any other (current M1's) planning to do a Q bank this summer?

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if you don't mind me asking, which one are you using, and why?

furthermore, are you going to be using it as a way to study (untimed), reviewing content, etc. or are you going to use it to study new material as well?

just wanted to see what others are doing, as I have new found free time this summer courtesy of COVID

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I'll be starting with Rx, doing qs only on the stuff I've seen in Zanki. I'll be doing this as much as Rx allows, because I know it isn't great at partitioning by subject at times.

It'll be my starter qbank. It's good for familiarizing oneself with FA. You might be asking, but did you not do that with Zanki? The answer is yes, but FA in question form is different from FA in flashcard form, and it's one of the tried and true banks.
 
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I'll be starting with Rx, doing qs only on the stuff I've seen in Zanki. I'll be doing this as much as Rx allows, because I know it isn't great at partitioning by subject at times.

It'll be my starter qbank. It's good for familiarizing oneself with FA. You might be asking, but did you not do that with Zanki? The answer is yes, but FA in question form is different from FA in flashcard form, and it's one of the tried and true banks.
word, I was leaning towards Rx as well to cement the cold facts from First Aid before moving on to more complex stuff
 
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I'll be starting with Rx, doing qs only on the stuff I've seen in Zanki. I'll be doing this as much as Rx allows, because I know it isn't great at partitioning by subject at times.

It'll be my starter qbank. It's good for familiarizing oneself with FA. You might be asking, but did you not do that with Zanki? The answer is yes, but FA in question form is different from FA in flashcard form, and it's one of the tried and true banks.
How do you filter the Rx questions based on Zanki? By subject? Difficulty?
 
How do you filter the Rx questions based on Zanki? By subject? Difficulty?

It'll be based on subject, because I wouldn't have seen everything in Zanki yet. For example, derm is one of the last subdecks that I'll be seeing, so I will not have seen any of the cards by the time I start Rx. So I'll just check every subject except for derm and any other topic I haven't covered yet.
 
I'm using Rx as well but I'm using the Lightyear deck for anki as opposed to the zanki deck, I'm also using boards and beyond. B&B is based off of FA, the lightyear deck is based off of B&B and the videos of B&B and the subdecks of Lightyear are broken down the same. The Rx qbanks are based of FA as well. So basically what I've done is connected all of these sources to make one big system that reinforce each other nicely.
 
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I'm doing BNB/Zanki . And amboss questions when i find time. I plan on doing amboss over summer

It's pretty hard question wise but i love their tutor mode to show you the right way to think about a question and what lines of the vignette were important.
 
Ive been doing Kaplan for out in house stuff along with zanki. Probably going to go ahead and get amboss. I find kaplan to be good for targeting small details like classes go after but amboss (I did the free trial) was good for overall learning how to take exams/learn from your mistakes.

Imo if you're doing zanki, RX may be a little repetitive and not as helpful.
 
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Imo if you're doing zanki, RX may be a little repetitive and not as helpful.

I used to think Rx was redundant as well, but I believe in the principle of doing as many unique qs as possible. Plus, most of the 250+ scorers I've seen that were dedicated Zanki users still did Rx.
 
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I used to think Rx was redundant as well, but I believe in the principle of doing as many unique qs as possible. Plus, most of the 250+ scorers I've seen that were dedicated Zanki users still did Rx.
But thats if you have time. Obviously if you have extra time to get through multiple qbanks, then adding another is better than repeating amboss. But the Rx questions are less "unique" if you are going through zanki since they will be stylistically similar. The other qbanks may test you from a different angle. But our school gives us Rx so Ill probably end up using it for our in house exams and then use amboss for actually practicing my step test taking skills (since I am not the best at standardized tests).
 
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How's Amboss? I've heard mixed reviews

It’s worked great for me. We use NBME exams and faculty exams, and doing the basic science qbank for each system has been gold for the nbme (and faculty too, but those are always a little more hit or miss depending on what the faculty want to focus on). I like that it highlights the important stuff you should have picked up on, the explanations are good, and you can crank up the difficulty really high if you want your soul crushed.

