Anyone surprised about what ISN'T in FA?

[DrBowtie]

Just going through some UW and annotating the educational objectives at the bottom and I've come across quite a few topics that I didn't find in FA.

I looked in the index, and browsed the appropriate section but I couldn't find them if they were there.

Fibromyalgia, Isotretinoin just from this last question block.

Anyone find any really common stuff not covered in FA? UWorld is proving its weight in gold right now.

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[MilkmanAl]

I do recall being shocked at some of the omissions, but I can't recall any specific examples. In any event, that's why Goljan and practice questions not from Rx are a must.

 

[DrVanNostran]

Just going through some UW and annotating the educational objectives at the bottom and I've come across quite a few topics that I didn't find in FA.

I looked in the index, and browsed the appropriate section but I couldn't find them if they were there.

Fibromyalgia, Isotretinoin just from this last question block.

Anyone find any really common stuff not covered in FA? UWorld is proving its weight in gold right now.

Agreed. FA provides a great outline of the most HY topics, but it definitely is not all inclusive. I am annotating BRS Path into FA and there is a lot that I though should be in FA (judging from Qbank questions).

I'm not sure if I'm going to annotate Uworld into FA or just do world twice.

 

[DrVanNostran]

I do recall being shocked at some of the omissions, but I can't recall any specific examples. In any event, that's why Goljan and practice questions not from Rx are a must.

I have gotten through around 150 questions of Rx and I am not impressed. I am almost done with Kaplan and I personally hated Rx. I thought Kaplans question were much better written and that the explanations were gold, especially during course work.

I was surprised that FA didn't differentiate between Tubular, T/V, and Villous adenomas.

 

[badasshairday]

I have gotten through around 150 questions of Rx and I am not impressed. I am almost done with Kaplan and I personally hated Rx. I thought Kaplans question were much better written and that the explanations were gold, especially during course work.

I was surprised that FA didn't differentiate between Tubular, T/V, and Villous adenomas.

I haven't used another qbank besides RX so far, but I think it serves its purpose to get you to get through FA and recall it. It makes connections throughout the book related to that question, so it is nice. I'm saving UWORLD for my study period.

 

[FeedTheHippo]

I just finished all of UW.. There wasnt much that was not in FA... The explanation in UW is more information, but as far as subjects covered, and different diseases and stuff, about 95% was already in FA.. I did Rx before I started UW tho.. So that help clarify some things.. For the most part, FA definetly lives up to its hype!

 

[username456789]

I just finished all of UW.. There wasnt much that was not in FA... The explanation in UW is more information, but as far as subjects covered, and different diseases and stuff, about 95% was already in FA.. I did Rx before I started UW tho.. So that help clarify some things.. For the most part, FA definetly lives up to its hype!

When I first started doing the Kaplan QBank, there'd be some explanation to something that seemed a bit obtuse, or something I thought "wow, I never would've thought that, better go write it down in FA" only to find that it indeed was listed under that syndrome/disease/whatever.

First Aid, while not all inclusive, is a pretty impressive book.

 

[DrBowtie]

When I first started doing the Kaplan QBank, there'd be some explanation to something that seemed a bit obtuse, or something I thought "wow, I never would've thought that, better go write it down in FA" only to find that it indeed was listed under that syndrome/disease/whatever.

First Aid, while not all inclusive, is a pretty impressive book.

By no means was this a knock at FA. I too thought there was also a bunch of "novel" things from UW that I thought I should write down only to find it already there, maybe worded in a different way.

Just thought it was kinda interesting to note some strange omissions.

 

[username456789]

By no means was this a knock at FA. I too thought there was also a bunch of "novel" things from UW that I thought I should write down only to find it already there, maybe worded in a different way.

Just thought it was kinda interesting to note some strange omissions.

Oh I didn't interpret it as a knock at FA at all.

But I agree. I'm also surprised sometimes the brevity of coverage of certain topics that seem pretty dense/important.

