doing UW more than once?

[swtiepie711]

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In looking at the UW % and Step 2 score comparison, seems like most people did UW once (or less than once).

Anyone go through UW qbank more than once?

I ask b/c at my school, a lot of pp use UW for internal medicine shelf, which I have in March. Wasn't sure if it's a good or bad idea to use UW for the shelf, and then later for step 2.

Some argue using the bank means its not fresh for step 2; others argue that going through it more than once is great, makes sure you really know your stuff, you're not likely to remember the details of >1500 questions anyways, etc.

Also, do pp use other qbanks? seems like mainly UW, but wasn't sure if Kaplan or others are used much....

Thanks so much & best of luck to everyone!

 

[doc20]

if you are in US school and currently on rotations and have not been slacking off, UW once is enough

 

[JDWflash44]

I don't know how high yield going through it more than once is. I went back the last few days and tried to start doing the questions that I had gotten wrong again and it was not a great use of my time. I just remembered almost all the answers(~96%) off the top of my head from being familiar with the questions from the 1st time around (or I guess maybe I actually learned it 😱 ).

 

[swtiepie711]

if you are in US school and currently on rotations and have not been slacking off, UW once is enough

Thx for the reply but I think you misinterpreted my question.

All of the stuff on the other board is about people who used UW when they decided to prep for step 2 and went through it once.

I was wondering about people who used UW during the year, then used it a couple months into 4th year to prep for step 2 (such that one was, say, using it in March and then not using it, then using it again in August)

For people using it during the year, reseting the acct and then doing it again - I'd assume you're % would go up, but maybe be falsely elevated (since technically you saw the material before and learned the facts before). Was just curious about anyone who had done this & what their thoughts are on it (i.e. if they had it to do over again, would they have left UW untouched during MS3 year & pristine for Step 2 prep)

Thx for any thoughts 🙂

 

[docbill]

Thx for the reply but I think you misinterpreted my question.

All of the stuff on the other board is about people who used UW when they decided to prep for step 2 and went through it once.

I was wondering about people who used UW during the year, then used it a couple months into 4th year to prep for step 2 (such that one was, say, using it in March and then not using it, then using it again in August)

For people using it during the year, reseting the acct and then doing it again - I'd assume you're % would go up, but maybe be falsely elevated (since technically you saw the material before and learned the facts before). Was just curious about anyone who had done this & what their thoughts are on it (i.e. if they had it to do over again, would they have left UW untouched during MS3 year & pristine for Step 2 prep)

Thx for any thoughts 🙂

I am currently doing that. I don't know how it will work, I will let you know next fall. However if the worst thing that can happen is I memorize things... then I am all game for that. I don't know how much I am going to recall from a specific question 7 months after I did it.

BTW, it is working great for studying for rotations. It covers things that are not covered on the floor or in FA or in Kaplan or other sources.

 

[badgerred]

Going through UW more than once helped me. I went through it 3 times on the advice of others and did really well on USMLE Step 2. There are a lot of fine details on the UW questions that you will miss unless you repeat it. A lot of USMLE questions don't just test main concepts but fine details. And those fine details are in the answer explanations and distractor choices. For example, I had a question on the NBME that asked for the specific pathophysiologic mechanism of why an acute appendicitis starts periumbilical and radiates to the right lower quadrant (Answer: peritoneal inflammation). And to be honest, if I had gone through it a couple of more times, I would have done even better