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Pass Program - 99hope
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01-09-2008, 07:17 AM
Old Grad's ('91) Experience (92, 97, 98)
Do not despair! I got great help via an easy set of notes. Also pulled interviews through externships. I have a lot of helpful info: rmail me directly at shivjeet_kapoor
05-15-2013, 11:30 AM
More info on Pass program from studnt dr net #2885437 help4usmle - 05/13/13 18:07 More info on Pass program from Studnt Dr dot Net Member 480431 Junior Member Status Medical Student Join Date: Jul 2012 Posts: 13 Default P.A.S.S. Program Advice SDN Members don't see this ad. (About Ads) Since my friends and I have been getting services from the P.A.S.S. Program for the last few years, I feel it important to share some warnings with you that will keep you out of harm's way, save you the most money possible while still get a high-yield study experience for you. I went there because it appeared that I would have great Christian environment that had my best interests in mind but religion is the last priority this place has, your money is the first. I searched this topic and saw many questions but no in-depth answers after going through pages of them, so I took a lot of time to try and answer them below. This is not a troll and there is NO proprietary information shared since ALL of it comes from other sources readily available on the Internet. First and foremost the place really doesn't care about you, it's your money that they will go after every hour of every day and their goal is to get $15,000 from everyone that walks through their door, and they're perfectly fine with 'only' making an 8-week student out of you that can get them at least $10,000 if you think you were only going to stay for the original 4 weeks or that $15,000 if you planned on only staying for 8. If you are from a Caribbean or Dominican school, you pay half price for everything and the people making up the difference is the U.S. and Canadian students. Nothing you can do about it, but you should know why only a small percent of the students and tutors are U.S. students anymore...Ask to see the amounts of the charitable donations vs. their profits and you'll see that very little of the tuition or the Breaking the Boards series actually goes to the charities, so don't think you're doing anyone a favor by donating more and more money to them while you're there; the car show callously parked outside is what you're paying for. The course itself is made up of a few components: 1. The teachers: For the Champaign headquarters, Dr. Francis is an ill-knowledgeable teacher. and he doesn't even teach much more than half the course,. Dr. Le Shaun has taken over most of the teaching responsibilities and , she will browbeat and embarrass you in class, to the point that people stop going to the classes they paid for and go back to watching the bootleg videos they've had for years. If you still want to go there the best advice is to buy skin-tone earplugs to wear during class and get as many of her study packets as you can. If you have dates in mind to attend the course, have them send you a teaching schedule with how much of the teaching will be done by he vs. she.
05-15-2013, 11:35 AM
Online USMLE Programs Throughout the USA∙ Guaranteed PASS Programs "Reinventing the way that we that teach traditional medical education…" Program Information (24-hour INFORMATION LINE) PH# Six four one seven one five thirty nine hundred extension eight three three seven six eight Commences on the 1st day of each month, 2013 Terms: If you do not PASS THE USMLE, you will PAY NOTHING; otherwise you will pay $12,750 (discounted by $2000 to $10,750 for all registrations; IF YOU MENTION this POST and ENROLL BEFORE 5-31-2013!) General Description ( See the APPENDIX for a DETAILED Sample Schedule/Timetable for Our Professional Online USMLE Preparation Program) This WEB-BASED (COMBINED WITH PERSONALIZED TELEPHONIC INSTRUCTION) course brings together a faculty who possess a multidisciplinary perspective and range of preparatory methods that students may not typically be exposed to in standard public or even elite USMLEpreparatory institutions. New research is revealing new and promising approaches to the mastery of cognitive and learning skills; a top-notch professional program must present these advances to its students. We recognize this and thus, through informal personalized seminars, debates, and feedback sessions, we explore and identify the general principles that span the range of areas that are tested within the various sections of the USMLEs steps I,II-CK and III. Who We Are* We are a leading provider of superior medical licensing examination preparatory solutions empowered by advanced examination- content outline analysis, examination abstraction, and content learning-verification systems. Applying a unique combination of standardized lectures, rigorous-note-taking technique