 

[DrVanNostran]

I haven't used another qbank besides RX so far, but I think it serves its purpose to get you to get through FA and recall it. It makes connections throughout the book related to that question, so it is nice. I'm saving UWORLD for my study period.

I think I would have liked Rx better if I started it earlier with course. It is a hell of a way to get through FA countless times. With less than a month left of classes I am most likely ditching Rx and just using the Q&A book, I think they just take the best 1000 or so questions from Rx.

I love FA, although I am redoing the drugs in a table format for easier reading. I just love tables

 

[FeedTheHippo]

Oh I didnt think you were knocking FA... Definetly see where your coming from as far as how they really summarize things.. Doing Rx first helped me really learn FA, and reading the explanations is like having FA as a novel, rather than a bunch of facts. I definetly found UW explanations helpful and very imformative. Much better than Qbank explanations. I am finishing my studying off w/ Qbank and re-doing many of the UW questions... Kaplan seems to be more similar to the NMBE, and from what I hear, more similar to the actual exam. However, I would not understand Kaplan well if I didnt memorize FA, and really hit the UW questions hard first.

When I say Kaplan is more similar, the difficulty may be more similar because UW is too hard. However, the biggest thing I noticed. When doing an NBME, the way I read the question, and actually answer, is the same was I answer the Qbank questions, with some doubt, yet more confidence. When doing UW, I answered the questions as if it was a mystery, most of the time being forced to read into the question and find the trick, rather than test my knowlege of correlating symptoms w/ diseases, or side affect w/ drugs.

 

[kryptik]

to add to this i have come across Rx questions that are not in FA, also doesnt Qbank have reference to FA in their explanations? that means every question in Qbank can be found in FA only it can be just a short phrase or even just a word
FA definitely leaves out a lot of stuff but for a guideline its awesome

 

[MilkmanAl]

I'm not a big fan of how Rx is written, either, but I do think it's nice for making sure the FA read-through was worthwhile. Like the guy with unfortunate ass hair, I'm saving UWorld for after class.

 

[badasshairday]

I'm not a big fan of how Rx is written, either, but I do think it's nice for making sure the FA read-through was worthwhile. Like the guy with unfortunate ass hair, I'm saving UWorld for after class.

It is a bad hair day!

I've given up on reading FA by itself for now. It is so dry. The Rx questions give it some context. Basically hope to read through most of FA just through doing a bunch of Rx questions.

 

[username456789]

to add to this i have come across Rx questions that are not in FA, also doesnt Qbank have reference to FA in their explanations? that means every question in Qbank can be found in FA only it can be just a short phrase or even just a word
FA definitely leaves out a lot of stuff but for a guideline its awesome

Not necessarily. For instance, it might discuss at length some extensive pathological findings of a certain parasite, and reference the page of FA on which that parasite is just mentioned by name with one or two blurbs that have nothing to do with the pathology in the question (this is just an example I'm making up).

But I've definitely come across things in Kaplan QBank (albeit infrequently) where I flip to the referenced page and it's clear that the people who made the bank just looked in the index for which page numbers were listed under a certain key word. I've also had answer explanations talk extensively about something in particular, and then all that's on the page that's referenced is some information about one of the wrong answers, but not the correct answer.

Finally, there are a fair number of questions with NO REFERENCE or the reference is from Kaplan's MedEssentials.

 

[DrBowtie]

to add to this i have come across Rx questions that are not in FA, also doesnt Qbank have reference to FA in their explanations? that means every question in Qbank can be found in FA only it can be just a short phrase or even just a word
FA definitely leaves out a lot of stuff but for a guideline its awesome

When I bought FA Q&A (supposedly the best questions from Rx) I did a few of the Behavioral Science section questions and was like WTF when the stuff they referenced was buried deep in the Psych section. So it might be in there, just not in the expected place.

I was planning on using that during my first pass through of FA in my dedicated time but it doesn't match up too well.

