Did you do UWorld during Systems?

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pbrocks15

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Hey everyone,

I'm an M1 and at my school and we've started systems/organ blocks already and so I bought UWorld after our first system.

I would first do Rx for the block and then moved to UWorld, doing about 10- 20 questions a day until my exam. I was doing questions for that block only and not the previous blocks we had already finished.

I averaged about a 65% for that block by the end of the system, but I did feel that I started getting the hang of UWorld questions compared to Rx which I had been doing for awhile now.

I was wondering if other people did something similar and saw any positive outcome or what the general opinion is on studying like this as a supplement to class material. Is a 65% on a organ system really bad for the first run through? I do have a UWorld Journal as well.

Would love to hear everyone's opinion and how those who use or have used UWorld during their 1st or 2nd year used it.

Thanks!!

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We didn't have a systems curriculum, but in hindsight doing UWorld if I could have afforded it would have been a good decision throughout 2nd year path.
 
General wisdom is save Uworld until dedicated (or near it).

I personally use True learn now with systems.

In the fall to early spring ill do RX

Uworld as dedicated approaches.

By using Uworld now you are basically robbing yourself of your highest yield source for dedicated...
 
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General wisdom is save Uworld until dedicated (or near it).

I personally use True learn now with systems.

In the fall to early spring ill do RX

Uworld as dedicated approaches.

By using Uworld now you are basically robbing yourself of your highest yield source for dedicated...


I have heard this before but I feel like a lot of people use Uworld as a learning tool and from my experience with my last block that I did it, I think it really did teach me a lot and I didn't use it until I finished going through all of First Aid and done the Rx questions so I felt mildly prepared. Only a few questions did I reach where I really had zero idea about the topic, I felt that I would get to the question and I could see what they're getting at but sometimes my understanding of the topic wasn't at the level they required. The links they make with concepts though is really amazing though and helped me connect multiple topics within the same system. At times, I felt the questions helped me in class when we started to go over material that I had already seen in Uworld - I felt that I knew concepts in a depth slightly better than what was even explained in lecture.

I have heard the same thing that you have heard though but I will say that I have not gotten my exam grade back for my previous exam so I guess that might show how much it really helped or not.
 
I never understood why people say you should save Uworld for dedicated. Seems foolish to me. If you're training for a sport and there's an exercise that's known to be the best for it, why would you "save" it until a few weeks before the championship game? I say do it early, do it multiple times, know the logic of every single question and answer forwards and backwards. You limit yourself by rushing through it at the end.
 
Wouldn't recommend it. Do RX during systems. Then do UWorld during dedicated. The info you acquire from UW is wasted if you just do it passively. UW challenges you on a new level


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I never understood why people say you should save Uworld for dedicated. Seems foolish to me. If you're training for a sport and there's an exercise that's known to be the best for it, why would you "save" it until a few weeks before the championship game? I say do it early, do it multiple times, know the logic of every single question and answer forwards and backwards. You limit yourself by rushing through it at the end.

any good player or coach knows a part of winning a championship is "peaking" at the right time. How can you peak right as you take boards if you are using your best form of practice over a year in advanced? Its not about rushing through it at the end, you should still know it backwords and forwards, rather its about making sure you are getting the right info at the right time fresh in your brain.
 
As an MS1, I am sticking to Rx. I will start Uworld next January. I want to save it for review, since I will forget half of what I learn this year anyway.
 
I would do Kaplan during systems. Also I think UWorld is just low yield for class exams because its just more difficult and tests on details that your classes probably won't.

The reason UWorld is good to save is because it really highlights what you don't know when you think you do. If you don't know the material well then that type of higher order thinking is loss a bit. That said I don't think you necessarily need to completely save it until dedicated but M1 is too early in my book. I'd start going through stuff you've covered in January of M2 or something.
 
Use Kaplan instead. Save UWorld.
 
It's funny how quantity is determined to be equivalent to quality by some med students during dedicated. Some of my friends did UW 1x and even barely, but did it THOROUGHLY during dedicated and scored very well! One friend did UW three times and barely got above average...