development, state-of-the art ‘real-time’ board- examination-type experiences, and comprehensive evaluative services, the student is ensured of success. Founded: Celebrating our thirteenth year as a premier full-service personal online/live instruction –driven USMLE-tutoring firm, we were founded in year 2000 in Ohio, with expansions to NC, CT, NY,MD,IL,CA Phone 24-hour Contact Phone (INFORMATION LINE) PH# six four one seven one five thirty nine hundred ext eight three three seven six eight Other Primary Office Locations Additional offices and academic employee-instructors are maintained throughout the country, supporting services for all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Team: This uniquely creative outcomes’ driven -program was founded by a top IVY LEAGUE Medical School-trained and educated, MD, with remarkable research and clinical credentials as well (i.e., additional graduate degrees with distinction in cognitive psychology, epidemiology and biostatistics, health policy and administration and finance, coupled with clinical diabetes mellitus management research training under a Nobel laureate in medicine, and health economics outcomes research training under a protégé of a Nobel laureate that specialized in health economics) . This program is thus intended for like-minded, driven, goal-oriented, professionals that MUST SUCCEED WITH A 100% GUARANTEE of their SUCCESS without which THEIR ENTIRE FEE WILL BE RETURNED, NO QUESTIONS ASKED!). Customers: More than 15 different states are represented in our past student body, including those graduating from local, and nationwide private and public medical educational institutions located in the Continental and Central Americas, Canada and the other six continents. Why Us?" The professional medical licensure-bound international and LCME medical graduate and student community has been under heavy scrutiny for years, and has faced many challenges. A positive change is vital to the health of this over-burdened population. We are committed to enabling this change through our development and provision of the industry’s leading board-educational solutions. Our superior methods and services are proving to be extremely beneficial to not just students of average science ability, but even “medical school -topping” valedictorians, and salutarians as well. Through our exclusive, multidisciplinary approach, advanced infrastructure of well-researched preparatory materials, we are able to provide significant breakthroughs in the quality and overall performance of the student in his or her USMLE. We achieve this through our maintenance of the best academic information review and abstraction infrastructure in the nation. Our vast access to numerous past board examination-based resources allows us to obtain an expansive superset of relevant examination-related data. From this, we channel evidence-based data, to reveal and implement unequivocal educational innovations. Our collective experience and expertise in the use of analytics, improves the accuracy, comprehension, timeliness and availability of our materials, which serves as a testimonial to our dependability and history of success. Our insightful solution design enables results that are unparalleled in quality and performance. While strategy and foresight are indicative of our unique approach, we also deliver the operational depth with which to implement our results. Our diverse team is made up of a variety of academic educational professionals, all of whom play a vital role in masterminding our system and executing our progressive, end-to-end board examination solutions. Through this fully integrated, nationwide arsenal of specialists, we position ourselves as a leading results provider within the USMLE-based-education industry today. ************************************************************************* APPENDIX: Sample Schedule/Timetable for Professional Online USMLE Preparation Program USMLE Step 1 Program Sample Timetable (Assumes an Intensive 75hr/wk Study Schedule) Overview “Perfect Case” Administrative System Didactic A study system employing cutting-edge, multiple-media case presentation templates, and 25 personalized, telephonic and “cloud-computing”/Podcasts-’ driven Ivy League-MD instructor interactions/wk Basic Science Foundation- Clinical Correlational-Applications to Case Vignettes 25 mini-cases, 1/8/2013 to 1/15/2013 Basic Science- Big 3 The most productive clinically relevant core basic sciences followed by a 150- multiple choice question USMLE Step 1 assessment, 1/15/2013 to 1/29/2013 Basic Science-Final 4 and Consolidation The remaining 4 basic science disciplines followed by a 150- multiple choice question USMLE assessment, 2/1/2013 to 2/15/2013 Academic Curricular Goals “Perfect Case” Administrative System Didactic Develop proficiency in cutting edge multiple-media case presentation templates. Basic Science Foundation- Clinical Correlational-Applications