 

[DrVanNostran]

My big knock on Kaplan Qbank is that some of their 2010 page references are way off, you can tell they tried to reference the pages real quick. Also, as others have mentioned, some of the logic you need on some of the questions is ridiculous.

But as I mentioned before, overall, I think it is a great Pre-Study resource to hammer down the key points and gain a feel of how questions can be asked.

 

[kryptik]

I'm not a big fan of how Rx is written, either, but I do think it's nice for making sure the FA read-through was worthwhile. Like the guy with unfortunate ass hair, I'm saving UWorld for after class.

yeah some of the questions are poorly written, you can tell they design the question so the answer is located directly somewhere in FA, most of them are alright though

 

[DrVanNostran]

It is a bad hair day!

I've given up on reading FA by itself for now. It is so dry. The Rx questions give it some context. Basically hope to read through most of FA just through doing a bunch of Rx questions.

Dude, how long does it take you to go through a block of Rx questions? It's taking me about 5 minutes/question (depending on how long of a first aid reference they give). And are you reading the entire explanation? I am just reading the Key fact, the explanation for the correct answer, the explanation for the answer I chose rolleyes, and the first aid page reference....

 

[MilkmanAl]

I read the explanation for the correct answer of every question and sometimes one or two of the wrong answers if I missed the question and don't understand why. It takes a little less than 2 hours per block, in total. One frustrating thing about the wrong answer explanations is that they often don't address the rationale I used to pick that answer. Oh well.

 

[FeedTheHippo]

Dude, how long does it take you to go through a block of Rx questions? It's taking me about 5 minutes/question (depending on how long of a first aid reference they give). And are you reading the entire explanation? I am just reading the Key fact, the explanation for the correct answer, the explanation for the answer I chose rolleyes, and the first aid page reference....

If your doing Rx when you first start studying, its normal to take hours for each block. I used to do 30 question blocks, and that usually took me a good 2-3 hours.. I would do it on tutor, and really read all the explanations and compare that to what FA has.. Its very important to read the correct answer explanation, and if you can get yourself to comit, read the rest

 

[DrBowtie]

Maybe too basic for FA, but no talk about the different ion conductances during an action potential.

BRS Physio is good for it though.

 

[badasshairday]

Dude, how long does it take you to go through a block of Rx questions? It's taking me about 5 minutes/question (depending on how long of a first aid reference they give). And are you reading the entire explanation? I am just reading the Key fact, the explanation for the correct answer, the explanation for the answer I chose rolleyes, and the first aid page reference....

I read the key fact if I get it right, and skim the correct answer or any competing choices that I was tempted to pick. Then I read the pages of FA related to the question. It takes forever due to all the FA reading, but it gets faster as you see the same FA pages referenced, so you can read it faster.

 

[illixir]

I'm getting to the point where I get frustrated if I do questions too slowly, if I can tell that I understand the question and all the choices I won't bother putting too much thought in going over it. It is only if I miss it, or dont understand an answer choice or I had to think a fair amount and choose before picking my answer that I'll spend time reading. I find that too often question explanations to a correct answer in these qbanks tell me too much stuff I already know: lots of common things you see over and over and over again. I think spending that time reading the answers for the wrong ones or doing more questions serves me better and keeps me less distracted. Switching from tutor to timed is helping me get through it quicker too, with tutor you're constantly going back and forth.

I just focus on 48-block for 40 minutes or so and get through them fast and then pull out FA for the glorious page references/question review for probably another 40 minutes after. Even Kaplan which is supposed to be really detailed, 75% or more of the questions I've gotten have been in first aid. And there's really not much I've gotten that I feel should be in FA; there might be questions on the USMLE that aren't in FA, undoubtedly, but to go to the level of detail that the testwriters go for every question is too much to ask, it hits probably 3/4 or more of the USMLE questions.

