Feedback on USMLERX

[jhu1]

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I have heard that USMLERX is way easier that the other qbanks and not representative but I started doing like 200 questions and I felt like they are very comparable to UW , ok like maybe 10% easier but very solid questions on hard topics ...

anyone else want to share their thaughts?

 

[sendwich]

I've only done 500 or so, and so far it really is easier than uworld (not as many 2-3 step problems). I usually resort to Rx when I'm feeling slammed by uworld...then when i feel more confident with the material/built enough basic knowledge, go back to uworld. It's not a bad qbank but I wouldn't use it alone.

 

[FutureInternist]

I thought the Qs were way easier than the actual USMLE & UW. The explanations were also not as detailed.
I would stick w/ UW. 👍

 

[Disinence2]

USMLErx is almost completely reliant on "Buzzwords" in my opinion. I happen to know more of these so I usually do really well on USMLErx. Uworld on the other hand.....

 

[Tristy]

Not that I have money to burn, but I got UW, and I will get RX just to help me memorize the darn FA,like tables, for example, ah! the virus tables, eeek!! 😱 I learn more from doing questions than from passive reading, but ok, sometimes you have no other choice than to just read 🙄.

I'm torn on whether or not to buy Kaplan...maybe towards the last month, but, I don't know.... those question (like everybody says) are very nitpicky in general, but I felt it was solid for the ethics, behavioral, feel-good questions. (I was going to take the exam last year and I got both UW and Kaplan, but life happened and I will be taking it in July, late July)

Ok, maybe the questions from Rx aren't up to par with UW or Kaplan, but if it helps me to remember FA cover to cover then I think it's money well spent, IMHO. I'm not gonna be cheap for this exam, that's for sure.

 

[Disinence2]

I was cheap and that's why I got USMLErx!

Your right, it is great for testing your ability to memorize FA, but in terms of reasoning through tricky questions, it doesn't even come close to UWorld

 

[Disinence2]

One more thing about USMLErx,

All the errors in FA are compounded in the questions bank. My friends got some gift cards just for pointing out the same mistakes in their errata documents that follow over into the qbank.

So keep your eye out!

 

[pepotonoto]

Some say there are mistakes/errors in the explanations? I mean how many can there be? USMLErx might rely heavily on buzzwords - in fact, it mentions that in the FA's review of various question banks.

It's understood that UW vs RX are of completely different entities and you can't compare the two. Both can be used as different learning tools with different goals in mind.

I had written to a few people here on their opinion of rx, and it still seemed to be mixed. It was a choice between RX and kaplan Qbank for a second set of questions. I'm doing UW now but wanted something that will "force" me into going through FA again. I called kaplan to ask about their page references and they said kaplan's qbank gives references to the First Aid 2008 and medessentials book but NOT to everything. I've realized in the end, that it's also very difficult to compare RX vs Kaplan too because of the length of explanations, teaching tabs, etc. all being on kaplan's side.

It would be nice to hear some more of the pro's instead of the more obvious cons.

 

[Tristy]

Some say there are mistakes/errors in the explanations? I mean how many can there be? USMLErx might rely heavily on buzzwords - in fact, it mentions that in the FA's review of various question banks.

It's understood that UW vs RX are of completely different entities and you can't compare the two. Both can be used as different learning tools with different goals in mind.

I had written to a few people here on their opinion of rx, and it still seemed to be mixed. It was a choice between RX and kaplan Qbank for a second set of questions. I'm doing UW now but wanted something that will "force" me into going through FA again. I called kaplan to ask about their page references and they said kaplan's qbank gives references to the First Aid 2008 and medessentials book but NOT to everything. I've realized in the end, that it's also very difficult to compare RX vs Kaplan too because of the length of explanations, teaching tabs, etc. all being on kaplan's side.

It would be nice to hear some more of the pro's instead of the more obvious cons.

