If I had to choose one USMLErx Vs Kaplan Qbank

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seliac

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If I had to choose one USMLErx Vs Kaplan Qbank ? what shall I choose ?
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Rx with the FA pg references and general easy to understand Qs turned out to be more similar to the real exam than I expected. A lot of my friends got Rx towards the end of their study not realizing what a great resource it was.

I used Kaplan throughout the year. Tough Qs that sometimes did not even seem relevant to know/learn. Great for getting motivation to study!
 
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Rx basically teaches you first aid. There is nothing in Rx that isn't already in first aid. Under the assumption that you are already planning to study from first aid a lot, if you can internalize and apply the information in first aid just by reading first aid, then you don't need Rx and should go with Kaplan (in order to get a deeper understanding of mechanisms and score a few extra points. This was hugely helpful for me on my Step1). But that's a big "if," because most med students out there can't properly internalize and apply the information in first aid just by reading it, so if you choose Rx then you probably wouldn't be wrong. Honestly, I am very happy that I did both qbanks during M2 classes.
 
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wow , didnt expect that it would be that easy vote !
well I always heard that kaplan Qbank is low yeild and contains alot of minute info that would never be tested, it doesnt resemble usmle as i heard , but what me in doubt some floating posts around saying that kaplan Qbank is the best and even better than Uworld !! ( maybe they are advertisers of Kaplan or dunno :laugh:)

anyway thanks alot for your input , choice is now easier 🙂
 
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Suncrusher said:
Rx basically teaches you first aid. There is nothing in Rx that isn't already in first aid. If you can internalize and apply the information in first aid just by reading first aid, then you don't need Rx and should go with Kaplan (in order to get a deeper understanding of mechanisms and score a few extra points. This was hugely helpful for me on my Step1). But that's a big "if," because most med students out there can't properly internalize and apply the information in first aid just by reading it, so if you choose Rx then you probably wouldn't be wrong. Honestly, I am very happy that I did both qbanks during M2 classes.
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mmm well u perhaps have a point , but unfortunately no time to go through 3 banks, or I might have time if I do something .. you said that Rx = FA but the information are applied in questions, so can I solve a block and just revise the questions that I made wrong without reading the questions that I made right , if everything in explanation is already in FA and I will do FA 3-4 X so why just solve questions and see how they apply the info without reading long explanations which are already found in FA .. what do you think ? will it be beneficial to review and read explanations of only wrong and marked questions or not ?
 
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seliac said:
If I had to choose one USMLErx Vs Kaplan Qbank ? what shall I choose ?
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Qbank. I have both and regret Buying RX. The questions suck. Yes it does help you learn FA, but I find QBank much more useful. I don't understand the Qbank hate. It has awesome Molecular Bio (Better than Uworld and RX), Anatomy, Bio Stats, Physiology, and Micro. I actually learn from the explanations. And I use FireCracker (Gunner Training) and banked all of first year material and have 98% mastery. The way RX asks questions sucks. RX explanations aren't good. It references FA, but people overrate memorizing FA. What separates the 230s to 240s from the 250s and 260s is integration and understanding. If you truly understand the basic principles, you can reason your way through the exam. For this purpose, I rate Qbank far superior. But, if you simply want a tool to memorize FA then RX is the better bet. Although, going through Qbank one will do the same thing, albeit indirectly.

You should also consider doing Uworld during the school year. If you look at 2011 and 2012 and 2013 you'll see that the following posters: Ipizzy (>275), Encephalectomy (270), Throwaway (275), and another 10-15 posters did Uworld during the semester and redid it during their dedicated. Uworld is the best. Look at the today's posts from the kids who got their scores back and you'll see a few used Uworld during class and repeated. I bought it at the beginning of my first year and have gone through it with each system. I go to a school with an 18 month shortened curriculum so I would not have had a year to go through the questions if I had waited to buy the banks next month. I really wish I had listened to Encephalectomy because he did 1000 RX questions and stopped because of errors and terrible questions and loved Kaplan. I painfully came to the same conclusion, 1500 RX questions later. My 2 cents.

