Is it Worth the Time and Money?
On September 10th & 11th, several hundred DC students went through their Part One Boards. In the weeks beforehand, many hours were spent learning, studying, reviewing and answering questions in an effort to prepare in the best way possible for these seemingly overwhelming tests.
For three weekends in a row, many of the students spent countless hours in room C-127 listening to Dr. Polley from Irene Gold Associates help in the review and studying process. Before board scores came back, the reviews were quite mixed and it didn’t seem to change much even after the scores were released.
Registration for the Irene Gold Board Review costs the student $425. For that money the student received a bound ‘review book’ that is full of acronyms, drawings and information. Some of the information is wrong and students were instructed to cross out sections and write in new ones. Many of the pages were typed in a word processor type font, showing the age of the original manuscript. Many students felt the book was outdated and needed to be replaced with one more up to date.There were pages that had been added in and never renumbered so in, for instance, the Spinal Anatomy section, you have pages 1-15, followed by another set of pages hand numbered 1-17. Dr. Polley often had to say “In the Anatomy section, go to the SECOND page 5.” According to Diane Schwab, DC student, “I think the board review book should be more professional. There were several mistakes in there and the hand drawings could be done on a computer. That review book is a reflection of the entire process and should reflect a more accurate and professional status”.
Ron Wilcox, DC student, believed the Board Review helped him. He states, “I thought the board review was very helpful in a number of different ways, but most importantly it forced me to re-learn and review the material for 21 hours a weekend for a month leading up to the boards. I know I would have studied during those weekends; however I doubt I would have put as much time in as I did without the help of the board review.” He continues, “The review also helped with repetition of the material, ‘cause as we are always told it takes seven times to learn/memorize something, and the board review did just that, with repetition of the material weekend in and weekend out.” While several students said this same thing, none of them wanted to be quoted in this paper.
Recently, in a conversation with Dr. Denofrio, one of the Irene Gold associates who teaches some of the review sessions, he stated that Life has a great success rate with Dr. Polley and that our board scores are always relatively high. Upon learning that in the Spring of 2010, the most recent National Boards scores to have posted as of the date of this article, Life had only 64.1% passing rate, compared to 73.9% of the other colleges.) Denofrio seemed concerned. While Irene Gold offers a free retake of its course review for any student that may not pass National Boards, Life seems to not have ‘repeat customers.’ Dr. Polley prides himself on this fact. When looking at the most recent statistics, however, it shows that there was some sort of flaw in the system. Locating that flaw is a difficult task. Is it on the teaching level at Life? Is it on the review level of Board Review? There really isn’t a clear-cut answer. When questioned, many of the students who didn’t pass a section of boards didn’t feel that the board review was beneficial enough to retake, despite it being free. (None of these students were available for questioning or were not interested in having themselves quoted in this article.)
According to IreneGoldAssociates.com “Each instructor encourages visualization and understanding the material, and discourages memorization. We constantly upgrade our program to keep up with the newest material being asked by the board.” In talking to many students who took the review course, I was unable to find a single one who felt this to be true. In fact there were many students who felt Irene Gold taught them a ton of acronyms to remember various answers (which is simply a memorization tool.) The problem seemed to be that National Boards appeared to write questions very strategically so many of the acronyms weren’t applicable. When asked about National Boards having gone through the Irene Gold book and written questions accordingly, Dr. Denofrio agreed and said that National Boards, in fact, HAS gone through the review book in the past and that it was quite possible that they have started writing questions differently. He stated that Irene Gold is interested in improving their review systems, but he also stated, “You must remember that this (Irene Gold) is a business”.
8th quarter student, Cara Sutton-Settimi stated, “I honestly felt like the only reason I was there was because I wouldn’t have studied on my own. But I should know by now, that when I’m under pressure I can pull anything off! Wish I had saved the money.”
As you approach National Boards in the future, take a look at what you are hoping to get from the classes. Amy Herberholtz, DC Students stated, “I should have just gone through my Path One notes and Radd B notes. That would have been way more helpful.” Truly, the professors at Life have taught you everything you need to know. Decide for yourself whether it is a better use of your time (and money) to go through the review sessions, or to sit down with all your old class notes and Ameripress and go through them again. Dr. Rigby, Dr. Rompf, Dr. Fox and yes, Dr. Bourdeinyi, as well as the others, have taught you ALL the material necessary.
it represents virtually every program of study that Life University has to offer. The original members, Tui Osborne (Exercise Science), Benny Mateialona (Business) and Colton Cariaga (Business) have added Arthur Driver (Business) and Marc Chianese (graduating from the DC program this quarter.) While the group has created 12 original songs and is in the process of recording their first album, they also do a lot of cover music at their shows. Tui states, “Most of our inspiration comes from just being together a lot, hanging out in my man cave garage, having a few brews while listening to great artists on the radio and just enjoying each other’s company.” Lead Vocalist, Tui, believes that, “we stand out because of what each person brings to the table music-wise in terms of cultural backgrounds; I grew up around reggae, Arthur and Ben grew up around rap/hip-hop and Marc and Colton listened to more contemporary stuff and rock, so we try to have a touch of each genre in our songs.” Each member brings their own unique flare to the group, and when meshed together, the sound is Liquid Rootz! Make sure to check them out at any of their local venues – Joel’s Tavern, Red Sky Tappas, Party Chic, The Vineyard Winemarket and V2 Room and be sure to find them on Facebook at Liquid-Rootz.
