Easiest Way to Do a First Pass of UWorld During a Semester

[Iatrike]

I'm nearing towards the end of MS-2 and my Step 1 date is likely late May or early June, so I have roughly 4 months until my exam. I've calculated that in order to make 2 passes of UWorld I would need to complete a minimum of 27 questions per day until the beginning of April, which would mark the end of the second to last exam and beginning of the last remaining part of MS-2 before the last exam. At that point I would switch to doing 49 Questions per day and more once the semester fully ends and I'm in my dedicated Step 1 period.

My question is, how can I hasten my first pass without losing comprehension and understanding of the material I learn from UWorld? It currently takes me anywhere from 6-15 minutes to do each question on Tutor Mode. This is roughly 3-5 hours per day. I take notes on a notebook about 6x9, and it's usually about 1 page per question, taking very succinct short-hand. Does anyone have any advice or tips on how to go faster to ensure I cover at least the minimum 27 questions per day, or any pointers as to what works for you that helps you to get through it?

Edit/PostScript:
After additional reading, I suppose I've discovered the mistake I'm making for this unit -- I tried to go straight to the questions without doing Pathoma, First Aid, etc., in order to build a foundational understanding first. After reading other threads it's supposed to take me roughly 2-3 hours for a 46 question block.
Can anyone speak in the confirmatory as to whether or not I have this right?

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[HLxDrummer]

I'm not in the same position since I have been/am using Firecracker but I think you may be taking too long per question. I have just been doing 5 questions/day since I am doing 200-300 FC questions a day on top of class. However it takes me maybe a minute or two to do each one. Just answer and read the description and maybe google something.

Where are you getting hung up?

 

[Iatrike]

After talking to classmates since this post and thinking about it I actually think it's because I always go for the questions for the particular organ system we are covering in class and not passed organ systems and since I do this if I'm not yet familiar enough with that organ system it takes me a long time to read through the explanations given to really learn it. I'm going to try to do some more familiar systems or wait until later on in the unit and see if I still have that same problem and how I can adjust it.

 

[Ionian]

It takes you 15 minutes to do a question because your arent ready to do Uworld questions...
Then you're like oh crap this is hard I should get through uworld as soon as possible, and the terrible cycle doesnt stop.

And you come to the end, or near your test and you have no resource to practice test taking that mimics step as much because you burned all your Uworld questions. Likely only getting them correct now, because you have seen them before.

I bet that's why it wont take 15 minutes anymore, because you studied 1 fricking question for 15 minutes. Less because you learned anything or gained test taking skills.

You should save those questions. There are a tons of other resources to utilize. rr/webpath/robbins/Rx. I bet if you had did all those and learned well, your performance on uworld would be pretty good.

Edit/PostScript:
After additional reading, I suppose I've discovered the mistake I'm making for this unit -- I tried to go straight to the questions without doing Pathoma, First Aid, etc., in order to build a foundational understanding first. After reading other threads it's supposed to take me roughly 2-3 hours for a 46 question block.
Can anyone speak in the confirmatory as to whether or not I have this right?

Yes, this was a mistake. Learn the material first. Stop jumping straight to uworld.

jeez I keep seeing this, even with my class mates, fear making them act crazy. Uworld questions on x system is hard? Well have you studied the pathology for that system yet? -no. Well there ya go.

 

[Iatrike]

It takes you 15 minutes to do a question because your arent ready to do Uworld questions...
Then you're like oh crap this is hard I should get through uworld as soon as possible, and the terrible cycle doesnt stop.

And you come to the end, or near your test and you have no resource to practice test taking that mimics step as much because you burned all your Uworld questions. Likely only getting them correct now, because you have seen them before.

I bet that's why it wont take 15 minutes anymore, because you studied 1 fricking question for 15 minutes. Less because you learned anything or gained test taking skills.

You should save those questions. There are a tons of other resources to utilize. rr/webpath/robbins/Rx. I bet if you had did all those and learned well, your performance on uworld would be pretty good.



Yes, this was a mistake. Learn the material first. Stop jumping straight to uworld.

jeez I keep seeing this, even with my class mates, fear making them act crazy. Uworld questions on x system is hard? Well have you studied the pathology for that system yet? -no. Well there ya go.

Yes, that makes sense -- complete Rx to cover the material from First Aid, then some Kaplan QBank if I can, then later in the unit come back to UWorld and do all of the questions with the added knowledge that I've gained. I can try to give that a try.

Believe it or not there are some in my class who can start the first day of the Unit doing nothing but UWorld and maintain a 70% average and then start studying the material 1.5-2 weeks into the unit after completing all of the relevant UWorld questions for the unit.