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Just stick with your school sources in my opinion. If you go to a decent school, you're getting plenty of info. Get an extremely solid core and then use UWorld when you're starting Step and need to brush up the edges
 
I used Kaplan during systems as others said they did, but it was provided by my school for "free". Another thing to keep in mind about doing UWorld early is that you can reset it and do the questions again. However, you'll have already seen them once and will likely remember more than a few of them, which will essentially be one less useful question to use during dedicated time.
 
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I descent amount of what I have learned in class hasn't showed up in other sources like FA/Rx, DIT, or UWorld and it never seems to me that anyone goes back to learn from their lecture notes when studying for Step. I think that's why I feel that at the end of a block doing Uworld will help solidify what I was learning in DIT, FA, Pathoma, or Rx.

I think what I'm getting at is why not learn all the information now instead of later come dedicated? I don't feel that my school resources prepare me that well looking back at this past block (as in I felt maybe lecture aligned with about 55% of FA, Pathoma and DIT).

It's funny how quantity is determined to be equivalent to quality by some med students during dedicated. Some of my friends did UW 1x and even barely, but did it THOROUGHLY during dedicated and scored very well! One friend did UW three times and barely got above average...


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In response to this, I am not really all about the quantity. I spend a significant amount of time on each question and I read every explanation and if I don't understand it I'll write it down to either review it later or I'll review it right there. I felt like this helped me significantly on a lot of topics that actually did relate to lecture where I had an understanding of the material better than most other students. I do agree entirely what you're saying though and was told that early on and made sure to make not just getting through the questions my goal but made understanding them more a priority.
 
I would do Kaplan during systems. Also I think UWorld is just low yield for class exams because its just more difficult and tests on details that your classes probably won't.

The reason UWorld is good to save is because it really highlights what you don't know when you think you do. If you don't know the material well then that type of higher order thinking is loss a bit. That said I don't think you necessarily need to completely save it until dedicated but M1 is too early in my book. I'd start going through stuff you've covered in January of M2 or something.

Use Kaplan instead. Save UWorld.

If you want more questions than what's in Rx, use Kaplan in addition to Rx. As somebody who is about to enter dedicated and just starting UWorld, save UWorld for dedicated. During dedicated, you need to have a fresh (i.e. no chance of just remembering the questions/answers without understanding the concept), thorough and in-depth qbank so that you can accurately identify gaps in your knowledge. UWorld is your best bet for that.

I used Kaplan during systems as others said they did, but it was provided by my school for "free". Another thing to keep in mind about doing UWorld early is that you can reset it and do the questions again. However, you'll have already seen them once and will likely remember more than a few of them, which will essentially be one less useful question to use during dedicated time.

For you folks who said to use Kaplan instead, I've heard a lot of negative things about Kaplan at my school and from a few other friends that said that Kaplan was detailed in a way that they really didn't think was that helpful or that it focused on information that really wasn't important (I know that's subjective, who really knows what is important and what isn't).

Why did you guys use or prefer to use Kaplan? Did you guys think it really helped during systems?
 
For you folks who said to use Kaplan instead, I've heard a lot of negative things about Kaplan at my school and from a few other friends that said that Kaplan was detailed in a way that they really didn't think was that helpful or that it focused on information that really wasn't important (I know that's subjective, who really knows what is important and what isn't).

Why did you guys use or prefer to use Kaplan? Did you guys think it really helped during systems?

I used it because our school provided it for 'free' as part of our tuition. I used it for systems during second year and felt like it helped a decent amount (we do all systems twice) and I really didn't like the format of Rx, so that was why I used it. I thought it was decently high-yield for our systems classes and the minutiae was mostly stuff we talked about in class, so it worked fine for me. Plus it allowed me to start fresh with UWorld around March/April so I could legitimately track my improvement with that QBank and make sure it was adequate. That's just my opinion and experience with my school's curriculum though, ymmv.
 
For you folks who said to use Kaplan instead, I've heard a lot of negative things about Kaplan at my school and from a few other friends that said that Kaplan was detailed in a way that they really didn't think was that helpful or that it focused on information that really wasn't important (I know that's subjective, who really knows what is important and what isn't).