Also the anki add on is almost worth it all by itself.
 
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But thats if you have time. Obviously if you have extra time to get through multiple qbanks, then adding another is better than repeating amboss. But the Rx questions are less "unique" if you are going through zanki since they will be stylistically similar. The other qbanks may test you from a different angle. But our school gives us Rx so Ill probably end up using it for our in house exams and then use amboss for actually practicing my step test taking skills (since I am not the best at standardized tests).

Yeah, my plan includes ample time to do multiple banks because I'm starting in the summer. I see what you're saying and I agree to an extent, but unique questions are literally just questions you've never seen before. I just can't see running Rx as being a waste of time. Now running through FA when you've already done Zanki? I can say that's more or less redundant. A significant amount of the top scorers that did Zanki didn't even touch FA.

I'm not great at standardized tests either, so that's part of why I'm hammering as many banks as possible. A 250+ scorer told me that step is nothing like the MCAT, that it's really based on your knowledge. That was definitely encouraging to me. It's really a test of hard work.
 
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Same, here. It's definitely harder to do Qbanks in a traditional curriculum.
 
if you don't mind me asking, which one are you using, and why?

furthermore, are you going to be using it as a way to study (untimed), reviewing content, etc. or are you going to use it to study new material as well?

just wanted to see what others are doing, as I have new found free time this summer courtesy of COVID

Hi! I'll probably be doing qbanks here and there to review old material. My school uses NBME exams so we study for our exams using qbanks and I've been using Kaplan and USMLE Rx. Others have said great things about Amboss, but I haven't used it yet. I've only used the qbanks timed and I'll probably continue that.
 
Sorry to not add insight... but was is Rx? I am an incoming MS 1.
 
Sorry to not add insight... but was is Rx? I am an incoming MS 1.

It’s a question bank based off First Aid, a board review resource.

 
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Traditional curriculum so I think it would be a waste for me.
By traditional do you mean non system based? Or where you do physio M1 then path/pathophys M2? My school is the latter but I know many qbanks let you pick subjects you want to cover.
 
By traditional do you mean non system based? Or where you do physio M1 then path/pathophys M2? My school is the latter but I know many qbanks let you pick subjects you want to cover.
The latter. Pretty sure we go to the same school.

I don't think there's much point doing a qbank, though, because you're not getting the full use out of it. Even if you can do physio only questions, you don't have nearly the same knowledge you'll have closer to the exam so testing it seems kind of pointless to me.

Edit: Nope, we were just at the same interview day for my school.
 
How many questions do most of you aim to do a day? Wanted to slowly implement a QBank alongside classes.
 
How many questions do most of you aim to do a day? Wanted to slowly implement a QBank alongside classes.

I'll be doing a block a day to start out. Might have to ratchet it up depending on when I'll be taking step.
 
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Ive been doing Kaplan for out in house stuff along with zanki. Probably going to go ahead and get amboss. I find kaplan to be good for targeting small details like classes go after but amboss (I did the free trial) was good for overall learning how to take exams/learn from your mistakes.

Imo if you're doing zanki, RX may be a little repetitive and not as helpful.
idk, unless your brain is beautifully tailor-made for learning from easy ZAnki cloze deletes, i've found people need to do qbanks for more conceptual subjects like path and physio. since our curriculum is organ-systems based, I've been doing qbanks all along and i'll be using this time to review biochemistry and immuno (which were harder for me because that was before i learned how to med school)
 
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idk, unless your brain is beautifully tailor-made for learning from easy ZAnki cloze deletes, i've found people need to do qbanks for more conceptual subjects like path and physio. since our curriculum is organ-systems based, I've been doing qbanks all along and i'll be using this time to review biochemistry and immuno (which were harder for me because that was before i learned how to med school)
question for you: Did you start Zanki the first block of medical school? I am still learning how to Anki for medical school.
 
