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Does that happen often that someone who got a Latin Honors medallion doesn’t get into AOA? Do your board scores factor into AOA at all? Should I participate in any research, go for officer positions, do community service to assure getting into AOA?
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Does Gold Humanism Honor Society have any or as much importance as AOA?
- I honestly don’t know how often it happens, I just know it has happened, in my class included. Qualifying for Latin Honors (Summa, Magna, Cum Laude), due to academics, doesn’t automatically entitle you to get AOA. It doesn’t mean academics don’t play a role (it does), but it isn’t a 100% lock on getting AOA. If you see the graduation video from 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpJ7hGKExk4, you’ll see there were people wearing medallions who didn’t have the AOA cord (Gold Humanism cords didn’t exist last year it looks like). Each medical school can decide how exactly to elect people to AOA, after that top 25% cut off is put in place.
The only exception might be Junior AOA who are usually the top 4 people in class, but that doesn’t mean that people who are Junior AOA don’t have great CVs - they often do. Senior AOA candidates are chosen by a committee which includes the Junior AOA officers, so it’s in your best interest to not make unnecessary enemies (we all have enemies in life, that’s why I said unnecessary - so don’t always lose your cool, isolate yourself, or go out of your way to be mean to people!) while you’re there, because that very person you were not so nice to may decide whether you get AOA or not.
I’ve seen people who had spectacular board scores, who did not get AOA (or even get the Latin Honors medallions) - get into fantastic residencies in competitive specialties. I’ve seen people with great grades, but who, for lack of a better term, “choked” on boards, get into AOA - and then not match into their competitive specialty they were going for.
I think there is a lot more soft CV stuff that you can improve on, since UMKC has greatly expanded a lot of its opportunities that just weren’t there before – more in research, student organizations, the Free Eye Clinic, Sojourner Clinic, etc. If you’re going to participate in research, become an officer (please don’t do this as a Year 1!), do community service - do it because you’re interested in that specialty, find that specific activity interesting, want a good break from studying, or to make friends with similar interests. Don’t do it because you’re wanting to just rack up notches in your belt (http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/notch+on+your+belt.html), you’ll burn out faster.
- Even though it looks like the Gold Humanism Honor Society check box is being added to the ERAS residency match application this year, its importance is definitely not on par with AOA. In the past, those people who got into Gold Humanism Honor Society just added it as a free text award onto their residency match application which is read anyways. It used to be a class nominated type of thing - we had a class meeting, and we had a sheet listing certain humanistic traits and we had to write down people in our class who we felt exemplified those traits best and those people got the award (if you’re cynical, you might think of it as more of a popularity contest, but that’s not always true). I don’t know if the nomination process for Gold Humanism Honor Society has changed - @blugrn6, will know more about the current process.
In all honesty, residencies aren’t going to filter applications by Gold Humanism Honor Society status like they can do with AOA status, USMLE scores, etc. It obviously shows though that you are able to get along with others, which in medicine is much more important, than the letter grade you got in HSF. Just so you know, Summa, Magna, Cum Laude are awarded at graduation only, and thus are calculated in like March/April after the residency match is over, so you can’t put it down as an award on your residency application you submit in the fall of Year 6.
Before I forget, make sure you go for the undergraduate honor societies in Years 1-2 like
Mortar Board: http://umkcmortarboard.■■■■■■■■■■/
Omicron Delta Kappa: http://odk.org/circle/umkc/
Golden Key Honor Society: http://umkc.goldenkey.org/
They’re easy undergrad honor societies to be a member of, and to also put on your CV and residency match application (called ERAS - for Electronic Residency Application Service).
@bladerz1, about your board score question and AOA, I believe “officially” the only criteria is that you had to have passed USMLE Step 1 on the first attempt. But I believe that the AOA selection committee does have access to your USMLE scores.
Your USMLE Step 1 score does factor into your overall class standing on your MSPE that goes to residencies.
