Doing well on Step 1 without Q-bank?

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Is this possible at all?

Definitely possible- I did not use Q-Bank for Step 1 or 2 (Scores-220s and 240s). For me Q Bank was just too expensive.

You do need to do LOTS of practice ?'s though. I took Step one in June of '02 using the Board Simulator Series for questions. Then I used the sample blocks one the USMLE website to be sure I was familiar with the layout. I did pretty much the same thing for Step 2 but used the NMS ? book.

Best of Luck-

B

In my opinion, studying for step 1 without Qbank is silly. For $99 (at least this was what it cost a couple years ago) you get a month of access to over 1000 high-quality questions that are similar in scope and difficulty to the actual exam. True, you could get questions from a book for less money. But you will be taking the exam on a computer and Qbank does a good job of duplicating the way that the questions are presented. Also, the explanantions are usually very good.

Good luck,
MadC

For the love of god, get Qbank, it's key....sell your blood, sell your plasma, sell your sperm, sign up for clinical trials, maybe even sell your soul, but get Qbank. Just kidding, it's not that extreme, but everyone I talked to highly recommended it, and I like it so far.

Q bank was definately the most useful tool for me in studying for the USMLE step 1. After reading through lots of study books everything was going in one ear and out the other.

Q bank questions helped solidify things in my mind and helped me to remember the material a lot better--especially if I got a question wrong. I always reviewed the explanations--all of them, not just the correct answer, but also why the others were wrong. After awhile you get used to how questions are written, what they're really asking you, and you get better at test taking skills. My score was 90+ on Step 1 and I am very confident that my score is due largely to my Q bank sessions.

You see,here is another example of varying mileage. I got Q-Bank and did all 2003 questions in the course of four weeks and I don't think, with the exception of behavioral scinces, it helped me too much.

The actual Step 1 questions were not really like the Q-bank questions.

I only did half of Q bank and I don't regret it because after the real thing, I didn't think it was representative of the exam (except for the program's interface). At the end I got a higher score than my friends who literally memorized the damn answers!
Also I want to say this: Don't believe people who tell you First Aid is enough for step 1, that is absolute B.S. I knew the stupid thing in and out, and I can tell you, it helped me answer 3 or 4 questions if that.

Unfortunately, MOSt medical students find FIRST AID to be absolutely invaluable!

Our school polls all 175 of our medical school class after taking boards for helpful hints on studying and such and OVERWHELMINGLY FIRST AID IS THE BEST according to just about 175 students year after year.............

Also Dr. costanza does a board review talk at her med school and same advice from those classes as well FIRST AID IS THE BEST BET.

Also several other school's board prep classes definately emphasize the fact that you should emphasize FIRST AID. I would say you can't go wrong with advice from 100's of students year after year.

later

I'm doing the QBank questions now, how many other people feel that the real thing wasn't like Qbank?

No Qbank 227/92

First Aid is essential, bottom line.

i'm with those who thought that qbank's relevance was in preparing you to answer questions a la computer; i really didn't get any repeat questions on my actual exam. above all, it should give you confidence in your abilities and will no doubt show you where you may have any appreciable weaknesses in your knowledge base... as far what i'd recommend, do all the qbanks, but for the love of god, do NOT memorize them... i thought that the q's from the BRS books were great as well and that they covered an excellent spectrum of questions... oh, and the Robbin's question book is awesome for path; think i had at least a dozen questions taken straight out of it. and as far as first aid being enough, i would only recommend that approach for pharm and maybe psych... doing all the crap i just talked about fetched me a 240.

grandmasta b.

I don't understand why anybody would try to take step I without Q bank. The amount of time that you will save from page flipping in your NMS book alone, not to mention the accuracy of the questions reflecting the actual test, is just so useful, that to not buy q-bank for 100-150 dollars almost seems like a handicap to me. Keep in mind that you are paying 450 for the test, and the test could literally decide which specialty you work in for 30-50 yrs. Now is not the time to become cheap. I guess if you really don't like staring at a computer screen all the time you might consider not getting it, but even then, I would still reccomend buying it so that you can get used to the computer screen format and your eyes won't tire out on the actual test day.