 

[Iatrike]

Then I'm also presuming I can get through the UWorld questions faster, correct? My concern is my quota to meet for first-pass completion by early April.

 

[Iatrike]

Do you think it's still possible to make 1 pass by April if I made these adjustments?

 

[Ionian]

Then I'm also presuming I can get through the UWorld questions faster, correct? My concern is my quota to meet for first-pass completion by early April.

Why dont you make your test date later into june like around the 20th? Give your self 6 weeks after school is over to do another pass of uworld.

If you are doing it earlier our plans are different. Uworld for me starts after spring break, and ends with final exams (early may).

yes, it goes without saying if you learn the material, material you are tested on should go smoother/faster. Learn first, then do questions. That shouldnt be a big secret.

Yes, there are people in my class to hell bent on memorizing Uworld right now, w/o learning. God bless em. Im sure its hell. It's less painful for me to actually just do my work... understand, and not memorize.
For some people opening up a book is more painful, and they can default to memorize/repetition. Its what ever works for you.

 

[Iatrike]

I see. Our class doesn't have that luxury, actually. We finish near the end of April and have until the beginning of June to take it. We get almost 6 weeks but it comes sooner.

 

[notbobtrustme]

Just do the questions and read the explanations. If it's something from left field (or an error in your thought process), jot it down on a notecard/First Aid. You shouldn't need to write out every piece of information.

After doing about 500 U-world questions, I have a stack of like 60 notecards with information on them.

 

[Iatrike]

I see -- thanks for getting back to me, people, and for the wise advice. Let's just see how it goes after I put these things into practice.

 

[Iatrike]

Here's a conclusion that I'm drawing closer and closer to: If I wanted to use UWorld as an assessment of my progress then I should save it until my dedicated period. But I'm deciding not to do this and to try to study it every day since the real purpose of UWorld is to learn from the database of questions -- to learn how a pathology or disease is presented in vignette form, exactly how it's presented on the Step 1. I think if I wanted a more accurate assessment of my progress I'm better off taking an NBME at carefully calculated times in my study schedule. I think if I left UWorld until just the time-period I'd forfeit incorporating a very powerful tool early on and put it off until later.
The concern is by doing UWorld before I'm ready I'd be relying on memory rather than understanding, but I think that this can be dodged by how I use UWorld -- I think if I got as up to speed on the material as I could first, then did a question block on Timed mode and then checked my answers I would avoid the issue of not truly understanding the question, and it would take me less time to review. Of course I haven't practiced this habitually and have seen that it works for my learning style yet (as I'm trying not to make costly mistakes that kill my time). But it seems to me that this is how I could use UWorld early while avoid the mistake you mentioned, Ionian.
Ionian, what are your thoughts on this?

 

[Ionian]

Here's a conclusion that I'm drawing closer and closer to: If I wanted to use UWorld as an assessment of my progress then I should save it until my dedicated period. But I'm deciding not to do this and to try to study it every day since the real purpose of UWorld is to learn from the database of questions -- to learn how a pathology or disease is presented in vignette form, exactly how it's presented on the Step 1. I think if I wanted a more accurate assessment of my progress I'm better off taking an NBME at carefully calculated times in my study schedule. I think if I left UWorld until just the time-period I'd forfeit incorporating a very powerful tool early on and put it off until later.
The concern is by doing UWorld before I'm ready I'd be relying on memory rather than understanding, but I think that this can be dodged by how I use UWorld -- I think if I got as up to speed on the material as I could first, then did a question block on Timed mode and then checked my answers I would avoid the issue of not truly understanding the question, and it would take me less time to review. Of course I haven't practiced this habitually and have seen that it works for my learning style yet (as I'm trying not to make costly mistakes that kill my time). But it seems to me that this is how I could use UWorld early while avoid the mistake you mentioned, Ionian.
Ionian, what are your thoughts on this?

In my opinion do as many questions as possible. I don't even see how you would have time to go ahead and burn uworld questions.
I understand you want to learn how the diseases will be presented, Web path is great for that, and so is this:
http://www.amazon.com/Robbins-Cotran-Review-Pathology-Edition/dp/1416049304/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390158851&sr=8-1&keywords=review of robbins pathology

FA + questions. This is what I have done for cardio:
Pathoma/Pocket robbins (i love this book)/Rapid review (did pathoma/rr twice)
Questions:
-Path: RR online questions/Webpath/Robbins review of pathology/USMLERx (thats about 350 questions alone)
-Pharm: pretest pharm (another 96 questions)
-Phys. BRS (60 questions) pretest phys (2001 edition!) (another 100) and guyton and hall phys (roughy 60 more?)
-Also mix in anatomy and I actually did the embryo questions out of brs which were pretty easy... because they are basically pathology questions... except for the obscure origin questions.