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question for you: Did you start Zanki the first block of medical school? I am still learning how to Anki for medical school.
Nope, we didn't use NBMEs for the first block and the content overlap with Zanki was modest at best, so there wasn't much of a point

If you ask your rising M2s, they can tell you when it's worth it to start Zanki

Anki without the Z is always worth exploring. You can still make your own cards
 
I used to think Rx was redundant as well, but I believe in the principle of doing as many unique qs as possible. Plus, most of the 250+ scorers I've seen that were dedicated Zanki users still did Rx.
Rx is amazing for a pre-UWorld bank. I used and loved it. Didnt use Zanki at all and Rx had me starting UWorld in the low to mid 70s
 
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Yeah, my plan includes ample time to do multiple banks because I'm starting in the summer. I see what you're saying and I agree to an extent, but unique questions are literally just questions you've never seen before. I just can't see running Rx as being a waste of time. Now running through FA when you've already done Zanki? I can say that's more or less redundant. A significant amount of the top scorers that did Zanki didn't even touch FA.

I'm not great at standardized tests either, so that's part of why I'm hammering as many banks as possible. A 250+ scorer told me that step is nothing like the MCAT, that it's really based on your knowledge. That was definitely encouraging to me. It's really a test of hard work.
Ahh youve found the secret. I promise you if you do a **** ton of unique questions you will murder Step 1. No zanki needed. Also UW+ another bank>>>>>>>>UW 2x
 
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Ahh youve found the secret. I promise you if you do a **** ton of unique questions you will murder Step 1. No zanki needed. Also UW+ another bank>>>>>>>>UW 2x

Yeah, there was a 270+ scorer that used 5+ qbanks + Costanzo and nothing else, not even FA. I'm not that smart, so I absolutely need Zanki on top of the qbanks to maximize my chances of even approaching a score like that.
 
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Yeah, there was a 270+ scorer that used 5+ qbanks + Costanzo and nothing else, not even FA. I'm not that smart, so I absolutely need Zanki on top of the qbanks to maximize my chances of even approaching a score like that.
Im not that smart either lol I just did an astronomical number of questions (8000+). Youll do well if you put in the work and rip hella questions. By the time youve done like 3 qbanks youll be plowing through questions and youll know what theyre gonna ask before they even ask it
 
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Im not that smart either lol I just did an astronomical number of questions (8000+). Youll do well if you put in the work and rip hella questions. By the time youve done like 3 qbanks youll be plowing through questions and youll know what theyre gonna ask before they even ask it

Yeah, I've definitely heard that. There's only so many ways you can ask a q about a topic. I think the consensus is at least 10000+ qs to be safe.
 
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Yeah, I've definitely heard that. There's only so many ways you can ask a q about a topic. I think the consensus is at least 10000+ qs to be safe.
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Heading into my exam in a week, my opinions on the various Qbanks...

Uworld is the best. It's not close. Uworld is by and far the single best board prep resource, surpassing First Aid, USMLE-RX, Pathoma, TrueLearn, AMBOSS, and every single other resource. If you had to choose one thing and lose everything else, I would pick Uworld every time. With that being said, Uworld is best saved for a time around dedicated when you've covered all of the material. Do not waste these questions.

USMLE-RX is a solid qbank and it's nice to be able to read directly into a specific First Aid page following every question. These questions tend to be more specific on details than other qbanks and, in my opinion, are written a little worse and has a fairly high incidence of "bad" questions. With that being said, it's a great resource to use before exams and to solidify material as you pass through the material given the attention to detail in USMLE-RX questions. This is probably the qbank I would recommend beginning after first year.

AMBOSS is a good resource, and I've used it primarily for its library in lieu of First Aid (it's much easier - like a medical Google). The questions, though, are generally significantly more difficult than Uworld, USMLE-RX, or TrueLearn and, in my opinion, not typically representative of your class exams or, I presume (from practices and the Free 120) Step 1. It is, however, like RX, very useful for hammering in small details. The function allowing you to select questions based on a specific library card is particularly useful in this regard.