I agree, AOA Is not all about academics, because the students who got Junior AOA this year all have fanastic CVs outside of academics and not just brilliant stats.
The application for Gold Humanism has changed to include a one page personal statement answering three questions they ask you as well as a copy of your CV.
After that the members all read the personal statements and CVs and then they have a selection meeting where they choose the top 15-20 based on three things:
- The nominations you got and what people wrote in those (this is way too far for you and might change than, but there is no restriction on who writes you nomination, so make sure whoever you ask to nominate you writes a good, meaningful paragraph. They read you nomination letter or letters at the induction ceremony).
- your CV
- Personal statement
There is nothing you can do to “guarantee” acceptance into one or the other or even both in the case of some students.
Just work hard, find you passion, and let you passion speak for you.
For Fundamentals of Medical Practice in Years 1-2, you guys had said that it is graded “Pass” or “Fail” only. Do these classes or their evaluation comments go into the MSPE that you said goes to residencies that you’re applying to? Do you stay with the same student team, hospital, and Docent physicians at that hospital all 2 years?
I asked someone who graduated from the program in 2013, where they said there was a tuition loophole if you bought a car and/or a place of residence, like a house or condo, under your name, as well as changing your state license plates and car title under you name, that you could convince them that you were in-state, and then get the in-state tuition rate. Does this loophole still exist, or I guess I’m wondering whether you’ve known any out-of-state people, in your class or other classes, who were able to get in-state tuition through this way, or are you really locked into paying out-of-state tuition for all 6 years?
Yes, Years 1 & 2 Docent or “Fundamentals of Medical Practice” is graded on a Pass/Fail only basis. There is no Honors/High Pass/Satisfactory Pass/Marginal Pass/Fail type grading at that level, or if there is - it won’t go officially on a university transcript - it will just say P/F (Pass/Fail) or CR/NC (Credit/No Credit). As far as I know, at least on mine, Fundamentals of Medical Practice did not appear on the MSPE document that goes to residencies.
Most of the reason for that is because traditional 4 year medical schools do not have an equivalent clinical coursework to it in their curriculum, and at least at UMKC, it is not taught or conducted at the level for a traditional third year medical student. Since residency program faculty have to read the MSPE, and compare applicants from different medical schools, to eliminate any confusion, it is not included.
Any evaluation comments or a grade other than Pass/Fail like an Honors, is more internal, and kept in your internal file for Fundamentals. That doesn’t mean you should blow it off, as it’s sometimes a much needed break from classes, and in theory, it’s what you came to medical school for - to learn to interact with patients in an inpatient hospital or outpatient setting.
Your Docent in Years 1-2 is usually either a Family Medicine physician or a general Internal Medicine physician (almost never a subspecialist in IM that I know of), and it won’t be a Surgeon, Rad Onc, Radiologist, ENT doc, etc. Some teams do have a psychiatrist which students also meet with. The initial clinical exposure is supposed to be mainly to primary care fields.
I think @Blugrn6 may have talked about this before, but I’ll let he/she explain whether the in-state tuition loophole that you mentioned has been closed off for current students. Usually when something like that happens, they work very quickly to close it off, because the main university as a whole is very dependent on tuition revenue from the School of Medicine, going to its overall budget. That’s why all School of Medicine students are charged a higher credit hour rate even for undergraduate courses.
If I take general chemistry I in the summer at an accredited community college, will I receive transfer credit so that I can take gen chem II this fall? (Is it only credit and doesn’t count towards your gpa since it wouldn’t be in the UM system?)
and would you say you were at a disadvantage if you took gen chem I in the fall or did it not/should it not affect you as much?