Thats like 600-700 questions on just cardio.... I did that over 3 days. Then I did all of them again 4 more times over the next few days, only annotated into first aid things i consistantly had trouble with, but only if I get a question/concept wrong a few times, eventually you will learn it cold, and wont have to worry about annotating it anyway.
For me I'd rather do the question again then annotate it. Saves times, builds practice and recall. But I've already annotated a lot since into my copy since physiology of first year anyway, so phys/immuno/biochem/micro/behavioral are solid in it already.

So did all those questions without burning Uworld, which I guarantee you, will cover nothing out of the scope of what I have covered.
That why Im not scared into doing it now.
Like im going to be like "x syndrome/disease? what I've never heard of this? Uworld has stuff Ive never seen! so hard!" yeah right.

 

[Iatrike]

In my opinion do as many questions as possible. I don't even see how you would have time to go ahead and burn uworld questions.
I understand you want to learn how the diseases will be presented, Web path is great for that, and so is this:
http://www.amazon.com/Robbins-Cotran-Review-Pathology-Edition/dp/1416049304/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390158851&sr=8-1&keywords=review of robbins pathology

FA + questions. This is what I have done for cardio:
Pathoma/Pocket robbins (i love this book)/Rapid review (did pathoma/rr twice)
Questions:
-Path: RR online questions/Webpath/Robbins review of pathology/USMLERx (thats about 350 questions alone)
-Pharm: pretest pharm (another 96 questions)
-Phys. BRS (60 questions) pretest phys (2001 edition!) (another 100) and guyton and hall phys (roughy 60 more?)
-Also mix in anatomy and I actually did the embryo questions out of brs which were pretty easy... because they are basically pathology questions... except for the obscure origin questions.

Thats like 600-700 questions on just cardio.... I did that over 3 days. Then I did all of them again 4 more times over the next few days, only annotated into first aid things i consistantly had trouble with, but only if I get a question/concept wrong a few times, eventually you will learn it cold, and wont have to worry about annotating it anyway.
For me I'd rather do the question again then annotate it. Saves times, builds practice and recall. But I've already annotated a lot since into my copy since physiology of first year anyway, so phys/immuno/biochem/micro/behavioral are solid in it already.

So did all those questions without burning Uworld, which I guarantee you, will cover nothing out of the scope of what I have covered.
That why Im not scared into doing it now.
Like im going to be like "x syndrome/disease? what I've never heard of this? Uworld has stuff Ive never seen! so hard!" yeah right.

I see. Yes I have all of those books. I've used some of them at different times. Do you use BRS Pathology (like Phloston)? I've used it previously but the questions were not reflective of the difficulty of our exams and it sort of soured me on using non-question banks for questions. The text worked as a nice overview of what I read in other sources, rather. I think I would use Pre-Test, however, because those are a bit more difficult and test whether or not you've grasped the material studied.

 

[Ionian]

I see. Yes I have all of those books. I've used some of them at different times. Do you use BRS Pathology (like Phloston)? I've used it previously but the questions were not reflective of the difficulty of our exams and it sort of soured me on using non-question banks for questions. The text worked as a nice overview of what I read in other sources, rather. I think I would use Pre-Test, however, because those are a bit more difficult and test whether or not you've grasped the material studied.

No I do not use BRS path (even for the questions, they are terrible)
You should be able to do pretest phys, hopefully that was something you worked through first year. That why its important to always go through a crap load of questions, makes it easier later.

As for pretest pharm, a lot of it is straight from First aid. Pharm has crappy resources for learning (i know because I've bought them all).

The best you can do is simply watch the kaplan video --> annotate into the FA pharm section, read FA pharm section, then do pretest pharm questions.
Other than that, practice question you get through USMLRx/Uworld/Practice NBMEs will be good enough.

Katzung review of pharm questions are too esoteric. Lippincotts illustrated review Q&A pharm, are not of great quality and error filled (only a first edition, just came out, I had high hopes for it because I enjoyed the Lippincotts questions books for Micro/Immuno, and Anatomy but isn't good).

 

[Iatrike]

Hmm... I haven't been using the Pre-Test books I have. I'll give that a try. Thanks, those are good things to remember.

 

[001100010010011]

BRS Path is a good overview and has strong first order questions so that you can recognize the material. The questions take 10 minutes to do, max.

 

[Iatrike]

BRS Path is a good overview and has strong first order questions so that you can recognize the material. The questions take 10 minutes to do, max.

Yes that was precisely why I stopped using it (for questions at least). They were too easy -- very deceptive.