Gunner Training?

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A

 

[JackShephard MD]

Didn't there used to be a 24-month plan? I was gonna sign up in August for a 24-month plan and all I see now are 12 month plans. Did they do away with them?

Yeah, they did. I signed up for a 21 month plan a while ago, and if I remember correctly, it was less than a 12 month plan is today. They used to have 24, 21, and 12 (maybe even 18?).

They are just cashing in now, they've gotten pretty popular, so they doubled their price. This kind of eliminates M1s using the program, or they have to buy two 1 years or a 1 year + 0.5 year (cash in on all the eager beavers trying to gun down Step 1 before they've started med school). The longer subscriptions are probably better, but a 1 year sub @ M2 should serve most well.

 

[loveoforganic]

Yeah, I got a 21 mo sub. Didn't realize they bumped the price up and dropped that option. Was like $350 for me if I remember right.

Jack - I think phloston is just doing those exam sims for GT. I think they pretty much are just compilations of the 'step i-style' vignettes that GT has (they eliminate the straight recall questions). I think you see them all anyway with review questions eventually. I haven't done any though and don't think I will. Will save that qbank style prep for higher quality qbanks

 

[JackShephard MD]

Yeah, I got a 21 mo sub. Didn't realize they bumped the price up and dropped that option. Was like $350 for me if I remember right.

Jack - I think phloston is just doing those exam sims for GT. I think they pretty much are just compilations of the 'step i-style' vignettes that GT has (they eliminate the straight recall questions). I think you see them all anyway with review questions eventually. I haven't done any though and don't think I will. Will save that qbank style prep for higher quality qbanks

Yeah, I think I will too. GT takes enough time to just attempt to bank 100%.

I'm weighing b/t Kaplan/UsmleRx during the year.

 

[GTP]

What were lrkoehle's gt stats when he sat the Usmle?

 

[loveoforganic]

I've settled on Qbank. I was leaning toward Qbank initially to increase diversity of content with GT, started researching a lot to make sure I didn't mess up a pick a bank that wouldn't work well, and frankly, they're probably about the same quality so I just went with my first gut. People seemed about split between the two. I doubt it will make any significant difference in outcome. I vote use Rx, and we can compare experiences for other people, but your call, I won't be help responsible if Rx ends up sucking haha. I'm not sure when I'll be starting though, since I don't really have any idea how second year is laid out. Whenever we start organ pathophys I guess I'll start. I think that'll be second semester, which works well - gives some time to adjust to 2nd year

What were lrkoehle's gt stats when he sat the Usmle?

Like, 98% banked, 88% mastery. ish.

 

[Gunneria]

Guys do you think GT alone replaces Rx in the sense that it covers the one step details of FA...if thats the case wouldn't Kaplan and UWorld suffice for the year...I thought of Rx but lets be real GT eats up time

 

[dragon529]

Doesn't Rx complement FA? If you're using Rx during the year, that means you have to read the systems in FA at the same time and do those questions. Is this manageable with class? If you're doing that, do you just plan on going over UWorld x2 over the 1.5 months of dedicated study time?

 

[loveoforganic]

Guys do you think GT alone replaces Rx in the sense that it covers the one step details of FA...if thats the case wouldn't Kaplan and UWorld suffice for the year...I thought of Rx but lets be real GT eats up time

That was my logic. That said, people rock the **** out of step just using pretty much just FA and world. So the stuff in FA is important, and you could rephrase what you said as "Guys, FA clearly has almost everything we need to know - if that's the case, wouldn't Rx and UWorld suffice for the year?"

You can go in circles with the logic. There isn't any real way to tell what's best, the difference is probably minimal, so I just picked one. I'm sure it'll work out fine (or at least, not significantly different from how it would work out with Rx)

Doesn't Rx complement FA? If you're using Rx during the year, that means you have to read the systems in FA at the same time and do those questions. Is this manageable with class? If you're doing that, do you just plan on going over UWorld x2 over the 1.5 months of dedicated study time?