If you take General Chemistry I + General Chemistry I Lab in the summer outside of the University of Missouri system (https://www.umsystem.edu/: UMKC, UM-Columbia, UMSL, UM-Rolla), then you would only get credit when you transfer it in. You wouldn’t get any extra GPA cushion from it. Same for the AP Chemistry Test – only credit, no GPA. If you take it at any of the above 4 schools, then you get credit AND GPA. So if you went to University of Missouri in St. Louis, for example, and took it, then you’d get both. http://www.umkc.edu/registrar/transfer-credit/
The reason the advice is given to take General Chemistry I + Lab in the Summer before you start, is because you’d then take General Chem II + Lab in the Fall, Organic Chem + Lab in the Spring, both of which are normal 16 week semesters (in which you have about 1 test every 4 weeks, rather than about every 2 weeks), and in that following summer, your only science course would be Cell Biology. It also brings more flexibility into your schedule.
The 8 week summer semester goes by really quickly since they have to go through the exact same material that they would cover in a normal 16 week semester, but at double the pace in order to finish in 2 months. Hence why there is less time between each exam and why class time meets longer each class period in the summer semester.
As an example, you can see how fast Chem 320 is in the summer here: http://g.web.umkc.edu/gounevt/Orgo320/syllab320j.htm, which for this semester is from June 8 to July 31st.
First Day = June 8 → Day #1
Exam I (Chapters 1-3) = June 18 → Day #11 (10 days)
Exam II (Chapters 4-6) = July 1 → Day #24 (13 days from last test)
Exam III (Chapters 7-10) = July 20 → Day #43 (19 days from last test)
Exam IV (Chapters 11-13) = July 30 → Day #53 (10 days from last test)
Realize on top of the above, you’ll have Orgo Chem Lab and Cell Bio both of which have exams in those courses, which you’ll have to study for.
Have I known people who got all A’s taking Cell Bio, Orgo Chem, Orgo Lab in the summer? Yes, but be prepared to have a much busier summer. Everyone who had already taken Organic Chem + Lab in the Spring, had a much easier time that following summer only being responsible for one science course.
@ElliotPiano, I also recommend taking General Chemistry I and Lab in the summer, assuming you don’t have any credit through the AP Chemistry test. Even though you might not get grade points for that one semester of General Chemistry w/lab, it’s still worth it. I’ve seen younger students get unnecessarily tripped up that semester (Both Cell Biology and Genetics were not requirements when I started the program, unless you did the Bio degree, and were added for the entering class right below me) having to be responsible for Organic lecture, Organic Lab which is a HUGE time sink in and of itself for 1 credit hour, and then Cell Biology lecture.
Organic Chemistry and Organic Chem Lab is required to move on to Biochemistry (or you extend), and I could be wrong, and maybe @blugrn6 can clarify, but knowing UMKC, not making it through (failing or withdrawing out of) Cell Biology in the summer, automatically extends you, as they likely will not allow you to take Biochemistry, Genetics, and Cell Biology in the same semester, even though it might work with the number of hours.
Yes this loophole this exists.
I was talking to a bunch of younget students earlier last month and apparently it has worked for a lot of them that out out of state. Its very finicky because yes having a place here under your name, a car registered under your name with MO license plates etc helps, but again one of the main things they like is if you work here.
When I was talking to them, they all seemed to voice this concern, that the only thing missing from their application is a job here. For some it worked and for others it doesn’t.
Two things helped me make my decision.
- You have to buy a place here to help out with the process, a lot of people don’t have that financial ability to just drop a 100 grand on a condo and then hope that it will sell well when you move. If it doesn’t sell later you are left with the headache of subletting it in a city that you no longer live in or sell it for a loss.
- You only get to apply once you’re a fourth year, so if you get accepted the difference will only occur for the last two years. For OOS tuition that’s a big difference, for me as a regional student it really wasn’t worth the headache of buying a place, changing my plates, hiring a lawyer to help me fight my case, filling out all that paperwork, etc.
Its a risk/benefit sort of a thing. I had discussed with my parents and had decided that buying a place in KC in HOPES that I would get accepted as in-state (again disclaimer: its not guaranteed) vs. saving 30 grand over the last two years combined is probably not worth the risk.