Why did you guys use or prefer to use Kaplan? Did you guys think it really helped during systems?

Kaplan is overall pretty good. Primarily its practice with the clinical presentations of diseases and concepts. Sure there are some random details but there is a ton of random details in UWorld too. I think its definitely good to use 2 Qbanks. One throughout 2nd year and one in dedicated (Uworld). I can't compare it to anything else but I found it solid and helpful for exams as well as preparing for eventual Uworld.
 
For you folks who said to use Kaplan instead, I've heard a lot of negative things about Kaplan at my school and from a few other friends that said that Kaplan was detailed in a way that they really didn't think was that helpful or that it focused on information that really wasn't important (I know that's subjective, who really knows what is important and what isn't).

Why did you guys use or prefer to use Kaplan? Did you guys think it really helped during systems?

Of course UWorld and NBMEs are the best prep. But if it's anything other than that, I want it to test details, I want it to be hard. Rx is like, coarctation of the aorta = Turner's (yawn). Kaplan is like coarctation of the aorta... is left ventricular volume increased, decreased or the same?

I want test day to seem like a joke. I wanna laugh. So do Kaplan.

NBMEs=UWorld>Kaplan>>Rx>>nothing
 
Of course UWorld and NBMEs are the best prep. But if it's anything other than that, I want it to test details, I want it to be hard. Rx is like, coarctation of the aorta = Turner's (yawn). Kaplan is like coarctation of the aorta... is left ventricular volume increased, decreased or the same?

I want test day to seem like a joke. I wanna laugh. So do Kaplan.

NBMEs=UWorld>Kaplan>>Rx>>nothing

Odd observation: most ppl on this forum who deviated from UWorld too much during dedicated do worse. (Unproven observation)


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Of course UWorld and NBMEs are the best prep. But if it's anything other than that, I want it to test details, I want it to be hard. Rx is like, coarctation of the aorta = Turner's (yawn). Kaplan is like coarctation of the aorta... is left ventricular volume increased, decreased or the same?

I want test day to seem like a joke. I wanna laugh. So do Kaplan.

NBMEs=UWorld>Kaplan>>Rx>>nothing

Would you consider this the ideal study plan?
Kaplan/RX/FA during MS2
UWorld/NBMEs/FA during dedicated


Also do you feel like FA is enough to cover the vast majority of what is on step 1? My biggest fear is getting a significant portion of questions wrong on Step 1 because I literally didn't cover that disease or pathway since it wasn't in the above mentioned resources. And I guess more importantly, if there are topics that aren't covered in FA is there any efficient way to cover them through another review resource, or do we just have to suck it up and just take the hit if there's no way to target that material?

EDIT: Forgot to add Pathoma, and yes I'm already using it
 
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Would you consider this the ideal study plan?
Kaplan/RX/FA during MS2
UWorld/NBMEs/FA during dedicated


Also do you feel like FA is enough to cover the vast majority of what is on step 1? My biggest fear is getting a significant portion of questions wrong on Step 1 because I literally didn't cover that disease or pathway since it wasn't in the above mentioned resources. And I guess more importantly, if there are topics that aren't covered in FA is there any efficient way to cover them through another review resource, or do we just have to suck it up and just take the hit if there's no way to target that material?

There might be 1 or 2 questions on the real thing that are not technically covered in UFAP. These could be experimental. Few get these right anyways. There was a question I got right only because I knew if from my current research.

Excluding that, literally everything is covered by UFAP. My motto is, for content review, use few resources and know them really well. For questions, do as many as possible.

When I recommended Kaplan, I was recommending it for pre-dedicated, so yes, during MS2 is perfect. So is Rx. If I could go back, I'd get both done during MS2. For sure, dedicated = UFAP/NBME.
 
