Board questions as study guide for school exams

[midweststudent1]

So my immunology professor told us the best way to study for our exam would be to get a board prep book and work through those questions....is it like this for many other subjects? Should I purchase a test bank to use to study even here in year 1? I have noticed that most of our test and quiz questions are written in board style...

Thanks for any opinions/ input!

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[Serous Demilune]

I think he was talking about BRS or Pretest more than a question bank. A q bank will help more for an NBME shelf exam than an in house test.

 

[tmn]

+1 for BRS

 

[DermViser]

So my immunology professor told us the best way to study for our exam would be to get a board prep book and work through those questions....is it like this for many other subjects? Should I purchase a test bank to use to study even here in year 1? I have noticed that most of our test and quiz questions are written in board style...

Thanks for any opinions/ input!

Wow at least he's honest! Board prep books are probably good for a lot of subjects, not just immunology. That is nice that your questions are written in board style format although that's hard to know what that is. I recommend using USMLERx if you're going to buy a test bank to use in MS-1. @GuyWhoDoesStuff might have more useful pearls.

 

[gregoryhouse]

It depends. I agree that book like pretest would probably generally be more helpful. However if your class exams truly resemble board questions then yes, board review books and q banks will be really great. UsmleRX is a good qbank, but you might want to try an app like osmosis first since its only like 30 dollars i believe and has generally good content.

 

[cbrons]

Ur very lucky. Many schools have mindless factoid memorize-regurgitate exams in m1


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[midweststudent1]

Yeah I just got my grade back from immunology and was pretty happy that I studied some board books. I used the micro and immuno book from Langer. Very helpful for this test. I thought that my professors questions were a little harder, but I guess that's good--I'll be ready for boards!

 

[operaman]

I think using boards review book questions to supplement is a great idea and one I certainly did. Sometimes it's very difficult to figure out what exactly is testable and - more importantly perhaps - HOW it can be tested.

I would probably shy away from the qbanks as they are a little more integrated overall than you need at this point. You need questions covering only your material, not hinging on whether you know some drug reaction from pharmacology or whatever classes you won't have until M2. I found the pre-test series very helpful, especially their physiology book. Good questions with good explanations. The BRS series is gold -- good questions with short stems cutting straight to the point.