TrueLearn is something I have through my school because it is akin to Uworld for COMLEX, but they also have a USMLE section as well. These questions are okay. I haven't touched it in some time and I will continue to not look at it until after Step 1, but if I remember correctly, the explanations are lackluster compared to the other available options.
 
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Heading into my exam in a week, my opinions on the various Qbanks...

Uworld is the best. It's not close. Uworld is by and far the single best board prep resource, surpassing First Aid, USMLE-RX, Pathoma, TrueLearn, AMBOSS, and every single other resource. If you had to choose one thing and lose everything else, I would pick Uworld every time. With that being said, Uworld is best saved for a time around dedicated when you've covered all of the material. Do not waste these questions.

USMLE-RX is a solid qbank and it's nice to be able to read directly into a specific First Aid page following every question. These questions tend to be more specific on details than other qbanks and, in my opinion, are written a little worse and has a fairly high incidence of "bad" questions. With that being said, it's a great resource to use before exams and to solidify material as you pass through the material given the attention to detail in USMLE-RX questions. This is probably the qbank I would recommend beginning after first year.

AMBOSS is a good resource, and I've used it primarily for its library in lieu of First Aid (it's much easier - like a medical Google). The questions, though, are generally significantly more difficult than Uworld, USMLE-RX, or TrueLearn and, in my opinion, not typically representative of your class exams or, I presume (from practices and the Free 120) Step 1. It is, however, like RX, very useful for hammering in small details. The function allowing you to select questions based on a specific library card is particularly useful in this regard.

TrueLearn is something I have through my school because it is akin to Uworld for COMLEX, but they also have a USMLE section as well. These questions are okay. I haven't touched it in some time and I will continue to not look at it until after Step 1, but if I remember correctly, the explanations are lackluster compared to the other available options.
Have you used Kaplan qbank? Which one is better, Kaplan or Amboss? Thanks
 
Im not that smart either lol I just did an astronomical number of questions (8000+). Youll do well if you put in the work and rip hella questions. By the time youve done like 3 qbanks youll be plowing through questions and youll know what theyre gonna ask before they even ask it
this gives me hope lol. I am among the 1% of med students who don't use Anki. It just isn't for me.
 
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Yeah, I've definitely heard that. There's only so many ways you can ask a q about a topic. I think the consensus is at least 10000+ qs to be safe.
If you want to score high yeah you gotta do a crap ton. If you want that 250+ and youre an avg student id say 7000+ unique questions minimum. UW 2x is not the secret (literally at all. I am unsure why thats such a popular method). You want to save UW for dedicated which is what I did after doing Rx and Kaplan first
 
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If you want to score high yeah you gotta do a crap ton. If you want that 250+ and youre an avg student id say 7000+ unique questions minimum. UW 2x is not the secret (literally at all. I am unsure why thats such a popular method). You want to save UW for dedicated which is what I did after doing Rx and Kaplan first

Agreed. Step is largely a measure of work ethic for the less intellectually gifted of us (me lol). The 2x method has been quite a popular method for a long time, now. I have seen just as many 250+ with that method as with the multiple banks method. I believe that either could work, but the literature supports as many unique qs as possible. And it just makes more sense to me, logically.

I know that a lot, if not most, save UWorld for dedicated, but I've seen that get some amount of pushback because people say there's not enough time to do it and do it well. I talked to a 250+ scorer that said he needed to finish it a month or two out because he would have run out of time to do a thorough pass. My original plan was to do the same and just run through all the practice tests (NBMEs + UWSAs) with targeted review (BnB/Pathoma) during dedicated. But a 260+ scorer I just talked to said to leave at least some of the bank for dedicated, because it best primes your mind for the test. I think I might do that. Like I might leave enough to simulate a full length on its own or in combination with the Free 120 or an NBME.
 