With GT, I might read FA once, if that, and certainly not along with classes. During my dedicated study time, I plan to for sure do UWorld once and pathoma once while keeping up with GT (and cramming images during the last couple days). If sufficient time, I'll rework all the wrong UWorld problems and read through FA that I annotated through the year from Qbank (you could maybe call that a pass tough FA during the year), and maybe try to make an extra pass through BRS phys

I have up to 7 weeks I think of dedicated study time, so I'd probably have time for the other stuff, just a matter of if I think I can keep intensity up for that long

 

[RacerX528]

I'm going to start gunner training mid July and was looking into review books I should get to supplement studying. I've read over the thread and it seems like it has changed quite a bit since this thread originally started. Currently, does it have any areas I'd need to supplement with outside reading? I've also thought about getting some review books to look up info I don't fully understand from the cards, or is it better to just look up the specific info I need in text books I already have? Thanks for the help!

 

[loveoforganic]

GT is pretty fact-driven, so if you don't have a solid understanding of phys, I'd make a pass through BRS. You want to understand and memorize, not just the latter

 

[lrkoehle]

What were lrkoehle's gt stats when he sat the Usmle?

Like, 98% banked, 88% mastery. ish.

What LOO said is correct (actually 87.8% mastery), but I am still not exactly sure how my mastery got to 87.8% cuz I still feel like there was a lot I needed to work on (obsessive-compulsive personality disorder maybe? Only perfection will do!). Like I've said before, my percent mastery on the pharmacology section was above 100% (ended at 105.3% mastery), so I think there is something weird with how percent mastery is calculated. The real determinant of my final score will be whether or not I managed to finally cut out the dumb mistakes that plagued my practice exams or not. I already have found a couple of them, but there isn't anything I can do about them now so no sense worrying about them. Luckily, I do have some post-exam amnesia usually, so I can't remember more than a couple questions from my exam anyways. In fact, I made it my goal to forget everything from a given block as soon as I submitted it. What's done is done, so no sense worrying about previous blocks, stressing out about them, and tanking the later blocks too...

 

[loveoforganic]

Some advice - I've run into a group of about 100 cards that have been rolling over on me daily for a while (big time momentum killer). Seeing and reciting the stuff once a day hasn't been enough, so I screen capped the questions and their corresponding answers as they came up and put them into anki. It lets you get that 15 minute pause before you see the question again to ensure when you get it in your head beyond short term memory

 

[iCY]

Yeah, I think I will too. GT takes enough time to just attempt to bank 100%.

I'm weighing b/t Kaplan/UsmleRx during the year.

I recommend kaplan + robbins Q book during the year. The questions/answers are better written than Rx

 

[ipizzy]

I did Kaplan during the year and liked it. I was turned off to Rx because of posts on SDN complaining the errors Rx had :-/

 

[dragon529]

@ iCY & ipizzy. So you guys suggest doing kaplan and robbins qbank during the year. How about Rx and UWorld? I was thinking maybe Rx 2.5 months out from exam (for 1 month) then UW from 1.5 months out? Can I go through 2 passes of UW in that amount of time?
Did you guys read FA along w/ your classes or just start during dedicated study time?

 

[GTP]

I did Kaplan during the year and liked it. I was turned off to Rx because of posts on SDN complaining the errors Rx had :-/

Where did you see this? I was just about to buy a year supply of rx!!

 

[StephenMaturin]

Some advice - I've run into a group of about 100 cards that have been rolling over on me daily for a while (big time momentum killer). Seeing and reciting the stuff once a day hasn't been enough, so I screen capped the questions and their corresponding answers as they came up and put them into anki. It lets you get that 15 minute pause before you see the question again to ensure when you get it in your head beyond short term memory

That is a great idea. I do wish there was a "Show me this question again after 5/10/15 questions" button in GT.

 

[GTP]

What LOO said is correct (actually 87.8% mastery), but I am still not exactly sure how my mastery got to 87.8% cuz I still feel like there was a lot I needed to work on (obsessive-compulsive personality disorder maybe? Only perfection will do!). Like I've said before, my percent mastery on the pharmacology section was above 100% (ended at 105.3% mastery), so I think there is something weird with how percent mastery is calculated. The real determinant of my final score will be whether or not I managed to finally cut out the dumb mistakes that plagued my practice exams or not. I already have found a couple of them, but there isn't anything I can do about them now so no sense worrying about them. Luckily, I do have some post-exam amnesia usually, so I can't remember more than a couple questions from my exam anyways. In fact, I made it my goal to forget everything from a given block as soon as I submitted it. What's done is done, so no sense worrying about previous blocks, stressing out about them, and tanking the later blocks too...

