How's my efficiency against yours?

[neuroace]

So in a day, I do ~36 USMLE questions. By do, I mean answer them and then try and understand the explanation. This is all i complete in the day.

For someone aiming for 260, how many should i be aiming for?

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[bashwell]

So in a day, I do ~36 USMLE questions. By do, I mean answer them and then try and understand the explanation.

For someone aiming for 260, how many should i be aiming for?

Is this prior to or during dedicated time?

 

[neuroace]

Is this prior to or during dedicated time?

Prior

 

[Vain Brother]

i scored +/- 5 points of your goal. i saved UW for the second half of my blocks, learning the stuff really well during the first half of the block so that i was already scoring above average when it came time to do questions. i probably averaged between 40-60 questions a day depending how far away my test was

 

[neuroace]

i scored +/- 5 points of your goal. i saved UW for the second half of my blocks, learning the stuff really well during the first half of the block so that i was already scoring above average when it came time to do questions. i probably averaged between 40-60 questions a day depending how far away my test was

Appreciate the advice, but I plan to use Uworld q's as a textbook-like resource. Thankyou for indicating how many q's you did.

Also to be clear, this is all i'm getting done in the day.

 

[CharlieBillings]

.

 

[neuroace]

Are you an M2?

Yes

 

[Vain Brother]

Appreciate the advice, but I plan to use Uworld q's as a textbook-like resource. Thankyou for indicating how many q's you did.

Also to be clear, this is all i'm getting done in the day.

when i was doing questions, they were all i'd do in a day, too. but you obviously need more resources than just UW if you plan on being a high scorer.

 

[neuroace]

when i was doing questions, they were all i'd do in a day, too. but you obviously need more resources than just UW if you plan on being a high scorer.

Ofc will move onto SM + UFAP, review books & other q banks.

Kinda surprised i'm only 10 q's off from the expected, thought i'd be miles behind..

 

[Stagg737]

I'm not really sure how many Qs/day I was doing during school before dedicated, but during dedicated I was doing between 80-160/day depending on whether I was reviewing other sources or doing explicitly questions. 160 is high, but most people I know that used exclusively qbanks were doing 100-120 (3 sections) per day during dedicated.

 

[neuroace]

I'm not really sure how many Qs/day I was doing during school before dedicated, but during dedicated I was doing between 80-160/day depending on whether I was reviewing other sources or doing explicitly questions. 160 is high, but most people I know that used exclusively qbanks were doing 100-120 (3 sections) per day during dedicated.

Thats more like it.
With 100+ q's, are you just answering q's or going through the explanation of every one?

 

[CherryRedDracul]

Thats more like it.
With 100+ q's, are you just answering q's or going through the explanation of every one?

During dedicated, I was doing 3-4 blocks/day as well. That included going through the explanations of each and every question, right or wrong.

 

[neuroace]

During dedicated, I was doing 3-4 blocks/day as well. That included going through the explanations of each and every question, right or wrong.

Thankyou. You scored 260+ ?

 

[CherryRedDracul]

Thankyou. You scored 260+ ?

Unfortunately, no.

 

[Stagg737]

Thats more like it.
With 100+ q's, are you just answering q's or going through the explanation of every one?

Unless I knew the answers inside and out and could basically skim the question and get it right, I went through the the explanation in detail. For example, I knew UC vs. Crohn's inside and out. So if I read a question that I knew was describing Crohn's and the final question was "which of the following would you most likely see in this patient" with a list of answers that was mostly features of UC with anal fissures thrown in, I'd skip it. Otherwise I'd go over each question and each explanation that I wasn't sure about. Doing 120 questions per day should take no more than 10 hours, which is very reasonable for dedicated time imo.

 

[neuroace]

Doing 120 questions per day should take no more than 10 hours, which is very reasonable for dedicated time imo.

Really appreciate the target you gave. Did you break 260+ ?

 

[Stagg737]

Really appreciate the target you gave. Did you break 260+ ?

No, didn't come anywhere near 260 and generally did much poorer than I would have liked. I do feel I was adequately prepared, I just had other issues arise the days before the test that I'm pretty sure significantly impacted my score.

 

[neuroace]

Could be overanalysing, but i feel like ~260 students did around 40-60 / day ... and anything over was perhaps rushed and counterproductive

 

[Stagg737]

Could be overanalysing, but i feel like ~260 students did around 40-60 / day ... and anything over was perhaps rushed and counterproductive

Depends what study method you're using. If you're using other review materials as well then 120/day is unreasonable. If your main method is Qbanks, volume is the key. Everyone I know that hit high board scores got through at least 5,000 questions (typically Uworld 2x + at least one other Qbank). Search for some threads on this site and you'll see the people who kill boards using the Qbank only method do a ton of questions (most recently a guy that hit 270+ stated he did over 10,000 questions).

 

[neuroace]

Depends what study method you're using. If you're using other review materials as well then 120/day is unreasonable. If your main method is Qbanks, volume is the key. Everyone I know that hit high board scores got through at least 5,000 questions (typically Uworld 2x + at least one other Qbank). Search for some threads on this site and you'll see the people who kill boards using the Qbank only method do a ton of questions (most recently a guy that hit 270+ stated he did over 10,000 questions).

