I truly believe that it does not matter which academy you are joining. You are the one who will do the studying, and you are the one who is going to practice the scenarios. So its entirely upto you how you manage all these.
However, if I had to recommend any academy, I would suggest anyone to go to Samson.
Why?
4 reasons:
- Mocks
- Masterclass
- Addressing the concerns
- Up-To-Date Stations
Mocks:
The environment of Samson’s mocks are kind of similar to the main exam. You can actually feel the pressure and it will help you acclimatize with this pressure in the main exam.
I didn’t actually think that the assessment of Samsons mock were that good. But to my surprise, my mock results and the results of the main exam were kind of similar.
I passed 11 stations in my first mock, 11 stations in my 2nd mock, 14 stations in my 3rd mock and 15 stations in my main exam.
Anyway, I still think that their assessment is not good, and there is a lot to improve. They should really work on that.
They give 6 minutes (or less?) in the mock, which, I think, hampers the mental clock in terms of preparation. Some people say that it helps, but I think it doesn’t. Instead they could give 7 minutes.
Masterclass:
It’s really good.
I have concentration issues, and my last masterclass was on the day before my main exam, so I didn’t attend the entire class. I was there for 2/3 hours maybe, and that really helped.
However, they take the masterclasses after/in-between the mock tests, which is approximately a week before the exam. It is really difficult to hold your concentration for around 12 hours at a stretch.
Addressing the Concerns:
I attended the samson online classes in november/october. As I had a full time job, I could not attend all the classes. I attended day 1,2,3,4,7,8,10 – these 7 days.
The classes were “okay” or “not bad”, thats how I would like to describe.
But there is something distinctive about Samsons classes, Dr. Lovaan’s classes specifically. They teach you how to address the patients concerns, which no other existing PLAB2 academies do, to my knowledge. In the classes, they specifically teach you the questions that simulator may ask you as a patient, and how you should answer them.
For example,
In TIA scenario, patient may ask:
“Doctor, are you going to inform the DVLA?”
People get confused when simulators ask these type of questions.
Dr. Lovan taught us this reply “Well, if you don’t do it yourself, I am afraid we may have to do it” – which is just perfect I think.
Addressing the patients concern is really important to pass the exams, and they teach it nicely.
Up-To-Date Stations
I have heard that Samson academy is most updated in terms of new scenarios. In my exam, all the 16 scenarios were directly from the Samsons classes and this has made me believe in that. Scenarios are taught ‘individually’ rather than in a group which is really helpful to pass the exam.
However, it is also important to learn the generalized approach to a specific symptom. For example,it will be very easy for anyone to learn if he studies ‘Approach to Abdominal Pain’ first and then goes through the individual scenarios like ‘Acute pancreatitis’, ‘Acute Cholecystitis’ etc. That is why I suggest to watch Mo Sobhy’s videos regarding structure first and then go through Samsons classes.
What I don’t like about the classes?
The classes are long. It is difficult to stay focused for such a long time. If there was any way to make self-paced videos, like anyone can watch at their convenient time, that would have been perfect.
They teach really fast in the class. So its very difficult to write. They don’t provide notes either. The notes they provide are not updated and they don’t contain all the scenarios.
I think Dr. Mo Sobhy teaches better. His classes are fun, a bit more interactive (even if online), and you don’t feel sleepy in his classes.
However, I think it will be difficult to pass the exam just by watching his videos, because there are a lot of things that his course does not cover.
So, in terms of materials:
- Only Mo Sobhy Videos = Not enough
- Only Samson Classes + Samson Handnotes = Managable
- Mo Sobhy Videos + Samson Classes = Okay
- Mo Sobhy Videos + Samson Classes + Samson Handnotes = Very Nice