The course is offered year round. So you can enroll anytime. Lectures are on two month cycles, so Jan-Feb, Mar-April, etc. For most IMG, they need 4 to 6 months prep to pass this exam. For old IMG, its even longer. So if you are just thinking to pass and you are fresh grad, starting in July would be OK, otherwise, rethink your timeline.

Askdoc

I am interested in doing the USMLE step 1 in November 2011.

I live in Toronto, Canada.

Do you offer a prep course in July or August of 2011.
Please let me know! Thanks

No Problem.

Askdoc

In the future, instead of my real name, can you use my screen name, “bestmedicine” instead?

Actually, it is possible to make it for an August exam date even with the April class. The program can be finished in 4 months if you strictly adhere to 6 to 8 hours of study time, 6 days a week. In fact an NBME assessment test is scheduled just after the 4th Month and if you are satisfied with that score, then you can sit for the exam. The extra 2 months is there for various reasons. People who wants 99′s will probably have a hard time being ready in 4 months though not impossible. Most people tend to drag their feet when studying and for them 4 months is not enough. Lastly, there are people who have glaring problems and deficiencies which may take sometime to fix, therefore extra time may be needed.

When the enrollment starts on March, and you enroll early, you can start the course ahead of the others if you want. The materials are there for you to use. The reason I want people in classes is because it is easier to monitor people when they are more or less covering the same stuff. Also I do discuss ways to tackle USMLE questions (ie. being able to get the correct answer even if technically you don’t know the exact answer) using questions in the course itself. If people are at different sessions, then those behind would know the answers to questions they have yet to encounter in future chapters. The reason that classes are 2 months apart is that the first month or so the busiest as I have to correct bad study habits and glaring deficiencies from the new students. Some gets corrected in a week or so, others persists much longer and therefore occupy a huge amount of my time. By the end of the second month, most problems should be resolved and the students can usually now study by themselves with just occasional advise from me.

So my suggestion is enroll early, inform me and I will let you start ahead maybe as early as third week of March

Askdoc

Thanks for the information. I will check out the links that you’ve provided.

Is there a class that would start in March, if enough people will enroll?

I’d like to take the exam in June-Aug of this year.

If you want some idea on how the course goes, log on to my forum at http://forums.askdoc-usmle.com. Read Askdoc’s Method of USMLE Review and the exam experience poste by a student from my first batch. He took the exam last January 27, 2009 and got a 97/232.

If you want to access some of the sites in the forum used by my current students. Register and log on to the forum as they are only available to registered users.

For a sample of the notes and quiz used, register at my Prep site at http://prep.askdoc-usmle.com. Enroll in the Pathology Demo course. It’s open to all. That is the actual Chapter 1 of Review of Pathology. Originally the course calls for using only commercially available reviewers and texts. However, some of my students had a hard time distinguishing between high yield must know concepts vs. lower yield concepts, so I wound up rewriting my own notes for their use. Then I also found out that some people just have a hard time memorizing and recalling information, So the summary notes was made to help people organize the information in their head for easier memorization and recall. Another important point is to memorize the information in a way that makes it easier to get the right answer to questions.

Askdoc

PS. I am only accepting 10 students for the April Class. As of now, 10 applicants have emailed me to reserve a position for the April Class. However, I don’t accept reservations so I have told them to apply early once enrollment starts in March as it will again be first come, first served.

Do you have an outline of your course, so I can get an idea of what your course is like? Also, if any sample lessons/notes can be previewed before enrolling in your course, please let me know. Thanks.