How to learn from question banks effectively

[22yis]

Hey,

my current question bank routine includes reading the question and answering it. If its wrong or right I read the explanation for my answer, as well as the correct answer if necessary and move on. That's it. I know that this isn't the best way to learn from q banks. Do you guys have any tips on how to improve at this? Should I be reading every single answer choice explanation? should i be taking notes somewhere? I know that different methods work better for different people, but I want to know what works best for you so I can try it out and hopefully incorporate it into my q bank studies. My major concern with being more thorough is taking a longer time to answer/review questions as opposed to powering through more question banks. Your insight is greatly appreciated, take care.

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[DPTinthemaking15]

Hey,

my current question bank routine includes reading the question and answering it. If its wrong or right I read the explanation for my answer, as well as the correct answer if necessary and move on. That's it. I know that this isn't the best way to learn from q banks. Do you guys have any tips on how to improve at this? Should I be reading every single answer choice explanation? should i be taking notes somewhere? I know that different methods work better for different people, but I want to know what works best for you so I can try it out and hopefully incorporate it into my q bank studies. My major concern with being more thorough is taking a longer time to answer/review questions as opposed to powering through more question banks. Your insight is greatly appreciated, take care.

Following. Would be interested to know this as well.

Edit: Just realized this is regarding step 1... Forgive my ignorance, but I would still like to know how people map out questions.

 

[22yis]

Honestly, talking about in general and step 1. Im M2 right now

 

[DrWhozits]

I'm having the same problem. I have been doing what you have...answer question best I can, read explanations, and move on. I've tried to write notes, but I can't really figure out an effective/efficient way to do it.

 

[iBS1972]

1. do questions you want to do (if during school year and not necessarily for step then do questions related to your block; do timed random for dedicated step 1 studying)
2. mark all questions you don't completely understand everything about (anything in question stem, any answer choices you don't know what it is or any answer choice you can't explain why it's the wrong answer even if you know 100% what the right answer choice is)
3. review all marked (yes, it is okay if it's like more than 75% of the questions you did)...read everything especially the reason why you marked it... google any questions you have (don't need to spend a whole lot of time googling, unless if it's an important concept that is main concept they're testing you on)
4. review all incorrect using same method as 3
(3 and 4 can be switched to your preference)
5. review all correct using same method as 3

write down as much or as little as you want. review notes the next day and as much as you can.

 

[68PGunner]

I personally screen shot every question with the explanation for extra as Anki cards. Then, ANKI will pull up these quests again once I go into review, like 5-10 questions from each block a day. If I get the question right and understand the details, I don't read the explanation. If I mess it up, I read the explanation for the right and wrong answers.

 

[mistafab]

Right now during my M2 blocks I work through each problem. On every single problem I check the answer, look through all the correct and incorrect answer choices and take whatever time necessary to understand the logic behind them all. If I come across novel concepts or unclear concepts, I write light notes on a side piece of paper. Sometimes if a problem brings up something (i.e. Non-anion gap acidosis), I write down the acronym and try to fill it in cold (HARDA**). Doing this helps me quite a bit because I often used to "think" I knew the acronym, but when I needed it I would come up short.

I do around 150 practice questions total per block - hitting them only in the last few days before the test.