RX and Qbank are roughly equal and due to personal preference. Most kids at my school kill the boards and people go Qbank and World and kill it. So, don't think RX is necessary. Pick one and you should be fine.
 
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Bump.

I'm seeing a lot of Rx votes, but not enough reasoning of why it trumps Kaplan. I'm trying to figure out which one I should go with to use during my M2 studies. Leaning towards Kaplan.
 
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It is much much much better at reinforcing the material in first aid - each question has relevant sections of first aid cut and pasted into the answer section. The vote is 22 to 6 for a reason
 
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loveoforganic2 said:
It is much much much better at reinforcing the material in first aid - each question has relevant sections of first aid cut and pasted into the answer section. The vote is 22 to 6 for a reason
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right on. a lot of the kaplan faithful seem to mention that it goes a bit farther into depth which could be beneficial throughout the year. anyhow, besides the fact that rx flows with FA, what else is great about it? seems like it's mostly a matter of convenience.
 
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I assure you, you won't expend the time or effort to have first aid open along with Kaplan, even though Kaplan cites FA pages. Even if you did though, these citations don't always actually direct you to all of the relevant information (or information that's even very relevant at all for that matter). I mostly did Kaplan, but Rx is better. You don't need extra details - it's best to focus on high yield
 
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loveoforganic2 said:
I assure you, you won't expend the time or effort to have first aid open along with Kaplan, even though Kaplan cites FA pages. Even if you did though, these citations don't always actually direct you to all of the relevant information (or information that's even very relevant at all for that matter). I mostly did Kaplan, but Rx is better. You don't need extra details - it's best to focus on high yield
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cool. thanks for the advice orgo dude. i appreciate it.
 
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Dharma said:
right on. a lot of the kaplan faithful seem to mention that it goes a bit farther into depth which could be beneficial throughout the year. anyhow, besides the fact that rx flows with FA, what else is great about it? seems like it's mostly a matter of convenience.
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Step 1 is not about depth, sadly. It's about understanding and tying together the breadth of info that you have to know.
 
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Dharma said:
Why neither?
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No time to do a qbank full of 1-step questions vs a qbank full of Tangier's Diseases 😛

Time much better spent on Uworld (appropriate difficulty/breadth) and understanding the medicine. The most brilliant Step 1 lecturer I know (Dr. Raymon) told us to not even do questions at all near the end, but to keep on understanding the medicine. Obviously, that's a bad way to go... but I personally find that reviewing materials up until the end is the best way to go.

If you were bored like me, you could do Rx during your second semester in MS-2... it is a good way to review stuff first-order style.
 
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Morsetlis said:
No time to do a qbank full of 1-step questions vs a qbank full of Tangier's Diseases 😛

Time much better spent on Uworld (appropriate difficulty/breadth) and understanding the medicine. The most brilliant Step 1 lecturer I know (Dr. Raymon) told us to not even do questions at all near the end, but to keep on understanding the medicine. Obviously, that's a bad way to go... but I personally find that reviewing materials up until the end is the best way to go.

If you were bored like me, you could do Rx during your second semester in MS-2... it is a good way to review stuff first-order style.
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Alright, cool. Good to see some different perspectives here. Thanks Morsetlis!
 
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Here is my take. I haven't done Rx, so I cant say don't do it. But what matters more is not which qbank you chose but how much of it you do and how well you do it. I used Kaplan Qbank alongside my MS2 courses and it was awesome at preparing me for course exams. It does go into a lot more minute detail than FA does. However, so will your MS2 classes. It also references FA, so it does help you get through FA at least once. I would recommend Kaplan during MS2, Uworld during dedicated time and Rx also if you can squeeze it.

Also, I have heard that Rx just shows the FA page for the explanations. Kaplan has good detailed explanations, sometimes videos regarding the concept and references the FA page.
 
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RIPSanto said:
Here is my take. I haven't done Rx, so I cant say don't do it. But what matters more is not which qbank you chose but how much of it you do and how well you do it. I used Kaplan Qbank alongside my MS2 courses and it was awesome at preparing me for course exams. It does go into a lot more minute detail than FA does. However, so will your MS2 classes. It also references FA, so it does help you get through FA at least once. I would recommend Kaplan during MS2, Uworld during dedicated time and Rx also if you can squeeze it.