For OOS students the savings is much higher. In that case I’m sure people would have taken the risk and invested some money.
@UMKCRoosMD @ElliotPiano
Yes, you need to pass both orgo and cell bio to move on.
So if you don’t pass either one, you will extend.
I agree, if you get stressed out easily go ahead and get chem out of the way.
I did both orgo and cell bio during the summer and it was fine. But I know friends who are super smart but they were really burned out by doing both during the summer and then you feel even more burned out once you hit biochem, cuz that class is really annoying.
Thanks @Blugrn6!
So if having income in Missouri (I’m assuming you’re talking about somehow proving you or your parents pay Missouri income tax) is necessary to get in-state tuition, how do some people get it and others don’t, if none of them have that last checkbox? Or is that just not a necessary checkbox, or is it just a subjective part of the whole residency petitioning process, which you can’t predict?
Ok, that’s good to know, as I guess it looks like you can petition at age 21 (Year 3), http://www.umkc.edu/residency/documents/residency_petition_packet.pdf, so when you turn 21, you can then petition to pay in-state tuition.
I’d like to not have to hire a lawyer, but as you mentioned, the difference between in-state vs. out-of-state tuition (excluding regional) can be quite huge.
This might be a better website for you to look at: http://admissions.missouri.edu/costs-and-aid/residency-requirements/documents-and-steps.php, as I noticed the UMKC petition from their website, http://www.umkc.edu/residency/, is quite old and fuzzy to read (it’s like a scanned version of a photocopy of the form). It’s from Mizzou, but it’s clearer to read, and the rules are pretty much the same at all campuses since the Missouri Coordinating Board of Higher Education is the one that makes the rules.
As @blugrn6 was saying, it’s more proving that you’re really wanting to stay in Missouri vs. just saying it, because in reality anyone can buy a house (and then sell it), anyone can change license plates/driver’s licenses at very little cost, etc. Things like having an income tax statement goes beyond that and shows more permanent motives. I’ve also seen people do it by marrying a Missouri resident (don’t recommend it for tuition purposes only, lol) again showing you’re more likely to stay in Missouri.
I would also find out whether doing work-study (which is part of the financial aid FAFSA stuff you turn in) counts as “income” since you get paid for it, which then you’d put on an income tax form. I’ve known people who did really easy work study stuff either on campus or at the med school (i.e. “working” at the Media Center for certain hours in case anyone comes in and needs something).
I’ve seen several creative options that people do:
- Move to Missouri during high school for the last 1-2 years and then apply as an in-stater (too late for you obviously)
- buy a house or condo, as @blugrn6 mentioned, although you obviously have to have cash on hand or enough capital/credit to buy a house, and of course there is always the risk of selling at a loss, when you have to sell it at the end of 6 years (ask anyone in 2008 when the housing market crashed). I’ve known people who bought a house and rented it to roommates, so depending on how much you charge, you might not be that bad off.
- I’ve even seen some people do the “emancipated minor” thing, so you don’t necessarily have to wait till age 21, but I honestly don’t know how successful this is to getting in-state tuition in the petitioning process - probably not likely or you’d have hoards of out-of-state BA/MD students doing it, but something to think about.
Interesting that both Cell Bio and Organic are now required to be completed before being allowed to go into Biochem in the Fall, since Cell Bio isn’t actually an official prerequisite for Biochemistry (Organic Chemistry and Organic Chemistry Lab is). Again, it’s one of those “unsaid” rules that people need to be well aware of, that can happen a lot.
It’s doable to take both in the summer, of course, as people have done it, but as you mentioned, it’s the burnout factor, since you don’t get a normal summer vacation – when Year 1 Spring finals are over, you don’t get to go home immediately. You have to stay back to finish 2 weeks of Hospital Team Experience at your hospital that you’ve been at for Fundamentals. Then you get like maybe 1(?) week to rest and then you start the Summer Semester which goes till the end of July, and then once that’s done, you get like 3 weeks before the UMKC Fall Semester starts. So overall after Year 1 Spring finals, you get about 1 month total off to rest and recharge.