to Case Vignettes Become proficient with the case-based approach to clinical vignettes, employing a singular focus on classifications and clinical correlations. Become oriented with the “case-based approach” to learning the basic sciences as they relate to Medicine. Employ “active study” methods through the application of a 14-item clinical correlation based basic science case presentation template. The latter format is based upon innovative PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING (PBL) methodologies, in which the reinforcement and learning of concepts occurs, by “fully working upwards,”from the medical case-symptom’s basic science foundations through to the clinically correlated presentations of that medical case, thereby focusing on concepts essential to understanding the case vignette, and not passively “rote memorizing...” Basic Science- The "Big 3 Subjects" Apply the basic science foundational knowledge set towards high-quality diagrammatic memory aids that are immediately applied to actual USMLE-type multiple choice question-sets. Basic Science-The "Final 4 Subjects" and Comprehensive Course Materials' Consolidation Complete the course preparation with additional diagrammatic memory aids’ development, exam question projection techniques, and real-time USMLE-type exam mastery through programmatic experience. USMLE Clinical and Ambulatory Steps’ Programs’ Sample Timetable Overview (Assumes an Intensive 75hr/wk Study Schedule) Overview A “Perfect Case-Based” Didactic Study System A study system employing cutting-edge, multiple-media case presentation templates, and 25 personalized, telephonic and “cloud-computing”/Podcasts-’ driven Ivy League-MD instructor interactions/wk, , 1/1/2013 to 1/8/2013 Full-Length Clinical Cases 5 clinical cases, followed by a 250-multiple choice question assessment, 1/8/2013 to 1/15/2013 Basic Science Foundation 25 mini-cases, 1/15/2013 to 1/8/2013 Clinical Science Clinical Correlational-Applications- 25 mini-cases, 1/22/2013 to 1/29/2013 Basic Science- The "Big 3 Subjects" The most productive clinically relevant basic sciences followed by a 150- multiple choice question USMLE Step 1 assessment, 2/1/2013 to 2/15/2013 Clinical Science-Big 4 The most productive core clinical science disciplines followed by a 150- multiple choice question USMLE assessment, 2/15/2013 to 2/28/2013 Clinical Science-Final 2 and Consolidation The remaining clinical science disciplines followed by a consolidative 150- multiple choice question USMLE assessment, 3/1/2013 to 3/15/2013 Academic Curricular Goals A “Perfect Case-Based” Didactic Study System Develop proficiency in cutting edge multiple-media case presentation templates. Full-Length Cases Become oriented with the “case-based approach” to learning Medicine. Employ “active study” methods through the application of a 14-item clinical correlation based case presentation template. The latter format is based upon innovative PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING (PBL) methodologies, in which the reinforcement and learning of concepts occurs, by “fully working upwards,”from the medical case-symptom’s basic science foundations through to the clinically correlated presentations of that medical case, thereby focusing on concepts essential to understanding the case, and not passively “rote memorizing...” Basic Science Foundation Become proficient with the case-based approach, employing a singular focus on classifications and clinical correlations. Clinical Science Clinical Correlational-Applications- Become proficient with the case-based approach, employing a focus on the application of clinical correlations to actual patient work-ups, along with diagnostic and management algorithms.] Basic Science- Big 3 Apply the basic science foundational knowledge set towards high-quality diagrammatic memory aids that are immediately applied to actual USMLE-type multiple choice question-sets. Clinical Science-Big 4 Apply the clinical science clinical correlational-applications’-foundational knowledge set towards high-quality diagrammatic memory aids that are as well immediately applied to actual USMLE-type multiple choice question-sets. Clinical Science-Final 2 and Consolidation Complete the course preparation with additional diagrammatic memory aids’ development, exam question projection techniques, and real-time USMLE-type exam mastery through programmatic experience. [THE AMBULATORY PROGRAM FOR USMLE STEP 3 WILL REQUIRE ADDITIONAL TRAINING IN CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY, FAMILY MEDICINE, GENERAL CASE’S MANAGEMENT ALONG WITH A 100-CCS CASE INTENSIVE INTERACTIVE CURRICULUM] **************************************************************************** Reiterating our Bottom line: Terms: If you do not PASS THE USMLE, you will PAY NOTHING; otherwise you will pay $12,750 (discounted by $2000 to $10,750 for all registration IF YOU MENTION THIS POST and ENROLL BEFORE 5-31-2013!)