My school has blocks that have subunits eg. Immuno, allergy, and ID in a block. I do Kaplan while in each subunit and then do UWorld once that subunit is over (and then finish the UWorld by the final exam for the block).
Pre-clinicals end December, so the year above me already finished Step. Many said they regret not starting UWorld earlier and many people who got 250+ used it. At least for my curriculum, I think it works well

I really recommend Kaplan. I find it harder than UWorld and it makes connections that I wouldn't always think of myself. Learned a good bit from them. A basic example of the difference between Rx and Kaplan would be a patient with PID. Rx would give the symptoms and ask you the causative bacteria (so you need to recognize the disease and then know the bacteria). Kaplan would give you symptoms and ask what the immune response would be (you need to know the RX info plus actually understand what the bacteria is doing and how the immune system works)
 
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There might be 1 or 2 questions on the real thing that are not technically covered in UFAP. These could be experimental. Few get these right anyways. There was a question I got right only because I knew if from my current research.

Excluding that, literally everything is covered by UFAP. My motto is, for content review, use few resources and know them really well. For questions, do as many as possible.

When I recommended Kaplan, I was recommending it for pre-dedicated, so yes, during MS2 is perfect. So is Rx. If I could go back, I'd get both done during MS2. For sure, dedicated = UFAP/NBME.

If everything is essentially covered in UFAP then why not learn those to the best of your ability? I remember reading about one student who made (and I think started) the UWorld journal concept and others who followed scored really well. Why then is it a bad idea to learn from UWorld earlier and be set to memorize the information in it sooner than later?

The one thing that seems to also lean me towards doing UWorld earlier is that people who scored a higher % correct on UWorld during their 2nd run tended to do better on Step 1 (this is a general tend I feel like...right?). Wouldn't it then help to learn all this information sooner and have a better change at understanding and memorizing it all rather than trying to cram it in later all during dedicated?
 
@Anti-PD1 and @cj_cregg (and anyone else that used kaplan)

Would you guys recommend doing Kaplan then for the block or for the previous block that that we just finished? I usually wouldn't start Rx until about the second week in the block when I had gone through all the information myself and through a decent amount of anki.

Or how else would anyone recommend to use Kaplan?
 
If everything is essentially covered in UFAP then why not learn those to the best of your ability? I remember reading about one student who made (and I think started) the UWorld journal concept and others who followed scored really well. Why then is it a bad idea to learn from UWorld earlier and be set to memorize the information in it sooner than later?

The one thing that seems to also lean me towards doing UWorld earlier is that people who scored a higher % correct on UWorld during their 2nd run tended to do better on Step 1 (this is a general tend I feel like...right?). Wouldn't it then help to learn all this information sooner and have a better change at understanding and memorizing it all rather than trying to cram it in later all during dedicated?

This is a great question, and a hard one to answer, because everyone learns differently. What it basically boils down to is, does UWorld have every concept within its questions and explanations that will be tested on the real deal.

If UWorld does encompass everything, then yes, learning UWorld well, by doing it early and often, will result in a higher score.

If UWorld doesn't encompass everything, then you will have high UWorld averages, but your actual test might not be forgiving.

I personally like to see concepts from multiple angles. There's definitely a 'UWorld-ness' to the UWorld questions. Like, I'm prepared for some BS out of left field when I do their questions.

I don't think you'll go wrong either way.

FWIW, people that are using UWorld early and then doing it again, are typically very focused. They have Step 1 in mind from early on. They are seeing concepts multiple times.

I swear by UWorld like the next guy. Anyway, food for thought I guess.
 
Here's how I do it for my school's NBME organ block exams. For the first part of the block, I read and make/do Anki cards from my resources - High Yield Embryo, Costanzo, Sketchy, Pathoma, whatever else I need, and wrap up with First Aid to see the big picture and get a quick review. About a week before the exam, I do all the Kaplan and Rx questions for that organ system, and take notes on the concepts I got wrong. The last couple days before exam, I review my Kaplan/Rx notes and redo/review the questions I got wrong. I'm not sure redoing the questions is super helpful, but it's a bit of a confidence booster before the exam if I get most of them right and it doesn't take much of my time.


