PASS ProgramReviews of pass-program.com

Great program and will definitely continue utilizing pass course resources for my board prep and beyond. Would like more one on one interaction with Dr Francis but overall great experience.

Pass program and Dr. Francis is a place where students come to be revived again! Studying for Step 1 or any other step exam can take its toll on us medical students, leading to depression, fear, anxiety and sometimes much worst. Dr. Francis focuses on not only making medicine fun again, but bringing to the light concepts that we think are difficult, in a new, easy and fun way to understand. When I first came to pass fear had crippled me, depression was real and my foundation was weak. I thought it would be impossible to pass my comp exam, muchness step 1. Within 2 months of the program I passed my comp and if it wasn't for Covid, I would have passed step 1 soon after my comp.After leaving pass, I was happy, confident and ready to conquer this exam. Dr. Francis genuinely cares about his students and he genuinely knows each student for their strengths and weakness and where they are in this journey towards passing boards. He took days to reach out to me just to check on my mental health and making sure I was still pushing through long after leaving the program. 4 days before my exam, I took NBME 18 and received a failing score, but did really well on Free 150 Questions. Doubt was creeping in so I called Dr. Francis, he told me I was ready without hesitation and to trust him! and I did! That was the best decision I made. I went into the exam, happy after seeing the questions were like doing a UWorld Block and I left knowing I had passed because he believed in me, in turn helping me believe in myself! 'My background is I am a carribbean medical student, more than 5 years out of basic sciences and never taken step 1. I tried doing it on my own for years but I wasn't successful until I came to pass. I came to pass and after the course my nbme scores went up 40points. Dont try to do it on your own, don't waste time like I did. Come and follow a method that has worked for so many students including myself. Don't wait until you fail an exam to reach out to the program! and if you do and you are down on your self, come and get Dr. Francis's Knowledge and love he shares for all his students, we have all been there and all in the struggle together. I am forever in debt to you Dr. Francis! Thank you for being more than a teacher, and for truly caring about our success and ability to become a better generation of Doctors. -Nye

I have done PASS courses for COMLEX Levels 1 and 2 now and would not have passed them without the guidance and support of Dr. Francis and my tutors at the PASS Program. These exams can be very overwhelming, and if you have a prior attempt like I did with the fear of failure and dismissal hanging over you, test anxiety and bad habits can really hold you back. Dr. Francis and the tutors will teach you a new way to organize material and approach test questions that is different than any other program I have tried, and I have pretty much tried them all Kaplan, STATmed, First Aid, Pathoma, COMQUEST, Combank, Uworld... If you commit, you will learn an entirely different way to approach medicine and professional exams, and I can honestly say that it worked on all of my COMAT/ Shelf exams on 3rd year rotations. The most important thing I can say is DON’T give up on yourself and your dream to help others as a doctor because of these tests! I promise you, the PASS program can help you. Knowledge gaps, learning disabilities, attention disorders, test anxiety, whatever it is that you think might be holding you back... they can help you overcome it. Level/Step 1,2,3 and even specialty boards, I intend to use what they taught me for the rest of my career in medicine and on every exam I ever take.

Life changing experience! You will not regret it! Dr. Francis is by far one of the best doctors I've ever met in my life, his approach to teaching and making sure you understand instead of memorizing content is out of this world. Today, I received by score report and I couldn't be happier with the results. Thank you Dr. Francis, for believing in me even when I struggled to believe in myself.

I decided to enroll myself in the PASS program after my dean told me that he would be “extremely surprised” if I passed step 1 based on my first- and second-year grades. My school had pretty much given up on me—especially since I had already completed a course before the PASS program, and I still was deemed as “not ready” for boards. However, Dr. Francis didn’t. He made me believe that I could still accomplish the goal that I had set out for myself and he was there for me throughout the entire journey. He literally helped me study and prepare weeks after my live online course ended. For anyone who is undecided about joining the PASS family, please take my advice. DO IT. Yes, its going to cost you extra $, but if that extra money means you achieve the goal that you’ve worked so hard to obtain, then its money well spent. He taught me how to THINK. It was something that no professor could ever teach me how to do. When I received my boards score, Dr. Francis was the first person I called. All he could say was, “Now, didn’t I tell you that the nay-sayers were wrong about you?” It was the first time in all of medical school that I passed something on my first try with flying colors. My deans were SHOCKED to say the least. Now that I am a third year, even my preceptors are amazed by my clinical reasoning skills—Dr. Francis taught me how to do that too... I went from “least likely to pass in your entire class” as per my deans during first and second year to “you exude a competence and confidence unlike any other” as per my 3rd year preceptors. If I can do it, I know you can too. P.S. I didn’t get any incentive for writing this review, but I remember being a skeptical reader if these comments a year ago, so I just wanted to provide someone out there with a little bit of hope. Take a chance on yourself. If you believe in yourself just a little, Dr. Francis will believe in you a lot. Thanks Dr. F! I’ll see you for step 2!!

