Falcon: final review

Well here's my final review of Falcon, or at least my final review until I take the USMLE and get my scores back.

Professors:
Many of them were MD/PhD's, they were all experts in the field they taught, and they were mostly very good. The only really bad professor was the cardio guy we initially had, but Falcon made up for that by giving us access to the online lectures, and bringing in another fantastic cardio guy to redo the lecture. The anatomy guy was monotone and a little difficult to stay awake through, but he did do a good job of pointing out the most important topics. Goljan was as good as people think he is and did an incredible job bringing everything together. I cannot think of a better person to go at the end of a review course. The micro guy was good at micro, but not good in immuno. Immuno was the only subject in the class that I felt I had to go back and watch the Kaplan video. They also seemed to spend the appropriate amount of time on each subject, relative to its importance on the step (most of the time was devoted to pharm, micro, and path, with the rest sharing the remainder of the time). Almost all of them were very good about keeping on schedule and giving regular breaks. Overall, few complaints about the professors, and many good things to say.

Hotel:
The hotel is nothing fancy, but it's nice enough. The beds were Sleep Number beds, so they were among the most comfortable hotel beds I've ever slept in. I definitely did not have any trouble sleeping due to the bedding. There was an adequate desk and comfortable chair, along with a mini fridge and microwave. Room service came in 3 days a week to clean up, which was just the right amount. There was rarely any noise from outside and when there was, it was almost always from inconsiderate fellow Falcon students. The only real complaint about the hotel was the internet, which was about the same speed as St. Maarten internet (which is very slow). Also, like St. Maarten, they kept saying they were upgrading, but it never got better. In fact, it got worse towards the end. They do have a shuttle around the local area, which is free and makes multiple trips a day, but more on that below.

Food:
Breakfast was terrible pretty much every day. There are only two different options, which rotated every day. One day would be cereal, bad oatmeal, bad danishes, and biscuits with very bad gravy. The next day was always extremely runny eggs, usually cold pancakes or french toast some sort of breakfast meat, and toast which was pre-toasted (cold). They always had fruit, but they'd reuse it for a couple days until it ran out. One day you'd have all kinds of good fruit, and the next couple days it would only be cantaloupe and honey dew (after people had eaten out the strawberries and grapes). Some of the fresh fruit was mixed with fruit from a can. We asked them to put out cereal and fresh toast every day, but they never did it.
Lunch was better, but got old very fast. Pretty much every day was some permutation of chicken and/or pasta. Sometimes it was very good sometimes it was pretty terrible. But, it's not easy to have a good buffet for 7 weeks, 7 days a week. I guess most buffets would get old after that long.
Overall, the food was not great, but good enough. It was definitely convenient to just have it there and not have to worry about it. Room Service (for dinner) was also significantly better than the buffet food for breakfast and lunch.

Local Area:
Falon is techinically in Dallas, but it's a good distance from the actual city of Dallas. More accurately, the hotel is in Garland, TX. Garland is a bit of a dump. There is practically NOTHING to do in Garland, many businesses are out of business, and there is almost nothing in walking distance. There are actually only 3 places close by: a gas station, a sex shop, and a marijuana paraphernalia store. That, alone, should give you a good idea of the area. The only restaurants which are relatively close by are mostly fast food. There are some very nice areas, such as Addison, not far away, but they're about 15 minutes by car. I wouldn't say that Garland is unsafe, and I never felt in any kind of danger, but I also wouldn't walk around the area at night. They say that they have the course in Garland purposely so that there's nothing to do but study. And, that may just be true.

Fortunately, the area does have a brand new Super WalMart and a Bally's gym close by. Both are not in walking distance, but there is a free shuttle to both places, a couple times a day. Ballys gives Falcon students a special rate of $40 for the 7 weeks, which is a pretty great deal. Since the hotel does have a refrigerator and microwave in each room, most people had a good amount of food from WalMart in their room. Personally, I find Super WalMart somewhat magical; they seem to have just about anything I ever needed...like they could read my mind. That, or the place is just so damn big that they do have almost everything anyone could want.


Course structure:
Like I said, I liked the setup of the course, and felt they spent the appropriate amount of time on each subject. Their "patented study method" involves recording yourself reading the notes, and then reading them again while you listen to your tape (that's the abbreviated version of it). It sounds a little silly, but I do think it works. It forces you to pay attention to what you're doing and focus on studying. It also forces you to see the information many times over (once in class, once the first time you read through, again as you record, again as you listen, and again later as you listen for review). I made tapes for most of the lectures, and they are definitely easier to review than the areas I did not tape. Class begins at 8am, ends anywhere from 2-5PM, depending on the instructor. Goljan is the only person that goes past 4 though. There is an hour for lunch and usually 10 minute breaks every hour.
The course is given in the hotel ballroom, setup with rows of desks. You can see pretty well and hear perfectly no matter where you are in the room; you're not particularly at a disadvantage, no matter where you sit. Despite this, some overachievers get there at 6:30 AM to secure a front-row seat. Personally, I felt sleeping was much more important. For Goljan days, there was a line probably 50 people long by 6:30 AM, which was (in my opinion), a little stupid.

Overall:
I'd recommend the course and I would take it again, if I had to go back and decide. Some people say that they think PASS is the best review course, but likely for two reasons. One, they're lazy and don't want to take a 7 week course. Two, they haven't been to Falcon. There is just no possible way that you can fit what we learned into the 4 weeks of PASS. It simply is not something that could be done. By the end, we had probably a foot and a half of lecture material. Friends at PASS said they had one book which was about two inches high. I have often heard said that if you are really worried about just passing, take PASS, as they cover the highest yield information. But, if you want to do well (and have the ability to do well), go to Falcon. One friend even said he thought that if you knew the PASS notes inside and out (and nothing else), you'd get a 210. If you knew the Falcon notes inside and out, you'd probably get a 240 or better. I'm not saying PASS is a bad program, but they don't cover as much. Overall, I also liked the Falcon professors better than the Kaplan videos. I don't have my score yet, so I don't know exactly what it's done for me. But, at the moment, I would say that I got my money's worth. Any other questions? Post them in the comments.