Hey man. I'm doing gt this summer and taking your advice to bank close to 20 cards a day. I do 25 sometimes when I'm in pure gunner mode. Im at 18/12 right now, 1.5 weeks later. I haven't touched fa yet. Is it reasonable to think I'd be able to do fa along with classes? My plan is to not pay attention in class and do gt (I did this in first year and it seemed to work) and then do fa at home. We watch all our videos at home and then go to school for hour long clicker sessions that should only be 5 min long. Huge waste of time.

Anyway, do I expect to be flying through fa given all the work I've been putting into gt?

Thanks

 

[ipizzy]

Where did you see this? I was just about to buy a year supply of rx!!

This is the post that immediately jumps to mind: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=11108903&postcount=1370
It was also coincidentally the post that convinced me to try GT 😀
In any case, I'm sure the majority of the questions are just fine, I just decided not to use it. (Kaplan was also super cheap for the year subscription).

@ iCY & ipizzy. So you guys suggest doing kaplan and robbins qbank during the year. How about Rx and UWorld? I was thinking maybe Rx 2.5 months out from exam (for 1 month) then UW from 1.5 months out? Can I go through 2 passes of UW in that amount of time?
Did you guys read FA along w/ your classes or just start during dedicated study time?

I didn't do Robbins, just Kaplan + UWorld. I didn't do Rx so I can't comment on that, but see the post I linked above with regards to why I decided to skip Rx (tl;dr version: errors).

With regards to my approach in general, I spread everything out over a very long period of time. Had class full time up through late May. Started GT in the fall of M2 and finished banking by March, then started my first pass of FA in March. Only took about 2-3 weeks to get through FA since GT is essentially FA on roids. Did another pass of FA in April/May alongside 1x read-through of Goljan RR Path. Final pass of FA in the 2 weeks leading up to my exam. All the while, I kept up with my daily GT review quizzes.

Meanwhile, in January I started doing a block of Kaplan every day. Finished Kaplan in March, then moved on to UWorld. Did one UWorld block per day and finished in late May. Didn't do repeat passes through either Qbank; I personally don't think it would have been very helpful for me (I tend to remember questions). In the final days before my exam, I re-did maybe half of the UWorld incorrects, mostly so I could read the explanations again.

I hate leaving things til the last minute because I'm one of those people who gets stressed out and less effective under time pressure, so I didn't want to leave the bulk of my studying for my dedicated prep time. I wanted my dedicated prep time to serve as last minute review for things I felt weak on. In the end, this spread out approach really worked well for me. I never put in any of these 12-14 hour crazy days during my dedicated prep time, which was a sanity saver for me! I admire everyone on SDN that can pull them; I just knew in advance that I wasn't one of those people and I planned accordingly. Hope this helps!

 

[lrkoehle]

Hey man. I'm doing gt this summer and taking your advice to bank close to 20 cards a day. I do 25 sometimes when I'm in pure gunner mode. Im at 18/12 right now, 1.5 weeks later. I haven't touched fa yet. Is it reasonable to think I'd be able to do fa along with classes? My plan is to not pay attention in class and do gt (I did this in first year and it seemed to work) and then do fa at home. We watch all our videos at home and then go to school for hour long clicker sessions that should only be 5 min long. Huge waste of time.

Anyway, do I expect to be flying through fa given all the work I've been putting into gt?

Thanks

Yeah, FA should be pretty quick to get through for the topics you've mastered in GT, though I never really bothered with FA during the year.

Banking upwards of 20 cards a day is good while you're able to do so, but your daily question load will rise pretty quickly at that rate too so just be sure to keep it balanced. If you get bogged down with daily questions, slow down on the banking and focus a more on mastering the topics you've already got in your daily questions.