I decided to enroll myself in the PASS program after my dean told me that he would be “extremely surprised” if I passed step 1 based on my first- and second-year grades. My school had pretty much given up on me—especially since I had already completed a course before the PASS program, and I still was deemed as “not ready” for boards. However, Dr. Francis didn’t. He made me believe that I could still accomplish the goal that I had set out for myself and he was there for me throughout the entire journey. He literally helped me study and prepare weeks after my live online course ended. For anyone who is undecided about joining the PASS family, please take my advice. DO IT. Yes, its going to cost you extra $, but if that extra money means you achieve the goal that you’ve worked so hard to obtain, then its money well spent. He taught me how to THINK. It was something that no professor could ever teach me how to do. When I received my boards score, Dr. Francis was the first person I called. All he could say was, “Now, didn’t I tell you that the nay-sayers were wrong about you?” It was the first time in all of medical school that I passed something on my first try with flying colors. My deans were SHOCKED to say the least. Now that I am a third year, even my preceptors are amazed by my clinical reasoning skills—Dr. Francis taught me how to do that too... I went from “least likely to pass in your entire class” as per my deans during first and second year to “you exude a competence and confidence unlike any other” as per my 3rd year preceptors. If I can do it, I know you can too. P.S. I didn’t get any incentive for writing this review, but I remember being a skeptical reader if these comments a year ago, so I just wanted to provide someone out there with a little bit of hope. Take a chance on yourself. If you believe in yourself just a little, Dr. Francis will believe in you a lot. Thanks Dr. F! I’ll see you for step 2!!

When I first came to the PASS program, I was like the other students in the class - downtrodden, depressed, broken, and looking for an external excuse to just give up. Over the course of the last 2 years, I had failed Step 1 once and just failed Step 2 for the second time earlier before being unceremoniously dismissed from medical school in November 2019. Three and half years of hard work and years of preparation prior to it down the drain just like that. Thankfully, I was able to write an appeal letter to the Dean in February 2020 to claw my way back in, but coming to Champaign in May 2020, I was at my lowest of lows, contemplating suicide so as to avoid paying the massive debt in front of me with nothing to show for it. That's how I came to Champaign. But it's not how I left. I left with a support system intact. A group of friends I could count on who reminded me to FOCUS and take ONE day at a time. To stay committed. To keep me disciplined even as I struggled to discipline myself. Those 6:30 AM morning sessions start off painful but keep that schedule up, and it'll become a part of your routine. I'm a night owl, but I ended up looking forward to those sessions because I quickly learned that those morning sessions were the true gem of the program. Going through UWORLD with an experienced test taker is just something else. And it comes with practice. I started off with a 45% percentage and slowly climbed my way up to 70% over the course of PASS. I left with a mentor who understood and could TEACH medicine in a way I never envisioned. I've met many amazing physicians along the way, but Dr. Francis is truly one in a million. He makes the connections and then teaches you to make the connections yourself. Learn normal physiology so that you can predict abnormal pathology. And most importantly, I learned to not give up on myself while also learning to love medicine itself again. Passing a board exam is such a small step in the grand scheme of things, but such a big one at the same time because it's a test of your FOUNDATION. So get rid of what you knew before and start from scratch. I was a 4th-year medical student from a top tier DO school learning Biochem again for Level 2, but swallow your pride. Learn it his way and you won't forget it. Not for the test and not for your future patients. Overall, it was a great experience for me. Trust Dr. Francis, trust the process, and envision trusting yourself again. You'll get there. You got this. Don't give up on yourself because he and his team never will.

Studying for Step is a gauntlet, and I felt ill prepared for so long. I tried so many methods, whether it be Kaplan, or First Aid, or any number of resources. But I never felt as if I truly understood the concepts as well as I wanted. Pass Program is different. It may take time to acclimate to the new sytem, I admit (especially if you are used to rote memorizing). However, the course actually instills a methodology and a pattern to medicine. It was so much easier to understand and retain the concepts, once Dr. Francis worked with us. They always say "you have been empowered" at the program, and that's precisely how I felt, for perhaps the first time during my studies. I think it speaks to the quality of the program, that this was the resource that finally allowed me to progress my academic career. Thanks to the team at Pass, and Dr. Francis, for all your time and support!