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Agreed. Step is largely a measure of work ethic for the less intellectually gifted of us (me lol). The 2x method has been quite a popular method for a long time, now. I have seen just as many 250+ with that method as with the multiple banks method. I believe that either could work, but the literature supports as many unique qs as possible. And it just makes more sense to me, logically.

I know that a lot, if not most, save UWorld for dedicated, but I've seen that get some amount of pushback because people say there's not enough time to do it and do it well. I talked to a 250+ scorer that said he needed to finish it a month or two out because he would have run out of time to do a thorough pass. My original plan was to do the same and just run through all the practice tests (NBMEs + UWSAs) with targeted review (BnB/Pathoma) during dedicated. But a 260+ scorer I just talked to said to leave at least some of the bank for dedicated, because it best primes your mind for the test. I think I might do that. Like I might leave enough to simulate a full length on its own or in combination with the Free 120 or an NBME.

I think that’s my plan too. I’m also going to use multiple qbanks. I can’t really reuse questions.
 
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I will definitely be using AMBOSS and USMLE-Rx over the summer. Pretty much going to Anki/answer questions during the morning and then attempt to enjoy the rest of my day lol.
 
I will definitely be using AMBOSS and USMLE-Rx over the summer. Pretty much going to Anki/answer questions during the morning and then attempt to enjoy the rest of my day lol.
If you are a first year, my best advice is to chill summer before M2. M2 is such a grind man and literally the reason i have been able to have the stamina I have right now is because I chilled hard af in the summer. I literally did nothing and currently predicted at 250+. You can wreck this test without doing anything in the summer and just relaxing. If you want to do a competitive specialty then do research or something but I definitely advise against studying
 
Have you used Kaplan qbank? Which one is better, Kaplan or Amboss? Thanks

I'm using both Kaplan and AMBOSS. I've done about 800-900 Q's from both banks so I think I'm starting to get a feel.

-AMBOSS is definitely more difficult - I feel like you have to work through each Q to actually figure out what your getting tested on... then apply the knowledge.
-Kaplan is a little more straightforward and requires less sifting through the question . I feel like you either know it or you don't with Kaplan. Every once in a while I'll get a Kaplan Q that is just ridiculously out of left field. Other than those Q's, I feel like Kaplan is easier. My % correct score correlates with this also.

If you have to chose b/w the two of them, I'd probably go AMBOSS. The add-on is absolute fire and if your a devote Zanki user like myself, your getting more than just a Q-bank/library.

n=1 from someone who isn't taking step until next year.
 
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Might go against the grain, but I think it is much more valuable to do all of sketchy pharm and micro over the summer instead of a Qbank. This is easily doable and will still you leave you time to recharge and what not. It will also give you a huge leg up during 2nd year and will turn a whole portion of step into gimmie questions
 
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Might go against the grain, but I think it is much more valuable to do all of sketchy pharm and micro over the summer instead of a Qbank. This is easily doable and will still you leave you time to recharge and what not. It will also give you a huge leg up during 2nd year and will turn a whole portion of step into gimmie questions

100%. That's my goal. If I can do that, hit ~15-20 practice Q's a day, exercise, and get some vitamin D it's a good day.
 
If you are a first year, my best advice is to chill summer before M2. M2 is such a grind man and literally the reason i have been able to have the stamina I have right now is because I chilled hard af in the summer. I literally did nothing and currently predicted at 250+. You can wreck this test without doing anything in the summer and just relaxing. If you want to do a competitive specialty then do research or something but I definitely advise against studying
If you are a first year, my best advice is to chill summer before M2. M2 is such a grind man and literally the reason i have been able to have the stamina I have right now is because I chilled hard af in the summer. I literally did nothing and currently predicted at 250+. You can wreck this test without doing anything in the summer and just relaxing. If you want to do a competitive specialty then do research or something but I definitely advise against studying

Those words hurt haha. I honestly was going to keep up with my AnKing reviews, do a few practice questions and call it a day. Do you mind if I PM you?
 
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