Calling USMLE Rx out on its consistent errors

[Phloston]

I've done ~70% of USMLE Rx so far, and for every block of 48 questions, I find at least 5-6 careless errors. Probably half of those are in the question stems and the others in the explanations.

It's not the end of the world if you have a good background and can catch them, but if you're earlier on in your studies and are sensitive to every detail that's written, the QBank is a big blow, particularly since the character of some of the errors is literally on the level expected by rookie, first-year med students.

This one was so blatantly wrong that I just had to post it, particularly since I've lost my patience for Rx at this point. Not to mention, this same error was made twice (in one of the other answer explanations not shown here).



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[shan564]

I found some mistakes in their Flash Facts too. I was also a bit annoyed by the fact that they don't let you try it before you buy it, so when I bought it, it didn't turn out to be as useful as I'd expected. On the bright side, they gave me a refund without any hesitation.

 

[Phloston]

Let me just make one point very clear though:

I do believe USMLE Rx is a fantastic QBank and my future Step score has already been substantially augmented by having used it.

I'm just pointing out that I find myself very surprised at times by the nature of some of their mistakes.

By all means, when it hits 3am and we get tired, we all start to make mistakes, but I find myself realizing that that's when they've chosen to write some of the questions.

 

[SteinUmStein]

Let me just make one point very clear though:

I do believe USMLE Rx is a fantastic QBank and my future Step score has already been substantially augmented by having used it.

I'd like to borrow your time machine when you're done with it, if that's ok. I need to see if primary care pays any better in 20 years...

 

[quique2]

I used RX for a few months in mid 2010 and found quite a few mistakes. A lot of them weren't too bad, like wrong units (e.g. "98.6°F" instead of C). Others had the explanations all mixed up for the answer choices, but that's just sloppy proofreading/editing. Like you said, the rest were just plain wrong. Back then they paid $10 for each error you were the first to report. I reported many mistakes though they only ended up admitting to less than half of them, but with the Amazon gift certificates they gave me I ended up buying TWO RR Paths (one for a friend) and an electric shaver! (So about $110 I think)

That was some time ago so I hope that they've at least fixed some of those... and I sure hope they still pay those $10/error.

 

[JackShephard MD]

Wow, so would you guys recommend using Kaplan during 2nd year instead of Rx?

Do the errors warrant not using RX? This actually worries me because I had purchased a First Aid Basic Sciences book, and it has the same exact error you listed above. With no errata. To make things worse, I just looked at First Aid 2012 Errata.... 650 errors and counting!? So the Basic Sciences book is probably riddled with errors, what a waste.

 

[Phloston]

Wow, so would you guys recommend using Kaplan during 2nd year instead of Rx?

Do the errors warrant not using RX? This actually worries me because I had purchased a First Aid Basic Sciences book, and it has the same exact error you listed above. With no errata. To make things worse, I just looked at First Aid 2012 Errata.... 650 errors and counting!? So the Basic Sciences book is probably riddled with errors, what a waste.

I spent >2 hours fixing the errors in my FA2012 from the official errata page online. The lesson learned is that any resource is likely to have errors and there's nothing we can really do about it.

I would actually still highly recommend Rx because I can feel that my score is improving because of it, but just be extra vigilant if you think something is wrong. In other words, read and internalize their explanations, but just be as watchful as you can. Don't debate between either Rx or Kaplan. Do both. To that effect, do Rx, Kaplan and UWorld, in that order.

Optimistically though, if you study enough, you'll come across topics much more than once anyway, so you'll actually be aware of what's wrong and what's not. Just be mindful of information that you haven't ever seen before AND are speculative of.

 

[SteinUmStein]

Don't debate between either Rx or Kaplan. Do both. To that effect, do Rx, Kaplan and UWorld, in that order.

Optimistically though, if you study enough, you'll come across topics much more than once anyway, so you'll actually be aware of what's wrong and what's not. Just be mindful of information that you haven't ever seen before AND are speculative of.

Of course everybody has time during their school year and study period to do 3 full QBanks and read the explanations... along with actually reading FA and other sources.

 

[MaxillofacialMN]

Quique: assuming you mean "normal" body temp, F is the correct unit, not C... I know what you meant I thought it was comical based on this threads attention to detail.

 

[jhamaican]

I used RX for a few months in mid 2010 and found quite a few mistakes. A lot of them weren't too bad, like wrong units (e.g. "98.6°F" instead of C). Others had the explanations all mixed up for the answer choices, but that's just sloppy proofreading/editing. Like you said, the rest were just plain wrong. Back then they paid $10 for each error you were the first to report. I reported many mistakes though they only ended up admitting to less than half of them, but with the Amazon gift certificates they gave me I ended up buying TWO RR Paths (one for a friend) and an electric shaver! (So about $110 I think)

That was some time ago so I hope that they've at least fixed some of those... and I sure hope they still pay those $10/error.

 

[quique2]

Quique: assuming you mean "normal" body temp, F is the correct unit, not C... I know what you meant I thought it was comical based on this threads attention to detail.

Whoa, whoops! That is actually a pretty funny mistake really. You know I meant that the RX explanations said stuff like 98.6 C Sorry about that.

Anyway, most of the mistakes I saw back then (nearly 2 years ago) were forgivable, but after a while they were distracting because I was just looking for mistakes (spelling, grammar, formatting, ANYTHING) in order to get paid out the $10.

 

[GoodmanBrown]

I spent >2 hours fixing the errors in my FA2012 from the official errata page online. The lesson learned is that any resource is likely to have errors and there's nothing we can really do about it.

I would actually still highly recommend Rx because I can feel that my score is improving because of it, but just be extra vigilant if you think something is wrong. In other words, read and internalize their explanations, but just be as watchful as you can. Don't debate between either Rx or Kaplan. Do both. To that effect, do Rx, Kaplan and UWorld, in that order.

Optimistically though, if you study enough, you'll come across topics much more than once anyway, so you'll actually be aware of what's wrong and what's not. Just be mindful of information that you haven't ever seen before AND are speculative of.

I was wondering this myself. Did the crazy switch to color cause FA 2012 to be much sloppier than usual, or does USMLE Rx just crank out a half-ass project each year? The shoddiness of the resource is pretty impressive to me considering relatively few things must change in the book per year...