Hippo vs. CME4Life Review?

[ScienceisAmazin]

Hi Everyone!

 

I'm a few months away from my PANCE and have heard great (and not so great) things about both Hippo and CME4Life. I would love any feedback from anybody who has experience (or a coupon code ;) ) with either.

[JBielinski]

Greetings. 

 

My name is John Bielinski, PA, and owner of CME4Life, LLC. 

 

I teach the board review program. 

 

I hear very good things about HIPPO.  It's my understanding they are large and well structured, and endourced by the AAPA.  I don't think a person can go wrong with HIPPO. 

 

CME4Life, LLC specializes in those that struggle to learn.  We specialize in getting the ortho/derm/psych/OB-GYN to recertify.  We specialize in making concepts come alive, not through rote memorization.  We teach you HOW to remember the material. 

 

Our three day conference is loaded with board review questions that you answer from your seat with the audience response system. 

 

If you come to day 1 of our CME4Life conference and don't think it's the best board review you have ever attended, we will refund your money.  Period. 

 

We send you study meaterial (750 flashcards) before the conference that we encourage you to mater.  This is low hanging fruit study material.  THEN, on day one, you are given a pretest.  This encourages you to study the pre-conference material.  When you pass this test, you now qualify for the "Extreme Guarentee."

 

If you fail:

 

1) Full money back guarentee

2) We pay for another board review course

3) We pay for you to retake your boards 

 

In out last conference of 50 people, 6 failed the pre-test.  When surveyed, every one of them said they didn't study our flashcards.  I can't get you to pass if you don't study.  Period. 

 

There are a lot of other board review programs that don't send study material and don't encourage you to study.  We do.  I do.  Why?  Because I deeply care about our profession and those that attend my program. 

 

Best of luck. 

 

We have board reviwe DVDs, PA Prep Flashcards (with audio file, digital flashcards, CDs) and the PA Prep Focus (this is a concentrated audio CD program that is like Cliff Notes for board review.)  Visit www.CME4Life.com for details. 

[GreatChecko]

I've used HIPPO and have been watching Mr. Bielinski's videos for a very long time.

 

John is a great speaker and very engaging. Many of his memory aids are helpful, but I often find it difficult to remember mnemonics, which he uses heavily. Thus, I didn't go with his program, but still watch his videos from time to time as they are great.

 

HIPPO is for the most part very good. I find that the videos are just thorough enough and there are some bonus features, like an EKG review, which aren't necessary for the PANCE, but very well done.The videos are entertaining, usually are made up of a group of very knowledgeable people, and just about the right length. They also just updated a bunch of them and the quality continues to increase. Overall, I found it well worth the money and their customer service is great. Tons of CME available too. My one beef with HIPPO is that their question bank is made up of questions that do not approximate the PANCE and just aren't all that difficult. 

 

I have found that my best test prep is drilling questions with good explanations. Rosh Review, Exam Master, and a new program which I thought was very useful, PrepU from Wolters Kluwer, was where I went for test questions.  PrepU and Rosh have good mobile apps/access, which was a huge plus for me. 

 

Full disclosure, I was provided free access to help test PrepU, but kept returning to it even though I had paid for access to other sites.

 

All the best!

[Joelseff]

Greetings.

 

My name is John Bielinski, PA, and owner of CME4Life, LLC.

 

I teach the board review program.

 

I hear very good things about HIPPO. It's my understanding they are large and well structured, and endourced by the AAPA. I don't think a person can go wrong with HIPPO.

 

CME4Life, LLC specializes in those that struggle to learn. We specialize in getting the ortho/derm/psych/OB-GYN to recertify. We specialize in making concepts come alive, not through rote memorization. We teach you HOW to remember the material.

 

Our three day conference is loaded with board review questions that you answer from your seat with the audience response system.

 

If you come to day 1 of our CME4Life conference and don't think it's the best board review you have ever attended, we will refund your money. Period.

 

We send you study meaterial (750 flashcards) before the conference that we encourage you to mater. This is low hanging fruit study material. THEN, on day one, you are given a pretest. This encourages you to study the pre-conference material. When you pass this test, you now qualify for the "Extreme Guarentee."

 

If you fail:

 

1) Full money back guarentee

2) We pay for another board review course

3) We pay for you to retake your boards

 

In out last conference of 50 people, 6 failed the pre-test. When surveyed, every one of them said they didn't study our flashcards. I can't get you to pass if you don't study. Period.

 

There are a lot of other board review programs that don't send study material and don't encourage you to study. We do. I do. Why? Because I deeply care about our profession and those that attend my program.

 

Best of luck.

 

We have board reviwe DVDs, PA Prep Flashcards (with audio file, digital flashcards, CDs) and the PA Prep Focus (this is a concentrated audio CD program that is like Cliff Notes for board review.) Visit www.CME4Life.com for details.

You've convinced me! I'm signing up next year before I take PANRE.

 

Sent from my S5 Active...Like you care...

 

 

[JBielinski]

 

It's a great question. 

 

There are a lot of courses that are like Zithromax.  Zithromax is a great antibiotic for people who are going to get better anyways.  (Meaning... it's pretty close to a placebo antibiotic.)

 

If you are going to pass anyways, ANY board review course is going to be adequate. 

 

CME4Life is for those who are struggling.  CME4Lfie specializes in making concepts pop... come alive.  We specialize in hacking into the minds of the test writers and predicting questions and concepts.  Most board review courses teach with a concept of what's called "perceptual contrast."  Meaning, they teach you all of PA school again.  They flood you with more information than you can possible handle in hopes that which you do recall is enough to get you to pass.

 

We teach from a base up approach.  We make our conference fun, engaging and provide a foundation of confidence and competence. 

 

With that said, all board review courses have the same objective.  We make the information easy to recall and the learning process fun/engaging. 

 

Good luck.

[crossbone2007]

I've used HIPPO and have been watching Mr. Bielinski's videos for a very long time.

 

John is a great speaker and very engaging. Many of his memory aids are helpful, but I often find it difficult to remember mnemonics, which he uses heavily. Thus, I didn't go with his program, but still watch his videos from time to time as they are great.

 

HIPPO is for the most part very good. I find that the videos are just thorough enough and there are some bonus features, like an EKG review, which aren't necessary for the PANCE, but very well done.The videos are entertaining, usually are made up of a group of very knowledgeable people, and just about the right length. They also just updated a bunch of them and the quality continues to increase. Overall, I found it well worth the money and their customer service is great. Tons of CME available too. My one beef with HIPPO is that their question bank is made up of questions that do not approximate the PANCE and just aren't all that difficult. 

 

I have found that my best test prep is drilling questions with good explanations. Rosh Review, Exam Master, and a new program which I thought was very useful, PrepU from Wolters Kluwer, was where I went for test questions.  PrepU and Rosh have good mobile apps/access, which was a huge plus for me. 

 

Full disclosure, I was provided free access to help test PrepU, but kept returning to it even though I had paid for access to other sites.

 

All the best!

Hi GreatChecko, would you recommend PrepU. I have both HiPPO and Rosh Review but I like Rosh Review better than Hippo for questions, Hippo is great for lectures but the questions are too easy giving a false hope. However, Rosh Review is kicking my butt (less than 250 questions done, avg=66%) 

How do you compare Rosh Review to Prep U and both to the PANCE? Thank you.