05-15-2013, 12:55 PM
hi 99hope.....I have pp program,,,email me at sabusmle
05-15-2013, 01:57 PM
More info on Pass program from Studnt Dr dot Net
Member 480431 Junior Member Status Medical Student Join Date: Jul 2012 Posts: 13 Default P.A.S.S. Program Advice SDN Members don't see this ad. (About Ads) Since my friends and I have been getting services from the P.A.S.S. Program for the last few years, I feel it important to share some warnings with you that will keep you out of harm's way, save you the most money possible while still get a high-yield study experience for you. I went there because it appeared that I would have great Christian environment that had my best interests in mind but religion is the last priority this place has, your money is the first. I searched this topic and saw many questions but no in-depth answers after going through pages of them, so I took a lot of time to try and answer them below. This is not a troll and there is NO proprietary information shared since ALL of it comes from other sources readily available on the Internet. First and foremost the place really doesn't care about you, it's your money that they will go after every hour of every day and their goal is to get $15,000 from everyone that walks through their door, and they're perfectly fine with 'only' making an 8-week student out of you that can get them at least $10,000 if you think you were only going to stay for the original 4 weeks or that $15,000 if you planned on only staying for 8. If you are from a Caribbean or Dominican school, you pay half price for everything and the people making up the difference is the U.S. and Canadian students. Nothing you can do about it, but you should know why only a small percent of the students and tutors are U.S. students anymore...Ask to see the amounts of the charitable donations vs. their profits and you'll see that very little of the tuition or the Breaking the Boards series actually goes to the charities, so don't think you're doing anyone a favor by donating more and more money to them while you're there; the car show callously parked outside is what you're paying for. The course itself is made up of a few components: 1. The teachers: For the Champaign headquarters, Dr. Francis is an ill-knowledgeable teacher. and he doesn't even teach much more than half the course,. Dr. Le has taken over most of the teaching responsibilities and while she is brilliant, she will browbeat and embarrass you in class, to the point that people stop going to the classes they paid for and go back to watching the bootleg videos they've had for years. If you still want to go there the best advice is to buy skin-tone earplugs to wear during class and get as many of her study packets as you can. If you have dates in mind to attend the course, have them send you a teaching schedule with how much of the teaching will be done by he vs. she. For the Florida office: Dr. Wolf is the head instructor there but I can't say much about him because nobody seems to be able to find him after the first week--he is not even licensed at that!. A minimum-wage tutor or another person that has never actually practiced medicine ends up teaching a lot of the class, just like in Champaign! 2. Tutoring: You'd think you'd be getting taught medicine in your weakest areas, but most of the tutors barely finished their first or second years of medical school and are on some sort of extended vacation from their school while waiting to take Step 1 while a few are working on Step 2. The medical instruction, therefore, is minimal. They focus; instead, on making sure you adhere to the test taking mantra they instill in you that is borrowed, mostly, from Kaplan and a basic test-taking skills course offered at most community colleges. The technique does tend to improve your performance on exams so just make sure you buy a U-World account then do 25 questions at a time doing the following for every one of them: 1. Cover the answers with the U-World calculator or the Windows Notepad or Calculator. 2. Read the question at the end, if it seems to involve a lot of physiology, management or extended 3rd order thinking, ask yourself "What's the concept they want to test me on?" If it just wants a diagnosis question, they want you to find the clue to get the answer below. 3. Read the vignette actively looking for the concept or clue and highlight anything that is relevant and formulate your answer from those highlighted items. 