Also, don't be afraid of rating things a 4. Though this doesn't seem to be an issue for you GTP, I know a lot of people get really strict on their ranking and keep a lot of stuff in the 1-2 range, which will inevitably lead to a **** ton of daily questions causing you to not be able to bank new cards and thus not utilize all of GT. I think if you mostly recall something without too much effort, that warrants a 4. Then if you see that question again in 2-4 weeks and don't remember, then you can rate it a 1 or a 2, even if this drops your percent mastery. The one exception to this, for me, was when I first banked something I liked to rate it like a 2 and see it again in 2-3 days (with the exception of really simple things). Anyways, just my suggestions; everyone has to find their own unique way to utilize GT in the best way that they see fit.

 

[GTP]

Yeah, FA should be pretty quick to get through for the topics you've mastered in GT, though I never really bothered with FA during the year.

Banking upwards of 20 cards a day is good while you're able to do so, but your daily question load will rise pretty quickly at that rate too so just be sure to keep it balanced. If you get bogged down with daily questions, slow down on the banking and focus a more on mastering the topics you've already got in your daily questions.

Also, don't be afraid of rating things a 4. Though this doesn't seem to be an issue for you GTP, I know a lot of people get really strict on their ranking and keep a lot of stuff in the 1-2 range, which will inevitably lead to a **** ton of daily questions causing you to not be able to bank new cards and thus not utilize all of GT. I think if you mostly recall something without too much effort, that warrants a 4. Then if you see that question again in 2-4 weeks and don't remember, then you can rate it a 1 or a 2, even if this drops your percent mastery. The one exception to this, for me, was when I first banked something I liked to rate it like a 2 and see it again in 2-3 days (with the exception of really simple things). Anyways, just my suggestions; everyone has to find their own unique way to utilize GT in the best way that they see fit.

Thanks man. You mind if I ask what topics in gt you didn't bank? I noticed you were at 98% (though this is still pretty impressive). Also, what % of fa do you think was not in gt?

 

[iCY]

@ iCY & ipizzy. So you guys suggest doing kaplan and robbins qbank during the year. How about Rx and UWorld? I was thinking maybe Rx 2.5 months out from exam (for 1 month) then UW from 1.5 months out? Can I go through 2 passes of UW in that amount of time?
Did you guys read FA along w/ your classes or just start during dedicated study time?

you really don't need to do that many qbanks. Don't think that completing qbanks translates into a good score. Theres people who only do one qbank who get stellar scores. Its more important to do well in your 2nd year classes. I would pick one qbank (kaplan) throughout the year & use uworld during your dedicated study period. uworld is a BITCH to get through because the answers are so long so just count on getting through it once & maybe re-doing marked/wrong questions.


edit* i didn't read first aid along with my classes. honestly I have read like less than half of first aid (lol) & my test is in 2 days. I used GT to learn biochem, FA to learn anatomy/embryo/immuno. I skimmed through parts of micro/pharm when doing uworld questions. I haven't even touched the pathology section (brand spanking new with no annotations).

 

[Gunneria]

If UWorld is sooo long, wouldn't just mastering UWorld (2-3 passes) with GT suffice for a 240+? What's so great about Kaplan

 

[bluv1212]

Hey everyone. I keep seeing these GT threads, and I'm curious. I was wondering whether GT pairs well alongside a systems-based curriculum. Any thoughts?

 

[ipizzy]

If UWorld is sooo long, wouldn't just mastering UWorld (2-3 passes) with GT suffice for a 240+? What's so great about Kaplan

Nothing, just use whatever works for you

Hey everyone. I keep seeing these GT threads, and I'm curious. I was wondering whether GT pairs well alongside a systems-based curriculum. Any thoughts?

Yes, GT worked well for me at my systems-based school 👍 Try it out for a month and see if you like it

 

[loveoforganic]

Hey everyone. I keep seeing these GT threads, and I'm curious. I was wondering whether GT pairs well alongside a systems-based curriculum. Any thoughts?

The only real benefit I see to a traditional curriculum is you get repeat passes of things over the course of two years, rather than system and done (except where it ties in to the present system). I think with GT, you'd pretty much eliminate that deficiency (I'm in a traditional curriculum)

 

[nopo18]

you really don't need to do that many qbanks. Don't think that completing qbanks translates into a good score.