You're assuming that the information in UWorld isn't available elsewhere. If you are using enough resources to actually study for your courses, whether that's lectures or something like Pathoma or a textbook or whatever, you should be able to get all that information without using UWorld. As I'm approaching dedicated time, there is very little in UWorld right now that is totally new to me - it's just a matter of refreshing my memory. So doing UWorld later =/= learning the material in UWorld later.

The key here is that you need a fresh question bank to review leading up to Step. It is way easier than you think to remember a multiple choice question and answer without actually remembering the concept behind the answer. So during dedicated time, if you're going back through questions you have already done, the last thing you want to be doing is just instinctually remembering/choosing the answer without understanding why that's the answer.
It also depends on your qbanking strategy.

I type 1/2 page or more for each UWorld q in a dedicated UWorld doc by subunit. Since I have the time now I can do that and I make sure I know as much about each topic as I can. When I redo them during dedicated, I am going to at least skim the explanation for each q, even if I get the answer right. I know myself well enough to say "I got that right, but I know I don't really understand why it's right. I better focus on that topic." And there are plenty of fresh q bank qs I get right without knowing why the answers are right or that weren't correct for the reason I thought they were, so being new qs has the same problem. UWorld is good for its explanation and breadth, which you benefit from even if you remember some answers. Imo; everyone is different

Edit: is high yield embryology a good way to teach yourself embryology? My school's worst lecturer is doing that topic, so I am crap at it
 
Recent test-taker, scored ~ 1 SD above the mean... and I highly recommend doing 2 passes through UWORLD (1st during classes, 2nd during dedicated). It's the gold standard of q-banks. And while sure, you will remember the answers to certain questions (especially the case-presentations which stick out a little), what you're really doing is re-enforcing presentations and concepts. I would recommend AGAINST adding another qbank (like Kaplan). Resource overload is a very dangerous thing for step-1 studying.
 
Anyone have any opinions on firecracker for use during pre-clinical years?
 
Great idea


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Cool. It appears that the generally consensus is not to get too bogged down with resources...for example would trying to do Kaplan, Rx, Firecracker, FA all during pre-clinical be too much?
 
Cool. It appears that the generally consensus is not to get too bogged down with resources...for example would trying to do Kaplan, Rx, Firecracker, FA all during pre-clinical be too much?
There is a free 30 day trial for firecracker. I hate firecracker, but I know many people who like it
 
Cool. It appears that the generally consensus is not to get too bogged down with resources...for example would trying to do Kaplan, Rx, Firecracker, FA all during pre-clinical be too much?

I have firecracker, and really like it. However, I do not have time everyday to do it. Once you far enough in you are looking at an hour or 2 a day of questions (unless you know them all dead cold and are just flying through them).
 
Recent test-taker, scored ~ 1 SD above the mean... and I highly recommend doing 2 passes through UWORLD (1st during classes, 2nd during dedicated).

Hi Caseyjones,
Are congratulations in order or regrets?

You did not indicate if 2 passes of UWorld got you the score you earned or whether you wished you had done 2 passes to score higher. What would you do differently if you could do it over?

The mean at my school is below the national mean, as reported by the admins. Word of mouth reveals that few completed one pass of UWorld. Those that did 3 passes of Uworld did quite well.
 
@Anti-PD1 and @cj_cregg (and anyone else that used kaplan)

Would you guys recommend doing Kaplan then for the block or for the previous block that that we just finished? I usually wouldn't start Rx until about the second week in the block when I had gone through all the information myself and through a decent amount of anki.

Or how else would anyone recommend to use Kaplan?

I used it as a review source for my blocks. I'd usually do around 20-30 questions a night for the last week or two during the block to make sure I wasn't missing anything. Plus that way I had seen most of the material in the Qbank at least once before doing questions on it. I'll also note I'd use it on tutor mode until a few days before the test. I feel like you get more bang for your buck with tutor mode (in terms of time and efficiency), then when the test starts approaching you can start getting timing down.