4. Only after you have your best guess solidified, start eliminating the answers from the last answer upward, don't ever pick 'A' unless you're absolutely certain that's the answer because it rarely ever is. If you don't have (literally) a clue, eliminate as many answers as possible and pick the last of the ones that are left. They charge almost $200/hour for this tutoring, which may be on par with Kaplan but Kaplan pays their tutors at least triple what the PASS tutors get paid ($10/hour vs. $30-$40/hour) so only the ones that feel an intense loyalty to the place are staying, the best tutors are rarely there for long or are already on their way out. This is one example of PASS exploiting the students and their tutors to make every last penny for themselves. I can't imagine working so hard for less than the person making my $5 coffee for me at Starbucks; eventually it's got to get to the students they suckered into tutoring and that's what you'll be buying into when you extend your stay. Materials: You get a folder with the PowerPoint’s for all of the lectures and a blue book which has summaries of all the lecture high-points and the infamous "P.A.S.S. Program Clues" which are a rehash of the Med Student Amnesia doc and Boards and Wards. The materials you get and anything the instructors project in front of you have to be some of the lowest quality, most error-ridden junk I've ever paid thousands of dollars for. If you're trying to avoid spending the money to attend a PASS course, buy the Blue "Dissecting USMLE" and the "Breaking the Boards" books (the fully corrected versions of what all the lectures are,) and memorize the clues in the blue book then drill back and forth with as many friends as you can find to do it and you can avoid spending thousands more to be read the WRONG information in class. You know it's bad when the director of the program with 10 years of experience needs to get a medical student to correct his materials properly! Pdf files of all of these are floating around for free and anyone who's attended the course has them, whether they admit it or not. Housing: P.A.S.S. gets you the lowest rent, Section 8 housing full of thugs that always are breaking into someone's car for the iPods or laptops that students often leave in their car. There is unarmed security 3 nights a week, but they're always at the gate and the dealers in the Champaign area meet with the main one on nights when security isn't there. If you see anyone with dreadlocks walking around or too old to be on a skateboard, they are likely to be armed and going to the main dealer, which is the first building on the left (go through there and you'll smell which apartment to go to to buy some recreational drugs) when you come to the P.A.S.S. side of the complex. If you have pepper-spray, make sure you take the safety off before you leave the P.A.S.S. lot to walk or drive home. The apartments are always occupied by P.A.S.S. students so that's their excuse for never really cleaning them. The carpets are sticky, crackle under your feet and hold all sorts of diseases but no amount of requests will make them clean them; not that you should have to ask them to. Your comforter was NOT cleaned after the last person so wash it in hot with everything you can get to kill the last person's germs that are embedded in there. There is also a 50/50 chance that your AC unit isn't working right and they won't get it working without many requests and having them replace the Freon in it practically requires Dr. Francis and the mayor to sign for it. That maintenance request you have the first day should be thoroughly filled out if any of the above are going on and give the front desk a daily update as to if anyone has stopped by to work on it. For all of this, P.A.S.S. charges you almost TRIPLE what your non-P.A.S.S. neighbors pay to live there! The Village charges them $300/month per room and they charge you $700+. Remember how I mentioned that they will exploit students and tutors that live there to make money off of them??? If you absolutely have to attend a P.A.S.S. Program session, use Craigslist to find one of many sublets that are out there any time of year that are much safer and cost-effective. If you don't want to pay to rent a car, drive your own down there, pay a taxi around $12 each way from downtown or stay at the much safer Candlewood Suites or Extended Stay's that you can still walk from. You can get a 'deal' at those 2 places for around $1200/month if you absolutely have to stay within walking distance. If you want to risk it, at least save some money and ask them for the "2 month P.A.S.S. Program rental" which costs for 2 months slightly more than P.A.S.S. charges you for one month. The Game: When you come in, you're put under stress when you first check in and there are a bunch of things wrong with your apartment. Starting the next day, you are stressed every morning at 6:30AM when you do questions in the classroom before the lectures start then keep going through the day, fighting to stay awake