Kaplan USMLE vs Picmonic

Kaplan's Live Online course costs $3,200 for six weeks of live teaching, and Kaplan promises a refund there if the student does not pass first time, on footnoted terms. The Qbank alone, with 3,200-plus vendor-listed questions, starts at $199 for a Step 1 candidate who wants no course. Picmonic's pass guarantee applies after at least three months of regular use covering 500 or more Picmonics, and if the student then fails the board exam it offers a full refund or a free extension. Picmonic's Medicine plan ran about $180 a year on its own March 2025 comparison page, with no 2026 figure confirmed. Its lessons are 2 to 4 minute cartoon mnemonics backed by more than 10,000 questions, which makes it a memory aid for a preclinical student who cannot hold pharmacology facts from text. The "Increase Test Scores 50%" line is the vendor's marketing. Kaplan USMLE is out for a nursing or pharmacy student, for whom Picmonic sells program lines. Picmonic is a poor buy for anyone who finds cartoon mnemonics childish, since its questions exist to back the pictures.