I know you said that Fundamentals of Medical Practice I, II, III, IV are graded Pass or Fail only. What about Learning Basic Medical Sciences, Medical Terminology, and Hospital Team Experience?
Although grading can change at any time (for example, both C.U.E.S. and Clinical Skills in Year 3 have the option now to go for an Honors grade that actually counts towards the Latin Honors criteria), as I remember it:
Learning Basic Medical Sciences was letter graded, for 1 credit hour, but it doesn’t go towards your science GPA.
Medical Terminology was Pass/Fail only.
Hospital Team Experience, which is done at the end of Year 1 for 2 weeks, was Pass/Fail only also.
While Fundamentals, LBMS, Med Term, and Hospital Team all went onto the transcript showing that you completed it, none of those courses went onto the MSPE (Medical Student Performance Evaluation) that also goes to residencies.
@Roentgen, @Blugrn6, @UMKCRoosMD
Thank you guys so much for your very honest opinions so far about the program and what we’re getting into. Based on how you’ve described it, It looks like I’ll have to be very proactive and very independent about so many things throughout the 6 years, maybe even more than I would have to be at other medical schools. I have several questions though:
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What resources does the school have in place for assisting students with USMLE Step 1? Did you use any of them and were any of them helpful?
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@Roentgen, you had said you did a 7 week Kaplan course. Which one is it, and how did you fit it in? Is that course you did, the only option they have? Is that the only test prep company most students work with if they decide to do a prep course?
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In progressing through the curriculum, how did you approach things in terms of studying? I realize there are course exams, but did you do anything extra, that maybe made your Step 1 studying easier later?
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Someone had mentioned that only 2 competitive residency programs that UMKC has from the previous list posted of what is very competitive/moderately competitive/less competitive (http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18366199#Comment_18366199) are Orthopedic Surgery and Ophthalmology, but their residency rosters on the UMKC website are almost all people from other medical schools, but barely any UMKC students, is this common?
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Thanks for transparently laying out how we are ranked in the program for getting Latin Honors, AOA, and also on the MSPE. I know you said that Latin Honors and AOA are listed in the handbook with cumulative GPA and # of Honors when it comes to selecting the top 25% of the class. You said there was a formula for the MSPE, but that formula is kept secret but it takes into account your cumulative GPA, your clinical clerkship grades, and USMLE Step 1 score. Do you know at least which out of those 3 contributes most to that formula or which years in the program contribute the bulk to it?
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Could you explain briefly about the not enough residency positions problem that you briefly talked about several pages back, I think it was @Roentgen. What do you think is the solution to this and is anything being done about it. How should I approach this as a student going through the program?
- There is no much there in terms of Step 1 help but here is what we do have and my take on it.
- Student tutoring: this is something new, started last year, and quite honestly I think it was done by the students in that class as a way to put down teaching related activity into their CVs. Idk if this is going to continue because those students graduated and my class is not that keen on it. But anyways, from about January - May (ish) every thursday there is a one hour lecture on some topic (EKGs, elevated liver enzymes, biochem enzyme deficiencies) and they used to go over the quick anatomy, phys, embryo, and biochem, do some step 1 style questions, and then teach you how to distinguish between different things on the tests and give you a clue. It is strictly geared towards fourth years studying for boards, they are called SOAP lectures, idk what SOAP stands for. I went to one, and actually they were helpful, but I took boards pretty early so I couldn't really take full advantage of them. The problem with this idea (very good) is that the students need to be 5th year or older in order to teach this because they need to be post Step 1. The other problem is that 6th years could not give a rat's a** about this in the last semester of their medical school and 5th years are busy as heck during the core clerkships and studying for shelves in their free time to devote time to this. Perhaps the school can pay some students to tutor this (like they do for biochem, pharm, micro, and pathology) but honestly that's a lot of responsibility and idk if students would be willing to willing to go to something like this for them to justify the cost, even thought it would only cost $400 for all 6 months.