in case you get called on. If it's a basic answer that may even be on the board, know that he caught you dozing off and he'll be on your case again for a while. Too bad you can't even see the board because his brother, V-Tini, wouldn't spend the small extra money to get a 10,000 lumen projector with 10,000 to 1 contrast (this took me less than 15 minutes to find with Google and I'm not anywhere near technically inclined) needed to fight through that horrible room lighting. Just when you're tired of muddling through the crappy notes in the folder, they offer the "Breaking the Boards" books and most people bought it since they were already so fed up with the notes. Again, pdfs and recordings of this and the PP Clues are available for free if you quietly ask around; they actually used to be free or very little cost before V-Tini took over. They will make you feel like you absolutely have to stay if you want to pass your exam. You can read their materials over and over again, do drills by Skype with anyone that can read English and tell you what you missed, do U World questions and take an NBME every 3 weeks on your own and without spending a penny with P.A.S.S. P.A.S.S. knows that many schools send students to P.A.S.S. against their will and those are the ones they snare immediately into their 8-week program. If you're in that situation, try and negotiate this with your school before this place gets thousands more dollars from you. Even the privilege of staying in the building really isn't one, it's even more run down than the village apartments and people still sneak around after 10PM until the cleaning crew is gone so it's unsafe for you to even leave your room. I hope this helps someone before it's too late and bless all of you on this incredible journey.
05-15-2013, 02:00 PM
More info on Pass program from Studnt Dr dot Net--Thanks for the WARNINGS!...
Member 480431 Junior Member Status Medical Student Join Date: Jul 2012 Posts: 13 Default P.A.S.S. Program Advice SDN Members don't see this ad. (About Ads) Since my friends and I have been getting services from the P.A.S.S. Program for the last few years, I feel it important to share some warnings with you that will keep you out of harm's way, save you the most money possible while still get a high-yield study experience for you. I went there because it appeared that I would have great Christian environment that had my best interests in mind but religion is the last priority this place has, your money is the first. I searched this topic and saw many questions but no in-depth answers after going through pages of them, so I took a lot of time to try and answer them below. This is not a troll and there is NO proprietary information shared since ALL of it comes from other sources readily available on the Internet. First and foremost the place really doesn't care about you, it's your money that they will go after every hour of every day and their goal is to get $15,000 from everyone that walks through their door, and they're perfectly fine with 'only' making an 8-week student out of you that can get them at least $10,000 if you think you were only going to stay for the original 4 weeks or that $15,000 if you planned on only staying for 8. If you are from a Caribbean or Dominican school, you pay half price for everything and the people making up the difference is the U.S. and Canadian students. Nothing you can do about it, but you should know why only a small percent of the students and tutors are U.S. students anymore...Ask to see the amounts of the charitable donations vs. their profits and you'll see that very little of the tuition or the Breaking the Boards series actually goes to the charities, so don't think you're doing anyone a favor by donating more and more money to them while you're there; the car show callously parked outside is what you're paying for. The course itself is made up of a few components: 1. The teachers: For the Champaign headquarters, Dr. Francis is an ill-knowledgeable teacher. and he doesn't even teach much more than half the course,. Dr. (Le) SHAUN has taken over most of the teaching responsibilities and while she is brilliant, she will browbeat and embarrass you in class, to the point that people stop going to the classes they paid for and go back to watching the bootleg videos they've had for years. If you still want to go there the best advice is to buy skin-tone earplugs to wear during class and get as many of her study packets as you can. If you have dates in mind to attend the course, have them send you a teaching schedule with how much of the teaching will be done by he vs. she. For the Florida office: Dr. Wolf is the head instructor there but I can't say much about him because nobody seems to be able to find him after the first week--he is not even licensed at that!. A minimum-wage tutor or another person that has never actually practiced medicine ends up teaching a lot of the class, just like in Champaign! 