Anyone ever done just qbank questions?

[NavyDoc23]

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I was thinking of buying 3 q banks and just going through all of their questions (I'm already almost through 1). I'm in the process of going through FA and Pathoma for the first time and it's not going well (I get super bored and distracted). My 2 hesitations to abandoning FA and Pathoma are 1, I feel like the qbanks may not cover everything, and 2, I could get burned out doing 100+ questions a day for 6 weeks, although, I'll probably get burned out reading FA and Path and doing questions anyways. What are people's thoughts on this? Has anyone ever done only questions for Step 1?

 

[HereWeGo21]

I only did QBanks. I think it's the best way.

Never touched Pathoma, I still don't really know what that is. I also owned FA and referenced it occasionally, but never really went cover to cover. In the last 4 days before the test, I finished UW, and so I started flipping through FA but that was the bulk of my exposure to FA.

Mainly, I did all of Kaplan and UW, writing detailed notes on each of the questions. Those give you enough information. And I totally agree, I just get bored and distracted flipping through FA. It's too passive. Answering questions is much more engaging and I'd say you'd probably be less likely to get burned out.

 

[Daitong]

I only did QBanks. I think it's the best way.

Never touched Pathoma, I still don't really know what that is. I also owned FA and referenced it occasionally, but never really went cover to cover. In the last 4 days before the test, I finished UW, and so I started flipping through FA but that was the bulk of my exposure to FA.

Mainly, I did all of Kaplan and UW, writing detailed notes on each of the questions. Those give you enough information. And I totally agree, I just get bored and distracted flipping through FA. It's too passive. Answering questions is much more engaging and I'd say you'd probably be less likely to get burned out.

Can I ask how well you did?

 

[HereWeGo21]

Can I ask how well you did?

Got a 270!

 

[OrthoRehab33]

I only did QBanks. I think it's the best way.

Never touched Pathoma, I still don't really know what that is. I also owned FA and referenced it occasionally, but never really went cover to cover. In the last 4 days before the test, I finished UW, and so I started flipping through FA but that was the bulk of my exposure to FA.

Mainly, I did all of Kaplan and UW, writing detailed notes on each of the questions. Those give you enough information. And I totally agree, I just get bored and distracted flipping through FA. It's too passive. Answering questions is much more engaging and I'd say you'd probably be less likely to get burned out.

Got a 270!

Although I imagine your first UW pass was pretty high

 

[malin]

I would say still do Pathoma. Otherwise, question banks are golden. I think it's useful to link UWorld with First Aid (quickly reading the section in first aid on the question you just got right or wrong, maybe writing a few notes if you find it useful). Otherwise, doing multiple question banks is a great strategy. I did the 2800 NBME questions as my 2nd Qbank (had to hunt some of the old nbmes online, go on torrents, buy some and look some of the answers up on message boards, etc, which was worth it b/c some of these questions pop up on the actual Step 1). I had friends who went through the Kaplan QBank during 2nd year (along with UWorld) and scored 250+. I also scored 250+ and did UWorld twice and the 2800 NBMEs as my 2nd QBank. I think doing multiple question banks and really finding an effective way of learning from them (looking over your wrong answers, reading the answer explanations in detail, etc) helps a lot

 

[Profe10P]

So guys, can you get a 250+ by doing multiple QBanks?

 

[malin]

So guys, can you get a 250+ by doing multiple QBanks?

the short answer is that it depends on what else you use to learn the information and how you use the question banks. you won't really make much use of the question banks if you don't even learn the information at all from a resource like pathoma, and you will lose the utility of the question banks if you just fly through them without making some strategy to review answers you got wrong and really make sure that you absorb the key information from the long answer explanations (it's not enough to just read the educational objective, in my opinion)

 

[slz1900]

I would think that making a strange decision like only using qbanks would only be done by someone who is very confident in their knowledge already. If you are an average student only using qbanks, you're gonna have a bad time. Remember in the real world people get 60% on their first pass of uworld and that's with FA, redos, and subject specific tests. I don't know how much getting 40% or whatever it would be without pathoma, FA, and other resources is really going to help you learn.

 

[worldbeater]

Remember in the real world people get 60% on their first pass of uworld

That's a weighted average, it includes averages from people doing multiple passes. The real first pass % is less than that. SDN first pass is like 80%, which is in the top 10% of all students.

 

[aweiyuezhi]

Got a 270!

wow！so nice,I wish I could do this well so much.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[rockafella12]

That's a weighted average, it includes averages from people doing multiple passes. The real first pass % is less than that. SDN first pass is like 80%, which is in the top 10% of all students.

What do you think the real first pass % is like? I'm actually hovering around 60% on my first pass, at about halfway through.

 

[rockafella12]

I was thinking of buying 3 q banks and just going through all of their questions (I'm already almost through 1). I'm in the process of going through FA and Pathoma for the first time and it's not going well (I get super bored and distracted). My 2 hesitations to abandoning FA and Pathoma are 1, I feel like the qbanks may not cover everything, and 2, I could get burned out doing 100+ questions a day for 6 weeks, although, I'll probably get burned out reading FA and Path and doing questions anyways. What are people's thoughts on this? Has anyone ever done only questions for Step 1?

This is my strategy. Sheer volume. 3 QBanks, using Rx and UWorld primarily. I have a DO specific one too. My overall plan is to use Rx to help go through and sink in FA, and then I can really "test" what I learned in UW. I'm taking pretty extensive notes on UW, divided by sections. I still want to do 2 passes through UW though, but I don't know if that's possible. My test is early June, and I don't know if I can finish 3 qbanks with a repeat on UW.

My goal is 250 though. The anxiety is now setting in that I might not be able to swing that.

