Dedicated Time Crunch - Finish UWorld or Sketchy FAP?

[RealHumanBean1]

Hey everyone. My Step exam is 12 "study days" away (have blocked out three days for practice exams) and I'm worried because I'm clearly not going to be able to make a full pass through FA/Pathoma AND complete UWorld. My dilemma now is whether to complete UWorld or make a full, detailed pass through FAP and Sketchy.

I'm ~40% through UWorld with an average around 78%. The problem is that it takes me forever to review each question - and moreover, I've just never really been much of a question bank person. My gut is telling me to review FAP extensively and forget about UWorld, but everyone touts UWorld and, of course, there are plenty of questions that I know I'd miss as of now. I can't decide if I'd benefit more from exposing myself to novel questions/practice thinking through or just strictly reviewing the material.

UWorld Pros: Real practice for exam, questions presented in more challenging way, there are plenty of questions I miss solely because the information is present in a novel/tricky way (so my worry is that, if I don't do them now, I'll miss them on the test), everyone says it's essential
UWorld Cons: I get a large portion of the questions correct (maybe 60-65% I know cold, 10-15% I get correct with an educated guess/thoughtful elimination), I don't traditionally learn best from questions, have a hard time staying focused and not beating myself up for missed questions

FAP Sketchy Pros: Feel like I learn better this way, getting more comprehensive content and less worried about leaving things out, more focused and less critical/stressed when I'm reading vs. doing questions, have missed plenty of UWorld questions simply because the material isn't fresh
FAP Sketchy Cons: Worried I'm missing critical practice answering difficult/novel questions, (again) everyone says UWorld is essential

Basically, I'm leaning towards strict content review because that's what's always worked for me and put me in the top 10th percentile of my school exams, but I'm worried that the same won't hold true for Step 1. My current NBME scores (13 and 15) are around 230-235 which is lower than I'd like to be. I'd really like to score 240 at the least and my ideal score would be 245+.

Thank you all in advance, I really appreciate your time and advice.

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[21Rush12]

Only you know your learning style best. Personally, UWorld all day every day in every situation.

If you're really more of a book person you'll probably do well using methods that work for you. However, I definitely think UWorld is the single most valuable resource, coupled with First Aid to use as a reference.

Could you find a way to streamline your UWorld questions and reviews such that you make yourself keep a pace rather than get bogged down? One thing that often happens is that people spend way too much time reviewing and going into crazy details they don't need to know and end up never seeing half the material.

I would suggest that you try using UWorld, and for your question review use ONLY first aid to reference. That book is essentially the entire scope of this exam, and if it's not in there theres a 99% chance it's not on the test. Your scores are good and you're going to get better as you practice more as well as learn information. It's training for a marathon, you have to put the time in and you'll get results.

If you want to PM I can share my own dedicated strategy if it helps!

 

[libertyyne]

the answer is usually uworld, but you do you if you feel better about sketchy .

 

[raiderette]

Uworld, for at least the next week. After you take at least one more practice test, you will need to just busy through questions. If you are not increasing your percentage and don't perform well on your next practice test, go back to FAP for a day or so. If it really makes you feel better, take a couple of hours each day for other materials.
How much time are you dedicating to UWorld each day? Treat it like a job and push through.

 

[siliso]

Finish UWorld but do it faster. Take 1-2 min per question - you know it or you don’t, do it on tutor mode, skim the answers immediately after answering the question. Every one you get wrong was money well spent - if you got them all right you’d be wasting your time. But just knowing and seeing the ways that content will be questioned is very valuable. And if you do it fast you’ll have time to read over other things that you want to.

 

[medicineman1234]

Finish UWorld but do it faster. Take 1-2 min per question - you know it or you don’t, do it on tutor mode, skim the answers immediately after answering the question. Every one you get wrong was money well spent - if you got them all right you’d be wasting your time. But just knowing and seeing the ways that content will be questioned is very valuable. And if you do it fast you’ll have time to read over other things that you want to.

I sometimes find value in thinking hard and getting it after a longer time. Is that a misconception? Is it Better to skip than reason through untimed?

 

[siliso]

If you’re going to finish the thing with your current strategy, that’s fine, do what makes you happy. There’s only so many ways to ask about the content...about 3000 ways that you’ll do well to have seen (and seen again if you got them wrong the first time around). You’ll learn some new things from a quick review of the right and wrong answers but learning new things isn’t the whole point.

Don’t skip, put it on tutor mode and guess if you don’t know. Guessing well is a good test taking skill.

 

[ciestar]

UWorld.

 

[mehc012]

As someone who finished neither UW nor Sketchy and didn't even come close to finishing FA, and barely did any Pathoma...do what you feel is the most productive for you and that you'll actually get through. You're behind for a reason...don't spend more time bashing your head against the wall trying to watch Pathoma if it puts you to sleep, or cram FA if it takes you 8hrs to finish a small chunk and then it falls out of your brain, etc. Whatever it was that was holding you up during the rest of dedicated, toss that sucker out the window and do what you can actually make progress with.

 

[RealHumanBean1]

As someone who finished neither UW nor Sketchy and didn't even come close to finishing FA, and barely did any Pathoma...do what you feel is the most productive for you and that you'll actually get through. You're behind for a reason...don't spend more time bashing your head against the wall trying to watch Pathoma if it puts you to sleep, or cram FA if it takes you 8hrs to finish a small chunk and then it falls out of your brain, etc. Whatever it was that was holding you up during the rest of dedicated, toss that sucker out the window and do what you can actually make progress with.

Thanks for your reply. Honestly, I study my ass off - I've been studying in most of my free time including winter break with the exception of just a few days off. My problem is that I don't feel I learn much unless I take the time to really go over things in detail and understand the pathophysiology in its entirety; for me, it seems to be the only way to get things to stick. It works great for less material, like school exams (putting me in the top 10% or higher for those), but I'm worried it won't translate as well for Step as the breadth of material is so much larger. I've seen passed all of the material multiple times throughout the year (with the exception of biochemistry and pharmacology, which I'm reviewing slowly and steadily), but I struggle to wonder whether practicing the multi-step reasoning or just knowing the information cold will benefit me more. It seems I miss some questions simply because I can't recall the material, but also miss some because the question itself is so novel. At this point, I think I'm going to try to focus on my weakest areas for review and get through as many questions as I possibly can for familiarity's sake - but your response has by far given me the most comfort! Thanks for sharing.

And thanks to everyone else as well. Obviously a part of me just wants reassurance, but I appreciate you all offering your opinions and insights.

 

[WedgeDawg]

UWorld but only read the summery/learning point/whatever at the very bottom of questions, then sketchy only bacteria as breaks. Pathoma the 2-4 systems you’re weakest in, and use FA only to look up something specific but don’t read it.

UWorld volume is what will get you the best score.