If you have money to burn, why not get both (plus UW of course, we don't want to upset the Gods,mmmk?)? Then you can renew on the one you liked the most 😉 Plus....check your PM

 

[med762]

USMLEworld is great!! USMLEworld is 200 times better than USMLErx.

Beware, USMLErx is awful. The questions are too long, the explanations are too long especially when time is of the essence. And I found that the answers and explanations were often erroneous. When I confronted USMLErx about errors in their answers and explanations, they ignored me and refused to confront this issue. I had to go through my credit card company to dispute the charge to get my money back. Then, after I got my money back through my credit card company, USMLErx had the nerve to contact me and accuse me of stealing their services. These people are nuts.

 

[imable24]

Is it just me or has USMLErx been down all day?

 

[Tristy]

Is the thing really that awful? I guess I'll just use their q-book (maybe), and buy kaplan qbank...I thought that Rx could be of some help to memorize the book,the stupid little details,that kind of thing...

 

[thedon35]

I dont think it is too bad.... UW is best all around and Qbank is OKAY.... but USMLErx has its place... especially if you are trying to memorize First Aid.

 

[kdburton]

I got this book (Q&A for the USMLE Step 1) from an upperclassman... Its from the first aid series. Does anyone know if its the same style as USMLERx by any chance?

 

[Quepasa]

I have both UWorld and USMLERX, and I really like the RX. I find that their explanations and references to the charts and specific pages of FA make everything stick much better for me. Also, I was pleasantly surprised to find that RX does not formulate questions based solely on the info in FA, it goes way beyond, so it is also a good tool to help with annotating FA. The only real con for me is that their question stems are definitely longer than UWorld and the NBME's.

For the person who asked, the FA Q&A is very similar to RX, but RX is MUCH more thorough (it actually has way more questions than UWorld)

 

[Teee]

i have q and a and usmlerx, i believe the book is just some of the questions from usmlerx. there are over 3300 questions on usmlerx. there are some questions that have nothing to do with first aid as in they dont even have a reference page for them. i have seen similar concepts on usmlerx, uworld, and nbme tests. i defenitely prefer usmelrx explanations to uworld. i have had usmlerx since december so maybe i am biased. the average on usmlerx is in the mid 60s and that of uworld i believe is in the 50s, so i dont think its that "easy".

 

[pepotonoto]

I think the others put it very well. It's NOT a replacement, BUT it can make you go through FA if you use it as a tool. I just tried a series of system based questions, and I thought the explanations were short and to the point. Ok, they are not as detailed or extensive like UW for example. Some explanations were not the best but overall, it's a bit different.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the First Aid Q&A was constructed from select questions of RX.

The page reference for the most part are not too bad, b/c the question somewhat revolves around that particular FA slide. The cool thing is, you're given some sort of case presentation/question that somewhat guides you to seeing how that question could fit in based on content from that particular slide or section of FA. On the other hand, sometimes you end up seeing the same FA page reference over and over again. The micro ones kind of suck b/c your given the whole table again to look at, even if 99% of the other bugs were not asked in the question. It doesn't matter though, you can stare at it if you wish again.

There are some questions with strange or completely off - FA references, but heck - having the book in front of you with the Q's is not so bad.

I was considering DIT at a later time, but looking at RX coupled with the questions and references makes it a bit easier to flip through the book for a first pass. I learn much more by doing questions, and I don't think DIT (I'll have to find this out - I think they give more conceptual open ended questions) gives so many of those types of USMLE-style questions. RX might not be up to par, but it seems close.

UW or Qbank is definitely needed for some of the higher order thinking, but I'm sure the boards still require you to know some 1/2/3 step reasoning as well, and that's where RX might come into play -

If you're using RX after you've went through material from other sources, I think those explanations were enough - just based from what I have been doing from Kaplan. I'll pick up anything deeper from doing UW.

Talking to a few others, this isn't such a bad way to actively clear FA. Downside is that there are over 3000 questions. The other negative is, does anyone know if they will shift to Fred Version 2?
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