Also, I have heard that Rx just shows the FA page for the explanations. Kaplan has good detailed explanations, sometimes videos regarding the concept and references the FA page.
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Having done both RX and UWORLD completely and about 30% of Kaplan, I would say that RX's explanation is comparable to that of Kaplan - and none of them come close to UWOLRD. I would actually recommend RX over Kaplan since I believe it's a higher yield. I think for the minitias, Kaplan may or maynot help.... the only thing that I found good for minitia's is doing well during ur MS1/MS2 years.
 
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Really surprised by the results of this poll. Kaplan Qbank >>>>> Rx for me. Though doing both is still better than either one alone.
 
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seminoma said:
Really surprised by the results of this poll. Kaplan Qbank >>>>> Rx for me. Though doing both is still better than either one alone.
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A lot of my classmates say that Kaplan asks really minutia type questions and other low yield stuff? Do you get that sense?
 
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ALUCSD18 said:
A lot of my classmates say that Kaplan asks really minutia type questions and other low yield stuff? Do you get that sense?
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Rarely. 99% of Kaplan questions can be answered with material in FA, Pathoma, Goljan RR, and BRS physio.

I've heard the same minutiae complaints about Kaplan qbank and I think it's because the explanations include a lot of minutiae. However, the minutiae in the explanations is rarely ever needed to actually answer the question correctly.
 
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ALUCSD18 said:
A lot of my classmates say that Kaplan asks really minutia type questions and other low yield stuff? Do you get that sense?
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Everybody says this and maybe it's true to some extent, but I don't think it's as bad as everyone says it is. I think both have their strengths.

IMO Rx does a good job with pharm, esp. side effects. Reasonably solid all around, but you won't see pathology that isn't in FA.

Kaplan has more extensive pathologies that are beyond the scope of FA. If they're things you learned in class you'll probably think they're good additions, if you didn't you'll probably think it's low yield minutia. Kaplan has good physio q's as well. If nothing else, doing Kaplan has made me a lot more comfortable looking at a question where I don't know wtf is going on and trying to reason my way to an answer.

It's worth knowing that Kaplan's interface is truly terrible. It feels like you're trying to qbank over a dial up connection in 1998.

If I had to choose one I'd probably choose Rx, but you can make a good argument for either. As an M2 who hasn't taken any practice exams for Step 1 yet (or obviously the real thing), I can't say which one will be more helpful when it really matters.
 
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Thanks seminoma and mcloaf. I can always count on you guys to answer my questions promptly. when's your step 1 date mcloaf?
 
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mcloaf said:
It's worth knowing that Kaplan's interface is truly terrible. It feels like you're trying to qbank over a dial up connection in 1998.
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So bad that if there was a fourth reputable qbank (besides Rx, UW, and Kaplan) I would have purchased that 4th qbank and just abandoned Kaplan even though I paid for a 12 month sub.
 
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Uworld + Rx cover each other extremely well. Uworld loves to hammer several concepts over and over and over from multiple angles but it can be lacking in some respects. Rx will test you on that random, obscure minutia from FA and it will stick because it came in the form of a question. Rx also comes from a different angle on similar questions and it's good to see how two different qbanks are worded because the real deal is somewhere inbetween. Not as much information as Uworld and more straightforward than Rx. Rx rarely tries to trick you but it can be a bit poorly worded in some respects. The real deal is rarely tricky in presentation but requires you to integrate a lot of information to come up with the best single answer.
 
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mcloaf said:
Everybody says this and maybe it's true to some extent, but I don't think it's as bad as everyone says it is. I think both have their strengths.

IMO Rx does a good job with pharm, esp. side effects. Reasonably solid all around, but you won't see pathology that isn't in FA.

Kaplan has more extensive pathologies that are beyond the scope of FA. If they're things you learned in class you'll probably think they're good additions, if you didn't you'll probably think it's low yield minutia. Kaplan has good physio q's as well. If nothing else, doing Kaplan has made me a lot more comfortable looking at a question where I don't know wtf is going on and trying to reason my way to an answer.

