First aid Rx questions or Start UWorld before dedicated

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AnonymousDo

You can call me Dr. Star
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Hey guys!

So I'm about to start doing practice questions and was wondering if I should do First Aid Rx questions or do Uworld before dedicated so I can get through Uworld twice before my exam. I've heard a lot of people saying to save it for dedicated and I've also heard people saying they started in January and went through it twice. Which do you guys think is more beneficial and why.

Thanks!

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I would use rx to quiz yourself on first aid and uworld to actually practice.

Part of what makes Uworld a good predictor is that folks do it with settings on completely random, i.e. all questions being fair game.

Folks usually use rx to keep up with coursework and do a system or few at a time and supplement it with Kaplan.

I can't answer the reset question for uworld since I'm not using it till dedicated.
 
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I just went through the same debate and there are several other threads discussing this. You will find two main schools of thought on here. Some people like to "save" uworld for dedicated because its "the best" and they don't want to waste the questions before dedicated. Other people use them alongside organ systems before dedicated because it helps them study for their classes well, there are a ton of questions and they want to make sure to get through them all, they want to go through them multiple times, etc. I'm sure there are other nuances to this argument but those were the main take home points for me.

Personally I am going to save uWorld for closer to dedicated study-like 6 months out or so. I do want to finish them, and do them slowly enough to fully utilize them, but I have plenty of qbank questions to use already. I have been using Rx, firecracker's questions, and questions from the chapters in Robbins. I struggle to get through them all (usually don't) before test and have been doing great so I don't feel the need to change/add Uworld. fwiw.
 
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I did uworld during second semester of 2nd year. I hardly retained anything when I came around to those questions a second time during dedicated. The one good part of doing uworld during 2nd year was that I got used to answering questions fast... which is something I've struggled with. If I could do anything differently, I'd suggest getting familiar with first aid prior to dedicated.
 
I started Rx in January to get used to seeing how each piece of information in FA can actually be turned into a question. Rx is mostly 1st or 2nd level reasoning. 1st level reasoning might ask for the diagnosis, second level might assume you know diagnosis and ask for the treatment. UWorld went 1-2 steps further (although there are still some easy ones) and would assume you knew the diagnosis and treatment and then ask for the side effect of the treatment or ask for how to treat the most common side effect. So I ended up doing about 800 Rx questions up until spring break (March) and supplemented with about 10-20 UW questions per week leading up to spring break. This got me used to common questions with Rx while easing me into answering more difficult questions with UW. From the end of March to June, it was all UW (and practice tests during dedicated study). I think I ended up not even finishing every question (still had about 100 left), but I used it as an assessment tool. I would always create a test-taking environment and would only do questions on the topics I felt like I studied enough. Started with cardio studying and would add cardio questions once I finished studying, started pulm studying and would add those questions once I finished. By the end I was doing all random questions for every subject but worked up to that point over time so I wasn't blind-sided by things I hadn't studied. I think I added biochem from the start so it forced me to study those questions early on rather than trying to cram it all last minute. Did the UW stats module (takes a day or two) and read that FA section before adding those into the mix, too.

Main study resources were pathoma, FA, UW, Rx, and I think I added some BRS physio for high yeild topics. Key was to use these resources over time and to aim for understanding and repetition rather than sitting down and reading it straight through. You need to learn how everything is connected (which takes time and effort, not just going through the motions). I also attended all my lectures and felt like studying for lectures was beneficial to my overall fund of knowledge. For me, I unbound both my pathoma and FA, 3-hole punched them, and put them in separate binders so I could take notes about each UW topic (usually on questions I got wrong or didn't fully understand) and add it to the appropriate section of either pathoma or FA. For Rx, I would just fly through the explanations and burn through questions. To really get the most out of UW, you need to fully read and try to understand the explanations (in my opinion).

My friend did a similar study strategy the year before me and we both scored in the low 250s. I'm not too good at taking standardized tests but starting to study early and consistently made all the difference for me. Hope this helps!
 
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Hey guys!

So I'm about to start doing practice questions and was wondering if I should do First Aid Rx questions or do Uworld before dedicated so I can get through Uworld twice before my exam. I've heard a lot of people saying to save it for dedicated and I've also heard people saying they started in January and went through it twice. Which do you guys think is more beneficial and why.

Thanks!

Read my thread. RX is a waste of time in my opinion. I know people who've done it who've done well but I dont think RX helped them. I think doing UWorld with classes helps more.


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I haven't started Uworld yet. ALMOST done with Rx... and have 500 more questions left. Should be done in 2 weeks.

Is 3 months enough time to hit Uworld twice and all of the NBMEs in your guys' opinion?
 
I haven't started Uworld yet. ALMOST done with Rx... and have 500 more questions left. Should be done in 2 weeks.

Is 3 months enough time to hit Uworld twice and all of the NBMEs in your guys' opinion?

Depends on how much time you plan to spend doing questions vs review books. It takes me 3.5 hours, going pretty hard, to get through 60 Uworld questions. That's about all I have time for each day. I finished my first pass of Uworld before dedicated and I'm glad I did, cause I will just barely make it through another pass at this rate.

Also I think you retain more of Uworld doing it slowly and not rushing through to finish. I would 100% start doing a set number of questions every day.
 
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I haven't started Uworld yet. ALMOST done with Rx... and have 500 more questions left. Should be done in 2 weeks.

Is 3 months enough time to hit Uworld twice and all of the NBMEs in your guys' opinion?

i think 3 months is enough even if you do 40 Q block a day which is more than do-able along side annotating on FA and pathoma. I finished about 25%~ UW in 1 month doing 25-40Q per day but im planning to do 1 rounds of UW and first pass FA reading/pathoma/sketchy/zanki before mid April when my dedicated begins... hopefully it will be good enough
 
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i think 3 months is enough even if you do 40 Q block a day which is more than do-able along side annotating on FA and pathoma. I finished about 25%~ UW in 1 month doing 25-40Q per day but im planning to do 2 rounds of UW and first pass FA reading/pathoma/sketchy/zanki before mid April when my dedicated begins... hopefully it will be good enough
I was thinking during dedicated its possible to do 80 questions a day (review mornings, questions afternoon). that way you can get through uworld once and then maybe do wrongs over dedicated as well.
 
I was thinking during dedicated its possible to do 80 questions a day (review mornings, questions afternoon). that way you can get through uworld once and then maybe do wrongs over dedicated as well.

yeah that is possible too! but 80 is a lot haha i guess you can build up your endurance and stamina before that :)
 
I haven't started Uworld yet. ALMOST done with Rx... and have 500 more questions left. Should be done in 2 weeks.

Is 3 months enough time to hit Uworld twice and all of the NBMEs in your guys' opinion?

If you want to do Uworld quests right, you should allocate about 2-3 hrs of review for each block of 40 quests. The first time going through Uworld will be the most time consuming process. I make it a goal to do about 300-400 Uworld per week, and it's a struggle on top of classes. 2nd or 3rd pass of Uworld should be a cinch if you do it right for your first time.

If I were you, I would ditch Rx and go straight to Uworld. I did about 300-400 Rx quests and about 800-900 Kaplan quests. Honestly, the explanation for each quest in either Rx or Kaplan are garbage in comparison to Uworld's.

Finally, PM me if you want to know how to screen shot Uworld charts without detection. It's a relatively painless process. You will need those charts for your study.
 
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I was thinking during dedicated its possible to do 80 questions a day (review mornings, questions afternoon). that way you can get through uworld once and then maybe do wrongs over dedicated as well.

If you do it right for your first time, you shouldn't need to review Uworld quests for knowledge gap on your 2nd or 3rd time.
 
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