I disagree. The more question you have seen the better. No one is arguing that a solid foundation is important, of course it is. But # of questions done correlates well with performance. We are not talking about outlier students who are geniuses.. This is the average student who scores well.

I recommend talk to 3rd and 4th years who performed well and ask them what they did...It really depends on how well your school prepares you as well.

 

[Thing1]

I'm about to be an MS2 in about a month or so. I'm considering starting GT, and just got the 2 week trial. I am a little worried about the work load, though. Would you experienced GT users say that it is very likely to hurt your grades in school? Or could it possibly help? My school is on H/P/F, if that makes a difference.

My other plan was to get FA, Qbank, and Pathoma to supplement my school's notes/lecture.

 

[lrkoehle]

Thanks man. You mind if I ask what topics in gt you didn't bank? I noticed you were at 98% (though this is still pretty impressive). Also, what % of fa do you think was not in gt?

They added like 20 new cards after I finished banking, and I just didn't have the time to bank more than a couple of them. So, it was just a couple cards here and there, not one specific subject area. As for what percent of GT is not in FA, I think it covers basically everything in there, just maybe in a different manner. Of course, they've also added things to topics after I banked them that I didn't go back and add the new stuff from, so I'm sure it's only gotten better. You guys have time on your side, so you should be able to get all of that stuff banked.

 

[GTP]

They added like 20 new cards after I finished banking, and I just didn't have the time to bank more than a couple of them. So, it was just a couple cards here and there, not one specific subject area. As for what percent of GT is not in FA, I think it covers basically everything in there, just maybe in a different manner. Of course, they've also added things to topics after I banked them that I didn't go back and add the new stuff from, so I'm sure it's only gotten better. You guys have time on your side, so you should be able to get all of that stuff banked.

Thank you 🙂

 

[GTP]

People who used gt and fa:

How did you deal with the fact that fa is not released till January? I'm worried about annotating into old fa and then having to re-annotate into the new one when it comes out. How much do they change from year to year?

Alternatively, can one get away with not studying fa till after January provided they have kept up with gt? How many passes through fa did you guys do before writing the Usmle?

Thanks

 

[ipizzy]

People who used gt and fa:

How did you deal with the fact that fa is not released till January? I'm worried about annotating into old fa and then having to re-annotate into the new one when it comes out. How much do they change from year to year?

Alternatively, can one get away with not studying fa till after January provided they have kept up with gt? How many passes through fa did you guys do before writing the Usmle?

Thanks

I used an old (2011) edition of FA and annotated everything into there. When the 2012 came out, I went through my second pass of 2011 FA alongside the 2012 version (literally page by page) and annotated the differences into my old FA. There were not that many differences, just a handful of drugs and some really obvious psych definitions are all I remember off the top of my head. The added bonus of doing this = I got 2 repetitions of the FA material while doing my "second pass" teehee

That said, I didn't end up using FA until March anyway, so I could have just used the newest version. I had already bought the 2011 version the summer before, though, based on the advice of an upperclassman (telling me I should read FA over the summer...haha didn't end up doing that 😀). You won't remember FA if you read it before January anyway IMO.

 

[GTP]

Alright sounds good. I was debating whether or not it's worth it to go with the old fa. I was thinking no since I was going to print it out for free in black and white and then bind it. The lack of color might suck for pictures. *I think I'll just do gt, rr, Pathoma and Usmle rx until the new fa comes out. Hopefully I would have covered a good chunk of fa by doing these other sources beforehand as per what others have said. Fml. thanks for your input

 

[Phloston]

I've never posted in this particular thread before, so please forgive me if people have repeatedly asked this same question:

I've noticed that GT markets their "6000+" questions on their website when comparing themselves to UWorld, Kaplan, etc.

In the exam section of GT, I summed the questions to be about 2650.

Does this mean that the rest of the "questions" they are referring to are simply the ones from the flashcards, and are not actual exam questions?