It's worth knowing that Kaplan's interface is truly terrible. It feels like you're trying to qbank over a dial up connection in 1998.

If I had to choose one I'd probably choose Rx, but you can make a good argument for either. As an M2 who hasn't taken any practice exams for Step 1 yet (or obviously the real thing), I can't say which one will be more helpful when it really matters.
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Wow, for the price they charge, this is unacceptable.
 
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ALUCSD18 said:
Thanks seminoma and mcloaf. I can always count on you guys to answer my questions promptly. when's your step 1 date mcloaf?
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Late April. Our dedicated period starts in less than a month now. :scared:

angldrps said:
Wow, for the price they charge, this is unacceptable.
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Yeah I was kind of surprised too. I guess there are enough people willing to suffer through it for the content.
 
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I've almost completed both Rx and Kaplan, and I vote for Kaplan but it's definitely close.

The positives for Rx are the super smooth interface and the pictures of the pages from FA for each question, however the problem with Rx is that it is simply too easy. Even doing just the hard/medium questions, most of the questions are simple, straight forward questions that are mostly just fact recalling. I think this is why people like Rx so much, because they get great scores and feel good about it.

Kaplan in comparison has a terrible interface. It freezes all the time, which is super annoying. I can't really stress enough how bad it is. But... their questions are much more challenging than Rx. They really make you think and make multiple steps to figure out the answer. These kind of tough questions give much better preparation for the real deal. Kaplan doesn't provide pictures of the pages from FA, but they do give page numbers.

Another key point, both QBANKs have questions that cover stupid concepts that are not in FA at all. A lot of Rx-fanatics always say Kaplan has tons of these questions and Rx doesn't, but the truth is they both do, so neither is perfect.

So basically, if you can get over the terrible interface of kaplan, I really think you will learn more and be better prepared for tough questions on step 1. My strategy that I used was to do the subject specific questions in the Kaplan bank during M2 classes right before the exams. Then about 2 months before dedicated study time started, I did a few sets of 10 Rx questions on random each day.
 
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bigdogrob4284 said:
I've almost completed both Rx and Kaplan, and I vote for Kaplan but it's definitely close.

The positives for Rx are the super smooth interface and the pictures of the pages from FA for each question, however the problem with Rx is that it is simply too easy. Even doing just the hard/medium questions, most of the questions are simple, straight forward questions that are mostly just fact recalling. I think this is why people like Rx so much, because they get great scores and feel good about it.

Kaplan in comparison has a terrible interface. It freezes all the time, which is super annoying. I can't really stress enough how bad it is. But... their questions are much more challenging than Rx. They really make you think and make multiple steps to figure out the answer. These kind of tough questions give much better preparation for the real deal. Kaplan doesn't provide pictures of the pages from FA, but they do give page numbers.

Another key point, both QBANKs have questions that cover stupid concepts that are not in FA at all. A lot of Rx-fanatics always say Kaplan has tons of these questions and Rx doesn't, but the truth is they both do, so neither is perfect.

So basically, if you can get over the terrible interface of kaplan, I really think you will learn more and be better prepared for tough questions on step 1. My strategy that I used was to do the subject specific questions in the Kaplan bank during M2 classes right before the exams. Then about 2 months before dedicated study time started, I did a few sets of 10 Rx questions on random each day.
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Not necessarily directed at you, but to anyone in general who's done both Kaplan and UWorld. How did your Kaplan percentages compare to Uworld ones?
 
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Rx helps you learn (needed to know the HY topics).
Kaplan helps you think (needed to arrive at the right answer).
UW helps you with both.
 
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If you're struggling with the core materials, Rx helps in 'learning' them.
If you're looking to use your brain a bit more, Kaplan is better. I especially loved the difficult questions because they got me thinking.
For me, Kaplan >> Rx

Fact#101: UW better than both.
 
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Just starting MS2 here..
My school bought us a year subscription to Kaplan Qbank but I've heard mixed stories (like on this thread) about Rx > Kaplan and vice versa. I haven't done any questions so I don't know how to plan it out but is there a way to handle both q banks (i.e. Kaplan through first semester, Rx through second then UWorld closer to test)?

Thanks!
 
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