Any reviews for Pastest qbank?

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tarsuc

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Anyone who did this completely? What do you think?

What systems were covered very well by Pastest?

(not looking to use instead of the time tested qbanks, but just looking to do more questions.)

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I would't recommend it,in general,it's easy,but sometimes there were very strange questions,diseases(where did they even get it?),concepts..don't waist your time.


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I would agree with carbonic anhydrase. I use it at times when I'm taking a break from studying and bored. They're really just strange questions.
 
Anyone who did this completely? What do you think?

What systems were covered very well by Pastest?

(not looking to use instead of the time tested qbanks, but just looking to do more questions.)

I'll vouch in favor of Pastest. I've completed nearly 2000 questions since it was released in the fall. I've used them systems-based with our curriculum and more recently cumulative for step review (test in June). From use in systems, it's fairly pathology-heavy. I found it helpful though, because it drills down on presentations and pathophysiology well. Around 90-95% of the questions are associated to pages in 2016 and 2017 FA (without images). Most of the questions are solid in my opinion, definitely on par or better than medium/hard questions on Rx. Pastest is harder because they don't throw buzzwords at you or sneak mnemonics in the vignette. It makes you think deeper than you want to. A few questions come off as "strange" because they're picky or worded vaguely, but they're legit things you've probably been exposed to in school. Some require you to draw on very specific knowledge to differentiate drugs or diseases while some questions I only know because of the little details in my lectures that FA/Pathoma doesn't hit. It's the only place I've seen Castleman disease and it's association with HHV-8 virus (Kaposi sarcoma), but it was, indeed, mentioned in our lymphadenopathy lecture.

I admit my average is way lower on Pastest, so it can be frustrating coming from Rx. Also the explanations can vary in quality. A few are really basic but most have a learning objective and good commentary. The interface is different than Rx/Kaplan too but I got over it pretty quickly. It's been a great primer for test-taking strategy while grinding through the secondary banks (~1000 questions also finished in Rx). I'm glad I stuck with Pastest so far, but obviously I wouldn't sacrifice time in UW for it later on.
 
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I'll vouch in favor of Pastest. I've completed nearly 2000 questions since it was released in the fall. I've used them systems-based with our curriculum and more recently cumulative for step review (test in June). From use in systems, it's fairly pathology-heavy. I found it helpful though, because it drills down on presentations and pathophysiology well. Around 90-95% of the questions are associated to pages in 2016 and 2017 FA (without images). Most of the questions are solid in my opinion, definitely on par or better than medium/hard questions on Rx. Pastest is harder because they don't throw buzzwords at you or sneak mnemonics in the vignette. It makes you think deeper than you want to. A few questions come off as "strange" because they're picky or worded vaguely, but they're legit things you've probably been exposed to in school. Some require you to draw on very specific knowledge to differentiate drugs or diseases while some questions I only know because of the little details in my lectures that FA/Pathoma doesn't hit. It's the only place I've seen Castleman disease and it's association with HHV-8 virus (Kaposi sarcoma), but it was, indeed, mentioned in our lymphadenopathy lecture.

I admit my average is way lower on Pastest, so it can be frustrating coming from Rx. Also the explanations can vary in quality. A few are really basic but most have a learning objective and good commentary. The interface is different than Rx/Kaplan too but I got over it pretty quickly. It's been a great primer for test-taking strategy while grinding through the secondary banks (~1000 questions also finished in Rx). I'm glad I stuck with Pastest so far, but obviously I wouldn't sacrifice time in UW for it later on.
so you think pastest is more or equal to RX? i was wondering about the difference between pastest and Rx if they both test straight out of FA.

just wanted to know if RX was worth shelling out the $ for since pastest is free for some reason.

i'm just using pastest to review systems that my class have been through already. it's shocking how quickly i forgot things
 
I know a person who used and liked pastest and broke 270. However, the student has always been brilliant and a very hard worker
 
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