If you really want to use it to prepare for boards, use it with each block, then 3-4 nights a week do a timed 10 question block that is a mix of every section you've done so far. It'll help keep you used to doing timed questions while making sure you're touching on each of the past blocks you've already finished and refreshing that info periodically. I'll add that I used Kaplan in a much different manner than I did UWorld. For Kaplan, I mainly just used it to test my knowledge and didn't teach myself from it much. For UWorld (during dedicated), I really took the time to review the questions early on and made sure I knew everything thoroughly, then used it as less of a teaching tool and more of a refresher the closer to boards I got.

Cool. It appears that the generally consensus is not to get too bogged down with resources...for example would trying to do Kaplan, Rx, Firecracker, FA all during pre-clinical be too much?

If you're trying to use each source each day, then yes that's too much. If you're picking one or two sources as your primary tools and using the others to fill in the gaps, you're fine. Remember, the goal is not to see the material in as many different ways as possible. The goal is to find a resource or two that really work for you and use that/those as your way to learn the material, then you can use other resources to fill in the gaps when you encounter them. I'll also add that I think using Kaplan, Rx, and Firecracker is overkill in terms of questions. Choose 1 Qbank to review with during the year (maybe a second if you're finishing everything in one qbank with a lot of time to spare) and use it as a means to test what you're learning and find gaps, not as a primary source to learn the material.

*Side note: FA is not enough to do well on boards. Like the Pathoma book, it's an outline or skeleton of what you really need to know, so if you're going to use it as your main source for boards studying, you should be using it throughout the year and annotating in it as you go. That way you've got the outline as well as the notes you need to remind yourself of why those points in FA are actually important.
 
Hi Caseyjones,
Are congratulations in order or regrets?

You did not indicate if 2 passes of UWorld got you the score you earned or whether you wished you had done 2 passes to score higher. What would you do differently if you could do it over?

The mean at my school is below the national mean, as reported by the admins. Word of mouth reveals that few completed one pass of UWorld. Those that did 3 passes of Uworld did quite well.

I think there's a general agreement among med students that you need to shoot for a minimum 1 full pass on UWorld, whether you're using other banks or not. I've never heard anyone recommend otherwise. I'd guess that the people at your school who didn't complete a pass at UWorld needed to spend a lot more time learning/re-learning material and had a weaker foundation going into dedicated time (as was the case for the people I know that didn't finish UWorld).

Those I know of that managed to finish 2 passes of UWorld all did pretty exceptionally, though I'm not sure if it is because they did 2 passes of UWorld or because their previous knowledge base was strong enough that they were able to focus on doing more UWorld and needed less time for other sources of review (like FA, pathoma, etc). I've never heard of anyone managing to do 3 passes of UWorld (as that would basically mean UWorld was their only review source), but I'd imagine they'd have an exceptionally strong knowledge base to get through that many passes.
 
Hi Caseyjones,
Are congratulations in order or regrets?

You did not indicate if 2 passes of UWorld got you the score you earned or whether you wished you had done 2 passes to score higher. What would you do differently if you could do it over?

The mean at my school is below the national mean, as reported by the admins. Word of mouth reveals that few completed one pass of UWorld. Those that did 3 passes of Uworld did quite well.
Ahh, sorry for the ambiguity. I did 2 passes through uworld, and I felt like my conceptual retention was way better the 2nd time around. It just kept giving me the feeling that I was re-enforcing material. If I could go back and do it again, I'd probably try to get a 1st pass through First Aid during class organ systems.
 
Ahh, sorry for the ambiguity. I did 2 passes through uworld, and I felt like my conceptual retention was way better the 2nd time around. It just kept giving me the feeling that I was re-enforcing material. If I could go back and do it again, I'd probably try to get a 1st pass through First Aid during class organ systems.

Thanks for answering. MD Students I knew who were a year ahead of me who scored in the 90th+ percentile told me that 3 passes of UWorld was their key. They really drove this point home to me...hence my question.
 
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You're basically wasting your UWorld this way and it won't reflect what you might get on the USMLE. My advice is mid-fall MS-2 do Rx, January re-do wrong Rx, feb to USMLE do UWorld 2x. If you just want to burn material for MS-1 class use some lower quality bank like Becker or Kaplan.
 
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