Cheers,

 

[Brotato]

Pretty much when I see GT brag about how they're gonna improve their questions....I zone out and roll my eyes. They have an amazing flashcard product and I wish they would concentrate solely on improving that alone. Their 'question-bank' is just the same questions from the flashcard quizzes. And even if they roll out a few hundred new 'vignette' style questions in their update this fall, I really really doubt it's going to trump any of the 3 established QBanks (Rx, Kap, World).

It's like when Microsoft tried to make an mp3 player (Zune) and hyped it up the wazoo. It didn't make anyone stop buying ipods that's for sure.

 

[loveoforganic]

I've never posted in this particular thread before, so please forgive me if people have repeatedly asked this same question:

I've noticed that GT markets their "6000+" questions on their website when comparing themselves to UWorld, Kaplan, etc.

In the exam section of GT, I summed the questions to be about 2650.

Does this mean that the rest of the "questions" they are referring to are simply the ones from the flashcards, and are not actual exam questions?

Cheers,

Sounds right. I think there are actually 10k+ with the flashcards

 

[Chirurg]

I've never posted in this particular thread before, so please forgive me if people have repeatedly asked this same question:

I've noticed that GT markets their "6000+" questions on their website when comparing themselves to UWorld, Kaplan, etc.

In the exam section of GT, I summed the questions to be about 2650.

Does this mean that the rest of the "questions" they are referring to are simply the ones from the flashcards, and are not actual exam questions?

Cheers,

no.
I think they actually have 6000 questions, I'm around 55% banked and have access to about 3500 questions, not in the exam section. I'm assuming if I bank the rest I will have access to the full 6000. the more cards you bank on one subject the more questions are released to you. the 6000 questions are not the flashcards question, I'm talking about actual MCQs.
I have never tried their exam function, so don't know about any overlap or whether those 2650 questions are a separate thing.

 

[GTP]

no.
I think they actually have 6000 questions, I'm around 55% banked and have access to about 3500 questions, not in the exam section. I'm assuming if I bank the rest I will have access to the full 6000. the more cards you bank on one subject the more questions are released to you. the 6000 questions are not the flashcards question, I'm talking about actual MCQs.
I have never tried their exam function, so don't know about any overlap or whether those 2650 questions are a separate thing.

Are you sure about this? I was at 50% banked for immuno less than a week ago and I had access to 30 questions using the exam simulator. I'm 80% banked for immuno today and still have access to only 30 questions.

 

[JackShephard MD]

Are you sure about this? I was at 50% banked for immuno less than a week ago and I had access to 30 questions using the exam simulator. I'm 80% banked for immuno today and still have access to only 30 questions.

I'm 0% banked for immuno and have access to 130 questions. To be fair, I once had banked a lot of immuno before resetting.

I think it's more of a function of time or user status (free trial or paying?). Strangely enough though, I only have 2 anatomy questions and have banked all of it with decent mastery level.

Chirurg, when do you take the exam?

Pretty much when I see GT brag about how they're gonna improve their questions....I zone out and roll my eyes. They have an amazing flashcard product and I wish they would concentrate solely on improving that alone. Their 'question-bank' is just the same questions from the flashcard quizzes. And even if they roll out a few hundred new 'vignette' style questions in their update this fall, I really really doubt it's going to trump any of the 3 established QBanks (Rx, Kap, World).

It's like when Microsoft tried to make an mp3 player (Zune) and hyped it up the wazoo. It didn't make anyone stop buying ipods that's for sure.

I agree here. I think they could continue to improve the cards rather than starting a new project. I guess I understand though. They would rather offer twice as much content and then be able to earn more $, possibly competing with Kaplan/USMLERx qbanks. I'd rather see them make a Step 2 program and remain in their niche rather than going into qbank land. With all that said, I still think you can make it work (if you don't like the q's you can skip them or perfect recall them or always rate high).

 

[GTP]

Hey. I guess my Qbanks are limited on gt because I'm still on free trial. Gt shouldn't bother with competing with Kaplan or uworld. Nobody in their right minds would use only gt for the boards

 

[Chirurg]

Are you sure about this? I was at 50% banked for immuno less than a week ago and I had access to 30 questions using the exam simulator. I'm 80% banked for immuno today and still have access to only 30 questions.