 

[rockafella12]

I would say still do Pathoma. Otherwise, question banks are golden. I think it's useful to link UWorld with First Aid (quickly reading the section in first aid on the question you just got right or wrong, maybe writing a few notes if you find it useful). Otherwise, doing multiple question banks is a great strategy. I did the 2800 NBME questions as my 2nd Qbank (had to hunt some of the old nbmes online, go on torrents, buy some and look some of the answers up on message boards, etc, which was worth it b/c some of these questions pop up on the actual Step 1). I had friends who went through the Kaplan QBank during 2nd year (along with UWorld) and scored 250+. I also scored 250+ and did UWorld twice and the 2800 NBMEs as my 2nd QBank. I think doing multiple question banks and really finding an effective way of learning from them (looking over your wrong answers, reading the answer explanations in detail, etc) helps a lot

How did you use the offline NMBEs? I have them, but I am not sure how I will score them or even use them for that matter. I'm thinking I will have to buy some closer to my test date just to get the "feedback". Is that a waste of $$$?

 

[Postictal Raiden]

This is my strategy. Sheer volume. 3 QBanks, using Rx and UWorld primarily. I have a DO specific one too. My overall plan is to use Rx to help go through and sink in FA, and then I can really "test" what I learned in UW. I'm taking pretty extensive notes on UW, divided by sections. I still want to do 2 passes through UW though, but I don't know if that's possible. My test is early June, and I don't know if I can finish 3 qbanks with a repeat on UW.

My goal is 250 though. The anxiety is now setting in that I might not be able to swing that.

If COMLEX is anything like the Kaplan full-length test our school administered few days ago, I don't think UW is going to help.

However, my NBME 15 experience showed me that UW is second best source for USMLE (NBME qs being the first source).

 

[Postictal Raiden]

I also echo those who say they can't read pathoma and FA. With my attention span, that is the size of a mosquito, I could never sit down and read 10+ pages in a row. I don't think I'll ever read FA cover to cover. I'll, however, continue to watch pathoma. My plan is to do two passes of UW and Rx plus taking as many NBME tests as possible. Hopefully this will be good enough to get an above average score.

 

[rockafella12]

If COMLEX is anything like the Kaplan full-length test our school administered few days ago, I don't think UW is going to help.

However, my NBME 15 experience showed me that UW is second best source for USMLE (NBME qs being the first source).

The UW definitely helps, it's just not an immediate sort of thing like it is for the NBME questions. It's about understanding things so thoroughly that not matter how it's asked you can't miss it.

 

[worldbeater]

What do you think the real first pass % is like? I'm actually hovering around 60% on my first pass, at about halfway through.

I am not sure, maybe 50%? If you click "cumulative performance", you can see what percentile your in and you can guess-estimate it off that.

 

[malin]

How did you use the offline NMBEs? I have them, but I am not sure how I will score them or even use them for that matter. I'm thinking I will have to buy some closer to my test date just to get the "feedback". Is that a waste of $$$?

a friend gave me nbmes 1-7 on a thumbdrive and it has answer keys (unfortunately i don't have that computer anymore that had the files). they were about 98% reliable. sometimes i'd buy some nbmes, sometimes i'd just manage to find them online on torrent websites with answer keys. whatever i got wrong (usually 10-20% of the questions), i just googled the first sentence of the question and "nbme 3" for instance into google. Almost every nbme question is found on some message board somewhere and you will see why the right answer is right (it's not enough just to know what the right answer is). it sounds super sketch but for me it was important b/c these practice questions pointed out my weaknesses and got me lots of questions right on my real deal. i found some random scoring calculator online (getting 80% correct was a 240, 90% correct was about a 250), etc). Sometimes multiplying the number of correct answers by something like 1.4 would give you your score.

 

[Pushtothestars]

a friend gave me nbmes 1-7 on a thumbdrive and it has answer keys (unfortunately i don't have that computer anymore that had the files). they were about 98% reliable. sometimes i'd buy some nbmes, sometimes i'd just manage to find them online on torrent websites with answer keys. whatever i got wrong (usually 10-20% of the questions), i just googled the first sentence of the question and "nbme 3" for instance into google. Almost every nbme question is found on some message board somewhere and you will see why the right answer is right (it's not enough just to know what the right answer is). it sounds super sketch but for me it was important b/c these practice questions pointed out my weaknesses and got me lots of questions right on my real deal. i found some random scoring calculator online (getting 80% correct was a 240, 90% correct was about a 250), etc). Sometimes multiplying the number of correct answers by something like 1.4 would give you your score.

Are 1-7 no longer available online to purchase..?

 

[tvelocity514]

Are 1-7 no longer available online to purchase..?

You can only buy 12-18.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

 

[rockafella12]

a friend gave me nbmes 1-7 on a thumbdrive and it has answer keys (unfortunately i don't have that computer anymore that had the files). they were about 98% reliable. sometimes i'd buy some nbmes, sometimes i'd just manage to find them online on torrent websites with answer keys. whatever i got wrong (usually 10-20% of the questions), i just googled the first sentence of the question and "nbme 3" for instance into google. Almost every nbme question is found on some message board somewhere and you will see why the right answer is right (it's not enough just to know what the right answer is). it sounds super sketch but for me it was important b/c these practice questions pointed out my weaknesses and got me lots of questions right on my real deal. i found some random scoring calculator online (getting 80% correct was a 240, 90% correct was about a 250), etc). Sometimes multiplying the number of correct answers by something like 1.4 would give you your score.

Awesome, I think I will prolly only pay for a couple. I do want a reliable score conversion/prediction as I get closer, but the earlier/easier ones can be good practice.

*also, I don't remember if I saw if you took the Step or not. Care to share your score and what you thought helped you the most?

 

[orthogenes]

How many Q bank questions?