Originally posted by ckent
The amount of time that you will save from page flipping in your NMS book alone . . .

I agree with this completely. Qbank makes reviewing the answers very easy and frustration-free. The worst thing about question books is having to flip back and forth constantly and continually losing your place on each page.

Qbank should be used to train yourself to take a computerized test for 6+ hours. It should be used as a learning tool to help you reinforce and correct your knowledge base. If you are doing Qbank hoping that you'll see repeats of the questions in the real exam, you're going to be disappointed.

Originally posted by Jaded Soul
I agree with this completely. Qbank makes reviewing the answers very easy and frustration-free. The worst thing about question books is having to flip back and forth constantly and continually losing your place on each page.

Qbank should be used to train yourself to take a computerized test for 6+ hours. It should be used as a learning tool to help you reinforce and correct your knowledge base. If you are doing Qbank hoping that you'll see repeats of the questions in the real exam, you're going to be disappointed.

Like Jaded Soul said, you will not see repeat questions from qbank on the exam, but you WILL DEFINITELY see the same themes repeated several, several times. So, if you know how and why answers are right and wrong in q-bank and can reason through them, you will maximize your score on the real step 1. Good Luck!

Originally posted by Jaded Soul
I agree with this completely. Qbank makes reviewing the answers very easy and frustration-free. The worst thing about question books is having to flip back and forth constantly and continually losing your place on each page.

Qbank should be used to train yourself to take a computerized test for 6+ hours. It should be used as a learning tool to help you reinforce and correct your knowledge base. If you are doing Qbank hoping that you'll see repeats of the questions in the real exam, you're going to be disappointed.

Well, I agree with you there. It does make it easy to study the concepts because the answers are explained. I just think that the time I spent going through Qbank would have been better spent reading BRS Patholgy and Physiology.

Here is my revolutionary concept for the month: I don't think answering practice questions is a good way to study for Step 1. People think it is a good way to study because they had so much success with old test questions for the first two years of medical school. The obvious flaw with their logic is that you are likely to see the old test questions exactly replicated on an exam but you will not see qbank questions on Step 1. In other words, old test questions for regular exams are "gimmes" which you memorize and answer without thinking about them. No such thing on Step 1.

About First Aid: It seems to me that First Aid was written for Step 1 back a few years ago when it had twice as many questions and many of them had simple answers based on association of, among other things, symptoms with a disease. In other words, the same "word association" game that you play with most multiple choice tests in medical school.

Since Step 1 is now more concept based with very few questions with "direct answers" First Aid is not as useful as it really only helps you with association. Of course, word of mouth, desperation, and inertia keep First Aid sales high.

Is there anybody who actually tries to memorize the Qbank answers? Jeez. Now I really feel like a charlatan. I can't even memorize a list of 10 drugs without forgetting five of them in the first 10 minutes.

Originally posted by Panda Bear
I don't think answering practice questions is a good way to study for Step 1. People think it is a good way to study because they had so much success with old test questions for the first two years of medical school.

No offense, but at our school, our professor, who will remain nameless but who is very well-known, especially in USMLE circles, prepares us for lecture with outlined notes, definitions/terms, and study questions with involved answers. After one semester of pathology, I have learned more from the Q and A sections than from the comprehensive notes, just because they place the concepts into a clinical reality. (Things like "most common's" are ridiculously important also). Answering the questions is not the important part but rather understanding why the other answers are wrong is. Just my 2 cents.

Can you print out Q-bank questions during the one month subscription?

It might not be practical, but is it possible?

I didn't use Q-bank and don't feel that hurt me any. I simply did lots of other practice questions. First Aid is essential, but just memorizing the info in there isn't enough. It's a good base, but you have to know additional details. Honestly, I think the amount of time you spend studying and how often you repeat studying is a lot more important for your score than which questions or books you use. Don't go nuts and spend 6 weeks studying 8 hrs/day because that's ridiculous, but pick what you want to use and stick with it.

Originally posted by chandler742
Can you print out Q-bank questions during the one month subscription?

It might not be practical, but is it possible?