I've banked 51% of Immuno and have access to 180 questions on the main page and 128 questions in exam mode.

@JackShephard
not sure if you know this but I'm a UK student. the plan was this summer but I got myself into research and my ambitious nature got the better of me so I focused on acing school exams (I succeeded btw 😀).
as a result I have put my step1 plans on an indefinite hold 3 months ago. haven't touched FA and my % banked hasn't changed for 3 months now and I'm getting about 50 questions of GT per day but will soon start banking again.

 

[Itachi87]

I recommend kaplan + robbins Q book during the year. The questions/answers are better written than Rx

just wanted to clarify. when people mention robbins Qbook, do they mean this?

http://www.amazon.com/Robbins-Cotra...qid=1340327609&sr=8-1&keywords=robbins+review

 

[dragon529]

Yep, the red one. I heard the online robbins qbank got quite a bit of errors...

 

[StephenMaturin]

I'd rather see them make a Step 2 program and remain in their niche rather than going into qbank land. With all that said, I still think you can make it work (if you don't like the q's you can skip them or perfect recall them or always rate high).

The problem with that though is that the question might be about some factoid that you want in your gt bank. I really, really hope they don't move towards longer, more convoluted questions when what I'm really trying to use it for is cramming facts. If they do go the qbank direction I hope they keep it separate from the spaced learning of facts part of the program.

 

[tima]

When you repeat UW, what mode do you use? Like test mode, redo specific sections, etc.

 

[doclemon]

Erm well, here's the issue. I planned on having a 12 week easy rotation block, so i could get away with some time for Step 1. But, as things are, i am scheduled for heavy rotations, and i cannot have it changed.

I want to know, if there is any major disadvantage to the free trial option, if i only want to go over the content, and questions: and NOT for spaced learning.
While i do not mind paying up for GT, i was just wondering IF there is a difference in terms of the MCQ available at all?

Again, i'm only looking at it for some more questions to do in the down time i might have; and maybe looking over some cards for content (maybe, Anatomy; Immuno etc).

Would appreciate any advice.

 

[Brotato]

Erm well, here's the issue. I planned on having a 12 week easy rotation block, so i could get away with some time for Step 1. But, as things are, i am scheduled for heavy rotations, and i cannot have it changed.

I want to know, if there is any major disadvantage to the free trial option, if i only want to go over the content, and questions: and NOT for spaced learning.
While i do not mind paying up for GT, i was just wondering IF there is a difference in terms of the MCQ available at all?

Again, i'm only looking at it for some more questions to do in the down time i might have; and maybe looking over some cards for content (maybe, Anatomy; Immuno etc).

Would appreciate any advice.

There is no point to doing GT if you're not gonna do spaced repetition. The whole program is literally based on it. The MCQ's in the 'create an exam' section won't show up unless you have banked material first. Also nobody really uses GT for the qbank section. In fact t's pretty shoddy compared to the other options out there (kaplan, usmle-rx, uw).

 

[loveoforganic]

I agree. GT is nothing special without the spaced repetition. I would definitely look elsewhere for short term prep

 

[doclemon]

Hmm. Advice taken. Thanks!

 

[Bernoull]

Erm well, here's the issue. I planned on having a 12 week easy rotation block, so i could get away with some time for Step 1. But, as things are, i am scheduled for heavy rotations, and i cannot have it changed.

I want to know, if there is any major disadvantage to the free trial option, if i only want to go over the content, and questions: and NOT for spaced learning.
While i do not mind paying up for GT, i was just wondering IF there is a difference in terms of the MCQ available at all?

Again, i'm only looking at it for some more questions to do in the down time i might have; and maybe looking over some cards for content (maybe, Anatomy; Immuno etc).

Would appreciate any advice.

For MCQs, I'll go with UW or Kaplan, both now have apps for mobile devices. For flashcards, GT won't be worthwhile without the spaced repetition (as others have said) and 3 mos isn't enuff time, except if you want to focus ur review on select topics.

Out of curiosity, why don't u want the spaced repetition feature? To me that's the genius of GT etc... i.e. 'stratify ur content mastery' and focus study on ur weak areas...