- Learning specialist: she is dedicated to help you study better and make a study plans and stuff like that. I mean I did go meet with her and she did have good ideas but its nothing that I would not have known. Mostly its people who really are failing a class that meet with her to get her advice on how to study better.
- CBSE exam: so before you take step 1 you HAVE to pass this test. It is only 4 blocks vs 7 blocks on the real deal, and the content similarity to the actual test is subjective based on who you ask. The prevailing opinion is that it is very vague compared to the real test, the questions are very short compared to the real test, and it does nothing to predict your score. Regardless, UMKC I think it is one of the few, if not the only, school in the entire nation that has this requirement. You have two chances to pass it. You fail first time, you meet with Dr. Ellison, our curriculum chair, she asks what happened, you meet with the learning specialist, you make a study plan, you need to show that you have gotten at least a 60% average on at least 10 or so blocks of timed random questions (no really sure of the requirements, don't quote me on this). After that you take it again. If you fail again, you then have to take an 8 hour test (because there are only two versions of CBSE that you can take) that is 7 blocks long like the real deal. Idk what happens if you fail that, I haven't known anyone to fail it.
Other than that you are on your own for Step 1. As you are at most schools.
- I know this question is not geared towards me, but things have changed now so I'm just gonna comment on what happens now regarding Kaplan courses. Because of the schedule it has become impossible to leave for one of these, I know this because my parents really wanted me to and I tried to see if that's even possible. I know of two people that did do it in my class, but they are extending and had the time in their schedule to do so. Almost no one who graduates UMKC now does the course. Its not that the course is discouraged but its not encouraged either. If you want to do it, the school is not going to work with you to accommodate it into your schedule, they will simply show you options that either include extending or shifting your schedule with some sort of disadvantage in the future (finishing up cores late, no time for aways, no vacation year 5, etc etc).
- Just study for the test, there is no need to do anything extra. Here is some simple advice on all the classes:
- Study all the powerpoints first, make sure you UNDERSTAND what is being taught, then memorize it
- When you reach pathology - do pathoma on the side as well. It will pay for immensely.
- Step 1 - study how you normally study: book reader - read books, questions person - do lots of qbanks, but UWORLD and First Aid are two musts
- That post was commenting on the fact that when your own school does not have a residency program in your choose field of interest it becomes hard to get research, letter of recommendations, advice, etc because there is no one available at your school to offer those resources to you. You than need to go to outside schools to get that. Not many people are willing to endorse and or give away their efforts to students from other schools to those over their own. That's where you run into problems. Not matching at your own school is a very common occurrence. Especially at UMKC. After six years in a place, no one really wants to stay here unless they have some tie (family, spouse, they are doing peds (because CMH really is that good) etc). Still with that said, if you want to stay here at UMKC and are qualified you are more than welcome to do so. But usually UMKC is at the bottom of the rank list for most students.
- I have no idea what the formula is at all. Honestly, there is no real reason so worry about that anyways. There is no really walk to control any of that stuff. All you can do is work hard and do your best and let it all fall into place.
- Not really sure what the solution is to this problem...
Hey @sparklystarfish, sorry for not responding relatively quickly. I saw @blugrn6’s response above, but I’ll let @blugrn6 clarify anything I’m saying here with respect to current policy when it comes to how it is applied to current students. As @blugrn6 said before, a lot of rules are “hidden” to where it’s up to an administrator’s discretion to allow you to do something, and I don’t want to lead you to believe that something is still allowed, based on what I said, when it may no longer be.
I’ll explain further and add to the list that @blugrn6 mentioned some of which were after my time.
