Doctors In Training

I started studying for the USMLE Step 1 early, so I was able to try several review courses. Other sources I used include USMLE Express for First Aid 2012, Falcon Review videos for First Aid 2012, Pathoma videos + book, USMLEWorld question bank, and Kaplan Qbank. Overall, I thought that the Doctors in Training 2012 review course was relatively organized and encouraged active learning through handwriting information for high yield topics in the workbook (e.g., notes and answers to questions). Though for the cost of this course and the limited time available to crunch in all the knowledge, I might not recommend using them in the future.
Pros:
— Workbook encourages active learning/​recall and has ample open-​ended high-​yield review questions (non-​USMLE style) that are well-​spaced for breaks between lectures and grouped 3 – 5 questions at a time.
— Includes page numbers to First Aid 2012. But most facts had page numbers from First Aid 2011 only.
— You get daily practice questions emailed to you starting in January — May.
— The videos section of the course consisted of 150 videos all between 20−45mins long.
— DIT Website is easy to navigate.
— New 2013 course will provide subscribers with full-​year access to 25 new videos. I believe the rest of the course will stay about the same.
— Accepts credit card payment. But charges tax. (vs. Falcon, Pathoma and UWorld did not charge tax.)
Cons:
— Has extraneous, low-​yield information throughout. Instructors were very verbose in every video, and discussed topics (like Gibbs free energy and cloning) to an extent not needed for Step 1. Some of the instructors also said unnecessary things to try to be funny but none of those comments were geared to helping students remember high-​yield topics (e.g., they were not mnemonics or anything).
— Workbook has few images. Text is incomplete as it refers to First Aid a lot… so lots of wasted space with just reference page numbers printed on them. Does not go in the same order as First Aid so lots of jumping around. Printed in black and white.
— Instructors spoke very fast, and were sometimes disorganized in that they jumped from topic to topic in First Aid 2012 before completing previous topics within each video. Instructors spoke freely so for most of the lecture you don’t have any text to follow as they speak. Relatively little use of slides so you’re just watching the lecturer speak (80% of the video is just of the speaker’s face and moving lips while he’s speaking to you); and no use of pointers or images (e.g., histology, MR, etc) on slides. Slides were text only.
— The videos are only accessible for 1 month unless you pay for an expensive extension pack (+ $ 200). Encourages cramming. Although you can start your video subscription as early as March, most students start about 1 month before desired test day.
Of the resources I’ve used, I highly recommend UWorld Qbank, Kaplan Qbank, and Pathoma.
Also if you must use another resource I think USMLE Express is better than Falcon Reviews, and both of these resources are much much better than DIT. USMLE Express adds many images that are not included in First Aid to their videos. Also with USMLE Express and Falcon, you do not watch the instructor’s lips move on the screen– they are smarter and actively videotape the First Aid book while writing notes and drawing or showing additional images, etc.