Biostats in FA enough?

[Aclamity]

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I know everyone says FA is horrible with Behavioral Science, but does that apply to biostats too? In other words, if I know the biostats in FA will that be enough for the test? I'm fairly good with biostats and everything in FA makes sense to me, but I'm just wondering if I need to go beyond that.

 

[shan564]

DIT says that FA has essentially everything you need to know for biostats, but you really have to know it well. Also, I think that your math skills are also relevant... I had a USMLE study group in 2nd year, and it was clear that FA biostats was more than enough for some of us (who were good enough at math to figure out how to do unfamiliar problems), while it wasn't enough for others (who needed a specific formula for every possible situation).

 

[mdeast]

Just do a lot of UWorld biostats questions. Make sure you know how to calculate everything, draw a 2x2 grid, understand what the terms actually mean, etc. These were weak points when I first started studying, but morphed into the give-away questions after proper practice with the formulas. Literally probably takes 1-2 hours of practice and you'll have it down. There really aren't many formulas to memorize...and just being able to draw out the 2 x 2 chart will usually given you enough to go on to answer the question correctly.

 

[Convalaria]

I have problem with biostat..I can't recognize research designs or type of bias given in question..And stat.tests (like ANOVA, t-test ect)...eeeek

I understand the main concepts, but too vague..and quite often I do mistakes in these questions.
I used Kaplan, HY Behavioral Science, FA.

Would you recommend me something else?

 

[The kitchen sink]

I have problem with biostat..I can't recognize research designs or type of bias given in question..And stat.tests (like ANOVA, t-test ect)...eeeek

I understand the main concepts, but too vague..and quite often I do mistakes in these questions.
I used Kaplan, HY Behavioral Science, FA.

Would you recommend me something else?

i understand your issues as math isnt my strongest subject but i feel like repitition on uworld questions will help you.

 

[Convalaria]

I love doing all that math with formulas and distribution stuff.
UW was my last hope 🙂 and so far, my results don't impress me much

 

[johndoe3344]

DIT says that FA has essentially everything you need to know for biostats, but you really have to know it well. Also, I think that your math skills are also relevant... I had a USMLE study group in 2nd year, and it was clear that FA biostats was more than enough for some of us (who were good enough at math to figure out how to do unfamiliar problems), while it wasn't enough for others (who needed a specific formula for every possible situation).

Honestly, like with any other subject, if you're smart enough FA (+UW) is enough, and if you're not, then it won't be.

By "smart" I mean you had 1) proper and sufficient exposure previously, 2) that you still remember enough of the general principles, and 3) you're intelligent enough to intuit things that aren't explicitly stated in FA. And of course, this goes for any other topic in FA as well.

My suggestion is to go ahead and read through FA (and understand where some of those things are coming from... don't just memorize SPIN and SNOUT and have no idea why sensitivity = rule out) and then do a lot of questions from various Qbanks and let that guide you on whether or not you need additional sources.

 

[mdeast]

I have problem with biostat..I can't recognize research designs or type of bias given in question..And stat.tests (like ANOVA, t-test ect)...eeeek

I understand the main concepts, but too vague..and quite often I do mistakes in these questions.
I used Kaplan, HY Behavioral Science, FA.

Would you recommend me something else?

Stat tests are easy. Just look at the variable they are measuring.

Means (between 2 groups): T-tests
Means (between more than 2 groups): ANOVA
% or proportions (between 2 or more groups): Chi Square

 

[Phloston]

I've read FA and am >90% finished USMLE Rx at the moment. I was freaking out about biostats when I first started Rx because I was getting so many of those questions wrong. FA is not sufficient for biostats/behavioral. However the repetition just from doing questions has already helped reinforced a lot of the principles. Behavioral science and biostats are two areas where doing practice questions is mandatory.

I bought HY Biostats and BRS Behavioral Science. When I finish Rx, I'm going to spend a week doing nothing but these two books. There's 500 Qs in the former and 78 in the latter. I'll give an update at some point as to how I felt these two books helped me, but I probably won't really know until I hit Kaplan QBank and UWorld. Just throwing some thoughts out there.

 

[Kaputt]

Biostats and epi on the real thing was virtually exactly like World, and everything had a bit on it from FA. The questions were extremely fair.

Just make sure you draw your own 2x2 tables cause sometimes they flip 'em