuro review were excellent in Kaplan. I felt FirstAid would have been enough supplemental material IF I had done better grounding in Pharm. Their brief synopsis of Micro is all you need to know, but you really need to know it! Also have a fair handle on which antibiotics cover gram + and gram - organisms. (and anaerobes).
The green book (Savarese) and Combank should get you a lot of the OPP questions. You’ve heard it before but be sure to memorize the autonomic innervation of the visceral organs and the Chapman’s points. Really. Seriously.
Maybe someone can chime in with which question bank is best prep for USMLE, as I don’t know.
Kate
I used DIT for COMLEX step 1 and USMLE step 1 (still have to take the latter - things came up). Anyway, I liked DIT, but … the videos that are core to the preparation are only available to you for 1 month and there are 205 of them. It took me a full month to get through them and that was doing 6-12 per day. I understand Kaplan gives you unlimited access to their videos which may be better if you want to get it soon and start chipping away at it. DIT does have other material they provide starting about 6 months out but the core videos - 1 month only.
Thanks ladies. As always, you’re awesome.
As far as QBanks go - I used UWorld and Comquest. I was told by a student who was the SGA Board Prep chair that Comquest was as good if not a bit better than Combank, so that’s why I picked Comquest. A lot of people in my class found minor errors in Combank (primarily grammatical but they apparently made the questions a bit more confusing) and Combank was down for about a day mid June which really frustrated people about to take the COMLEX.
I just received my COMQuest and Uworld subscription emails. I’m planning on activating them starting January (I only bought 6 months worth of both). I have a dedicated study month of May to early June. I’m planning on taking USMLE first and then COMLEX. I’m required to take COMLEX by mid June. I couldn’t afford DIT on top of these so I hope using the Q banks with FA is enough. I’m pretty nervous about it, but also really excited to move on to clinical years. I should also mention I have Pathoma (which is awesome, I’m using it currently for my systems classes.)I was wondering if anyone has any advice or additional resources they found helpful. Really any advice, even regarding study schedule. I’m nervous to do this without a structured program and I don’t want to psyche myself out.
Nice to see you Pixie!! You’ve been missed!!