2. Tutoring: You'd think you'd be getting taught medicine in your weakest areas, but most of the tutors barely finished their first or second years of medical school and are on some sort of extended vacation from their school while waiting to take Step 1 while a few are working on Step 2. The medical instruction, therefore, is minimal. They focus; instead, on making sure you adhere to the test taking mantra they instill in you that is borrowed, mostly, from Kaplan and a basic test-taking skills course offered at most community colleges. The technique does tend to improve your performance on exams so just make sure you buy a U-World account then do 25 questions at a time doing the following for every one of them: 1. Cover the answers with the U-World calculator or the Windows Notepad or Calculator. 2. Read the question at the end, if it seems to involve a lot of physiology, management or extended 3rd order thinking, ask yourself "What's the concept they want to test me on?" If it just wants a diagnosis question, they want you to find the clue to get the answer below. 3. Read the vignette actively looking for the concept or clue and highlight anything that is relevant and formulate your answer from those highlighted items. 4. Only after you have your best guess solidified, start eliminating the answers from the last answer upward, don't ever pick 'A' unless you're absolutely certain that's the answer because it rarely ever is. If you don't have (literally) a clue, eliminate as many answers as possible and pick the last of the ones that are left. They charge almost $200/hour for this tutoring, which may be on par with Kaplan but Kaplan pays their tutors at least triple what the PASS tutors get paid ($10/hour vs. $30-$40/hour) so only the ones that feel an intense loyalty to the place are staying, the best tutors are rarely there for long or are already on their way out. This is one example of PASS exploiting the students and their tutors to make every last penny for themselves. I can't imagine working so hard for less than the person making my $5 coffee for me at Starbucks; eventually it's got to get to the students they suckered into tutoring and that's what you'll be buying into when you extend your stay. Materials: You get a folder with the PowerPoint’s for all of the lectures and a blue book which has summaries of all the lecture high-points and the infamous "P.A.S.S. Program Clues" which are a rehash of the Med Student Amnesia doc and Boards and Wards. The materials you get and anything the instructors project in front of you have to be some of the lowest quality, most error-ridden junk I've ever paid thousands of dollars for. If you're trying to avoid spending the money to attend a PASS course, buy the Blue "Dissecting USMLE" and the "Breaking the Boards" books (the fully corrected versions of what all the lectures are,) and memorize the clues in the blue book then drill back and forth with as many friends as you can find to do it and you can avoid spending thousands more to be read the WRONG information in class. You know it's bad when the director of the program with 10 years of experience needs to get a medical student to correct his materials properly! Pdf files of all of these are floating around for free and anyone who's attended the course has them, whether they admit it or not. Housing: P.A.S.S. gets you the lowest rent, Section 8 housing full of thugs that always are breaking into someone's car for the iPods or laptops that students often leave in their car. There is unarmed security 3 nights a week, but they're always at the gate and the dealers in the Champaign area meet with the main one on nights when security isn't there. If you see anyone with dreadlocks walking around or too old to be on a skateboard, they are likely to be armed and going to the main dealer, which is the first building on the left (go through there and you'll smell which apartment to go to to buy some recreational drugs) when you come to the P.A.S.S. side of the complex. If you have pepper-spray, make sure you take the safety off before you leave the P.A.S.S. lot to walk or drive home. The apartments are always occupied by P.A.S.S. students so that's their excuse for never really cleaning them. The carpets are sticky, crackle under your feet and hold all sorts of diseases but no amount of requests will make them clean them; not that you should have to ask them to. Your comforter was NOT cleaned after the last person so wash it in hot with everything you can get to kill the last person's