CBSE - The CBSE is a standardized exam that is supposed to cover content that appears on Step 1 and thus assesses readiness for Step 1 - http://www.nbme.org/students/sas/Comprehensive.html. The same people who write the test (the National Board of Medical Examiners or NBME) also write Step 1. It’s as close as you’re going to get to the real thing. Most allopathic U.S. med schools do not require taking this exam. KU Med also requires it for their students, but they don’t stop their students from taking Step 1, if they don’t get a certain score, unlike UMKC. It’s most accurate in terms of score, if you were to take it like 1-2 weeks before you sit for the real thing. We take it months before in order to qualify to even sign up for the exam. So it’s not surprising that your score on the CBSE, won’t necessarily correlate with your actual USMLE score, which you take months later when you’ve prepared much more and hit your peak. We took this exam at the beginning of Year 3 Fall, but right before Micro and Neuro started, to see where we are (kind of pointless since the only thing you’ve had at that point is Biochem, Anatomy/Histology, and Physiology). Maybe @blugrn6 knows, but I’m not sure if students still take a practice run of the CBSE in Year 3. I thought it was helpful to take it then, because at least for the first time, I knew how the USMLE test writers write their standardized questions. At least for now, UMKC doesn’t require students to take an NBME shelf exam for every basic science course, w/the only exceptions being Pathology and Behavioral Science.
Diagnostic Exams - IPP (Institute for Professional Preparation), which was affiliated with UMKC at the time, now called Jolley Test Prep (http://www.jolleytestprep.com/), had a free Diagnostic Exam that you can take. It’s run by the Jolley family that has been doing USMLE prep for years. What was great about it is that it mainly tested your standardized test-taking ability, not just your knowledge of facts you remembered. Kaplan Medical also has a diagnostic exam you can take but that mainly tests your knowledge content base. I took both exams and they were both free! I highly recommend taking them at the beginning of Year 4 once Path is over. I took it during my summer campus and it’s a good way to see where you stand - it doesn’t matter that you haven’t taken Pharm or Behavioral yet. The NBME also now has self-assessments which you can buy to also assess where you stand: http://www.nbme.org/students/sas/Comprehensive.html.
UMKC Counseling Center - http://www.umkc.edu/counselingcenter/; This is available if you have possible issues with testing anxiety, need to learn stress relaxation & management techniques, time management and organization skills, etc. It’s probably better to use this resource early on, if you need it rather than waiting till it’s too close to your test date. Several of my friends used this early on in Year 4 which helped by the time they took the test in the spring.
Learning Specialist - they now have hired a learning specialist on a full-time basis to help students: http://med.umkc.edu/sa/academic-support/. That link has some Step 1 tips as well.
Wellness - this is something that you might want to check out, http://med.umkc.edu/sa/wellness/. I honestly don’t know how helpful or useful it is, as it started after I graduated, but it’s an initiative that was started to help med students maintain wellness in the program, and can only help around Step 1 time when you might start feeling burned out.
When I was there, Kaplan was the usual thing people did if they were doing some type of formal course. There is a Kaplan Center in Mission, KS which some people took part time jobs at to bring in extra money or if they worked long enough - get a free Qbank or course. I know some people did courses thru IPP (now called Jolley’s Test Prep) or Falcon Review (now called Becker’s). Honestly, the reason that many of us did Kaplan was because we were very uncomfortable with the quality of our basic science education up that point in terms of preparing us for boards. I took Step 1 in 2007, and graduated in 2009, so I don’t think that basic science education at UMKC has changed tremendously 180 degrees in 6 years in terms of having (or keeping) more competent professors or teaching students what is necessary to learn for the boards, but that’s just me.