 

[DrBowtie]

I'm getting to the point where I get frustrated if I do questions too slowly, if I can tell that I understand the question and all the choices I won't bother putting too much thought in going over it. It is only if I miss it, or dont understand an answer choice or I had to think a fair amount and choose before picking my answer that I'll spend time reading. I find that too often question explanations to a correct answer in these qbanks tell me too much stuff I already know: lots of common things you see over and over and over again. I think spending that time reading the answers for the wrong ones or doing more questions serves me better and keeps me less distracted. Switching from tutor to timed is helping me get through it quicker too, with tutor you're constantly going back and forth.

I just focus on 48-block for 40 minutes or so and get through them fast and then pull out FA for the glorious page references/question review for probably another 40 minutes after. Even Kaplan which is supposed to be really detailed, 75% or more of the questions I've gotten have been in first aid. And there's really not much I've gotten that I feel should be in FA; there might be questions on the USMLE that aren't in FA, undoubtedly, but to go to the level of detail that the testwriters go for every question is too much to ask, it hits probably 3/4 or more of the USMLE questions.

Well at this point I'm trying to get through all UW before May when my dedicated time starts. I'm annotating the educational objectives and they take me quite a while to do. Maybe like 2 hours for a full block. I'm just skimming over the answer choices unless it is way out of right field for now. Once I redo the questions in my study mode I'm going to lock down on all the explanations.

 

[DrVanNostran]

I read the key fact if I get it right, and skim the correct answer or any competing choices that I was tempted to pick. Then I read the pages of FA related to the question. It takes forever due to all the FA reading, but it gets faster as you see the same FA pages referenced, so you can read it faster.

Seems to be what I am doing. After our discussion of Rx yesterday, gave it another run. And this time around, I really did enjoy going through Rx more. Maybe it's because I'm a tad bit more familiar with how to approach questions and FA now.

What do you guys think is better, doing Uworld twice or getting through it once with annotating the Learning objectives? I'm debating on whether doing 96 questions of U world a day or 48 world + 48 Rx.

 

[DrBowtie]

Seems to be what I am doing. After our discussion of Rx yesterday, gave it another run. And this time around, I really did enjoy going through Rx more. Maybe it's because I'm a tad bit more familiar with how to approach questions and FA now.

What do you guys think is better, doing Uworld twice or getting through it once with annotating the Learning objectives? I'm debating on whether doing 96 questions of U world a day or 48 world + 48 Rx.

I think it probably has to do with why you are missing the questions. If they are because of lack of knowledge then maybe keep up the Rx to reinforce your FA studying, but if you are missing it due to lack of connections made, then do more UW.

 

[illixir]

Seems to be what I am doing. After our discussion of Rx yesterday, gave it another run. And this time around, I really did enjoy going through Rx more. Maybe it's because I'm a tad bit more familiar with how to approach questions and FA now.

What do you guys think is better, doing Uworld twice or getting through it once with annotating the Learning objectives? I'm debating on whether doing 96 questions of U world a day or 48 world + 48 Rx.

Maybe just do the questions you missed a second time. I know I wouldn't want to go through the entire qbank twice when I could do more questions from somewhere else.

 

[DrVanNostran]

Maybe just do the questions you missed a second time. I know I wouldn't want to go through the entire qbank twice when I could do more questions from somewhere else.

That was my original plan. However, I have talked to a bunch of third years mentioning that the Uworld explanations served as the greatest learning tool for them. I was curious to see what everyone else was doing.

I still have 10 chapters of BRS path to annotate into FA, the next two weeks are going to be dreadful

 

[username456789]

I still have 10 chapters of BRS path to annotate into FA, the next two weeks are going to be dreadful

Holy Toledo.

 

[SeeThroughMD]

Quick question about Rx. I am 70% done with it and for the past couple of weeks my percentage correct, # of correct questions, # of questions used, etc. are off by a lot and they don't change in correlation to what I do on each block.

For example, on my cumulative analysis, it says I did 500 more questions than I actually did, I got more right than I actually did, I got more wrong than I did and the total number of questions the qbank claims it has changes with every block I take. And my percentage of correct answers that it states does not correlate with number right/number of questions used if I calculate it. Anyone else have same problem?