I purchased a collection of things on ebay that included some live lectures, sample exams, some big name reviews, and word documents containing the entire 2003 QBank. It is possible. Now my question is this: could I get into trouble if I, like, gave this CD to all my classmates?

Q-bank can be very a very valuable learning tool--if you learn well in that format. I wouldn't universally recommend it to everyone but if you can learn from your mistakes then it certainly is valuable. I remember most of the questions that I miss on tests, mostly because I think about them a lot before answering them so they stay in my mind longer.

It is difficult to memorize everything that you need to know for the USMLE or for COMLEX. But for me the question/answer format was very helpful in reiterating what I already knew. If I had spent the time reading through BRS path or physio a few more times I would've really spent more time sleeping.

Is Q-bank essential? Not for everyone. Will you see repeats? Not likely, but you will see very similar formatting of questions (especially behavioral sciences and experiments). Are the questions representative of the USMLE questions? I thought that there were a lot of similarly formatted questions, but I didn't think that the Q-bank questions were representative in terms of percentage to USMLE questions--i.e. not as much path, behavioral science on the USMLE as their was on Q-bank; and not as much physio on Q-bank as on the USMLE (at least when I took it).

Q-bank format is great to prepare for USMLE format. It also gives you a nice summary of where you're weak so you can change the focus of your study. Just don't spend all your time trying to bring up your genetics or your embryology score at the expense of pharmacology, micro, or physiology.

As for 1st Aid I agree that it is not the master source of info but is a succint review of the most likely to be tested on topics. Lots of space to write in additional info though and make it a supreme study guide. Also, if most medical students study out of 1st aid, then you should have that basic knowledge as well to score the average or to look at least average in clinical settings. So you should know 1st aid material but go beyond if you want to score higher or stand out. Personally I found Pathophysiology for Boards and Wards a good source.

Hope this is helpful for anyone considering 1st aid or Q-bank for study.

Lefty- Thanks for your info, I found it very useful.

I would also appreciate advice, from anyone, regarding how they 'managed' their study routine. I'm feeling really overwhelmed right now as I feel that I have not learned enough during the first year and a half. I also feel like I'm drowning in information- I've got my lecture notes (I'm studying these while studying for my particular classes), First Aid, Pathophysiology for the Boards and Wards, Step Up, and BRS Pathology. Presently, I'm cross-referencing stuff in the various sources while learning current material. However, when break ends, I won't have as much time thus I may not be able to keep up this cross-referencing.

Thanks for any guidance

Originally posted by Idiopathic
I purchased a collection of things on ebay that included some live lectures, sample exams, some big name reviews, and word documents containing the entire 2003 QBank. It is possible. Now my question is this: could I get into trouble if I, like, gave this CD to all my classmates?

Only if you get caught, but it definitely is copyright infringement.

Originally posted by Idiopathic
I purchased a collection of things on ebay that included some live lectures, sample exams, some big name reviews, and word documents containing the entire 2003 QBank. It is possible. Now my question is this: could I get into trouble if I, like, gave this CD to all my classmates?

I'd never tell!

Originally posted by daisygirl
I would also appreciate advice, from anyone, regarding how they 'managed' their study routine. I'm feeling really overwhelmed right now as I feel that I have not learned enough during the first year and a half. I also feel like I'm drowning in information- I've got my lecture notes (I'm studying these while studying for my particular classes), First Aid, Pathophysiology for the Boards and Wards, Step Up, and BRS Pathology. Presently, I'm cross-referencing stuff in the various sources while learning current material. However, when break ends, I won't have as much time thus I may not be able to keep up this cross-referencing.

Thanks for any guidance

I think you have too many "overview" sources. You need to pick one of First Aid, Pathophysiology for Boards and Wards, and Step Up to use as your road map for studying. Cross-referencing between these 3 books is just going to end up being a waste of time in the long run.

Once you've picked an overview source, flesh out the individual subjects with a more specific subject review book or your class notes. (There are many posts on which review books are good for certain subjects.)

It helps to make a schedule and stick to it. There's a 28-day schedule around here somewhere which you can alter depending on your time and confidence in each subject.

Don't forget to do lots of questions. You need to get used to sitting in front the computer and doing this. Qbank is very good as a tool for evaluating your progress.