You can see all the options Kaplan has here: http://www.kaptest.com/medical-prep/usmle. When I took the exam, the only Kaplan options were CenterPrep (watching videos at the actual Kaplan center), Intense Prep (3 weeks of live lectures), and LivePrep (7 weeks of live lectures). You could also combine the live lectures and CenterPrep, which is what I did. So long before the Live Prep course, I watched the videos on my own time, and then I was prepared entering the course, that I didn’t need longer than a month after the course was over to take the exam. Both Intense & LivePrep were high-yield lectures given by professors hired by Kaplan to teach their prep courses. These people were usually professors at other US medical schools and were hired because they teach the material very well, better than many of our professors. It won’t reteach you all of basic sciences, but it’s supposed to hit on the high yield items for the boards and it explained things in ways that I had never learned or understood when the same concept was taught in the UMKC class. You could probably get the same from the videos as well, but those are a lot longer and requires a much larger time commitment. Kaplan also has an IntensePrep course every year, which is the 3 week lecture version, either spread out over 5 months at the KCUMB D.O. school, or a straight 3 week version in May, at KU or UMKC. Regardless of the course you select, included you get a set of up-to-date Lecture Notes to go over, which Kaplan is now apparently selling separately on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Kaplans-USMLE%C2%AE-Step-Lecture-Notes/dp/1625236867.
I agree with @blugrn6, the administration will not “work” with you to fit in the Kaplan course. You have to have an availability. One thing for sure, your entire class is not going to be allowed to fly away for a Kaplan course even if it is just 7 weeks, just like not everyone can be allowed to get a summer campus (that never happens in reality). Often times, they’ll use your grades against you - i.e. they’ll say your science GPA is so good that you don’t need to fly away for a formal Kaplan course, even though class performance might not be indicative of how you do on boards. As @Blugrn6 said, if you extend in the program, which is usually because of academic difficulty, you’re given a lot more leeway when you do extend and you can petition to get out of a campus semester altogether, if you’ve finished your Bachelor requirements, which almost everyone who has extended does, because our Bachelor degrees have so few undergraduate requirements. So extended students can fit it in very easily.
For me, since I took a summer campus - this gave me 3 free months which I could use to do anything I wanted. So for me, I took a Study month + Readings month + Vacation month to fit in the 7 week course when it was offered (it’s offered many times thru out the year in different cities) and take boards that third month. Every student is given up to 3 months for Study/Readings: http://med.umkc.edu/curriculum/elective/#elective. I had to fill out a form saying that I would miss a certain part of Patient, Physician, Society - this dopey course taught during Year 4 and have to make it up during Year 5 - http://med.umkc.edu/docs/curriculum/MDM_PPS_Form.pdf and also that I would be missing clinic during those months which then count as the number of months you are out-of-town that year. I was only able to do this because I had a summer campus w/freed up months. I don’t know if Summer campus people still do this or maybe @blugrn6 might know.
Other people I knew took the Intense Prep course offered in KC (same thing as Live but it’s in 3 weeks so it’s much more condensed), so they can’t take a lot of time to explain things which is offered at the D.O. school in KC spaced out from January to May, and also as a straight 3 week course in May which is usually held at KU or UMKC.
So this only applies to me personally - along with studying for courses by reading class powerpoints w/notes and taking exams, I usually chose 1 (and only 1) board review book on the side which I felt was brief enough, but also explanatory enough for the things we were learning in class and used it throughout the semester. There is a book called First Aid for the USMLE Step 1 which is released every year, and in that they usually have reviews by med students who used certain board review books. You can also go to KU Med’s bookstore and flip thru those books yourself and see if it fits the way you learn, before buying it there or on Amazon. I know some people who bought a Qbank early (USMLE Rx) and did questions to try to get used to seeing how USMLE questions are worded, since most of your class exam questions aren’t going to be written the way boards questions are written, unfortunately.
The only thing I would change is using the same review books I used in class for what I used for board prep in Year 4. I didn’t even know Kaplan did USMLE test prep (I thought they just did SAT/ACT/MCAT) until I was starting Year 4. If I had known, I would have used those Kaplan books instead and just stuck with them, rather than switching over to those books after having used different review books in classes. As @blugrn6 mentioned, doing questions is a must, not just reading books over and over, since they are a learning tool when you have to answer questions on the real thing.