germs that are embedded in there. There is also a 50/50 chance that your AC unit isn't working right and they won't get it working without many requests and having them replace the Freon in it practically requires Dr. Francis and the mayor to sign for it. That maintenance request you have the first day should be thoroughly filled out if any of the above are going on and give the front desk a daily update as to if anyone has stopped by to work on it. For all of this, P.A.S.S. charges you almost TRIPLE what your non-P.A.S.S. neighbors pay to live there! The Village charges them $300/month per room and they charge you $700+. Remember how I mentioned that they will exploit students and tutors that live there to make money off of them??? If you absolutely have to attend a P.A.S.S. Program session, use Craigslist to find one of many sublets that are out there any time of year that are much safer and cost-effective. If you don't want to pay to rent a car, drive your own down there, pay a taxi around $12 each way from downtown or stay at the much safer Candlewood Suites or Extended Stay's that you can still walk from. You can get a 'deal' at those 2 places for around $1200/month if you absolutely have to stay within walking distance. If you want to risk it, at least save some money and ask them for the "2 month P.A.S.S. Program rental" which costs for 2 months slightly more than P.A.S.S. charges you for one month. The Game: When you come in, you're put under stress when you first check in and there are a bunch of things wrong with your apartment. Starting the next day, you are stressed every morning at 6:30AM when you do questions in the classroom before the lectures start then keep going through the day, fighting to stay awake in case you get called on. If it's a basic answer that may even be on the board, know that he caught you dozing off and he'll be on your case again for a while. Too bad you can't even see the board because his brother, V-Tini, wouldn't spend the small extra money to get a 10,000 lumen projector with 10,000 to 1 contrast (this took me less than 15 minutes to find with Google and I'm not anywhere near technically inclined) needed to fight through that horrible room lighting. Just when you're tired of muddling through the crappy notes in the folder, they offer the "Breaking the Boards" books and most people bought it since they were already so fed up with the notes. Again, pdfs and recordings of this and the PP Clues are available for free if you quietly ask around; they actually used to be free or very little cost before V-Tini took over. They will make you feel like you absolutely have to stay if you want to pass your exam. You can read their materials over and over again, do drills by Skype with anyone that can read English and tell you what you missed, do U World questions and take an NBME every 3 weeks on your own and without spending a penny with P.A.S.S. P.A.S.S. knows that many schools send students to P.A.S.S. against their will and those are the ones they snare immediately into their 8-week program. If you're in that situation, try and negotiate this with your school before this place gets thousands more dollars from you. Even the privilege of staying in the building really isn't one, it's even more run down than the village apartments and people still sneak around after 10PM until the cleaning crew is gone so it's unsafe for you to even leave your room. I hope this helps someone before it's too late and bless all of you on this incredible journey.
05-17-2013, 08:47 AM
i have got the new updates of 2013 : a-new Doctor in training 2013 and FA 2013 For step 1 b-usmlerx first aid express 2013 c- solid anatomy of DIT d- new pass program e-MKSAP 16 Audio Companion Part A and B and also new usmle resources such as the books which is new and many dvds and Videos of materials that help pass the exam such as : 1- all Kaplan video courses all steps (high yield- IM review- CS online - classroom anywhere ...etc) 2- Kaplan and falcon lecture notes in color and latest edition in pdfs 3- all DIT ( doctor in training ) videos and workbooks on step 1 and 2 4- all DIT (SOLID SERIES) pharm , IM , OB-GYN...ETC 5- all Qbanks and NBMEs on all steps and its Sim exam ( USMLEWORLD - KAPLAN - USMLERX - USMLECONSULT - USMLE EASY - EXAM MASTER - USMLE WEAPON ...etc) 6- new Dr Najeeb videos 2012 and dr archer full length videos and ccs videos 7- all Falcon videos step 1 ( falcon online - falcon first aid - costanzo phys ) 8- first aid express videos by usmlerx first aid team and many other materials , i am willing to resale it for a reasonable offer, all are Brand new 2012-2013. contact me at : jordialba99 god bless and thanks.... |
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