I agree w/ you on volume... but over how much time do they complete 10K q's.
Would love for a 260+'er to comment

 

[Vain Brother]

Could be overanalysing, but i feel like ~260 students did around 40-60 / day ... and anything over was perhaps rushed and counterproductive

i think it depends on the learning style, but yeah, i was doing 60-80 a day during dedicated. at least on days i wasn't purely doing pathoma/FA. i do agree that there are diminishing returns with the more questions you do. for me, two blocks a day, with reading explanations carefully and rechecking the FA section for that question, was plenty

edit: i want to avoid identifying myself but like i said i scored about a 260. once you are above 255 differences in score don't really matter FWIW

i guess if what you're asking is "is it possible to score 260 working no more than 8-10 hours a day" then the answer is yes. if you already have a great knowledge base and study efficiently

 

[Stagg737]

I agree w/ you on volume... but over how much time do they complete 10K q's.
Would love for a 260+'er to comment

Threads with people who scored 260+:
Why is Step 1 so important? look for "Nyctalopia's" posts (scored 270+)
USMLE - Just got my step 1 score: 262
USMLE - Official 2017 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread Pg 81, look for "desmin"
Scored 263, had a very simple plan for those who are interested

I'm sure there's plenty others, but I don't feel like searching each "261", "262", "263", etc for every score. You can also look in the "Official Step 1 experience" threads. Lots of good info there from people killing it.

 

[neuroace]

I take 7 min reading & highlighting 1 U world question explanation V.S. taking 15 min of reading, highlighting and reciting the explanation [trying to re explain it to myself]. The second way i retain far more. I guess so far ive been doing the first way- ill continue that - then at the end 'learn by teaching' all the highlighted material.

 

[neuroace]

Still, it's 3:11pm and im only up to q 12, so clearly my productivity is appalling.

EDIT: Now 5:04pm and up to Q21. Just reading & highlighting though

 

[deleted645092]

I would say that 36 questions a day is perfectly reasonable, especially if you are still in classes.

My current pace is 20-30 a day but I also do my studying for classes exclusively through Anki in addition to 100-300 Bros/Zanki new cards + 50 or so review cards. My current method for my QBank Questions is to do 5 micro/immuno to stay fresh, 5-10 biochem, 5-10 biostats/ethics, with the remaining split between last months material and this months material, with the ratio changing as I get closer to block week. As the semester progresses I plan to increase my questions per day to 75 or so, and 100+ during dedicated time. This is with access to Kaplan COMLEX and USMLE, COMBANK COMLEX and USMLE, and UWorld.

As for aiming for a 260, I can't say definitively what the point of diminishing returns is for doing practice questions; Allegedly there is someone in my class who did over 1,000 practice questions just in the 2 weeks before our first diagnostic exam and scored below the 25th percentile for my class.

 

[takeurmeds02]

Unfortunately, no.

No, didn't come anywhere near 260 and generally did much poorer than I would have liked. I do feel I was adequately prepared, I just had other issues arise the days before the test that I'm pretty sure significantly impacted my score.

Even though you guys didn't hit 260, were any specialties closed off to you because of your scores? That's my biggest concern. I obviously want to blow it out of the water if possible but for what I'm interested in, a 240 would be amazing and actually overkill for that specialty.

Can I possibly achieve or peri-achieve that score doing at least 3 blocks per day during dedicated?

 

[neuroace]

i think it depends on the learning style, but yeah, i was doing 60-80 a day during dedicated. at least on days i wasn't purely doing pathoma/FA. i do agree that there are diminishing returns with the more questions you do. for me, two blocks a day, with reading explanations carefully and rechecking the FA section for that question, was plenty

edit: i want to avoid identifying myself but like i said i scored about a 260. once you are above 255 differences in score don't really matter FWIW

i guess if what you're asking is "is it possible to score 260 working no more than 8-10 hours a day" then the answer is yes. if you already have a great knowledge base and study efficiently

Did you just read through the UWORLD explanation material [say even multiple times], or did you stop and try and learn it... or..?

 

[Vain Brother]

I learned it during the year. dedicated is not for learning, it's for review. I definitely took the time to read the explanations carefully so I was sure I understood them, though

 

[Stagg737]

Even though you guys didn't hit 260, were any specialties closed off to you because of your scores? That's my biggest concern. I obviously want to blow it out of the water if possible but for what I'm interested in, a 240 would be amazing and actually overkill for that specialty.

Can I possibly achieve or peri-achieve that score doing at least 3 blocks per day during dedicated?

Yes, you can. You just have to make sure it's the correct study method for you. Take practice NBMEs before and throughout dedicated to monitor your progress and ensure you're using the proper methods. Yes, some specialties were closed off because of my score. Fortunately, I ended up loving one of the less competitive fields so it didn't end up hurting me much. Had I wanted to shoot for something like ortho or neurosurgery I wouldn't have been able to (though there are far more reasons than just my boards that would have prevented me from entering those fields).

 

[sammiesings]

OP are you an IMG? You said it was 3 pm where you are when it was 10 am east coast time. If that's the case, respectfully, all your prep I imagine will be different than a us student who you're trying to get advice from on here. Doing the same thing as someone who had an allopathic curriculum to prep them for dedicated probably isn't equivalent here